and you thought the State of the Union was entertaining…

I just came across this SNL skit again and laughed till I cried. It wouldn’t be so funny if it weren’t so close to the truth…

A woman obsessed

Perhaps the only thing more challenging than living without shopping for six months is living without Internet access for six days. My beloved iMac crashed (again!) and has been enjoying an extended stay at the Genius Bar at SouthPoint Mall. I called today only to learn that it may be there until the weekend. You might as well cut off my right arm.

Typically, I check my email about 150 times a day. Really, this may only be a slight exaggeration. I check it first thing in the morning (despite Julie Morgenstern’s best advice), then check again before taking kids to school, then check every available moment throughout the day, and then, when the kids go to bed, I’m attached at the hip to my computer. If I had a Blackberry (or heaven forbid, the greatly anticipated iPhone), I’d be mainlining email and Internet crap all day long. I don’t receive that much important mail (yes…some is business and rather important–and this is a really busy time for organizers!, some is personal, and there is the administrivia from various boards I sit on…and there is also a lot I could live without). But I’m addicted to checking, and reading blog stats, and other meaningless gambling-like highs throughout the day (perhaps this time I really will hit the jackpot and get a message about that TV spot I tried out for???…more on that later).

So, after 6 days Internet-free, I realized I’m a much better mother without Internet access. Once I got over the DT’s from the first few days, I started paying more attention to my kids and actually enjoyed some extended playtime with them both, rather than sneaking away to check my messages. I know much has been written about “screen sucking” and “frazzing” and all of the other multi-tasking lingo of our generation. I’m here to tell you, shutting down for a few days was good for me.

Of course, when my mother arrived for a visit today, along with her Mac laptop we gave her for Christmas last year, I barely said hello before I knocked the kids over on my way to grab her computer and boot up. So here I sit, catching a buzz and blogging, and happy to be back. Somewhere, there has to be a happy medium.

Consumer-free wrap up…the final tally

Our experiment in consumer-free living came to an end this past week. As promised, I’m going to offer our thoughts on living with less, what we learned, what we missed, how we cheated, how we’ve done in the past 7 days, and how we think we’ll live differently going forward. Here’s how it all went down:

Q: Did we save money?
A: Holy cow…I just dug out the old Visa bills from this year and last…and according to the numbers (they don’t lie, right?), we spent $8000 less during the six months of consumer free living than in the same time in 2005. Granted, we had just moved into our “fixer-upper” during that same period of time last year, so we were signing our paychecks over to Lowe’s Home Improvement for a few months. And I seem to recall that we paid our movers on our Visa and bought a washer and dryer in that time. But still, $8000 is a lot of smackers. Want to save money? I highly recommend giving this consumer-free thing a shot! Truly, I have no idea where that $8000 went in 2005…but just thinking about that much cash is enough to scare me out of any mall.

Q: Did we create less garbage?
A: With the exception of Christmas, I think we’re doing really well with the whole less-garbage/obsessive recycling/composting-to-feed-the-wildlife plan. Getting our mixed paper picked up at the curb is fantastic–-thank you very much City of Chapel Hill. I’m saving at least a trip a week to the recycling center (which is right next to the mall!). And if we can get our little guy potty trained early this year, I’ll feel like we’re downright lean and green in the garbage department.

During the past six months, I became painfully aware of the waste we generate from food packaging. I had this brilliant idea that someone should open up a food store where you can purchase EVERYTHING from a bulk bin, and you must bring your own containers. Imagine, filling up on laundry detergent, cat food, crackers, cereal, peanut butter, raisins…and getting it all without the wasted containers! This could become an entire food movement–-because when you’re buying it out of a bulk bin, you really see what it is you’re buying. Might be a little harder to stock up on Twinkies, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing! I’m hoping to pay more attention to how our food is packaged in ’07…but it’s really hard to beat pre-packaged snacks for convenience!

Q: Will the kids learn from this experiment?
A: What I realized from this experience is that if kids don’t see stuff (no cable TV, less access to catalogs thanks to Greendimes, and no trips to Target), they don’t really ask for much. I didn’t expect my son to learn big life lessons from the experience. He’s about to turn three and is pretty satisfied with a Matchbox car, an empty cardboard box or a stick he finds in the driveway. Our daughter, however, has now started pointing out when other people purchase things they don’t really need. Undoubtedly this will cost her a few friends in the future. But she does seem to think a little bit about want vs. need. We also started giving her an allowance during the experiment, and she now knows if she wants something, she needs to save to buy it. And when we do purchase things for the kids, we’re more likely to delay the purchase to make sure they REALLY want AND need it, so it isn’t just one more plastic piece of crap to fill our playroom.

Q: Did we cheat?
A: Yes. I purchased my daughter a pair of faux-Crocs just because she had a bad day at school. And I replaced my old workout pants. Then spent over $100 on crap at Old Navy for our trip to the mountains. For the most part, however, we stayed pretty true to the spirit of the experiment–-bringing MUCH less stuff into our house.

