Can you buy nothing new?

Two years ago I stumbled across an initiative I thought was completely brilliant: The Salvation Army's Buy Nothing New Month.

As a budding greenie who already loved to spend hours sifting through op-shops on the hunt for treasures it really appealed to me. And the non-greenie part of me who almost needed another room purely to house my shoes, clothes and bags also liked it. I figured it would be slightly shameful if I was actually pushed out of my house by my own belongings.

One whole month where I couldn't buy anything new except for the essentials, but I was free to swap my goods or buy anything else I wanted second-hand.
I thought about how good I'd feel afterwards. as far as I was concerned a mere 31 days later I'd no longer be a rampant, mindless consumer but relaxed and happy (because that's, you know, logical) and also decked out in all the fantastic new op-shop gear I'd find.

In my past life as a journalist I even interviewed the Salvos Store's sustainability manager Donald Munro about the initiative who told me that the month was about seeing the value in existing items and reflected a growing movement of people switching off from shopping and tuning into life.

"We want people to stop and think 'do I really need this item?'," he said to me.
"I think from our perspective we're just trying to get people to stop and think. People forget that every item they buy is an investment of resources like water.
"We want everything instantly...but a t-shirt has more than 2000 litres of water used to produce it."

Ok, fair enough. I saw his point immediately, and after I hung up the phone I figured I could mentally add a golden halo to my new and improved image if I made it through the whole month.

That first October I set out with the best of intentions, but discovered something curious. As soon as I wasn't allowed to shop every store I passed called to me. I'd wander through the racks imagining what I would buy if I could, or as the weeks slowly passed what I would buy as soon as the hellish month was over. A weird mindset considering normally I have to drag myself to the shops with a mental list of clothing I need so I could get in and out as quickly as possible.

But that first time I did make it through the month and I did feel better for it. So much so that I'm about to take part for the third time.

But I have to say this, although the clothing stores of Oz may be safe from me for the time being, any op-shop I pass in the next 31 days had better be prepared!

http://www.buynothingnew.com.au/home/