Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. None of this is financial advice. I encourage you to do your own research.

When I ran out of things to cut, I started to learn everything I could about personal finance and growing wealth in the stock market. I read and listened to The Canadian Couch Potato blog and podcast. I read A Random Walk down Wallstreet, The Millionaire Next Store, The Wealthy Barber. I binge-read Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) blogs like JL Collins, Mr. Money Mustache and Millennial Revolution, which all encouraged me to look for peace and happiness in experiences instead of stuff.

I started to look around at the stuff I owned. Why did I think I needed so many things? Why did I have a closet full of clothes yet still nothing to wear? And what was the environmental cost of it all? I learned that millions of used textiles are thrown away into landfills every year – 500 million kilograms a year at the time of this writing (source). And even when I donated my clothes to a good cause, a “significant amount” still ended up in the landfill or waterways (source). With every item I had ever owned now sitting in a landfill refusing to decompose, I was harming our planet – not to mention my wallet. Imagine if I had invested the money over the years instead of wasting it on extra clothes I didn’t really need. How much bigger would my nest egg be?

I needed to make some changes. 

As I continued to question my role as a consumer, I found myself attending my friend Frances’s clothing swap. She had noticed garbage bags full of clothes piling up in her basement and had the genius idea that someone else might want them. By swapping our old clothes with each other we could extend an item’s life cycle, keeping it out of the landfill for longer. On that cold spring afternoon 20 women crammed into Frances’s apartment, chardonnay in hand, cheering as we took turns modelling our new treasures found in each other’s trash. The room was full of smart, educated women spanning low to high incomes, but we had one thing in common. We had all spent an exorbitant amount of our disposable income on clothes. Clothes that had once been ‘this season’s must-have’ but were now discarded in bulging garbage bags. Was that why I had a closet full of clothes and still nothing to wear? Because the women’s fashion industry had brain-washed me into thinking I constantly needed to keep up with this season’s “look”? All this time I had wandered through malls in search of the perfect outfit or accessory, but I was really on a never-ending climb up consumer mountain. And I was poorer for it.

I tried on a red fitted top that France’s friend Hannah had donated. It may have once cost only $30 at a retail chain. There was a little hole in the back of the neck. But the red brought out the colour in my cheeks and the low neckline showed off my collarbone, now prominent from all my outdoor running. Once $30 and now free to me, somehow this was the most flattering top I had ever worn.

“Red is your colour!”, Frances exclaimed. “You need to wear that every week!”

“I’ll take it,” I said. That was the moment I stopped climbing consumer mountain. I vowed to stop spending all my hard-earned money on clothes that would eventually end up in a landfill. It wasn’t worth the environmental – or financial cost.

Later that night I looked through my closet and pulled out a few outfits that I had previously overlooked. Two pairs of jeans, one pair of ballet flats, and a few tops to wear to the office, including this new red one. This was all I needed.

For the next two years, every time I rocked that red top in a high stakes meeting or on a museum date with Victor I felt like I was saving money, just by extending the top’s life and not buying another one. And I felt peace knowing I wasn’t harming our planet with useless stuff. I felt free, like I didn’t need my job to pay for any more outfits to wear to my job, just so I could buy more outfits. And that feeling was exhilarating.

As I let go of the need for “more”, I found an anonymous quote that seemed to describe the shift that I felt occur within me. “The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least” – unknown.

I couldn’t agree more. I copied down the quote, but changed “he” to “she”.

Repeatable steps I took that you can too!

  • Before spending more money on another outfit, try going “shopping” in your own closet. Are there any items you haven’t worn in a while that could use some love?
  • For any other items you haven’t worn in a while, consider organizing a clothing swap with friends. By exchanging clothes with one another you will be keeping textiles out of the landfill for longer. And if you have extra household items in good condition, you can organize a garage sale with neighbours or post an ad on Kijii. Who knows, you might even make some money!
  • If clothing swaps and garage sales are not possible, consider giving some items you no longer use to charity. You can drop off most clothing at Goodwill and pots and pans at Salvation Army. And next time you’re out window shopping, ask yourself if you really need that shiny new object. If you want it and you think you’ll use it, then go for it. But if you can already envision it collecting dust on a shelf, consider saving the money and investing in your portfolio instead.