The Conscious Consumer

Going Green, Going Clean is a process of growth and learning, small steps taken over time, one good decision made and then another… and then another. 

 

I live by a mantra, “Now that I know better, I do better,” a quote I first read in Maya Angelou’s I know why the Cage Bird Sings during my freshman year at University (now many, many years ago).  When my eyes first fell on these words I had little clue how much of my life’s journey I would dedicate to learning, to wanting to know, to wanting to be, have, and live better.  It seems the more I learned the more questions I had, and thus the more I had to learn. 

 

Owing to my studies and my research interests in graduate school increasingly I began to think about our insatiable consumption of goods our cultural of disposability and our desire for rock bottom prices regardless of corners cut or the human and environmental costs incurred for companies to achieve those low prices. I thought (and felt) a great deal about our relationship with the producers of those goods, and the environmental impact of that production. 

 

I grew dissatisfied with the quality of goods offered.  I became weary as I learned of the multitude of chemical hazards that riddled the everyday goods I brought into my home. And then… and also from my studies… I remembered the seat of power occupied by Consumers.

 

I began to research products before I purchased them.  I sought out high quality goods, free of toxins.  I outright boycotted companies that pimped shoddily cheap swag and devoted my shopping power exclusively for companies that shared my values for safe products and whose production is made responsibly and whose producers are treated fairly - All reasonable demands.  I became The Conscious Consumer.

 

Wielding our purchasing power WE have the power to dictate the fall and rise of companies. We have the ability to shape the standard of goods that fill our shop shelves and to share our insights with others regarding companies to support and avoid, and the very real dangers of ambivalence. 

 

Learning about products and limiting purchases created a ripple of good within our home.  It initiated important conversations between my husband and I and our children as we shared our values and displayed our commitment to them.  Altering our consumption transformed a variety of our spending and waste habits.  We purchased less things and saved money.  We took better care of the things we did buy.  Our lives de-cluttered and simplified.  The insatiable compulsion to buy new things dissipated and then contentment replaced it all together.  When we stopped keeping up with the Jones, the Smiths and the Does - We de-stressed.  We learned more about ourselves and one another.  Faced with buying decisions like Christmas presents forced us to become creative – one year in searching out gift alternatives to technology for our teenage daughter we purchased an easel and paints for her only for she to discover she quite enjoyed painting and was naturally talented.  In other instances by cutting back drastically on processed foods my husband and I found a shared hobby in cooking and our family began to spend much more time together -he and I cooking and our girls sitting at the kitchen island helping, learning, and chatting with us.

 

The origin of this website stemmed directly from my desire to share the happiness my family has discovered on this journey as well as to disseminate information we have gained along the way with others.  My goal is to help others become uninhibited  - try new products, ways of thinking, and new consumption patterns.  This isn't a left thing or a right thing it is for anyone who desires Better.