Amazon packages awaiting delivery over the festive period (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Let’s face it, we are well and truly a nation of people who love stuff.

We are a country that wouldn’t think twice if someone described ‘shopping’ as a hobby or recreational activity.

Therefore, it’s not really surprising that since 2010 we’ve well and truly embraced a new retail import from our American friends, Black Friday.

This relatively new phenomenon has the power to convince our usually rational friends that fighting in a store over a pair of headphones you never knew you needed, nor wanted that morning, is perfectly acceptable behaviour.


Alarmed with the growing popularity of Black Friday, Vancouver based artist Ted Dave came up with an antidote, with his now widely celebrated ‘Buy Nothing Day’.



For 24 hours, you can do anything but spend cash. No train fare, no coffees to go. Nada. Instead, you spend the time reading a good book, exploring the outdoors with friends.

Anything you fancy as long as it doesn’t cost a penny. I think he’s really onto something, and so do a lot of people. The day gets more subscribers each year, and I am not surprised.

Five years ago I was a retailer’s dream.

I signed up for every Black Friday sale pre-list, would buy a pair of shoes because I had a bad day at work, and worked endless hours to get that coveted promotion, all because all I ever wanted was more.

We are taught from a young age that more is better. A good education will get you a good job, which at the end of the day equals being able to afford bigger things.

A huge house, with the latest car outside on the drive, and TVs that have to go on the wall as they don’t make stands big enough.

I never took a moment to appreciate my current situation because I was moving too quickly onto the next best thing.

A new car only felt amazing until it wasn’t so new anymore and everyone else had the latest model. So then what? I was stuck in a rut, and I was pretty unhappy.

Strangely, since coveting less things to make me ‘look’ like I’ve achieved a lot, I have actually begun to achieve more personally and professionally.

Luckily, in the search for why nothing I achieved felt good for long, I came across a blog featuring a 30 day minimalism challenge, where it promised to help you re-evaluate your own happiness and encouraged you to live more meaningfully. I decided to give it a try.

In a relatively short period of time it encouraged me to declutter my home, readdress my relationship with technology and the endless addictive scroll of social media, and to prioritise the things that really mattered to me. One day at a time.

How would your life improve with less stuff? Less time spent on cleaning, less furniture and clutter, less debt, less need, want, envy and busyness?

For me, I have become a whole lot more content.

I have travelled more than ever, enjoyed and lived in the now, felt content with what I have, and felt empowered to do more with my own time.



I am healthier, happier and I have a good strong value base.

Strangely, since coveting less things to make me ‘look’ like I’ve achieved a lot, I have actually begun to achieve more personally and professionally.

Instead of material goods, I have spent my money on memories, goals and plans. By actually prioritising my time, I have ironically done so much more.

What I have now is happiness, and that feeling of content I used to try and get from buying the best material things.

I am not unique in this realisation. There’s a reason that the idea of living minimally is growing in popularity.

In an age of information overload, seeing up to 10,000 adverts a day, free next day delivery and social media over sharing of our material wealth, people are crying out for a different reality where they are not forever comparing themselves to others.

If you are feeling too busy, stressed, overwhelmed or forever comparing yourself to others, use Buy Nothing Day as an opportunity to reflect on what really matters to you and makes you happy; list your five priorities.

Then, instead of spending the next few weeks before Christmas, Boxing Day Sales and New Year in stores impulse buying things no one really wants or needs (one in 10 unwanted presents ends up in landfill), spend that time and money doing the things that make you and others around you happy.

Stuff, especially stuff impulse bought on sale won’t make you happy in the long-term, but making sure your money and time is spent on actual priorities will.


You can find Lyndsay at www.lyndsayweir.com

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