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Happy New Year!
Throughout 2023 “my secondhand year,” I kept a running document of “MSY blog post ideas,” most of which I fleshed out into actual posts and published. But a couple never made it past the idea stage — one of which said simply, “What’s my why?” I guess I never wrote that post because that question…
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The True Test Is Here
It’s almost the dreaded Black Friday, and all I can say is, HELP! This is just a sampling of what I’ve been bombarded with for the past few days. Admittedly, I’m more “extremely online” than usual because I have Covid and so am isolating from my family (including my kids who are home for Thanksgiving).…
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(Finally) Realizing What I Don’t Need
Apparently, 50-plus years of life are not enough. Nope. I needed 50-plus years of life (maybe 40 years of shopping?) AND a year of not shopping to realize that I don’t really need the things I think I need. I can hear myself in years past: “I need some new black pants.” “I really need…
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Must Autumn Vibes Equal New Clothes?
I know it’s been a while since I last posted (and I’m sure you’ve all been checking your inbox impatiently every day for weeks now), and that’s because I didn’t want to get repetitive in terms of what I write about here. I mean you can only pontificate about the scourge that is overconsumption, especially…
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More of a Trickle Than a Purge
When I first started this no-shopping experiment and writing this blog, I imagined also doing a massive closet purge. I imagined a gorgeously merchandised closet with actual air between hangers and floor space that isn’t covered with random shoes and stacks of jeans that don’t fit into any drawer. Just like with New Year’s resolutions,…
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Finding Joy in a Dark, Crammed-Full Closet
I decided that if I could see my neighborhood as a tourist destination, then I could see my closet like a… fancy retail shop. I mean, for one thing, the clothes in there were actually purchased by me. So, presumably, I like them. At one point, probably not too long ago, they sparked joy for…
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Fix It, Don’t Toss It
I know, the thought of sewing something is probably pretty foreign to a lot of people these days. What do you do when your sweaters get attacked by moths? Or when a pocket on your jeans rips? Or you just decide those jeans are a weird length that doesn’t flatter you? I’m guessing you might…
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I Bought Something
I’ve been quiet on here for a bit and was going to write a longer post this week, but I’m kind of busy so I’m just checking in with a quick update. And a confession. Actually this isn’t really a confession because, while I did purchase something new, I didn’t actually break one of my…
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Actually, Every Day Is NOT Christmas
During Covid, when we had really ramped up our online purchasing (hello Drizzly!), we had a joke in our family that every day was like Christmas. One of us would open the front door to behold the stoop stacked with packages and proclaim, “Merry Christmas!” (We were clearly on edge like the rest of the…