Whether for financial reasons, environmental concerns, or simply being overwhelmed by your closet, there are a lot of cases for a low-buy year, season, or month.
When I asked the Slow Fashion Saturday community about their slow fashion intentions, the most common response was that they wanted to do a low-buy or no-buy year.
I have a similar goal this year — I want to prioritize only adding intentional, high-quality pieces to my closet without breaking my clothing budget. This will mean being selective in the number of items I add to my closet.
Everyone’s low-buy will look a little bit different. But these tips will help you create your framework and stick to it for a successful low-buy year.
1) Set a Clear Intention
Define your goal, your why, and understand where you’re at now. Here are some prompts to help you set your intentions!
Determine what qualifies as a no-buy or low-buy year for you
Perhaps you’re taking Tiffanie Darke’s “Rule of 5” challenge and adding only 5 things to your wardrobe. Perhaps you’re committing to only buy 1 piece per month. Perhaps you don’t want to buy any new fashion item this year. Maybe you’re going to take a complete pause for a few months, even including secondhand items.
It’s about what makes sense for your life. And perhaps you’ll get some more clarity after reflecting on your why in the next question…
Get clear on why you are taking this challenge
There might be several reasons here — perhaps you want to save money and you want to feel more in control of your closet.
And then go a level deeper:
Why do you want to reduce your overconsumption? (To feel more confident about your personal style? To align your fashion choices more closely with your environmental concerns or passions?)
Why do you want to save money? (To pay off debt, to save for a home down payment, to create an emergency fund?)
Think about how you want to feel at the end of this year. Do you want to feel calmer when you go into your closet? Proud of yourself for being a more conscious consumer? Confident because you’re more in control of your finances?
Decide how you will track your progress
If you’re taking this challenge for financial reasons, add up what you spent on fashion last year. Use this as a benchmark to compare what you spend this year.
If you’re taking the challenge because you’re overwhelmed by your closet, count the number of items currently in your wardrobe. If your goal to reduce the total number of items, take a tally at the end of each season to see how you’re doing. (My free closet tracker is an easy way to do this!)
Or if you’re taking the challenge primarily for sustainability reasons, perhaps you want to also track the type of items you purchase. For example, maybe you want to only buy secondhand or only support sustainably-minded small brands.
Lean into the slow fashion habits you already have
This was something that sustainability creator Immy Lucas included in her low-buy planning YouTube video: “what good habits do I already have?” I loved that idea of starting the challenge with a positive mindset acknowledging what we’re already doing right.
Maybe you always shop secondhand first, perhaps you don’t buy fast fashion, maybe you mend your clothes, or you already wear what you have a long time. Keep doing more of that and go from there!
2) Do a Closet Audit
Take stock of what is already in your closet, counting how many pieces you have in each category. You’ll then also have a total of how many pieces are in your closet. This process might take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how many clothes you have and if some are in storage or not.
If you’re not sure about everything in your closet, take a moment to do a mini closet audit first, with three categories.
- Keep in closet: pieces you enjoy wearing or are excited to wear
- Separate out: pieces that haven’t been worn lately (or at all) but have potential — challenge yourself to restyle those pieces to see if they could work!
- Take out to re-home: pieces that don’t suit your personal style, lifestyle, or don’t fit (and aren’t alterable)
If you want an easy way to keep track of your garment categories, my free closet tracker template is here to help!
If you did the mini closet-audit, only count the items in the first two categories. For the third category, you
Once you know how many pieces are in your wardrobe (and how many you have in each category), you can reflect on the following:
In what categories do I already have enough or too much?
- This becomes your “do not buy” list.
Are there any categories I have a gap in that needs to be filled?
- This becomes your “ok to buy” list or your wishlist.
Given your responses, you might have to go back to your intention in step one and update your goals.
For example, if you experienced body and size fluctuations, a major lifestyle change, evolution in your personal style, or moved to a different climate, a full no-buy or super restrictive low-buy might not be realistic for you this year.
Or perhaps it’s the other way around — maybe after counting the pieces in your closet, you want to create tighter parameters around a low-buy.
