Next Non-Purchase: Dresser

The fact that we're expecting a new baby and we've decided to not buy anything new is not exactly a coincidence. I think that we were partly inspired on this journey because of the temptation to justify stupid purchases. I can justify many things. And I can easily convince myself that I need a new pair of jeans or I need a new pair of boots or I need a visit to Boston or I need a weekend in Atlanta. So here is the next challenge...

Because Jasper and new baby (who I refuse to give any nickname, even though I think that is an especially bloggerish thing to do) are going to be sharing a room, they are also going to be sharing a dresser. Jasper currently uses a dresser that I think we got at a used furniture place here in Knoxville, but it may have traveled with us from Boston. If it did, it should not have made the journey. It is in rough shape. I painted it white and put purple knobs on it when I was pregnant with Jasper. It has served its purpose, but it is very flimsy and very small for two wardrobes (as petite as they are). So I have set out in search of a new dresser.

The problem with only buying used stuff is that I'm picky. I went yesterday to a very weird and potentially illegal warehouse that had everything from stacks of tires for 4 Wheelers to records to a minivan. They also had some dressers. All of these dressers, though, have this overly ornate thing going on. I want an Ikea-style dresser. I just want to find it for $40 in a sketchy warehouse where the "owner" literally walks me through the place with a flashlight because there is no electricity in the building. (As we left, Jasper said, "This place is WEIRD." He is astute.) Actually, I don't need that precise experience. I would just like a used dresser that isn't trying to look like something it is not. It seems that dressers of the 1970s made up for any inadequacies with overly ornate knobs. I know I can change knobs. I'm trying to be imaginative. But really, so far, I've just found ugly dressers.

Meredith of last year would break down and get the dresser from Ikea that matches the crib. But Meredith of 2010 will find a way to scrounge up a dresser that adds to the eclectic look of this new room which already features a bed made of apple crates. I'm radiating that a well-built dresser with simple, clean lines and 6 drawers will makes its way into my life. Do I dare go the Craigslist route?

Short Pants

Just an update that Jasper's short pants evoked sympathy and action from his grandmother. No.... he didn't get new pants, but he did come away with a sort of jersey which might distract from his short pants.

My Blog Sucks

I have now had two friends, with varying degrees of tact, point out that my blog sucks. ("Your blog sucks," said one friend. "Meredith is not a natural blogger," said another). I can't just invite people to read my blog and care about my anti-capitalist experiments and then stop blogging. It's rude. Yet... it is hard to write about something that you're not doing. I will try, though. Especially since this was my big idea.

I'll start as I start most things that intimidate me, with a list.
Things I have wanted to buy recently, but didn't:

• new pants for Jasper as he headed off to visit family and continually showed his socks and his growth spurt. (Instead of heading to Target, I knew I would have to take a longer drive to a consignment shop. I did neither, but went with the idea that his family might feel sorry for him and buy him new clothes.)
• a winter coat that buttons over my pregnant belly. (Preparing for a recent trip to Boston, I was very tempted to buy a warm coat that I might be able to button. Meredith of last year would have done it. Meredith of this year just wore a smaller coat and didn't button it. Plus, the daffodils are coming up in my yard, so it can't be cold for MUCH longer.)
• an interview outfit for Jeff. (After trying on and modeling many outfits, though, we actually uncovered some things from deep in his closet. And he looked dashing.)
• William Faulkner's Sanctuary. (A colleague invited me to write an article about this book, which I read years ago. I agreed, but then found that I no longer had the book. Just as I was about to break and go get the book, said colleague left his extra copy on my desk.)
• a new water bottle. (I have a metal water bottle that I take with me everywhere. It is really beat up, but as of today, still holds water. I was convinced that it was lost forever and I felt a desperate need to replace it when I noticed it was lost. The day that I decided that I should give in and just buy a new one, I found it in the back seat of the car. Perhaps I should have written a blog about keeping my car cleaner?)

Does anyone really want to hear how hard it is for me to not buy new socks, though? It's a bit underwhelming... the concept of this blog. The good news is that I'm sticking to this ridiculous goal that I set, and it seems to be working out well in terms of karma. Just as I was struggling with my very limited clothing options (I seem to have loaned out all of my maternity clothes, but I don't know where!), I received a huge package in the mail from my step-sister with her maternity gear. And as I realized that I will grow out of some of her stuff soon, I was able to raid my sister-in-law's closet. Perhaps this trend will continue. (It should be said that neither of these people know that I am embarking on this no-buying spree. Otherwise, it would be a little bit pathetic.)

Other ideas for how to blog about something I'm NOT doing? I welcome them, if you've got them.

My blog may still suck, but at least there is a more recent post now.

