Last year my new years resolution was to not buy clothes for one year. It was an extreme goal and I lasted until August. While in Guinea for some reason I couldn't get my mind off of this black halter dress from worn wear Patagonia. I think it's because while I was there I was finding out about all these amazing companies and "online shopping" more than I had. I ended up ordering it while there. Here's the crazy part, I don't even wear it. And after I broke it once it was downhill from there.
I will say though, everything I bought was either 1. a replacement 2. fair trade 3. because pants didn't fit. In the year 2017 I bought 2 pair of shoes (both replacing shoes that broke or didn't fit Chaocos and Timberlands) 2 pairs of pants from (Salvation Army and Poshmark), 3 pairs of shorts (Salvation army and Patagonia) one sweater (Postmark) and 2 sweatshirts (Postmark and Salvation Army). I sold a lot of clothing on Postmark that didn't fit or I didn't wear and replaced it with those items that I really love and wear all the time.
Over this year I received so many hamiedowns from so many people including my awesome high school English teacher. I gave away probably 1/3 of my closet this year. I tried to sell some of it but ended up giving a lot of it to Goodwill, not the best option but I made sure to mend things and not send trash. My closet is much smaller now but it's filled with things I wear all the time.
I only bring around 30 items to college at a time and it's worked great. A disclaimer is that I do wear my roommates stuff all the time. But I love knowing everything here fits well, looks great and I love wearing. I love high functioning items they make me not feel guilty about my closet.
17 Things I learned
1. It's not that hard to not buy clothing if you just don't shop
2. I have way more clothes than I need
3. People will give you clothes when they find out you aren't buying clothes
4. It will blow peoples mind if you say what you're doing and they will automatically say "wow i should do that, but it would be too hard"
5. You will save so much money
6. You'll make a list of things you want to buy after the year and then you have 6 months of really thinking about it
7. Makes you think about quality over quantity
8. Builds community when you have to borrow
9. You don't need to buy a new dress for senior homecoming
10. You don't need to buy a new dress for senior prom
11. Great motivation to not gain weight
12. Yes you can go through rush and not buy new clothes ( I did it and got into an amazing house)
13. Yes you can go to college and not buy new clothes
14. You don't need a new dress for graduation
15. You become more creative to hang out with your friends like going on a walk at a park
16. You become really creative using what you have
17. Honestly I never once got self-conscious that I wore the same things a lot or that I didn't have something new to wear
As the new year has come so returns my shopping. However, I can tell a huge difference. I make sure to sleep on it before purchasing and I'm not afraid to send things back instead of keeping them if I'm not crazy about them. My purchases have been bigger items that a high quality and fair trade.
So why not try it? If not a year try one month and see the change. I dare you, I mean why not? If you could live without it yesterday you can live without it tomorrow.
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