Homemade Organic Furniture, Part Two!

I saw this wooden rocker and foot stool at a garage sale this weekend for $50 so I picked it up. The frame is awesome and sturdy, and will make a great base for an organic armchair! I'm pretty excited.

Sure, I want to shop sustainably and responsibly, but how?

In the course of the "buy nothing new" year, I've found that there are some items that are just much, much harder to buy used. In particular, electronics. Sure, there's always craigslist or something from a friend of a friend, but people want to make sure they are buying something that works, and I totally get that. 

The Significant Other and I are both in the market for new phones right now, as our previous ones are just about dead. I bought him a phone off of ebay, which has been working great so far, but then today I just stumbled across this totally awesome alternative option:

ReCellular is a totally awesome, sustainability-conscious company that allows you to sell them old cell phones and also purchase discounted refurbished models (apparently, they also deal in laptops and netbooks). 

Given how damaging our consumer tech culture is, I am super excited about this alternative for purchasing "new" electronics. 

This site is just one of many alternative options out there for people who want to find more sustainable and humane methods of purchasing. I've found that you really can find anything you could possibly need sustainably, it just sometimes requires a little extra research.

Don't have time to research? Check out my growing list of responsible producers and please, suggest any of your own favorites that may be missing!

Social Accountability Audits are a "Fraud"

I needed to read this after my slip off the wagon last week. It's just another reminder that impulsive purchases that seem so harmless and insignificant to us here in the states can have detrimental and sometimes deadly effects on people in other countries.

Here is the article I just read:
Safety Inspections by Social Audit Firms for U.S. Companies Called 'Facade' by Labor Groups 

From the article, about these "social auditing firms":
"Not only has it helped keep wages low and working conditions poor," the report's foreword states of the auditing industry, "it has provided public relations cover for producers whose disregard for health and safety has cost hundreds of lives."

Many U.S. companies, including Apple and other tech and clothing manufacturers, use firms like these to satisfy our country's half-hearted concern for people in other countries. I say half-hearted, because if we, as a country, were truly concerned, we would put effort into changing the working conditions, not just hiring a company to tell us that it's all okay. 

It's a good reminder that every time I make a purchase without researching the origin of the product, I am supporting this system that marginalizes and endangers people across the world, and has taken thousands of lives.

I Fell Off the Wagon

So after 4 months of buying nothing new, I fell off the wagon last week. Here's what I bought:

Swimsuit (Made in USA)
Undergarments (Made in USA and Europe)
Dress

Two of these technically fall into my acceptable exceptions (Made in the USA), but I honestly didn't need any of these things. These were also all things I purchased for my wedding and/or honeymoon, which really makes me think about the pressures of the wedding industry and our consumer culture in general. Why do we feel the need to buy something shiny and new for these special occasions? Why am I being told to spend $$$$$$ on fancy new things for our wedding? Don't I already have nice dresses, swimsuits, and undergarments? And when did the process of shopping for wedding stuff become this all-important rite of passage for every bride to make a big deal of and share with her nearest and dearest (i.e. Say Yes to the Dress -- now there's a glorified monetary transaction)?

Okay that's a lot of questions there, but all of this really has gotten me thinking about how we've completely commercialized and put price tags on these special occasions in our life. Isn't a wedding about love (both with your partner, and with your family and friends)? Isn't Mother's Day about celebrating the woman who gave you life? Aren't birthdays about celebrating the awesomeness of special friends and family? And don't even get me started on Christmas and Hanukkah.

When did we start letting corporations sell us this idea of all this "necessary" stuff? The idea that you absolutely must purchase cute, themed tangible items for people on designated days of the year? And that you absolutely must have a new outfit for every special occasion? And that, if you are a bride, well then you absolutely must secure yourself a whole new wardrobe full of white dresses and bathing suits and shoes and bachelorette party apparel, etc.?

This whole notion of the "stuff" that is linked to these holidays and celebrations is so new. Do you think people in the 1930's and 1940's bought new outfits for every wedding and birthday party? Or bought presents for everyone they knew at Christmas? Or even received presents for so many of these holidays that have now been totally commercialized (i.e. Easter, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day)? Giving a gift used to be a special and unexpected gesture of compassion and friendship, and now it's become a required part of nearly every major holiday and celebration. So much so that we make registries to tell people what to get us, because we know they're going to buy us something. (I guess that's part of what really bothers me about registries).

So here I am to admit that, for a week or two there, I totally got sucked into this. I was sold the idea that my wedding would be less special if I didn't have "all the stuff," and I totally bought in. But now I'm seeing through the B.S. My wedding (and my life!) will be just as amazing, just as wonderful, just as special without "all the stuff" -- in fact, it might just even be better.

Do-It-Yourself (and Buy Nothing New) Wedding Videography

So weddings are expensive! Really expensive. And I think wedding planning has felt challenging largely because many of the weddings I've seen and read about feel really wasteful (in terms of money and resources). There's probably a whole post I can write about this later. 

Anyway, we decided that we wanted some video of our upcoming wedding, but didn't want to shell out $2,000+ for a videographer, so:

I bought a few used (and cheap!) flipcams to have get video clips throughout the day (which we can then have professionally edited -- this was totally inspired by my awesome friend Kim). As regular readers will know, I have strong feelings about the huge impact of our culture of disposable technology so, not only do I feel good about getting used electronics, which have no further environmental or socially irresponsible impact, but I also just save myself a good $1900+ on videos for our wedding. I call that a win!

Getting Rich with Responsible Consumerism!

So something that I particularly am loving so far about the "buy nothing new" year is that, not only am I supporting my social and environmental values, but I am also saving a significant amount of money!

This is a graph of my net worth from the last few months. I've taken out the dollar amounts, but even without them you can see where my net worth was in December and January, when I started the "buy nothing new" year, and where it's grown to in just three months. I haven't gotten a raise or come into any money, and I haven't even sold any of the things I'm trying to get rid of yet, but my net worth from January to March grew almost $10,000.

That's right, I just made $10,000 in three months just by cutting back the amount of "stuff" that I'm buying. And I really wasn't buying that much to begin with -- a few art supplies here, a shirt or two there, CVS runs for last minute things I needed -- but by cutting out a large portion of that and buying used for the things I still need, I've saved a substantial amount of money. And I expect this trend to continue (although realistically I know it will probably level out a bit).

So really, who can afford not to be a conscious consumer? :)

Four (and a half) Month Update

So I'm now four and a half months in the "Buy Nothing New" year, and I've been neglecting the blog a little bit, so I want to post an update. 

As far as buying nothing new, things have been going great! I still struggle with gifts and how to navigate that, but I'm trying to get more and more creative.

As far as buying in general, I think I've fallen off the wagon a little bit. Goodwill is my weakness, and I find that when I go in there and let myself look around (as opposed to just searching for exactly what I came in for), I tend to buy things that I don't really need.

In the last two months I bought the following items at Goodwill:
- Button down shirt for work
- Cute hat that I really didn't need
- Vases for centerpieces for the wedding
- Rubber duckies (which I ended up using for wedding stuff)
- Three sweaters that I didn't need
- Picture frames that I didn't need
- And I almost bought a trumpet :)

While it's awesome that I can find all of these great things at Goodwill (which is responsible for workers, the environment, and my bank account), I think I really need to re-visit the consumerism flowchart that I wrote about earlier. All of this shopping is a little bit counter-productive to my de-cluttering initiative! It's time to get back on track!