Nothing New: Both Sides of The Coin

Six months without buying anything new seems like a long period of time, but it is not. It is just six months, not six years, not sixteen and not sixty. It is just six odd months of reusing, borrowing, repairing and buying second-hand. Nothing new hasn’t defined my lifetime. But it has and will be defining the lifetime of others.

I must admit I had a moment of panic when I started the nothing new project. It wasn’t about not being able to buy things but it was about losing friends, losing opportunities to socialise and hang around together. I felt trapped. You see… one of the things that I decided to give up was coffee and you know how the world looks like these days – you meet at a coffee shop, you chat and giggle over a steamy black or frothy white drink. It’s isolating not to be able to have a cup of coffee with a friend, isn’t it?

I think this fear was triggered by the memories of my first year in the UK, when as a student I wasn’t really able to afford cups of coffee or dinners. It was serious. I was studying as well as working many hours per week as a waitress in pubs or restaurants. I wasn’t earning much, had no student loan, paid my rent and food from what I earned as a waitress so I really couldn’t afford many indulgences. If I had spent my money on those things I wouldn’t have been able to pay for my electricity bill in winter, the flight back home for Christmas or books for studying. I remember I used to do overtime just to be able to go for a coffee with a friend to discuss essays and literature. Tough time. Glad that it’s over. More than over. Now I have a choice. I have a choice to buy or not to buy and I am making the choice not to buy almost nonchalantly. Just because I can.

It doesn’t make me proud. Very often it makes me feel uncomfortable. “To buy or not to buy?” is not a question that offers two options to everyone. For many, “to buy” is just a matter of upgrading, changing or improving. For others, “to buy” means choosing between two or more necessities, two or more human rights: the right to study, the right to sleep, the right to have warm food, the right to socialise, and even the right to go to work. It feels comfortable and snug to be in the first group. It feels alienating and vulnerable to be in the second one. ‘Nothing new’ is not their choice. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s survival.

Nothing New: Lesson Learned

When at the beginning of this year Sash at Inked in Colour started her Nothing New project, I was in the process of managing and sorting our household possessions and so I thought to myself, I’ll join her. Our drawers and wardrobes were full, our cupboards were full and despite my decluttering efforts, with all the new stuff that comes with having a growing up baby, I still felt really bogged down. I felt that the Nothing New project is a perfect solution for our family and I really didn’t think that having new items would in any way add to the quality of our existence.

To firm up my resolution I decided to save the money that I would otherwise spend on my clothes and other small temptations and give them to charity towards the end of this year. Marathon runners do it. They train, they run, they sweat and they raise funds. I thought I would exercise my strong will and I’ll do the same. In the village where I grew up generosity has always been seen as a core value. I would not feel at ease with myself if I did otherwise. After all, this project is not only about buying nothing new but also about sharing. These were my purposes: decluttering and sharing – but actually there are other things at stake here… things that I have just recently learnt to fully appreciate…

There is something disconcerting about human nature and this is our capacity and tendency to neglect the old when the prospect of the new emerges… I’ve seen it many times… you must have too. Stopping the inflow of new items into your house makes you really aware of it, makes it all overt.

Perhaps the most wonderful side effect of the Nothing New project is that it makes you more caring. You care about what’s at your hand, about what’s present and about what’s around you. You care and you take pride in it because you are making a visible difference to what’s just next to you, to your surroundings and you train yourself to make the best and long-lasting use of it. You learn to truly and wholeheartedly love…

…the environment.

You don’t want to consume mindlessly or you just don’t want to consume like you used to…

…it’s no longer a comfortable norm to follow.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall

Nothing New: Too big to be eaten alone

My neighbour is one of the most generous people I’ve met in the UK. She’s always got something to give, share or offer starting from time and tea, through to garden flowers, toys or even pieces of old furniture. What her body language and attitude communicates is…

…that there’s always something that we can give, that there is always something we can share…

Isn’t this true for all of us? I haven’t bought anything new for myself or my son this year and we still have enough… enough books to spread around, enough items of clothing to give to charity shops, enough toys to donate to poorer children, enough jackets to give to those in need… we have enough…

…because last year I was buying new things and a year before too, and two and three and four years ago as well…

…because we’ve been receiving presents this year, last year and two and three years ago too…

…because we and our family members have been sentimental about our childhood and adolescence and we’ve got those things too, things that are much older than our son, things that come from our past, things that are as old as we are… we’ve got them too.

