Buy Nothing New Year

So, Tim and I thought that, between the two of us, we could probably keep one New Year's resolution this year, and so we decided to buy nothing new.

Inspired by a column in Sojourners by someone who had committed to a Buy Nothing New year in the same year they had their first child, I figured we could do it, too. The way I see it, there is already WAY too much stuff around, and we can easily get by with re-used things.

Climate change seems more real and scary every day, and this is one small way to reduce our impact, as well as a way (for me) to begin to wrestle with the massive disconnect between the haves and the have-nots, both in the U.S. and globally.

At the very least, it should make us consider carefully what we really need.

I think that all the "transgressions" (or "exceptions," depending on your point of view) so far have been mine. So far, it's been all baby things: a few (bisphenol-A free) bottles, which were probably necessary, and some cute organic cotton baby clothing, which definitely was not.

We're currently in a competition to see who can post our reflections first. I think I won. But Tim's is probably way smarter-sounding.