Not Buying It

Recently I read the book Not Buying It: My year without shopping by Judith Levine. I have to admit I never actually finished the book, but I did get a good halfway through before I threw in the towel. I love the whole idea of not buying unnecessary stuff, but I felt like this book was more about how to survive for a year on what you've stockpiled. Now to be fair, I didn't finish it so maybe it got better, but I just couldn't take anymore. I think the biggest problem with the book for me was that I couldn't relate. The author is much older, had no kids, lived back and forth between a New York City condo and a cabin in Vermont with her long-time partner, and is a writer. Not a lot I could glean from her life that would in any way relate back to mine.

The idea of living more simply has been stewing in my brain over the past two or three years and I'm feeling totally convicted about it again lately. We just have too much stuff! We got home from camping this week and I did about 20 loads of laundry in one day. There is a huge pile of clothes waiting to be folded and then put away into closets that already have plenty of clothes inside! What is that all about? Why do we need so many clothes and why is it that no matter how much stuff we seem to get rid of there seems to always be more and more and more. Agh, so that's my rant for the day.....

I want to hear how people are living simply, choosing not to buy more than what is truly needed, scaling back on modern conveniences, cooking from scratch, making their own clothes, living a little more slow paced, and living self-sustainably. I have friends that are much further down this road then I am. But I'm the kind of person that needs a how-to book. A how-to book written by someone who is just like me, so that it would be easy to translate their ideas and experiences into my own life. Is that too much to ask?