3) Set Up Systems for Success
As the James Clear quote goes from Atomic Habits, “you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Plan your purchases
Whether you want to utilize the “To Buy?” tab in my Closet Tracker template or just keep track of your most-wanted/needed pieces in your Notes app, this can be a powerful practice.
Or perhaps you want to plan when you will buy.
Tiffanie Darke suggests planning your “Rule of 5” challenge pieces evenly throughout the seasons.
And one Slow Fashion Saturday subscriber had a great idea to plan these purchases around upcoming experiences and travel! Tying an item to an experience can add a sentimental value to them, making those garments all the more special.
If you plan your purchases around certain times, you can still enjoy that element of discovery. This is a way to engage in a low-buy without a prescriptive shopping list. (Though I think a loose list is still helpful, as you’ll still want to make those limited number of purchases count!)
Remove shopping temptations
No matter how strong our willpower is, at one point it does run out — so why not make it easier on ourselves?
Unsubscribe from newsletters, cancel subscriptions (like to Prime), unfollow or mute accounts that push constant consumption, delete shopping apps, log-out of shopping accounts, and remove “saved card” details from payment processors or other shopping sites you frequent.
Determine what to replace shopping with
When you want to change any habit, the first step is building an awareness of why we have that habit in the first place. What need is it satisfying? What purpose is it serving in our lives? (E.g., Does that habit help us feel better when we’re down? Does that habit make us feel less lonely?)
And then we can start to find healthier alternatives to meeting that need or desire.
I know shopping and buying new things can add a sense of excitement to my day. But perhaps instead I can be more proactive about planning fun activities with friends that I can look forward to.
Putting on a new garment can make me feel confident. But also maybe I could spend some time shopping my closet and creating fresh outfits in proportions that flatter to satisfy that purpose.
This one is quite personal, so it might take some time to get clarity on it.
How can you support yourself with community and accountability?
Will you track your clothing spending and come back to it each month?
Will you share your goal with a partner, friend, or loved one? Or even better, can you have someone join the challenge with you?
There are many subscribers of the Slow Fashion Saturday newsletter that are doing a low-buy year so that’s been something we’ve been talking about lately!
Cultivate a positive mindset
A low-buy or no-buy challenge doesn’t have to be viewed as scarcity or as a punishment. It can be an opportunity to have renewed gratitude for the abundance in our closets, or a moment to pause and reflect.
It also can be a chance to start noticing what you do like already about your clothes, your outfits, or your closet. What did you get right? Which purchases were a good investment? What pieces do you wear all of the time?
Another subscriber shared that she found it helpful to track her outfits and note down what she liked about each outfit. As she said, “I can’t tell you how helpful [noting down what I liked about each outfit] has been. It’s much more motivating to develop a plan incorporating positive realizations than negative perceptions. Such a great reminder that gratitude is where it’s at!”
I’m a big fan of cultivating gratitude with our closets because it helps us get off of the “never enough” consumption treadmill. I find gratitude to be foundational to a slow fashion mindset — it helps us appreciate the abundance of what we have and inspires us to care more for what we own.
Are you taking a low-buy or no-buy challenge this year? Stay inspired on the journey by joining the Slow Fashion Saturday newsletter…
The post How to Have a “Low-Buy” Fashion Year appeared first on .
Green Living
Classic Sustainability In Your Ear: The Ocean River Institute’s Natural Lawn Challenge for Climate Action
Turn back the clock with this classic interview that will get you ready for Spring yard care planning. A lawn may be beautiful but it can take a heavy toll on the environment, accounting for between 30% and 60% of residential water use in the United States. Rob Moir, Ph.D., is president and executive director of the Ocean River Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ORI works with residential lawn owners to heal damaged ecosystems by restoring coastal areas to lessen the destructive impacts of climate change. The benefits of a natural lawn reach far beyond reduced local water pollution, eliminating chemicals that can contribute to cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other cellular diseases. Natural lawns are also better for local pollinators and store much more carbon than heavily fertilized lawns. If you considered removing your lawn to play a part in the battle against climate change, this interview may change your mind — a healthy lawn is a powerful carbon sink.
