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I Didn’t Buy Anything for One Hundred Days. Here’s What I Learned.
The real benefit is measured in hours, not dollars
I’m not sure where this minimalist urge came from. I’ve always been more of a maximalist, as one glance at my bag collection (54 at last count) or my coffee-maker constellation (six, more or less) or my leather-notebook ensemble (don’t ask). Enough, I decided. This must stop.
I know many people dismiss the efficacy of New Year’s resolutions, but I like them. They help me make vital course corrections. So, on January 1st I resolved to buy nothing. No bags, notebooks, coffee paraphernalia, clothes, electronics. Nothing. The only exceptions I made were for food and medicine, as well as gifts. Why deprive others because of my resolution, I figured?
I took this vow of nothing not for masochistic reasons or ecological ones, or out of some latent ascetic impulse. It was, rather, a nagging feeling that I was squandering my precious life energy on….crap. Not just the accumulation of crap but the curation of it, the hours spent searching not for any V90 dye-free coffee filter but the best V90 dye-free coffee filter. Always the best, always more. It was exhausting.
I’m proud to report: I did it. For the past one hundred days, I have bought nothing. Here is what I’ve learned:
