Month: September 2016

Go on…it’s in the sale…

image

I’m going to come right out and say it, ‘I love social media’. I love being connected to friends who have moved far away, I love witnessing kids grow up, marriages start and adventures be taken. I love online forums and groups which keep me up-to-date on events and even teach me how to make the best use of my slow-cooker (an important life skill!). Social media has, in many ways, made my life richer but as I’ve embarked on my year of not buying clothes I’ve realise that social media is also making me poorer, actually poorer!

Technical whizz kids have made it possible for adverts to appear for all the stuff I love, apparently it’s down to those pesky web cookies! This source of temptation is easily dealt with by the lovely people at Ad-blocker who stop adverts in their tracks. The problem for me is that I’m advertised to constantly by Facebook through groups and links to my friends likes. I find it oh too easy to click on tempting adverts for the Fatface or Boden sale (yep I’m that girl!). These adverts frequently create a desire in me for something I didn’t need five minutes ago.

To give myself a fighting chance I’ve had a social media purge. I’ve unfollowed various brands and shops, hidden adverts and told facebook not to show me anything relating to clothing! Alongside this I’ve started unsubscribing to marketing emails, everything that’s trying to sell me anything. I know I could make all of these go into a spam file but it’s actually quite satisfying to completely rid myself of them. Plus when I’m asked why I’m unsubscribing it’s fun to write ‘taking a break from buying’!

So now my news feed is cleaner, my inbox is lighter and strangely enough I’m not finding myself wasting hours scrolling through the latest White Stuff sale.

I have everything I need even if a red ‘sale’ banner would try to tell me otherwise!

The surprising freedom less choice brings

image

Last month I picked up my blog again and wrote about my journey into living with less. Particularly my challenge to not buy any clothes for the next year…oh boy! You can catch up on the story here. I’m a few weeks into my experiment so I thought I’d share the first practical step I’ve taken in order to start the year well.

First step – Getting rid of clothes

So this sounds totally counter-intuitive but stick with me! Ever looked in your wardrobe and thought ‘I’ve got nothing to wear!’ even though it’s bursting at the seams? Yes? Me too! The problem wasn’t really not having enough, it was having too many options to choose from and too many items, if I was honest, I didn’t really like. Over the past few years this problem has been helped by having my ‘colours’ done by the lovely ladies at True Colours who helped me work out what colours actually suit me. I discovered I’m an ‘Autumn’, should opt for clothes that ‘skim not cling!’ and have said goodbye to black…well nearly!!

I decided that if I’m going to spend the next year only wearing the clothes that are currently in my wardrobe it would be good to know that I love everything I own. So I took everything out, tried everything on and if I couldn’t say I loved it (Marie Kondo recommends asking ‘does it spark joy?’) then off to the charity shop it went.

Reducing my clothing horde when I’d so publicly committed to not buying any more clothes seemed a little bit foolish, what if I get bored of what I’m stuck with? Well I’m realising that I have definitely fallen into the trap of following the 20-80 rule, wearing 20% of my wardrobe 80% of the time. 

I live in a part of the world where excess goes unchallenged and unchecked and it’s so easy to ride the train of over-consumption. Wouldn’t it be great if the things I own get used, enjoyed and worn out, rather than neglected and forgotten?

My hope is that during this year I will learn to treasure and use what I have, to be more creative and to enjoy the surprising freedom that having less choice brings!

Next week I’m going to fight the onslaught of digital temptation, wish me luck…