Camellias from my garden
I’m getting started a tad early this year on my New Year’s resolution but for good reason. I’m hoping some of you guys can join me (and thus keep me motivated as well). And yep, it says it all there right in the title: less new in 2022. So that means acquiring fewer new items this coming year and trying to find used or secondhand items whenever possible if I need (ok or want) something. I also want to acknowledge my privilege in being able to work towards this resolution. I have been so very lucky in life to have an overabundance of things, and I know not everyone gets to choose less. And sure it sounds simple enough, but without some ground rules I find I can easily get derailed. So here are my ground rules (and yours will probably be different):
1) Try to borrow it first
In order to not acquire more things, I’ll try to borrow whatever I need first. If I can’t borrow it then I’ll look to buy it.
2) Go to the used market if I need to buy it
So that means asking friends or checking out eBay, Goodwill, Crossroads, thrift shops, Fashionphile and the RealReal when I’m looking to fill a need (or a want). Only if I can’t find it used, I will let myself buy it new. Some items can’t be purchased used (like makeup and skin care) so those items get a pass. Also I consciously decided on “less” new instead of “no” new because not everything can be found in the secondhand market and something as absolute as “no new things” is sure to fail.
3) Less plastic and less waste
I’m going to renew my efforts to go low-waste this year. And if I do buy things in disposable plastic, I will try my best to reuse them (yet without hoarding them like my mom though it might be too late for that—you should see my collection of packing mailers and takeout containers 🤦🏻♀️ lol).
4) I will let myself acquire some new items when it comes to my blogging partnerships (but I will keep it within reason)
So this one is pretty specific to my circumstance and yes it’s a gray area for sure. However, I’m still trying to “make it” as a blogger lol, so that means working with some brands to earn a little money for this hustle. I rarely have these types of partnerships anyway right now, but I want to be upfront that I’ll continue doing some of these when it makes sense (ie I’ve either already tried and loved their product). For example, I will still continue to do Quince and PACT reviews since I already have credit with them from my referrals and the credit also allows me to get some things for family and friends too.
5) No new beauty items unless replenishing
Since I’m pretty happy with my current skincare and makeup routine, for 2022 I’m not going to try new beauty items. I will only replace what I’ve used up. I’m actually not too egregious these days with my beauty purchases so I’m not too worried about this one.
6) Work on other projects or hobbies that aren’t related to shopping and things
So this is a bit of a tangent, but one way to help me not focus on always getting the newest thing is to focus on a non-thing related hobby. For me that would be things like yoga and plants. I also plan to go back to tracking my wardrobe wears (through the Stylebook app probably) and decluttering the rest of the house (yet again). And last but definitely not least, I’m going to take a page out of Aja’s book Consumed and work on being more of an activist (I definitely need to sharpen my letter writing skills).
Anyway those are my guidelines for now. What would some of yours look like?
And I’m putting this out early so in case you have any essentials you’ve been thinking of purchasing new but haven’t yet, you could do it before the new years starts (if you plan to do #LessNew2022 with me). I don’t really consider this as cheating but rather setting yourself up for success (at least that’s how I justified the recent Pepper bra purchases 😂).