I know I have written about my love for new year’s resolutions many times before, but I am really excited about this particular resolution. My husband and I came up with it. I guess it’s less of a resolution and more of a philosophy for the year: we’re calling it Give 2022.
Give 2022 means that we are going to focus on giving all year round. Not only that, we’re also going to focus on trying to seek out free ways to get items that we need before buying them. We realized that we have a lot of stuff that we don’t need. Honestly, in our society that is focused on consumerism, we spend a lot of money when we might not need to. For this reason, we’ve set up some basic rules for Give 2022.
Give Generously and Actively
Every weekend, my husband and I actively look around the house for things we don’t need or use. Then, we think about people in our life who might need or want the item. If we can’t think of someone, then we post it on our local Buy Nothing group to see if someone claims it there. So far, everything we’ve thought to give has found a new home!
Lend When We Cannot Give
When someone needs something that we cannot afford to give away, we’re happy to lend it to them! Perhaps someone needs a leaf blower for the weekend. Use ours! We’re also happy to lend a hand when someone needs help.
Ask Before we Buy
For example, we need dirt to build our new home. In fact, we need a lot of dirt! Buying dirt isn’t cheap, but there are also lots of construction projects that may have dirt that they need to get rid of. So, our plan is to ask some contractors about their dirt before we buy dirt.
We’re only a month into Give 2022, but we’ve already decluttered quite a bit of our home and saved on things that we would have otherwise spent money on. Plus, we’re getting to know others in our area through our local Buy Nothing group. I encourage you to try Give 2022 in your life too!
About Stephanie Woodward: Stephanie is a brand ambassador advisor for Quantum Rehab® and works as a disability rights activist. She has received many awards for helping communities become more accessible, as well as for her actions in fighting for the rights of disabled individuals as it relates to Medicaid and other support services. Click here to learn more about Stephanie.