This might help to get out of the Pay Day Circle of Life...
It doesn’t
require a total overhaul of your life, but following a few simple steps can
help you start consuming less, says Lucía González Schuett.
This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better
Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in
the TED community; browse through all the posts here.
A few years ago, Lucía González Schuett embarked on a
“personal rollercoaster journey,” as she puts it in a TEDxHHL
Talk. And it all started when she looked at
something that most of us have: a junk drawer.
She was disturbed by what she found — most of the
things there were broken, incomplete or imperfect, but she had felt compelled
to hold onto them. She questioned every item, asking questions like: “Do I
really need this? Does it add value? Is it worth the space that it takes up or
the care it requires?”
And she made a radical decision: She vowed to go
for a year without buying anything except for food.
Around the same time, she was going through a
professional transition. She’d made a career in fast fashion, where her salary
was partly based on commission — the more she could get people to spend, the
more she earned. One of her responsibilities was to rotate the store’s contents
so the merchandise would appear new to shoppers and they’d discover something
they overlooked on a previous trip.
In 2018, González Schuett left the industry to go
to business school and she chose to make it her no-buying year (which she discusses
in a TEDxHECParis talk). Her experiences caused her to rethink
consumption — on a personal and a societal level — and become aware of the
invasive, ongoing pressures to acquire new stuff.
“The app I use to measure my performance when I go
jogging is trying to tell me when it’s time for me to throw away the sneakers
I’m wearing and buy a new pair,” says González Schuett, who is currently based
in London. “The pillow I sleep on I recently found out has an expiration date.”
She adds, “We collectively need to pause for a moment and wonder: Are we losing
— or at least outsourcing — our very basic common sense to decide our needs by
ourselves when it comes to consumption?”
It’s not realistic or feasible for most people to
swear off shopping as she once did, and González Schuett gets that. She
says, “It is possible for us to rethink our day-to-day behavior towards
consumption, exercise the ability to appreciate things again, and eliminate
that link between easy access and taking things for granted.”
She urges people to engage in what she calls a
“scary yet extremely insightful exercise”: “getting over the want and becoming
honest about the need.” In other words, she invites us to take an honest look
at the things we want and we need and question whether we
actually do.
There are many good reasons to regain control of
your consumption. González Schuett suggests, “Maybe it’s
for the environment, for the sustainability of future generations, for your
personal finances, or for the sake of your peace of mind.”
To help you take back control, González Schuett
shares these tips:
Let yourself run out of something before you re-buy
or re-order. “Spend some time without it; in other words, try to
miss it,” says González Schuett. “Because there’s so much to be learned from
missing things. Plus, you’ll exponentially increase your short-term happiness
once you get it again.”
Keep an item in your online shopping cart for a few
days — or weeks — before buying it. You’ll reduce your chance of regretting an
impulsive purchase when you find something better later, or realize you don’t actually
need it at all.
Instead of immediately replacing something that’s
broken, try fixing it first. It’s not always cheaper to buy something new, and
you can support a local business or repair cafe by visiting them. You can also
teach yourself some new skills. In her no-buying year, González Schuett learned
to sew on replacement buttons, and she even watched a YouTube video to figure
out how to repair her washing machine.
When you do buy, consider second-hand. By
purchasing something that’s pre-owned, you’ll keep from adding to the sum total
of things in circulation — since the thing you’ll buy is already out in the
world — and you’ll also save money. When it comes to furniture, she points out
that for people who live in cities, “we’re all moving around so frequently that
second-hand items are more often than not hardly ever been used.”
Choose quality over quantity, especially when it
comes to fashion. Try to pick things that are made to last, and
when you are done, consider selling, donating or swapping them, instead of
throwing them away.
Share what you have, and find others who will. Rather
than buying a tool or gadget for a one-off project, “knock on your neighbor’s
door when you need a screwdriver,” recommends González Schuett. And while
you’re there, let them know what you have to lend, whether it’s a bike pump,
snow blower or sewing machine. These relationships can benefit both of you. She
says, “What a burden for both of you to each own both things and how enriching
to go back to knowing your neighbors.”
Shift your mindset about stuff. As
González Schuett puts it, “Consider yourself a custodian of things, rather than
an owner.” When you think about it, you’ll realize that there are ways to enjoy
things without owing them — take the library, for example.
She adds, “Ultimately, we know it isn’t the junk in
our drawers that is going to make us happy but having the resources, the space
and the time to dedicate to the things that truly matter.”
