My year without clothes – how I spent 365 days changing my wardrobe and the world, one Op Shop at a time!

Guess what?

I am 12 days away from reaching my goal of not buying any new clothes for one whole year!!

WOWSERS. Can you believe it? I am finding it hard to believe myself. It is a pretty big deal for a shopaholic like me to go this long between purchases. At this point, I do want to say that yes I did buy clothes, but they were all second hand, and I did receive presents 😊.

So with the last remaining 12 days, I want to celebrate with you – the people who have cheered me on and encouraged me, by recapping 12 amazing things that I learnt or ways that I grew in these last 12 months without buying any new clothes (manage your expectations – these findings are not all necessarily life-changing, think of most of them as fun facts 😊):-

Shopping does make me happy but not when it is at the expense of harming someone else.

There are lots of other things that bring me joy aside from shopping: nature, eating out, exercise (a necessity because I love eating out so much), being with family & friends, the beach, sunsets, sunrises, my puppy dog, laughing, reading, watching movies, holidays and making a difference in people’s lives.

I was astounded at how much time I spent thinking about clothes; time that quite frankly could have been better spent doing other cool and life-changing things.

I still love fashion, but now a passion I have doesn’t harm anyone else.

I still have way too many clothes.

There are so many really good options to buy second-hand clothes. I discovered lots of different Facebook Groups, as well as good Op shops, helped fill my needs throughout the year. People, Op shops have changed. Some, okay not all, are well ordered, spacious and clean with cute little displays of available items in the windows. The Salvos even have a Frequent Shopper card which I may or may not happen to have now… 😊 You should totally check them out.

People checking in with me and being interested in what I was doing and asking how I was going with my challenge really encouraged me and helped keep me focused. A learning from this: support and be interested in what friends and family do – it helps!

Buying second-hand clothes didn’t mean I looked terrible (well I don’t think I looked terrible this year!)

I developed and discovered new interests, such as gardening and Netflix. I was even a little bit more hospitable, sorry if that didn’t extend to you.

There are lots of really inspirational people out there who are making choices to reduce their global footprint and treat the world more kindly and sustainably. They are people you need to spend time with because we can all do more in this space.

My family are really lovely and know me oh so very well. They knew when to cheer me up with a little pressie when I was struggling.

Going without new clothes for a whole year is totally doable. If I can do it, you definitely can.

After writing that list of 12 fun facts, I am more than inspired to get through these last 12 days. So the big question is, will I keep going beyond this year? Was this a 12-month change or a long term sustainable change?

Sorry to disappoint but I admit, I will be buying a few new things in the first couple of weeks of January, for example, I am hanging out for new sneakers. However, I do intend to put some limits on my ongoing shopping habits. Not completely sure what these will look like yet but something like limiting new purchases to one shopping session each season or something like that. If I want or need anything in between those shopping sessions, I will keep using my new found FB groups or Op Shops. They served me well this year, and there is no reason why they can’t keep working for me. The Global Fashion Agenda, 2017 says that 80% of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfill. Only 20% is recycled. I like that I made choices this year that didn’t feed that cycle.

I really hope that when I do choose to buy something new, it will be with more thought and increased awareness of determining what part I want to play in this cycle. Do I really want to cause harm by filling an unnecessary need within me or do I want to be part of the solution? I am hoping this increased knowledge and awareness will help me choose items from suppliers that source ethically and sustainably.

This year has been totally sustainable, and I didn’t suffer at all (the people around me might have when I was grumpy sometimes – so sorry!). Still, more importantly than being sustainable, I feel less guilty because I didn’t harm anyone with my choices. This feels good. We all have a responsibility to use the privileged opportunities we have in Australia to stop feeding the cycles that feed poverty, oppression and injustice. How will you use your responsibility? Let me know, and I will be sure to encourage you along the way.

Thanks for following along in my year without new clothes. Op shop crawl anyone??

Lisa xx