Kijiji addiction

Bought new wood today (there's a story here but I don't know it!).

Yesterday as Joel was running down the stairs he cheerily called out, "I'm a kijiji addict!" He was going to buy 2x4's he'd found on kijiji and we both marvelled that one get practically everything on the used websites (we also use usedottawa and craigslist). Later that day I ran into him in the car as I was biking to meet someone. The car was filled with wood but Joel looked disappointed. He rolled down the window and said he'd have to write the blog that night to explain why the car was filled with NEW wood instead of the used/old wood he'd set out to get. He muttered something about mildew or dampness or stains--I'm not sure--and drove off. And then last night at midnight as he was preparing to leave for Denver early this morning he realized he didn't have time to write the blog. And I never got the story!

Meanwhile, we have tons of people coming by this wknd to pick up stuff we (aka Joel) posted on Kijiji that would otherwise have been dumpstered.

buying app

Joel bought little hooks to hang our curtains yesterday. Bought no new things today.

It was frustrating to have to buy the hooks especially because they didn't work and the curtains now are still tacked to the windows (which looks, you guessed it, tacky!).

It's probably not appropriate to note a buying app in a no-new-things-blog but I came across a website called goodguide.com that also apparently has an iphone app that lets you scan barcodes to determine what it's best to buy from a green point of view. It rates food according to health, environment, and society. So it fits for me for buying food. The website rates a range of things from deodorants to household cleaners to food. When we have to buy new things, it does make sense to consider green issues (I wonder if Joel's little plastic hooks were on the app?). I don't have this app yet but I'll probably get it (and then I'll have to resist the urge to move through stores scanning everything I see and buying weird things just because they have good ratings!)

fixing old furniture

Bought one small hinge for a piece of furniture today.

I was going to write that we bought no new things today but then I remembered that Joel had called me from Home Hardware earlier in the day on his cell phone. And so I had to ask him: "what were you doing in Home Hardware? Did you buy anything?" "Yes!" he said, "a hinge to fix a piece of furniture." "But that's a new thing," I said. "I thought small pieces of hardware didn't count," he said. (????). But then he explained: he was fixing an old piece of furniture so that we wouldn't have to buy a new piece of furniture. Better to buy the little hinge than the whole new piece of furniture. True. Still, he might have tried to find a hinge or at least to think how to use an old hinge. Oh well. At least it was a purchase in the spirit of our general project.

ted and melissa's kitchen

Bought no new things yesterday or today.

I am sitting at Ted and Melissa's kitchen table right now and it is very beautiful. I'm struck by how much I like things that show their wear (there is a chipped shelf to my right and I love the lived-in look of those bit of paint showing through). One surprise about not buying new things: on the few occasions when I now go into stores I'm struck by how flimsy and cheap things look. New things are looking less appealing to me, not more. I hadn't excepted that. Even clothes. It makes me think about the construction of desire, how "unreal" (and yet so real) our desires are. But here at Ted and Melissa's kitchen table it is very peaceful: there is the sound of wind chimes just outside the French doors and there are mason jars full of grains and rice and sugars and I'm sitting on an old chair at an old table and there is a history here that one loses with new things. (Although it does remain true that these things were once new and I used to love, and will again no doubt, buying new things with a history [ie. buying something from someone who told me a story and then that story got built into the thing]).

I take the train back to Ottawa today and normally I would have walked out to Roncesvalles and with great pleasure bought a couple of new books for the train. This time I will have to just raid Ted's book shelf instead (sorry Ted).

the day after earth day

Bought no new things yesterday or the day before.

When we were talking on the phone the other day Ted told me about coming across Levine's Not Buying It in the bookstore and beginning to read it. His first thought was, "this book is great, I'm going to buy it." But then as he kept reading, he thought, "wait! I can't buy it!" And so he left the store to try to get the book at the library. Unable to find it there, he then decided to return to the store to buy it. And now he's sent it to me. And I'll pass it on to someone else (or back to Ted to do the same). And so it is having a well-read life. (The Story of Stuff writer, Annie Leonard, comments on this issue of books and their thingness in her interview with Kohlbert posted below).