The Ocean River Institute is recruiting Massachusetts communities, town by town, to take a pledge to follow natural lawn practices in the Healthy Soils for Climate Restoration Challenge. You don’t need to live in Massachusetts to participate and learn about the alternatives to the traditional, chemical-intensive lawn practices that use Roundup, a source of glyphosates that kills soil-dwelling fungi and local pollinators, and fast-acting nitrogen fertilizers. You can learn more about the Ocean River Institute at www.oceanriver.org.
Rob has contributed many articles about climate change and the history of environmental change since this interview, including:
- Finding a Northwest Passage to the Sea
- Turning the Tide—How Land and Water Shape Our Climate Future
- Learning from Captain Scoresby’s Ten-gallon Fir-Cask
- Earth Savvy?
- Let the Ground Keep Falling Rainwater
- The Sultans of Swag Versus Looking at Clouds from Both Sides Now
- Subscribe to Sustainability in Your Ear on iTunes and Apple Podcasts.
- Follow Sustainability in Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube
Editor’s Note: This episode originally aired on May 30, 2022.
The post Classic Sustainability In Your Ear: The Ocean River Institute’s Natural Lawn Challenge for Climate Action appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/podcast/earth911-podcast-the-ocean-river-institutes-natural-lawn-challenge-for-climate-action/
Choosing your perfect gown can be one of the most exciting decisions for your special day, but for the eco fashionista, it can be a challenge to find a dress that fits your values and style — but these brands have exceptional sustainable wedding dresses you’ll swoon over!
Using earth-minded materials like hemp, cruelty-free peace silk, deadstock recycled fabrics and vintage lace, and producing consciously, either in small batches or handcrafting each individual piece made-to-order, the brands below meet high standards for transparency, ecological sustainability, and fair labor.
[For more sustainable wedding dresses, check out this guide to secondhand wedding dress sites!]
Note that the guide contains affiliate links. As always, we only feature brands that meet strict criteria for sustainability we love, that we think you’ll love too!
1. Christy Dawn
Dreamy dress brand Christy Dawn does not disappoint with their romantic bridal collection! Each piece is more swoon-worthy than the next.
Their three sustainable bridal gowns are made from regenerative silk charmeuse —sourced through BOMBYX, an innovative silk producer using best practices — and colored in a beautiful pearl silk with non-toxic dyes. Each dress is ethically cut and sewn by makers in Los Angeles earning living wages, as with the rest of Christy Dawn’s collections.
The Britta Dress and Fitzgerald Dress are 1920s inspired while the Athena Dress is a more modern (but equally romantic) option. All of these dresses are made-to-order with an estimated timeline of 4 weeks.
Conscious Qualities: Regenerative silk and organic non-toxic dyes, ethically made-to-order in Los Angeles
Price Range: $2,500 – $3,000
Size Range: XS – XL
2. Pure Magnolia
Blending the traditional with the modern, Pure Magnolia designs classic-inspired sustainable wedding dresses with contemporary touches. And each dress is made in their Canadian studio by seamstresses earning fair wages from eco-fabrics, such as organic cotton and hemp silk.
The brand sources recycled fabrics whenever possible as well, and recycles their scrap fabric through FABCYCLE.
Conscious Qualities: Eco-friendly fabrics, locally and fairly made, recycles scrap fabrics
Price Range: $845 – $3,300 CAD
Size Range: 0 – 28
3. Lost in Paris
Lost in Paris crafts each of their creatively designed bohemian-inspired gowns ethically in their Sydney, Australia studio. Unconventional yet undeniably striking, Lost in Paris’ dresses are made from vintage lace and cotton.
Investing in a dress from Lost in Paris is seamless — the brand offers at-home sample try-ons, offers train and sleeve adjustments on several styles, ships their dresses worldwide for free, and even accepts returns. Oh, and, if one of their ready-made sizes doesn’t work for you, you can get a dress designed to your measurements.
