Don't get me wrong, I love to shop. There's nothing better than a caffeinated afternoon spent with a few good girlfriends and a great stretch of boutiques. But today, my favorite boutiques are thrift stores.
I've been thrifting and swapping pretty much exclusively for a few years now. When I tell friends that I rarely buy any new clothes they're impressed, but they don't think they can do it, too.
But then I give them the numbers:
There are 160 million women in the United States.
Women spend about $60 each month on clothes.
We dump an average of six pounds of textiles into the landfill.
If we all stop buying new clothes for one month we could save nearly one billion pounds of textile waste and $10 billion. Mind-boggling!
So this year, I'm challenging friends and followers to stop buying any new clothing or accessories for the month of January 2014. It's the perfect New Year's resolution to save money and resources--we can buy used, thrift or swap, but we're giving up the mall.
You can join the community at MommyGreenest.com. Throughout the month of January, I'll be posting updates, encouragement and swapping/thrifting videos, including those featuring some very familiar faces. And I'll be posting participants' feedback, photos and videos at Facebook.com/MommyGreenest, so we can keep the conversation going.
Want to save money and resources with your New Year's Resolution this year? Sign up!