Today is the day after earth day. The concept of earth day makes me think of that joke our kids make about mother's and father's day. They ask: why isn't there a kids' day? And we tell them because every other day of the year is kids' day. The worry about earth day is that it becomes an exception after which we return to some sort of unearth day norm when, of course, every day should be earth day. (Just like every day should be mother's day :) Okay, not just like that, but it would be nice.)

ps. Wrote this the day after earth day but am posting it late. The day after the day after the day after etc.

Voluntary Simplicity

Bought no new things today.

The other day Andre told me about a movement called Voluntary Simplicity. (For more info see: http://www.simpleliving.net/). I had never heard of it but that evening (synchronetically--is that a word?) the chapter I was reading in Not Buying It was titled "In/Voluntary Simplicity" and was on this very topic. Because she lives in Brooklyn, Levine was able to find a "Voluntary Simplicity" group right around the corner from where she lives; her description of her attendance at one of their meetings is laugh-out-loud funny. She does make make the movement sound less appealing (very earnest, a little sad) than the website Andre sent me (which I found intriguing for its back-to-the-farm planting suggestions which I immediately began picturing in our garden--no doubt unrealistically, especially because I was picturing my homemade wooden planter boxes alongside the chickens and goat that Joel is not eager to get). I found the planter instructions in the Newsletter which you can get to from the website above; the homepage of the website, though, is unappealing and odd in its push to "sell" simplicity.

For a good interview with Richard Sennett, the author of The Craftsman (referred to in an earlier post) see: http://www.utne.com/Spirituality/Crafting-a-New-World.aspx

The Gift of Nothing

Bought no new things yesterday or today.

Weirdly, Ben has become obsessed with the book The Gift of Nothing lately. He likes me to read it to him every night (for the past three nights) and as soon as I finish he asks if I can please please please read it again, just one more time. Why this fascination? He hasn't made any connection with our buying-no-new-things project but there is definitely something in this book that captivates him. It is about a cat who seeks out a gift of nothing for his friend. After looking everywhere for nothing he finally finds it when he's not trying and immediately gets a box for it. My favorite part is when he looks at the box: "Then Mooch thought, Hmmm . . . maybe Earl deserves more than this." I like this part because I get tricked; I thought he was rethinking the idea of nothing. But instead he gets a bigger box and puts more nothing in. The book is cute but still not so cute as to account for Ben's obsession.

The fine print: yesterday I bought Ben caps(!) for his gun(!!). This actually doesn't count--I know that sounds ridiculous--BUT we promised each kid a small new thing before we started. Ben wanted caps, the store was out of caps, they came in over the weekend, Ben wanted them. So. But we would never had had this glaring slip if the caps had been in the store in the first place. (And the question of the gun(!) is a whole other subject).

Making Things

Bought no new things today.

Our "no new things" policy has an offshoot of "making things." In part, the focus on making things was inspired by a great book I'm reading, Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (he talks about the value of making things, slowly and attentively, with one's hands). I'll write more about this book later when I'm not tired. And in part, the focus on making things happened organically: with our veto on buying no new things, we started to make things instead. I think it probably also has something to do with noticing things (which I'll also write about later).

Michal is the most industrious in our family in this respect. She made (today alone): a bird feeder, several pages of her scrapbook, more shrink art, a plaster cast of her hand, paper(!) (she pulled out a paper-making kit she has--it won't be finished until tomorrow), and dinner for herself, me, and Joel. I made a box to hold kleenex (cut up squares of flannel--not everyone's cup of tea but I'm preparing for when we run out of kleenex). Ben drew. Joel surpassed us all with the size and ambition of his project: he made a new 6' high shelf-like structure (which is almost a cabinet) for our firewood. It took all day but it looks great and is practical.

Today, for the first time since we began this project I saw something new that I wanted to buy: a new bicycle (I "need" a bicycle) that is gorgeous and looks just like a bike I used to own (that I loved) that was stolen from my cottage over fifteen years ago.

Today we into Chapters, browsed for 20 minutes (before a movie we were seeing), and bought . . . nothing! Probably a first for us. I did write down the titles of a bunch of books that I will try to get at the library.

Thinking about Buying

I bought one new thing today: an arm for my broken glasses. Technically, I think this should fall into the medicine category (I need my glasses) and I could have--and was tempted to!--buy new glasses but instead restrained myself and fixed my old ones. It is another great example though of how I gravitate toward buying something instead of thinking about how I could do things otherwise. While buying no new things has so far been relatively easy, it has made me think a lot more about this reflex to buy and how often I used to indulge it.

