One of my 2021 New Year’s resolutions was to not buy any clothes for myself for the entire year. I did buy two pairs of running shoes and my sister gave me a sweatshirt for my birthday, but other than those, I didn’t buy myself a single sock (personally I feel like shoes are different from clothes also my running shoes had holes in the heels so they were actually necessary, but just thought I’d caveat).
WHY I STOPPED BUYING CLOTHES IN 2021
I watched the fast fashion episode of Patriot Act on Netflix, and I felt pretty helpless. Like any teenager, I had spent my fair share of money at H&M and Forever21. You’ll definitely still find some of those pieces in my closet even now, but I have also donated a lot, which the show debunks and says isn’t really the best alternative. The fashion industry is so wasteful, and it seems like there’s nothing that someone like I could do to clean up waterways or increase wages for factory workers.
Is the solution to buying more ethical, higher-quality items? But can you guarantee those brands are actually ethical and eco-friendly? Should I just be buying less? I have a full closet already, what if I just stopped buying clothes all together?
In 2020, I bought some clothes and shoes, but I didn’t end up wearing them anywhere because we were all staying home for the pandemic. And so I decided to challenge myself to not buy any clothes for the entirety of 2021.
While I am by no means a fashionista, this was still difficult. I usually buy new clothes whenever I feel like it throughout the year, especially when there are sales. Most of my wardrobe is from Nordstrom Rack, Target, TJ Maxx, and Costco.
HOW I AVOIDED TEMPTATION
To avoid the temptation of buying clothes, I avoided going to the mall and clothing stores, which was somewhat easy because again, I didn’t leave my house much. However, I love going to Costco and every time I’d see a sweater or leggings that I wanted, I’d have to resist. So staying home was definitely helpful. But then there’s the internet…
Social media ads and influencers are very effective, but I feel like social media ads mostly work because of the frequency. The more times I saw an ad, the more I wanted the product. While I couldn’t get rid of social media ads, I somewhat controlled the kind of ads I was shown. Sometimes if I kept seeing an Instagram Story ad for clothes that I wanted to buy, I’d choose to hide the ad so I didn’t see it again.
In terms of regular online shopping, I don’t love buying clothes online to begin with, because it’s kind of a hassle to return things that don’t fit. I also know that the more I visit clothing websites, the more clothing ads I’d see online, so I didn’t even look at them.
I also unsubscribed from all clothing marketing emails. If Madewell was having a fall sale, I didn’t know about it. Sales definitely are my biggest incentive to buy new clothes, so not knowing about them pretty much curbed the desire to purchase more jeans that I didn’t need since I was wearing leggings to work from home every day.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
After a while, not buying clothes got easier and almost became like a habit. I still saw ads for clothes, but I could somewhat ignore them because I already had it in my mind that I wasn’t going to buy clothes. The same went for shopping in stores, I just wouldn’t even really look at the clothing section at Target. I could go to the mall with the sole purpose of getting 10,000 steps and not venture into a single store.
While I wasn’t buying any new clothes, the desire to spend money was still there, and so I started to buy books. This may not be the worst thing to spend money on; however, the shopping was still serving the same purpose. My mom and I would make plans to go to the local used bookstore, and it was truly exciting to get a good deal on a popular title that was in the clearance section. I kept buying more even though I had plenty of other unread books on my shelf. At one point, I think my true hobby was buying books, not reading (I ended up reading 22 books though!).
There’s an adrenalin rush to shopping and spending money, regardless of what you buy. If it’s not clothes or books for you, it’s probably something else. Makeup, tech gadgets, even something eco-friendly like plants. There’s a need to have the latest and greatest, there’s a feeling of wanting more, just to own more.
We live in a consumer culture. That’s nothing new, and I don’t see that changing. Buying isn’t bad. Wanting isn’t bad. But I’m thinking that if we just stop buying and wanting new products and start buying or better yet, borrowing used items, that might be the most eco-friendly option.
MY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
In 2022, I’m not going to make another resolution to not buy clothes because it’s been a year, and I need new socks. I am moving to Los Angeles where there are a ton of good thrift stores, so I will definitely be checking those out first before buying anything new. If I do buy new clothes, I won’t be shopping at fast fashion stores and will instead try to shop at local boutiques and from more “responsible” clothing brands.
As for books, I’m going to start using this cool thing called the library, which actually might make me read more since there’s a due date. I’m also on a mission to find the best Little Free Library in Los Angeles.
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My 2022 New Year’s Resolutions
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