A Life Less Throwaway: The lost art of buying for life
Now more than ever, we live in a society where we covet new and shiny things. Not only has consumption risen dramatically over the last 60 years, but we are damaging the environment at the same time. That is why buying quality and why Tara Button’s Buy Me Once brand has such popular appeal.Tara Button has become a champion of a lifestyle called ‘mindful curation’ – a way of living in which we carefully choose each object in our lives, making sure we have the best, most classic, most pleasing and longest lasting – kettles, desks, pots & pans, scissors, coats and dresses, instead of surrounding ourselves with throwaway stuff and appliances with built-in obsolescence. Tara advocates a life that celebrates what lasts, what is classic and what really suits a person.There are 10 steps to master mindful curation and each is explained in this book, from understanding and using techniques to freeing yourself from external manipulations. Finding your purpose and priorities and identifying your core tastes and style. Learning how to let go of the superfluous and how to make wise choices going forwards.Mindful curation is a lifestyle choice that will make you happier, healthier and more fulfilled spiritual as well as helping save the planet.
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While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein and secure permissions, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future edition of this book.
This book reports information and opinions which may be of general interest to the reader. Neither the author nor the publisher can accept responsibility for any accident, injury or damage that results from using the ideas, information or advice offered in this book.
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
FIRST EDITION
© Tara Button 2018
Tara Button asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: ISBN 9780008217716
Ebook Edition © December 2018 ISBN: 9780008217723
Version: 2018-12-23
For my great makers:
My parents, who made me,
Mark, the one making dreams come true,
Juliet, the best maid of honour,
and Howard, who makes me happy every day
Contents
Introduction: Or why I want my grandmother’s tights
1 Mindful Curation: Or how to resist a world that’s trying to make us broke and lonely
2 Planned Obsolescence: Or why they don’t make ’em like they used to
3 Psychological Obsolescence: Or why no one wants their parents’ old settee
4 Advertising: Or how many people does it take to sell a lightbulb?
5 Marketing: Or the ten tactics that make us spend
6 Fashion and Identity: Or why everyone should dress like my friend Ben
7 Faster and Faster Fashion: Or how to get off the trend treadmill
8 Born to Shop: Or how our monkey brain influences what we buy
9 Becoming a Curator: Or how to begin buying with purpose
10 Taking Stock: Or where did all this stuff come from?
11 Before You Shop: Or ‘A Tale of Two Shoppers’
12 Out at the Shops: Or how scents, shelves and salespeople get us spending
13 The BuyMeOnce Buying Guide: Or how to find the best stuff on the planet
14 Keeping and Caring: Or how to hold on to the things you love
15 On Money and Happiness: Or how to be happy in a cash-mad world
Conclusion: Or what does success look like in a life less throwaway?
Ten Steps to Master Mindful Curation
Appendix II: Choosing Materials for Clothing
Why I want my grandmother’s tights
My grandmother’s tights used to last forever. They were so strong, people could tow cars with them, and did! Granny got two pairs – one to wash and one to wear. But then the manufacturers decided to change the way their stockings were made, and not for the better. So today, when I reach for a pair of tights, it’s like playing pantyhose Russian roulette. Which pair will break this morning?
It may not seem like a crisis to have a drawer stuffed with half-laddered hosiery, but I see it as a very small glimpse into a much larger problem. Our whole houses, our whole lives, have become stuffed full of things that let us down, cause our stress levels to skyrocket and our bank accounts to empty. But precisely because these things are poorly made or faddy, perversely we are compelled to buy more of them.
But couldn’t life be different? What if we decided to surround ourselves with beautiful, well-made things that lasted forever, instead of ‘for now’ objects that soon need replacing?
That was the seed of an idea that came to me in 2013.
Before then I was a paid-up loyalty-card-carrying member of the impulse-shopper club who never questioned the things I bought. I’d always been a spendthrift. My mother says that as a child it never much mattered how much pocket money I was given, I was always broke, and this behaviour carried on into adulthood. Once I’d decided I wanted something, I ‘needed’ it right away, and so my life and home became filled up with stuff that was ‘almost but not quite right’. Longevity wasn’t one of my criteria, so I owned temporary things, poorly thought-through and soon-regretted clothes or hobby and fitness equipment bought in fits of short-lived enthusiasm.
My habitual impulse buying eventually caused credit card debts of thousands of pounds, leaving me feeling out of control, childish and angry with myself. I would come home to a chronically cluttered house, which was exhausting to tidy or clean, and stare blankly at my piles of fast-fashion clothes, wondering why I felt I had nothing to wear.
