Queen of the Nobodies

No Buying Clothes! Commit to the year, try it out for a month or if you’re late to the party just jump in! This challenge is free for everyone!

During our annual Christmas Eve feast back in 2022, my family was in the middle of enjoying delectable dishes from Italian recipes passed down through the generations. There were at least three different conversations happening as I sat listening at one end of our large dining room table. I was comforted at the thought of how lucky I was watching everyone getting along and enjoying the evening. One of my daughters was talking about climate change, concerned about what the future held for her generation if things kept moving in the direction they were going. Curious to know more, I listened, and because of her passionate tone, I made a mental note to learn more about the issue. The conversations at the table continued to flow for what seemed like hours and we all had an amazing evening.

The following day, Christmas Day, Don and I were enjoying a quiet day at home. Moving through the day, I kept thinking about the climate change conversation from the evening before. So I did what I always do, nerded out on the subject. I already knew a little bit about it, having read stories, news articles and having watched documentaries about the state of this problem in our country and around the world. I was shocked to learn of all the effort we spend to recycle, flattening boxes and rinsing out plastic, glass and metal food containers for recycling, only nine percent of it is actually recycled. The rest, you guessed it, ends up in landfills. That’s really awful! It is a problem we seem to keep putting on the back burner. I mean, I know why. To put less in landfills we need to be thinking about new ways to package the things we buy and we need to be consuming less. Um, that doesn’t sound fun. And how do I even make a tiny dent in the problem anyway?

One of the biggest waste producers is the clothing industry, specifically “Fast Fashion”, low quality items with a short life-span. Not only is pollution from garment production harmful, but the disposal of it is a huge, huge problem! So much so, we don’t have room for it in our landfills, so we ship it out to other poor countries which ends up contaminating their environments and public health.

In short, I assessed my own wardrobe and my spending habits and thought “yeah, I have enough stuff, so why do I keep buying more?”It’s not good for the planet or my wallet. That is when I decided this would be how I would try to make a difference. I would not buy any new clothes in 2023. Yes, for the whole year! I successfully accomplished the challenge and when all was said and done, not only did it save me a lot of time and money, in the end the big surprise was how the new habits I started in this challenge bled over into all the other areas of my life, from body/mind/spirit things to organizing my home and schedule. It changed my whole world for the better!

Approaching 2025, there was a lot up in the air about how the economy was going to fare. Well, I’m impatient and restless, and needed a distraction. I felt like I needed to do something preemptive, something along the lines of frugality. This is why I decided what the heck, I’ll do this challenge again in 2025. Even though my spending habits have changed quite a bit, it won’t hurt to get in that mindset again.

So here we are, on the doorstep of 2026, and once again we are in a time where it is a good idea to think about conserving and making our money go further. I’m going to keep going with this challenge. This time, I want to share my experience and invite anyone who is up to the challenge to join me. Whether you’re in for the full year or just a month, I’m here to support you. We’ll be able to connect, share our progress and learn from each other.

Let’s embark on this journey together! Join the community and let’s make 2026 a year of collective success. Click on the image or link below. 

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