Michal, for example, decided not to give her friend the movie and dinner for her birthday but instead spent yesterday evening making her a necklace and earrings from a shrink art kit she has. She had much more fun doing this than she would have going out to buy the same things. (I must admit that I still felt she should give her friend a movie and/or dinner as well but Michal wanted to stick with the jewellery; I do have an ingrained feeling that one should spend money on someone else's birthday and I felt bad that we didn't but I also didn't want to interfere with what M wanted to do.)

Our lamps were another great case in point. Normally, I would have thought I couldn't find adequate used lamps and would have bought new ones. Instead we massively reduced our looking time by limiting ourselves to used lamps and worked with what was available. I liked that the look of our rooms was no longer a free-ranging, it-can-be-whatever-you-want, but rather was restricted by the used lights that we could find. And the lights we found were great.

I've been reading through Not Buying It, the book by Judith Levine that Ted recommended. It's full of fascinating facts. For example, in 2004 the average new American house was 2,400 square feet (bigger than our current house!). I was shocked by that. One of the reasons I don't agree with the comment quoted in my first (or second) blog entry that "not buying things" is radical, is that it is very different for us not to buy things than for many others. That is, it places an unequal burden on one based on what one has already. Because we have pretty much everything one could want (and more), it is easy for us to choose not to buy new things. But for so many people who don't have a television (how many families I wonder? what percentage?) or a good coffee maker or a microwave or a music system or whatever, it's not nearly so viable. Also, I rely on people buying new things so that I can so easily not. Someone, after all, bought the used books I'm now reading, someone bought those lamps, someone bought the car (that we have always bought used). I also like things. I wouldn't want there to be a world without things. But it does make sense to recognize to what extent we (at least our family!) buy things without really thinking about it.

No New Things

Bought no new things yesterday or the day before yesterday. Actually, Joel bought a lightbulb. He thought that light bulbs are sort of like food. I guess it's okay as long as its an enviro friendly bulb. Pete Halewood alerted me to the importance of clean-up/disposal issues for fluorescent bulbs. Here's a website with more info:Frequently Asked Questions Information on Compact Fluorescent ...

Bought one new thing today

Bought one new thing today: a metal plate for one of our used lights so that it could be installed.

In general, I'm finding this not-buying-new-things much easier than I imagined. Michal pointed out one website she found in which a family decides to spend no money for a month (here's the link:http://digg.com/arts_culture/My_Family_s_No_Buy_Experiment) and Ted's Not Buying It book is about not spending money on anything except essentials for a year (so no movies, books, etc). Both of these projects would be hard for me (and for our family). But I'm not so interested in doing something difficult as doing something we can sustain over time. For now, it's been fun brainstorming alternative ways to do the things we usually do. And it has been liberating to walk by stores and not to even think if I need/want anything. I don't. I know that already. So there's no pause in front of the store, no browsing, no impulse buys. It does save a lot of time (it's not as if I ever spent that much time shopping before but this "no more new things" project has made me aware of how often I used to think about shopping without even realizing I was thinking about it.) So far, though, it seems, with the exception of metal light plates and a few other things, we can easily (and happily!) get by with used things or no things.

lights and happiness

Bought no new stuff today. Well, not really. By Ted's calculation we bought 2 plastic bags for 3 cents each because we went shopping unexpectedly and didn't have our regular bags with us. I guess that should count. We did resist buying lunch baggies--a staple we've relied on in the past.

The lights were a success: we sent out 4 emails to various "used ottawa" type sites. One person replied and we were about to go down and pick up his light (perfect for our basement, only $10) when Joel found an old light in our garage that we could use instead; our neighbours who recently renovated gave us another light that they hadn't used; and I bought a third light at an antique place (expensive: $85--but when one considers that this was the total cost for all three lights it's not bad). We're hoping that one of the used ottawa places gets back to us since we're still short one light.

Ted sent this quotation today "We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something that we don't have but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." Fredrick Koeing

It echoes one of the points made in "The Story of Stuff": that we often mistake buying things with happiness when really all our buying, and all our stuff, is making us less and less happy.