Conscious Qualities: Made-to-order model, uses vintage lace, locally made
Price Range: $950 – $3900 AUD
Size Range: XXS – XXL + custom sizing options
For More Slow Fashion Content:
4. Wear Your Love
Wear Your Love creates feminine, effortless dresses in their Northern California studio that are — in contrast to the majority of wedding dresses on the market — actually comfortable! The brand’s free-spirited designs are made with soft, earth-minded fabrics like organic cotton and each dress is made to order for each bride to their exact measurements.
There are also customizations available for each eco-friendly wedding dress such as train or no train, skirt or sleeve linings, back coverage, skirt style, and more.
Conscious Qualities: Eco-friendly fabrics, made-to-order model, locally and transparently made
Price Range: $680 – $1,700
Size Range: N/A; dresses are made to your measurements
5. Larimeloom
Based in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Larimeloom crafts exceptional custom-made dresses by hand in their atelier. The brand creates comfortable minimalist dresses from durable natural fabrics and colors them with natural or non-toxic dyes.
Larimeloom has also implemented zero waste design techniques, cutting their patterns strategically in order to minimize fabric waste.
Conscious Qualities: Made-to-order model, zero-waste designs, natural fabrics and dyes
Price Range: 650€ – 2,650€
Size Range: XS – XL
6. Sister Organics
Sourcing quality earth-friendly natural fabrics like organic hemp and cotton, Sister Organics creates classic, eco-friendly wedding dresses for UK-based brides.
Each dress is made to order in England, so you can select a pre-defined size, customize the length of a size, or get an entirely different dress made for your measurements.
Conscious Qualities: Eco-friendly fabrics, made-to-order model
Price Range: £125 – £390
Size Range: XXS – XXL + custom sizing
7. Indiebride London
Indiebride’s vintage-inspired sustainable wedding dresses are delicate and romantic yet free-spirited, offering a unique collection for the bride that wants to skip the conventional wedding gown and choose a piece that fits their individual style.
The brand’s conscious wedding dresses are handmade in London using majority natural fibers and can be altered or customized to your specifications.
Conscious Qualities: Made-to-order model, uses many natural fabrics, locally made
Price Range: £1,200 – £1,700
Size Range: 8 – 16 (UK sizes)
More Resources For Your Eco Wedding:
10 Secondhand Wedding Dress Sites for the Eco Bride
7 Ethical Lab-Grown Diamond Engagement and Wedding Rings
17 Brands with Conscious Dresses (great options for bridesmaid dresses in here!)
The post 7 Best Sustainable Wedding Dresses for Your Special Day appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.
Get organized in style with the beautiful sustainable dressers, wardrobes, and armoires from these furniture companies using responsibly-sourced FSC-Certified wood or upcycled wood.
Note that this guide includes affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you choose to make a purchase through these links.
What Makes A Dresser Sustainable?
As with anything in sustainability, there are various approaches that can make something “sustainable”.
Secondhand
With over 12 million tons (or 24 billion pounds) of furniture getting wasted each year in the United States alone, it’s definitely a great idea to look used when possible!
Secondhand not only helps divert furniture from the landfill, but reduces the need to extract new materials, whether that’s metal, wood, cotton, or increasingly, petroleum for synthetic fabrics and plastic.
Here’s where to look for secondhand dressers:
- Garage sales and estate sales (check EstateSales.net!)
- Facebook Marketplace
- OfferUp
- AptDeco
Responsibly Sourced Wood
Most storage furniture, like dressers, are made from wood (or engineered wood). While wood is a natural material, deforestation is a significant driver of climate change.
So, look for domestic or certified sustainably-sourced wood when purchasing wooden furniture. The largest most common certification is FSC, which stands for Forest Stewardship Council.
Even better is if you can find furniture made from reclaimed wood! This is basically upcycled wood that is being repurposed. This reclaimed wood can come from old barns, ships, factories, warehouses, or even wine barrels.
Non-Toxic Finishes
Unfortunately, many wood finishes contain harmful petroleum- and chemical-based solvents which can emit VOCs, or volatile organic compounds. While the toxicity is most severe during application and does reduce with time, the chemicals can build up in your home, so you may feel most comfortable minimizing risk of VOCs.
