NOTHING NEW IN ’22..!
Those of you who have been following for a loooooong time might remember that my 'journey' into all things Sustainable(ish) started with My Make Do and Mend Year - a year of buying nothing new with my family.
2022 marks the TEN YEAR anniversary of that life changing (I know it's a cliche, but it genuinely has changed my life!) year, which feels absolutely bonkers.
10 years ago our kids were 4 and 1, and I remember saying at the time that it would undoubtedly be a whole different experience with older kids/teenagers. So now I'm going to give it a go...!
And I'd love you to join me - are you up for #NothingNewIn22?
How does it work?
At it's most simple, you buy nothing new for a year. So only pre-loved, secondhand, vintage etc etc.
BUT the beauty of this challenge, is that you totally make your own 'rules', so that it works for you. For example:
First time around, with young kids, these were our rules:
- Second-hand purchases only EXCEPT:
- food
- toiletries and medicines
- consumables eg glue etc
- new parts needed to fix something that breaks
- shoes for the kids (I wanted to make sure that my crazy project didn't bugger up their little feet!)
- underwear
This time around, with a 13 and 10 year old, our are rules are:
- Second-hand purchases only EXCEPT:
- food
- toiletries and medicines
- consumables eg glue etc
- new parts needed to fix something that breaks
- school stuff for the kids if we've exhausted all other possibilities
- underwear (although I don't think any of us need any..!)
- the kids are allowed to choose one exception each
You can totally make up your own rules!
Some things to think about:
- Just you? Or the whole family? Or you and your partner and not the kids? Or another combo!
- A whole year? Or start with a month and see how you go? Or try 3 months? Or 6?
- Everything secondhand, or just clothes, or tech, or something else?
- What are your exceptions?
But why...?!!
Great question! And starting with Why is a really important thing to do.
For me, it boils down to this.
We're in a climate and ecological emergency.
Household consumption (direct and indirect) accounts for around 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumption has sky rocketed in the last 20 years.
We are bombarded with ads day in, day out, to buy buy buy. The subliminal (or not so subliminal in many cases) message being that you're not good enough, but that you will be prettier/more popular/look younger/fit in if you have the latest x,y,z.
We all know logically that it's bullshit, but we're hard wired to fit in with those around us, and advertisers know this and manipulate us into buying stuff we don't need or maybe didn't even know we wanted until we saw it!
And buying stuff is so easy now (thanks Amazon!). One click, and it's with us the very next day. With very little thought and very little effort on our part.
But it's killing the planet.
Everything we buy has an impact.
The raw materials have been grown/mined/created (often in appalling conditions for the workers, and in a completely non-regenerative way) shipped somewhere, the item has been made (again, often in really crappy conditions), shipped to a shop or an Amazon warehouse, and then on out to us.
It all uses energy (carbon) and is stripping the planet of resources. Not to mention the impact on the people in the supply chain.
Before our first year buying nothing new, I didn't really give much thought at all to what I was buying, other than where I might be able to get it cheapest, or soonest.
The year changed all that.
It forced me to slow down.
It was the stop gap I needed to prevent those knee jerk 'middle of Lidl' type purchases.
It made me a much slower, much more thoughtful consumer.
And those habits, by and large have stuck (with a little bit of slippage/wriggle room, hence repeating the exercise now!).
Want to join in..?!
First time round, I did the challenge on my own (dragging the rest of the family along!) and documented the year with a daily blog post (you can see them all here).
This time around, I thought it would be fun to do it together. I thought that maybe a few hardy souls might be interested, but have been blown away by the response!
I'm writing this on the 8th Jan 2022:
- 550 people signed up for the #NothingNewIn22 intro Zoom.
- The replay of the intro Zoom has been watched on You Tube nearly 600 times.
- There are nearly 400 people in the #NothingNewIn22 Facebook group.
And I think that this will grow and grow.
Come and join us!
You can catch the replay of the Zoom intro here.
And the Facebook group is here.
If you're not on Facebook, don't worry! I'll be posting lots of useful info here on the blog, and you can join in/follow along with the #NothingNewIn22 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.