Andre also sent this very funny Colbert interview with Annie Leonard, the writer and producer of "The Story of Stuff":

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-colbert-report/full-episodes/#clip275886

It reminded me that environmentalists could probably be a lot more effective if they were a lot less serious. Leonard is ultra-serious and earnest in this interview--I wanted her to laugh more!--but still it was fun to watch. Colbert's hilarious.

Btw, the kids have been the most amazing part of this project. They haven't questioned it at all (well, after the first half hour of utter disbelief). And (so far!) they love imagining the things they will buy at some future point but actually never ask to buy anything at all now. For most kids, this is probably normal, but for our kids, esp. Ben, this is a momentous change.

Bought no new things yesterday.

Early on Ted sent me the "story of stuff" video and yesterday Andre sent it to me too (as well as the "story of bottled water" video). Here are the links:http://storyofstuff.org,

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ And here is the storyofstuff blog (it's great): http://storyofstuff.org/blog/

About a year and a half ago I stopped buying bottled water (from August 2009 until now). In that period I have probably bought about 4 bottles of water;except when we were on our trip and forgot our water bottles and so bought bottled water on occasion for the train (but we did reuse our bottles). We had a brita water filter in our kitchen (filters plus that plastic jug) until about 9 months ago when we had our water tested and found it was fine. So now we drink tap water (which we put in a ceramic jug so that the chlorine which is in all city water can evaporate).

Another challenge: Ben has been invited to a birthday party next weekend but probably won't want to give his friend a plant or a movie/dinner certificate. What to do?

Bought no new things today.

Two points of note: Ted sent me a great book in the mail, Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping. I'm looking fwd to reading it. It was also great because he didn't suggest I buy it(!), but rather passed it on through the mail. This seems like a good exchange system and definitely could reduce a need for things (at least things like books). Plus, there the was all the excitement of the mailman ringing our bell, a real package(!), opening the package etc.

We successfully solved our first "new things" challenge (I hope). Michal is invited to a birthday party next weekend and she did not think her friend would appreciate a flowering plant (my idea). After some discussion we settled on a gift certificate to a movie and dinner for Michal and her friend; in the end, Michal thought her friend would really like that and it is more original and better than other gifts (at least in her circles). Phewff.

Finally, I joined freecycle tonight. I'm annoyed with myself for not joining earlier since we could have given away a number of things during the renovation. But better late than never.

My challenge for this weekend: we have to supply our electrician with lights for our basement bathroom and guestroom by Monday morning. Can I find used lights by then?

Bought no new things today.

I did come across this in the G&M today:

See what I’ve bought

“Somewhere in America’s suburbs, 16-year-old Blair sits in her pink-walled bedroom and shows off a slew of recent purchases,” Marisa Meltzer writes for Slate.com. The adolescent taped them via webcam and posted the video to YouTube. “She’s not just posting it for her clique at school – her video has nearly 600,000 views to date. Online videos like Blair’s are known as ‘hauls.’ They involve mostly young women showing off the fruits of shopping trips. … [The haulers] resemble the popular girls at any high school, which is precisely why they are so appealing to other teens.”

She probably won't be signing up to buy no more new things anytime soon . . .

Bought no new things today.

Bought two new books today. Technically, they fall under the exemptions category for books; I needed them for work but I didn't need-need-need them and so I felt a bit guilty about it. I did look in the library and the used bookstore in our area before buying them. I could have looked further afield; it's clear that it would be easier to buy no more new things if I had more time to seek out used or borrowed versions of things I need.

Bought one new thing today: sponges for washing the dishes. I could have cut up old rags and I debated doing this but I so much prefer having sponges with a rough side for dishes. Oh well. Day Three and we have one slip.

On the positive side Joel called me from the Apple store in NYC; he was surrounded by new (very entrancing, shiny, stylish, and beautiful) ipads. But he didn't buy one despite the fact that he had fifty clever rationales for why it didn't really count in the terms of "no-more-new-things."

Bought no new things today (although it was easy because it was Easter Sunday and NO stores were open). I did come across this in the online versions of the NYTimes (from a review of a book called Green Gone Wrong):

"It would have been better had Ms. Rogers delved more deeply into another of her suggestions: instead of buying green, we simply need to buy less stuff. She seems reluctant to push this too hard because it’s a truly radical idea that flies in the face of capitalism — green or not.

