Buy Less in 2025
My take on the Buy Nothing 2025 trend and how I’m defining Buy Less 2025.
I haven’t looked at social media the same way after I read How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell in January several years ago. In the book, she voices a question that she had been pondering,
“What does it mean to construct digital worlds while the actual world crumbles before our eyes?”
She points out how social media platforms reward polarizing, incendiary, reactionary, and clickbait material. Although not a new concept, the way she frames it in her writing led me to take a step back whenever I find myself particularly frustrated on social media. When it comes to (over) consumption and the conversations around consumer responsibility, corporation responsibility, and the role of social media, I’ve seen people fall into the same traps of reactionary perspectives even as they claim to be proponents of environmentalism.
Recent frustration with the bloated wealth of billionaires who show no regard for people or the planet has led to some consumers wanting to opt out of the whole thing all together and declaring a Buy Nothing 2025. Not to be confused with Buy Nothing groups that promote a circular no-buy local community, though not without their own controversy, Buy Nothing 2025 focuses more on consumers withholding rather than exploring and imagining alternate economies. It no doubt has roots in the de-influencing trend that made its way around social media last fall after the fatigue of the Stanley cup frenzy and endless clothing and makeup hauls. However, buying nothing is not actually sustainable for most of the United States and it can leave small business owners feeling abandoned. Framing the challenge in such a buy everything/buy nothing binary sets everyone up for failure and doesn’t address the role consumers can play in voting with their dollars.
Photo by Good Faces on Unsplash
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Set yourself up for success and give yourself grace by pledging to buy less and with more intention in 2025. This is my 2025 Buy Less framework.
I pledge to buy:
L: Locally whenever possible to reduce shipping-related carbon emissions and support my local community;
E: by prioritizing the circular economy through joining my local Buy Nothing group and attending clothing and household item swaps in my city when I need new-to-me items;
S: Secondhand and/or from small businesses whenever possible, to create less waste and support small business owners and their families; and
S: from sustainable brands (in this case for my usage this will include weighing a series of factors including fabrication/material, dye/treatment process, living wage/fair trade, and an advocate of my social values).
I’ll be honest and tell you that I’m not much of an impulse shopper to begin with and I do not shop to decompress. Even still, there have been a few items that the social media algorithms have managed to sell to me in the last year.
You can avoid these kinds of impulse purchases by making a general list of how you want to spend your money throughout the year before the next round of holiday sales begins. Ask yourself what need you’re really trying to fill before making a purchase. Slowing down gives us the opportunity to be responsive to our needs which also leads to sustainable self care - the self care that goes beyond sheet masks.
Before I leave you, I have three tips for purchasing with intention in 2025.
Plan ahead and give yourself a realistic timeline.
I end up just buying whatever Target has when I wait until we’re completely out of something to replace it. This year, I plan to set up a recurring purchasing schedule for items like dish detergent, hand soap, cleaning soap concentrate, and laundry detergent in 2025.
Build a personal database of local shops that you purchase from repeatedly. Do the research once!
Need some examples? Think about your favorite art store, fabric store, and stationery store.
Prioritize making more intentional decisions in one room of your house or one area of your life if you can’t commit to a wholesale overhaul of all your purchasing decisions.
Starting small is one of the best ways to create sustainable habits for yourself.
May 2025 be the year we stay committed to building an authentic community and voting with our dollars!
in solidarity,
Psst - Need some NYC recommendations? I like Earth & Me for refill needs, Travel Agency for plant medicine, Locavore for a robust local shopping guide, coolstuff.NYC’s newsletter for cool local openings, and Farm to People for their local produce box if you can’t make it to your local green market.