We’ve all been told the leave no trace principles, and hopefully practice them all the time! We do our best while out on trips but also in our daily lives

When shopping I try to stick to the list (because if I didn’t know I “needed” something before the store I probably didn’t, right?) and buy second hand or get for free off buy nothing or hand me downs. We splurge sometimes but second and triple guess ourselves.

I don’t buy clothing often at all. I wear scrubs at work and then the same outfits years on end. Maybe living in the Pacific Northwest makes that socially easier (Carhartts  are fine in most nice restaurants in Alaska and Seattle is only one step up). Every once in a while I cringe when I see a Facebook post memories from years ago and have worn that same dress to three different weddings, but the dress still looked good! And yes, I still have friends who like me (why else would we be afraid to re-wear an outfit?).

We use our library frequently (though I do buy more than I need to, can’t help myself) and borrow items if we can and use buy nothing frequently, both for things we need (especially baby stuff, we didn’t pay for most of her clothes, books, or toys) and for giving items away for others to use.

So I was really excited to hear about REI and Patagonia selling Used outdoor gear!!!

Here’s the REI site: https://www.rei.com/used

 

And here’s Patagonia’s site: https://wornwear.patagonia.com/

I also bought this book on how to repair gear but (thankfully) haven’t needed it yet.

(notice we bought it used 😉

It’s got a lot of pictures, for the different steps, which always makes a more intimidating project less so. And it’s not just repairing but also care and maintenance (like when was the last time you washed your sleeping bag? Or let it air dry after use at your campsite to let any night sweat dry out and keep your bag lofty).