“Around the world, many politicians, the conventional energy sector and manufacturers of all kinds oppose any major reduction in consumption,” Ms. Rogers writes. “If people start using less, then economies based on consumption — such as that of the United States, where buying goods and services comprises 70 percent of all economic activity — will be forced to undergo a colossal transformation.”

At first, her muted call for a new frugality sounds almost as far-fetched as a carbon tax in the United States anytime soon. But it isn’t. This is something individuals could do on their own instead of waiting for reluctant politicians to act.

If there was ever a time to ponder the long-term consequences of our spending habits, it’s in the wake of the worst economic crisis in decades, which was fueled by rampant consumer borrowing. Is it possible that we could save the planet and restore the economy at the same time?"

I don't agree with all of this but still think that buying less stuff can't hurt.

No More New Things (for 3 Months)

Inspired in part by Ted’s comment that we have too much stuff, in part by the massive debt we have after our renovation, in part by the sobering fact that “too many things” are a problem for us when so many people have not enough things, and in part by environmental concerns I want to try to buy “no more new things” for the next three months (until 1 July at which point I’ll re-evaluate again). I’m turning this into a blog in an effort to keep myself on track but also because I’d be curious to have input from others who have tried to cut down on the stuff in their lives. I’m also wondering about what counts as essential “new stuff” and what does not. It seems pretty clear to me that even taking into consideration essential things it should be easy to avoid buying new things for three months (I can’t think of anything essential that can’t wait). But I’m interested to see what arises in this period that I may feel I need before the 3-month period elapses. Here are my exclusions from this project:

1) Food and drink (but I want to cut back on packaged food and also unnecessary food; in our household we throw away too much)

2) Medicine

3) Toilet paper, shampoo, and soap (although we may have enough shampoo and soap stock-piled in our house so that we don’t have to buy more for the next three months; all those little bars of soap that Ruth brings us!)

4) books (but I will try to cut back on anything I don’t “need”); magazines (ditto above); newspapers ( here I won’t cut back at all)

5) work supplies (papers, pens, ink cartridge for computer etc; but again I will try to limit myself only to what is absolutely necessary)

6) art (is this a fair category? It’s unlikely I’ll buy any art in this period, but just in case . . .)

7) flowers (another iffy category)

And so I guess I should call this project “not so many new things” instead of “no new things.” I’m not including music in my exemptions because I have so much music already but I can imagine that over time I’d want this to be an exemption as well (although one could limit oneself only to downloads to avoid the thingness of cds).

I am counting as okay anything that is not new: antiques, used clothing, etc. Here are some challenges I anticipate:

1) we have to do something to the mud pile that is currently our lawn. Do plants and grass count as new things? Is there a way to “find” these things? Perhaps dig up some plants already existing at the cottage? Poach on friends’ cuttings from their gardens?

2) Our renovation is still incomplete. What new things might we need to finish it and will it be possible to work around them? (We just bought a carpet for the basement, for example, but if I’d started this before we bought the carpet would there have been a way to find a used carpet [not appealing to me] or finish the concrete floor in some other way?)

3) Presents for people. Will I be able to find not-new things? Or make things? (If the latter, then what??) Kid’s birthday presents are probably the biggest challenge here. (I was just thinking I probably won’t be able to do this but then remembered that mom gave our kids plants for channukah [a bulb that turned into a massive flower] and it was one of their favorite presents and so, slightly extending my permitted categories above, I could maybe give kids plants).

4) The kids are going to want new stuff. I’m going to try to impose this regime on them as well but I’m not sure how successful it will be. How can I make it easier for them? Promise them one new thing at the end? But then the “reward” is a new thing and does that go against the spirit of the enterprise?

In general, though, it seems ridiculous that this project should be a challenge at all and I’m hoping that it won’t be. Mainly I’d like to be more aware of what I buy and I’m hoping that by recording purchases and thinking more about the role of consumption in my life, it will help me not to buy unnecessary things and, especially, to make the kids more aware of their desire constantly to buy things.

I'm doing this blog to keep myself accountable. I'm not expecting you to read it(!) and I'm hoping that it will be quite dull (all entries should read: "bought no new things today") but I'm also curious to see what difficulties arise.