Why does this matter? Well, the EPA reports that indoor air can be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor air — largely due to what we bring into our homes, from furniture to household cleaners.
Look for low-VOC finishes, water-based finishes, or natural oil finishes like linseed oil.
Where to Find Sustainably Made Dressers
I’ve done the grunt work for you and curated furniture brands with sustainable dressers, armoires, and wardrobes below!
1. Urban Natural
Highlights: Sustainably-Sourced Woods,
Price Range: $1,245 – $9,000+
For a one-stop shop for sustainable storage furniture, look no further than Urban Natural. The retailer has a stunning selection of timeless sustainable dressers (including non-toxic dressers for nurseries) made with responsibly sourced wood and several with non-toxic finishes too.
Urban Natural’s workshop partners use materials like solid oak, cherry, maple, and walnut — and many of the brands prioritize local sourcing as well.
2. Avocado
Highlights: Reclaimed or FSC-Certified Wood, GREENGUARD Gold Certified, Zero VOC Finish
Price Range: $1,939 – $3,999
Avocado’s sustainable dressers are made in Los Angeles in their own FSC-certified woodshop. Beautifully designed with a timeless mid-century modern or Scandinavian-inspired aesthetic, Avocado’s dressers are also built to last. Each dresser is made with either responsibly sourced FSC-Certified wood or reclaimed wood. Most of the company’s non-toxic bedroom furniture is also finished with a non-toxic zero-VOC finish to you can sleep easy.
3. Thuma
Highlights: Upcycled Solid Wood, GREENGUARD Gold Certified, Modular
Price Range: $1,165 – $3,495
Designed for maximum functionality and versatility, Thuma’s sustainable dressers give you endless options. Configure a couple drawers for a nightstand and add on more drawers vertically or horizontally for a full dresser that can fit any space.
The modular setup may be especially useful for families with evolving needs — you can add on more drawers if your needs grow or separate a large dresser into two smaller ones.
4. Medley
Highlights: Non-Toxic, USA Made
Price Range: $4,136
Medley’s sustainable dressers are handmade to order in California. The wide dresser pictured here comes in maple or walnut sourced domestically in the US.
The tops and sides are solid hardwood and FSC-certified, low-VOC CARB 2 compliant hardwood plywood is used in the rest of the dresser. The piece is finished with non-toxic natural beeswax.
5. MasayaCo
Highlights: FSC-Certified Reforested Wood, 1.2 Million Trees Planted
Price Range: $2,295 – $2,395
MasayaCo is committed to responsible sourcing for all of their sustainable storage furniture. Each FSC-Certified piece is made to order by skilled artisans in Nicaragua from 100% solid teak wood that comes from their own reforestation projects. Even more impressive, the company leaves 40% of these projects completely untouched to thrive on its own.
Their stunning credenzas could easily be used as dressers, too.
6. West Elm Sustainably Sourced Collection
Highlights: Non-Toxic and Responsibly-Sourced Options
Price Range: $879 – $2499
West Elm is a large retailer with options for more eco-friendly dressers. Among their selection, you can curate by filters such as GREENGUARD Gold Certified, crafted in Fair Trade Certified facilities, made from responsibly-sourced wood, and/or Contract Grade (i.e. high quality + durable).
7. Crate & Barrel FSC-Certified (Honorable Mention)
Price Range: $899 – $2,699
While Crate & Barrel does not have as many sustainability efforts as other large retailers like West Elm, the company has a vast selection of FSC-certified wood storage furniture, including dressers, chests, and full wardrobes or armoires.
You’ll find an array of woods and finishes as well, from weathered rustic natural wood to dark espresso-finished wood.
More Guides Like This:
21 Best Places to Find Sustainable Furniture
8 Gorgeous Sustainable Tables to Gather Around
Best Eco-Friendly and Non-Toxic Sofas to Relax In
The post 7 Sustainable Dressers and Armoires to Store it All Away in Style (2026) appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.
7 Sustainable Dressers and Armoires to Store it All Away in Style (2026)
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