Saving energy: the second hand challenge

Written by Jo-ann Hodgson on 21 October 2011

: Image by TheTruthAbout… via Flickr

Dog in jumper image by Flickr user tps12

So, Simon’s been living without his fridge, Tamsin H has given up her washing machine and Lee, poor soul, is going without central heating until mid-November. Brrrr. Not wanting to miss out, I’ve been wracking my brain to see what energy saving challenge I could come up with. Ideally it should be one that seems impressive, without imposing any actual hardship.

Inspiration came while checking out the 10:10 climate change campaign website which challenges all UK households to cut 10% of their energy emissions in 2010. They’ve produced a printable list of ten simple things everyone can do to cut their emissions, and number six was making sure you never buy anything new. They reason that less stuff made equals less emissions and therefore less climate damage.

It struck a seriously big chord. My home is crammed to the rafters with miscellaneous stuff, from boxes of make-up I’ve never used to mountains of clothes I’ve never worn. And sadly, with the ease of Amazon’s pesky one-click ordering, more of this stuff just seems to appear each week. I knew things were getting out of hand when I started to know the delivery drivers by name.

It had to be new

Children’s toys and books are the worst. Not wanting my 17-month-old to miss out, I feel like I’m depriving him if I don’t buy something brand new and made of lurid plastic at least once a month. And in my bid to build up a nice library of books for the little fellow I’ve realised that not once has it crossed my mind that I may be able to buy them second hand.

Now obviously, with so much stuff hanging around, the sensible thing would be to just stop buying things until I’ve used up everything I own. But with a toddler around there’s always things you need – they grow out of clothes and shoes so quickly (every ten weeks, according to the Clark’s saleswoman).

So I’ve decided that my energy saving challenge will be to buy absolutely nothing new in the next two months (apart from food and groceries, I’m not up for scavenging through bins quite yet). Instead, I’ll be finding new outfits out of the clothes I already own, using up make-up and toiletries and if I do need to buy something, it’ll have to be second hand.

Weight: lifting

Weirdly, now I’ve made the decision, I feel so much lighter, as if the weight of consumerism has been lifted off my shoulders. Imagine! No longer do I have to fret about having the latest fashions, or have to trawl the high street. I hate shopping anyway, so having my options narrowed to just a few musty second hand shops or eBay is a bonus. And thanks to Jo-ann’s excellent posts on second hand clothes shopping and ethical fashion, I needn’t miss out.

Anyway, I’ve been doing my challenge for a couple of weeks, and it’s proving slightly more tricky than I first thought. The hardest part has been trying to find a birthday present for my sister-in-law. She’s a cash-strapped mum like me, and asked for some perfume which she really needs.

Even though a request on Twitter brought back some wonderfully creative solutions (like buying vintage perfume bottles which she could fill with whatever scent she likes) at the end of the day, she really just wanted some perfume. So sadly, that’s what she got (although technically I got my husband to buy it for her, so wasn’t strictly a fail).

Anyway, find out how I get on in my next post. I need to buy my son a few ‘new’ jumpers. Any suggestions?

Second hand clothes store image by Flickr user net_efekt – visit Oxfam Online’s second hand clothes store.

Ethically Disposing of Review Copies (profhacker.com)
1950’s and 1960’s Retro Catalogue & Machinery Logos (imjustcreative.com)

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