Consumer-free is not to be confused with Spending-free (despite the huge amount of money we saved!). We did go to see movies in the theater (although we still primarily rely on Netflix), took the kids to museums, purchased wine, entertained, got haircuts (well…I did. If you’ve seen Carter lately, you might wonder if he held off for the entire six months), we ate out occasionally (attempting to do so only once a week), and in general, continued to enjoy ourselves. In fact, I might argue that in some ways we enjoyed ourselves more. Rather than going out to purchase stuff, we found ways to entertain ourselves with experiences. Not a bad exchange!

Q: Do we feel free?
A: I still find myself thinking about stuff…stuff I want, stuff my friends have that I don’t, stuff I think will make our house look better or make me look thinner. However, I think about these things less. I now see that I spent a ridiculous amount of time prior to going consumer free sitting around wishing for stuff, looking at catalogs, reading home magazines, and just basically jonesing for stuff I couldn’t afford and would never buy. Now I’m more likely to spend that time blogging, or reading other blogs (still unclear if that’s a real positive change!), but it is a different way to waste an evening.

Q: How have we done on the re-entry?
A: …And on the third day…I shopped. Turns out I was WAY behind on gift giving (two of my best friends just had babies) and my friend Heather Havrilesky got married AND had a baby so I had some catching up to do. And while making those purchases I came across a very pretty purse that was half off…and I bought it. It was a nice little “job well done on the not buying yourself much for six months” gift that so far, I’m not regretting.

We’re now a week into “normal” living, and I still don’t have much of a desire to shop. We’ll see how long this feeling lasts.

Q: What did we miss?
A: I missed Dwell Magazine. My subscription expired some time mid-fall and since I pledged not to take on any new subscriptions, I felt the need to hold off. Plus, I find that spending my days gazing at magazines filled with gorgeous modern homes is somewhat equal to standing in front of a mirror in a bathing suit while flipping through the latest issue of Vogue. I’m constantly comparing our home to those professionally cleaned, designer decorated, clutter-free homes and it fills me with thoughts of inadequacy. So for now, I’m just sneaking a peek at Dwell at my sister’s house and trying to love the home that we have.

I also missed Target. Not for any big purchases, just for the pleasing feeling of walking through the aisles and seeing cool stuff I could buy. Wal-Mart was a fine replacement for the basics, but God-willin’, I won’t have to go back there any time soon!

Otherwise, to be completely honest, I found that I didn’t miss that much. Once I told myself I couldn’t buy clothes for six months, I stopped bitching and moaning every time I walked in my closet. No more “I have nothing to wear”…I just grabbed a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt and got on with my day.

Overall, I have nothing but positive things to say about this experience. And the fact that a good half-dozen people have shared their desire to do something similar just in the past week makes me feel like there’s a movement a brewin’.

Perhaps we’re all hungry for a different way of living. Consuming less, enjoying ourselves more, spending less time working to buy the stuff we are told we need, realizing that Enough really is Enough.

I actually considered starting a Compact Group here in the Triangle. And I just might…after I restock on a few fun things and possibly gear up for another dry spell. If you’re interested in starting such a group, email me and let me know! Thanks for hanging in there with us on our journey.

A freebie…

If you live in the Triangle of North Carolina and want free organizing tips, please come out to the Barnes and Nobles at Streets at Southpoint mall this Saturday, January 13th at 1:00pm. I’ll be speaking, with my colleague Yvonne Trostli, about Eco-friendly Organizing. You can join the rest of the NAPO-NC gang every Saturday in January, same time, same place, to enjoy more free organizing talks in celebration of GO (Get Organized) Month.

Hope to see you there!

Six months down, a lifetime to go…

Our six month consumer free experiment is officially over today. Interestingly, I had three different people contact me today (2 by phone and 1 by email) to let me know that they, too, are embarking on a consumer free experiment of their own. I’m so pleased that we’ve inspired a few people to shop less or purchase more thoughtfully, and consider the impact of the consumer culture on their own life or that of their family. I’m cheering for you all!

We plan to keep up our efforts to buy less beyond this six month time frame. At least for today, I can tell you that I feel forever changed. We’ll see how long it lasts. Look for a big ol’ summary of lessons learned, cash saved, frustrations realized, and what we really, really missed during our 180+ day attempt to answer the question “What is Enough?”.

Two days to go…

…and I feel like our consumer-free experiment is ending with a sigh. This Tuesday we’re technically finished with our six months of not shopping. I recently spoke with someone at Marketplace who is writing a story about sustainability and our consumer culture, and she asked what I would be doing on January 9th. I really hadn’t given it much thought. I can’t imagine I’ll be out shopping–and I think it will take a while to even think about buying at will again. I have mixed feelings about ending it all…probably the way someone might feel after they leave Weight Watchers. Can I maintain on my own? What temptations lie ahead? Have we forever changed our lifestyle?

I’m working on pulling all of my thoughts together about this experiment. Look for a summary in the next few days.

New toys? What new toys?

Two days after Christmas, this is how I found our children:
A truckload of new toys, and they’re fighting over who gets to climb in the box that our free, promotional grocery store luggage came in. Oh, and yes, that’s our son in the pink nightgown. He’s going through a bit of a girly thing right now. Thank goodness everyone returns to school tomorrow!