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Buying Nothing For A Year: Good or Bad?

Last December, an acquaintance whom I have had several conversations about simplicity with approached me and said that he and his family were going to do “The Compact”. The Compact-ers, based in San Fransisco, but reaching across the globe via the Internet, has the following aims (from their discussion group 6/15/2007):

• To go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of disposable consumer culture and to support local businesses, farms, etc. — a step that, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact.
• To reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er).
• To simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

They accomplish this by two principles:

1. Don’t buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
2. Borrow, barter, or buy used.

I want to state here that there are exceptions to these rules…namely:

• food, drink, and necessary medicine (no elective treatments like Viagra or Botox)
• necessary cleaning products, but not equipment (don’t go out and buy the Dyson Animal, for example).
• socks and underwear (utilitarian–non-couture or ornamental)
• pajamas for the children

My friend was convinced that this was going to be the road to living lightly on the earth and simplifying his life. I’ve been thinking about this on and off.

I fully support what they are going for here. I try to buy borrow or buy used whenever possible…for example books. I will get them from the library, and as a last resort, buy them used if I can’t. I don’t buy things on whim anymore; I never go into a store without a list and I stick to it. I go local when I can, I make a pursuit of decluttering my environment.

However, I am opposed to no-exception type of things out of the principle of “everything in moderation”. Do I really not buy a new coloring book for my child when she is sick? Do I not buy something that will truly simplify my life just because of a compact? Do I have to spend hours finding an alternate source for a spool of thread when I can spend $1 and get one?

I’m not sure that following a strict set of guidelines is going to accomplish the third aim, simplicity. It seems to me that strict adherence to the principles is going to complicate life unduly.

What do you think?

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