And so we are full, our house is full, our life is full.

Some of you may say that this is a perfect state of being, that this is self-sufficiency, that you don’t need to borrow and that you don’t need to be too ingenious about dealing with your daily life, because for so many of us, a lot equals security, a lot means being safe…. and it’s so easy to believe it… so easy to think that… and to store, and to hoard, and to collect and to gather, and to keep and to hold on to… and to store, and to hoard, and to collect and to gather, and to keep and to hold on to… and it goes on again.

Our grandparents used to do that because they didn’t have enough… because they had plans for those items… because they knew what will happen with them. Often every one of them.

We do that because we think that we don’t have enough and because we must have it… because we feel insecure without having it all. The thing is as individuals we should not be really striving to have it all because as a society we have enough, we can swap and share the goods that we have, we can borrow from each other, from the libraries, from hire centers. There is no crime in doing this as long as we respect the goods that are available and treat them as if it was our pocket that paid for them, as if it was our hard work that purchased them.

Just yesterday our close friends came to our house to borrow some garden chairs for their party. We had a tea together, we had a chat together and we shared our news and ideas. Sharing created an additional opportunity for socialising, a spontaneous occasion to get-together…. Don’t we long for them?

This cake of goods that we store in our rooms, garages, garden sheds and attics is too big to be eaten alone… It’s time to invite others to the table.

Nothing New: Reuse, Repurpose, Multiply

Old baskets, old flowerpots, old bricks and panes, old herbs, old seeds, and my old book… used, reused or re-purposed today. It’s shocking how many useful things hide in our houses, sheds and garages…. I needed those things today and they were there… waiting for me… most likely hoping that I hadn’t entirely forgotten about them… I must admit… I had, but it’s my resolution not to buy anything new this year so this morning I eagerly looked around our house and our garden and I found them and then I was just scrubbing, cleaning, digging, planting and assembling… and the whole process made me really happy… it still does…It’s nice to know that you can rescue things… that you can give them their second lives… It feels good.. It empowers.

Nothing New: Repair

It’s just a matter of days now… soon the little man and I will be in Cyprus. I am hectically trying to tick off items on our travelling checklist and it is actually quite a thing if you consider that I have pledged that nothing new will be bought this year. The fact that we’ll be jumping seasons makes it even more interesting… clothes-wise and shoe-wise.

My wardrobe has very little to show for itself. I keep on wearing the same pairs of trousers ever since my son was born and those trousers are looking really sad now. They are frayed and damaged and have been in need of repair for almost three months now … so today I eventually organised myself to take them to a tailor. I couldn’t mend them myself – the damage was far too extensive – a professional was needed.

I also had a few items to repair for my son like his trainers and shorts but these I decided to fix myself as the repair cost far exceeded the purchase cost of these items. It was just about simple sewing anyway and my box of threads and needles proved to be sufficient for bringing those items back to their original look and function.

In the corner of my wardrobe there’s a bag of items of clothing and accessories that need repair. We all have them, don’t we? Often they are not bags only but attics and garages that store those items in need of fixing. Those things make me really uncomfortable. I feel that I should be doing something about them and so I am now. I decided to take the bull by the horns and I’ve created a list on my desk of all the things to fix and I’ll slowly work my way through them this year… just because the time seems right for this and I feel like giving them a second life. At the end of the day, repairing is part of caring, is it not?

So I gave myself a promise to fix at least one item per month before they clutter our house further or end up in landfill. Are there any items that need repair in your house too? Do you think you could also try to fix some of them this year?

Would you like to learn more about Nothing New Project? Visit Inked in Colour.

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