Happy New Year! - I Made It!
Happy 2021! May it be a much needed improvement over the year we've just completed - felt a bit like the longest decade all packed into 365 days, didn't it? Traditionally, at the end of the year, there's a natural inclination to look back over the past year, failures and accomplishments, peaks and valleys, and then see what can be learned in moving forward. However, most of us have been locked up so long that further introspection just feels like more unnecessary self-flagellation.
That said, I unknowingly decided that the year 2020 would be my first attempt at a Depth Year, and I did make it through all 12 months! In my very first post, I defined my Depth Year as:
"I am going to attempt to take a whole year where I will not acquire any new possessions (that includes used/new-to-me) that I don't need. Instead of accumulating more physical items, or using "shopping" as an activity (I do love thrift shopping in particular), I will instead be refocusing my spending on experiences and activities. I still have lots of travel planned for 2020, and I think the S/O and I had decided to start taking archery lessons this winter (no, I won't be buying any archery gear, there should be rental options with the classes, I believe). "
Well, the archery lessons obviously got scrapped, and none of the travel planned for 2020 happened, either. In my first month, I was struggling with mental second-guessing over groceries and shampoo. Thankfully, I got over that small emotional hill fairly quickly. In January 2020, I was concerned about would my thread-bare mid-weight coats survive the year - and they did, if only because they've barely seen any use since March. A week later I was grieving skipping a skincare sale, but I've worn make-up less than 10 times since March - so the only things I've had to replace are cleansers and moisturizers, basics for necessary daily hygiene. This does also mean my hope of working my way through an overflowing make-up stash did not happen. I am considering a continued moratorium on all make-up products for 2021. My worries about swap meets, and socializing around trade ended up being a non-issue as well. It all got cancelled. I'm sure my closets could use some purging, but this is a depth year review, and we will not be addressing whatever my weight or change in size has been over 2020, that is something I'm trying very hard to not even think about.
At the end of my second month, I was sad about not buying any perfume from my favorite indie perfume company. I succeeded in not buying a single ml all year long! Instead, I have been trying to work through my enormous stash and have even used up a couple of bath oils, using them to make my own sugar/salt scrubs. At the first of March, I was all excited for my first trip to Puerto Rico - that didn't happen! And so in March, things began to change.
Once I started to accept that travel wasn't going to happen this year, I decided that gardening would be a necessity, and that allowing for needed supplies would be allowed in the Depth Year. This turned out to be a huge boon for my sanity, that during the first wave of heavy lock-down, I could distract myself by digging in the dirt, minding new seeds and seedlings, and fighting off squirrels and aphids. I had gotten a new computer, the 10yr old home system definitely needing an upgrade if I was going to work from home every day for the next several months. The office even bought everyone new monitors, so my (even older than my PC) monitors got a much overdue upgrade as well.
I still think that COVID definitely didn't make my Depth Year any harder, though I'm not entirely sure it made it easier, either. It definitely removed the obvious temptations of thrift stores, swap meets, buying souvenirs on vacation, or shiny items seen at the vending halls of geeky conventions. However, I know a lot of people used online shopping as a kind of therapy for their isolation. I did not feel a draw towards that. I did, however, spend a lot more money on having wine and spirits delivered to my house, something I never would have done could I just pop over to Manhattan and browse the shelves at Astor Wines whenever I felt like it.
By the halfway point through the year, I was doing yoga every day, and wearing out the small amount of lounge clothes I owned. I will say I almost made it the entire year without any new yoga/lounge clothes. However, in December, my mother had decided to brave a thrift store, and I asked her to keep an eye out for any good yoga/work out clothes, especially of winter weight, as my old pants all had holes in them, were worn thin, and becoming quite drafty to sit around in. So in December, I was able to throw away 3 pairs of quite tattered yoga pants for a stack Mom had sent me as a gift. As far as the debated yoga shorts for summer, I made it all summer without ever getting a pair, likewise, my ratty sneakers made it to the end of the year, though the soles have become unglued, again. It's time they retire, and get replaced in 2021.
By the end of summer, I was starting to get worried, and it would prove valid. My birthday plans, Halloween plans, Thanksgiving plans, and Christmas plans all ended up getting scrapped as people continued to not keep their germs to themselves, and another spike started to rise with the dropping temperatures. By end of summer, I had also bought myself a foam mattress topper and a new phone, for which in retrospect, I can say both have been absolutely necessary. 2021 will see the purchasing of some new sheets and pillows, I can promise you. Those I have been making due, but that foam mattress topper was overdue. Likewise, the broken old phone that not only had a broken screen but couldn't connect to any wifi signal for more than 10 minutes without being rebooted absolutely had to go. Small grey areas, but I'm ruling them in-bounds.
October saw my first truly out-of-bounds purchase. A second aluminum mixing bowl (which has gone into heavy rotation with my sourdough bread making) from a neighbor's stoop sale, and a completely unnecessary quill pin with ink well that was unopened and $2. I also bought a book, while shopping for family Christmas presents at a good used bookstore, I could not leave behind a Encyclopedia of Middle Earth for $5. I did however abstain from all the DSW coupons they've been throwing at me all year. There are a couple of pair, besides the aforementioned sneakers, that need to retire, but not until society really starts to open up and I feel like bothering with anything besides athletic footwear or comfy winter boots. I also made it through Black Friday through Cyber Monday without even paying attention to adverts, so that's a good win.
And so here we are. November saw me replace a leaking electric kettle (seemed like a bad idea to keep that), and I mostly made everyone's Christmas gifts (who didn't get books from October). December has largely not tempted me, so focused as I've been on food for my first Christmas away from home, and trying to fill that hole with familiar snacks. I decorated with the help of the S/O, going out to a pine barren out from the city and picking up dead fall branches and pine cones to make my apartment feel more Yuletide. Mom gifted me some much needed lounge wear, as mentioned above, and a grow your own mushroom kit, which should be fun! The S/O knowing my biggest weakness, gave me a stack of books. The NY Public Library app has been invaluable to keep me in reading material during the Times of COVID without buying new books, but a love of books runs in my blood, and I was quite happy with a new cookbook and a new art book.
So I made it! I'm pretty proud of myself, despite a couple of minor slips, and the only thing I'm particularly disappointed in is that I wasn't able to cull or work through as many things as I had hoped. Donation boxes to thrift stores have largely been locked all year. I have gone to the office a total of 3 times since the soft opening in September, and do not plan to go back again until the weather breaks and vaccination levels are making it into the general populous, so "nice" clothes will remain unworn, as will "nice" shoes, and really no need for make-up or other such fripperies. Art supplies have similarly remained unchanged. When we went into lockdown, I ambitiously started a new, large, oil painting, which remains not quite right and neglected. I've mostly gone back to trying to work up my sketches, I have gone through one sketchbook so far, but I already had such a stash it would take me more quarantine time to fill up more.
And what about 2021? Even after things open up, are there any patterns I wish to continue? Well, yes. Anything that I didn't manage to work my way through in 2020 of which I have an overabundance (make-up, shoes, art supplies, bath/body supplies, socks, etc.) I think I will try and do another year without buying new of them.
And is there anything I want to go buy right now? Not especially. I don't have an Amazon Wishlist (or similar) anywhere labeled "January 1, 2021 - TO BUY!" I am hopeful that this year has provided a necessary base adjustment in my way of thinking around consumerism that I don't operate as a constant consumer anymore.
And with that, I leave you with the wise sage and DJ Tima (@timalikesmusic)
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