Buy nothing - repair something

This week's Black Friday frenzy has luckily also brought out the Green Friday/Buy Nothing Day movement. My Facebook feed has been full of articles advocating that you rather go out in nature instead of to shopping mals, as this initiative that American national parks made to make their parks free this day.  

However, as I have become quite well aware of, seeing as my year of 2017 - ShopStop is soon coming to an end; materials break - and sometimes beyond repair. Massive sales as Black Friday is only constructive if you buy something you truly need, that can not be bought used or otherwise obtained. Most of the time, this is the case; that you are able to find the item you "need" somewhere else than in a shiny wrapping showcased with good lighting, and even better advertising. 

When you start asking questions to why you need to continue to follow this commercial order of things, you come to realise there are so many alternatives of how to save money, free up your own time and save the environment all at once. Did you for example know that it takes 10.000 litres of water to produce one single pair of jeans? Knowing this, in addition to some other water facts: Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater and only 0.3% is accessible to humans. 

Underneath is a picture from the site Good On You that shows how the Aral Sea in Central Asia dried up due to the unsustainable cotton industry in the area. You dont want to be part of this. 

That is why I chose to repair rather than buying a new pair of blue jeans when my current pair broke last week. These jeans are under 2 years old, so I am not ready to give them up. It only took a few stitches and then their life span was prolonged again. Another pair, some brown chinos type of trousers, that are actually 10 years old also broke this week (a bad week for trousers in my household). These however were worn thin by the fabric, but I went to a tailor and asked for some extra fabric to repair them. I brought with me my the trouser to show the tailor, and he ended up giving my the fabric I needed to mend it for free! It didnt take much fabric for him, but it was enough for me to be able to give my garment a longer life, and hence reducing my need to replace it. 

I hope this inspired you to repair something you have, that you know needs mending. It is not hard, and you feel better afterwards because you've done the sensible thing for yourself, your economy and the environment. 

Second quarter of 2017 on shopstop

June is nearing its end, and so is the first half of this years non-shopping policy. To be honest, it only gets easier the more time that passes. 

At first, I figured the main challenges could be changes of the seasons, but now that I have 'mastered' ice cold winter, mild spring, and warm summer temperatures, I know it will be easy to last the rest of the year without breaking it. 

The key to any habit building activities, at least to what I have found, is reminding yourself every so often, why you are doing this in the first place. Until the new habit becomes an integrated part of your daily routine, then it can be good to remind yourself why you first set out on this journey. To me, I am luckily beyond that point, which makes it easier to focus on the idea behind this. 

One cool thing that has happened since the last update, is that I have had several really good conversations with friends about how they too has started questioning themselves more about their consumer habits. Which I think is great! A higher awareness of how much we consume is the first step towards decreasing the amount that goes in to what the advertisement industry wants us to think is a 'normal' or 'standard' amount of clothes, shoes etc to consume in a year. 

Another good thing that has come out of this project so far, which was one of my intentions, was to free up spare time, in order to use it how I know I actually would, in stead of ending up in a store. I can definitely say that I have been able to go on hikes both in the weekdays and also in the weekend a lot more frequently (while living in cities) after starting this project. 

If you have a similar idea that you want to test out for a years time, that you think will bring you closer to the kind of life you want to lead; I would say go for it! I am happy about doing shopstop 2017. Maybe you would like to do shopstop for the second half of this year, starting on 1st of July? :) 

3 tips on how to be eco friendly this summer

Hi everyone, June is here, and so is the start of summer holiday for a lot of you. With summer comes a lot of well deserved spare time, and with that, here are some handy tips on how to not let the good habits slip over the holiday: 

1. Slow travels: If possible, chose a train/ferry/bikes/kayak in stead of a flying. Slow travel is all the rage, and for a good reason. By making the travel part of your journey, you can find a necessary slowing of the pace, that might be the reason why you wanted to go on holiday in the first place. For more inspiration, you can follow this link to a couple who are committed to slow travels. 

2. Be a local hero: If you do decide to stay at home, be a local hero in your community! What I mean by this is - if you see that someone has thrown a disposable grill out in the water right next to a beach or any place that children or animals might get stuck in it - be a local hero and pick it up! I have seen this happen numerous times; its polluting, and the grill has no reason to be there. 

3. Pick up the plastic: Following up on being a local hero, I am assuming that a lot of people associate summer with spending time near the ocean, or at least waters, at least, that's summer to me. Whenever you see a plastic bag, or a bottle that have lost its way out of some owners hands, please be the climate hero they failed to be, and carry it with you until you can throw it away in a designated place. Last summer, I did a kayak hike, which turned into a picking up plastic bags from the sea hike. 

Also, obviously, great to pick up the plastic before it enters into the ocean as well, because as we know, almost all the plastic that ends up in nature find its way to the ocean. 

There might be more tips over the summer, but if we all try to follow up on these, you are really making a difference. Have an eco friendly start to your summer. 

First quarter of 2017 on ShopStop

As March is soon coming to an end, so is my first quarter of the shopstop, hence I thought it suitable with an update on how it is going. 

So, these are the ‘lessons’ that I’ve learned so far, and bear in mind that this is highly subjective: 

1. You don't necessarily need to wear everything you find pretty. 

I know I have an affinity for burgundy as a colour, and I can not remember what it was that I saw in that colour, but I think it was a pair of trousers, and they might have also been corduroy (another favourite of mine), that in combination was tempting. However, this is not something I am lacking, so I simply reminded myself of this fact, and walked away. 

This lesson is also true about other things, for example if you come across a particular pattern you might like, or a colour, it still doesn't mean that you have to wear it. This part of the project is more about changing how one view what you own and not. Say for example, when you look out on a lovely sunset, you can not own it, but you can still carry the feeling of it with you. In that way you do own it, or at least you own the feeling or sensation it created. And in a lot of ways, that is what the fashion and advertising industry wants us to experience, some sort of feeling that we are buying (along with their garment) 

For me, I have had this thing about dark blue lately, but as I am committed to this project, I rather got an outlet for this with painting with dark blue. Also, I found a dark blue sweater that I’ve had for a few years and started wearing that again, in stead of following a quick and easy impulse, which would have been to purchase a new one right ahead. I should probably point out that I am not saying you can paint yourself out of any temptation; if you actually do lack something, then you do lack it. But the case for most of us with easy access to stores like H&M, is that we actually don’t lack items, we are just bored and easily affected by advertises. Therefore I am trying to create a higher awareness in the decision making process regarding what you actually do chose to buy. 

My quick check list would therefore be: 

1. Do I actually need it? 
2. Do I have something from before that could do the job? 
3. Am I buying this piece because I answered ‘yes’ to the two prior questions, or am I trying to fill some gap in another part of my life with this purchase? 

The first of these I have been asking myself for years, the latter two are new, but I will adopt them, as these are some of the things I want to be more conscious about as a consumer. 

It is actually already becoming easier. 

I hope this can inspire some of you who is reading this, because at least to me, this feels like a relief, not like giving something up. 

For further inspiration, I can recommend this series by Australian blogger and youtuber Muchelle B of how to simplify your life, that I was quite inspired by in January.

Thank you for reading, and remember that it's not just the grand efforts that makes a difference <3