Freedom from what?

Tyranny? The media? A bad hair day?
Possibly, but probably not.

I've been on a personal journey over the past few years to reduce my footprint on this planet. Inspired by by my greenways daughter Eliza, I've adopted the 'no plastic bag', installed an urban composter (check out your local Council to see if you can get a discounted Bokashi bin), started an organic veggie patch

and tried to convince everyone at work to use their own coffee mug at the Cafe O (shout out to Fred and Nashwa who were discounting coffee for the caffeine heads with their own mugs before it became cool). But I wanted to do more.

Our household tried to go plastic free and did well for a while, but we need to maintain the rage. My husband Mick refashions old household items into re-purposed objects but needs more room and time.


I've even considered Dumpster Diving with Eliza but fear of authority has put that on the back burner for now.

So what to to do... what to do...

After watching the excellent series War on Waste by Craig Ruecassel and being blown away by Ep 3. and the horror that is fast fashion, I have decided to relinquish my "consumer-driven life" (10 things I hate about you) and to BUY NOTHING NEW FOR 6 MONTHS.

Now I'm not a huge buyer anyway: economics, time and indecision see to that, but I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to see how often I do want to buy something and learn to live without these supposed 'must have' items. Do I really need a new garlic press, or those cute boots? Will my green lounge stay safely off the verge, not to be replaced by something more stylish? I'm hoping to feel less constrained by what the world tells me I should be wearing, using, driving and owning. And be more content with what I have and find inventive ways to repair, re-purpose and reuse items that are apparently past their used-by date.

Of course there will be some items that will be purchased new over the next six months. These are food, toiletries and medications. However food will be sourced as much as possible in plastic-free containers and from sustainable sources. All toiletries will be carefully considered as to whether they can be dismissed or are vital to maintaining health (and friends - not going soap-free for anything!). And hopefully medications won't be very necessary.

I want to record what I didn't buy, see if my life continued on ok without it and see how much money I saved. Perhaps by the end of the year I would have saved up enough money to buy something I really want/need (like that ZaZen water cooler I've bend eyeing off).

So one week in to this challenge I can see I'm going to be challenged! Just ducking into the local craft store to buy more wool won't do, so I've started digging out old balls of wool and will unpick an unworn vest to knit into something else. It's going to be an interesting 6 months and I'll hope you'll join me on my march to freedom 😬.