Craigslist, Apple Crates, and a Dose of Patience

Now that we are making room for a new living creature in our family and home (we're having a baby in June!), there is a purging and organizing movement in our house. Wee little beings don't actually need much, we have learned. Perhaps I will have another post on the incredible waste in the accumulation of plastic and musical things for an infant that serve only to irritate parents and frighten babies. Small humans need food. They need a lot of protection from the world; we're one of the only species whose newborns are so incredibly inept at survival upon birth.

It's the parents that need more stuff like swings that put the infant to sleep so that they can write papers or fold laundry or pluck eyebrows or whatever sorts of things seem so difficult when you have a tiny creature who depends upon you. Beds fall somewhere between a need for a child and a need for a parent. I'll abstain from the controversies around family beds (because I do think it is a fairly complicated issue without one clear answer), and say that we wanted our pending son/daughter to have a crib.

Jasper still sleeps in a modified version of the crib that he used as a baby, so it was time for him to get a new bed. A big boy bed. Here begins my entrance into the world of Craigslist.

I anticipate that on this new endeavor Craigslist will be my friend. But I did learn that one must be very informed as a shopper on Craigslist. I simply wanted a twin bed. I imagined that one could be had for fifty bucks. I imagined garages and attics filled with unwanted twin beds. I preferred one that did not come out of a college apartment to lower the chances of spreading communicable or sexually transmitted diseases with this purchase. I know, I know... picky. I found that beds that were under $100 were "autographed" on their frames by young children, missing parts, and could not guarantee the absence of bodily fluids and/or disease.

Mostly, I found that on Craigslist people were charging between $200 and $400 for a twin bed. I knew that I could get one from Ikea for less. And this was just before the nonewstuff resolution of 2010, so I considered it. But again, I imagined the attics and garages of Knox County that needed to be rid of their twinbeds, and I persevered.

After several interesting exchanges with several interesting people, I found a better deal at a used furniture market about 1 mile from my house. A kindly man who might have been 97, who had glaucoma in one eye that gave it the appearance of a marble and a strange condition or tear in his other eye that made his pupil resemble a goat's (he really was not demonic at all and gave me a good deal and even tied the beds to the top of the car), sold me a mattress and box spring with no frame for $65. This was exciting.

But Jasper was not keen on the idea of sleeping with his new big boy bed on the floor, so I reused the most versatile item in my home for the base: 4 apple crates. These apple crates, since I got them at Barberville Orchard in Waynesville, North Carolina in 1995, have served as a coffee table, my dresser, a stereo cabinet, a sewing nook, bookshelves (many times), a bench, and now... my son's bed frame. This re-using thing might just be ok.

This makes me want to hear other stories of reused stuff.

Re-Use

Our friends Scott and Erin gave us a subscription to Good magazine a while back. It is amazing and you should look around on their website if you've never seen it (www.good.is). In the most recent issue, I saw this and thought it fitting.

Another friend, Elizabeth, knew about a sweater that my Granny had mostly made before she passed away. It was a very bright sweater which I couldn't make myself toss, but I knew I would never wear. Completely complete except that the arms weren't yet sewn to the body of the sweater. Elizabeth sneakily took this and returned them to me as a shawl for Jasper (our son) and a pair of outrageous, warm, and meaningful legwarmers for me (see picture).

This gets me thinking of other things that can be reused in various ways. And brings me to the next post, which involves my first real experience in the world of Craig's List, 4 apple crates, and an old new bed for a little big boy.

Out with the New

In response to the relative catastrophe of last night's frozen and then burst pipes, and a pending enormous plumbing bill, Jeff and I decided that we had to make some big changes. Perhaps to change our juju, but also to make it so that we might have savings for such events that you cannot predict but can be sure will happen eventually.

As artists/teachers, we have an enviable schedule and lifestyle. We spend much time with our son. We have frequent quiet afternoons at home. We both work on projects (dance performances, Americana music-making and so on) that matter to us and that we hope impact our little spot in the world. There is a balance that we try to strike in order to spend our mornings with fingerpaints in our son's room, our afternoons with ideas and books in coffee shops, and our evenings with live music downtown. These choices mean, though, that we aren't suddenly going to make a lot more money any time soon.

So... we resolve, in 2010, to not buy new stuff.

I'm going public with this to keep me honest, because I think it will be harder than I'd like to admit.

We will buy groceries and goods that you cannot so easily buy used (lotion, shampoo, pens, etc), but will strive to resist new furniture, clothing, and the like. There is much too much good used stuff out there to buy new stuff. It means no trips to Target for $6 teeshirts or stationary with a recycled look or another Matchbox car... It means, I hope, rethinking the concept of "need," and learning to both appreciate what we have and find ways to reuse perfectly good products.

Perhaps this will inspire others to buy a few less new things. Mostly, I hope it will keep me accountable to this challenge that, as a child of the upper-middle class, I anticipate will shock me a little bit.