The End of Convenience

There are many things I love about living where we do: the beautiful nature preserves and wildlife refuges and town parks with amazing walking trails. The foxes that trot casually across the roads. The orchards, the farms and gardens and the old buildings like the local pub, the sweetest toy store you’ve ever seen and our own 1780 farmhouse. History feels easy to imagine here, for better or for worse. The light is pink and golden in fall and on clear nights the expanse of stars is dazzling.

But if you need something, you have to drive.

Not far, but probably like, 20 minutes?

After living in New York City for 8 years, I find this deeply annoying. And the honest truth is, even in NYC, sometimes it took 20 minutes on the train, or 40, or an hour to get to what I needed, but also sometimes it was less than a block away at the bodega, or across the street from work.

This change in convenience has significantly impacted my habits of consumption. We grocery shop once a week rather than buying what we need every couple of days (though, we have yet to join Costco as the only thing we ever need THAT much of is kid’s yogurt). If I’m looking for something special for the house, I go to a local antique or home store, and if I’m looking for clothes, I usually take a trip into the city. But basically everything else, I order online. And I hate it.

Like most Americans, a majority of that stuff I order online comes from Amazon. That makes me feel guilty and frustrated and annoyed at myself and at the whole system that makes it so easy to impulse buy a cheap, silly something from across the world that I probably don’t need, but that makes life a little more convenient for a moment.

Of course, the reason it’s more convenient to buy things on Amazon is because my little downtown, just a few minutes away from my house, is now just dentist offices and restaurants and coffee shops. Any store that actually sold goods that I need was probably put out of business by Amazon (and other online shopping, but lets be real, mostly Amazon) years before we moved here.

I dream of opening a shop there that sells necessities and provisions. And it would be so fun to design and decorate! But that would be a huge life change, and one I’m not quite ready for (although Alexander Widener is really selling it well).

So in the meantime, this weekend, I decided to make things a lot less convenient for myself: I deleted the Amazon app and signed out of my account (and I frankly have NO idea what my password is, so I’ll never get back in). We’ll see how it goes! I predict a lot of extra time sourcing at first. Who sells my kid’s vitamins locally? Where can I get the giant graph paper pads I use for my running to-do list/mousepad? Who sells my plastic-free dishwasher pods?

So far (4 days), it’s been completely fine! I bought dog bones at the grocery store. I bought a birthday gift for my daughter’s friend at FAO Schwartz while I was in NYC for work. I have yet to be inconvenienced, and I feel good!

I share this not to virtue signal, but because maybe you’ve also been feeling this way. If you’ve been fantasizing about moving to Europe or even Stars Hollow, I’d venture to guess (even if it’s not the only reason) that a big part of that fantasy is the ability to shop locally. You’re not dreaming of living in a little town in France and getting Amazon deliveries for everything you need.

So, I’m going to give it a try. Here in suburban/rural New Jersey. Maybe I’ll continue to find it’s easier than I thought. Maybe I’ll grow community and support local businesses or smaller online businesses. Maybe I’ll save a bunch of money! Or maybe I’ll just be in the car more. In which case I should totally quit my job and open a store downtown. Right?

In the meantime, some good design-y things from around the internet:

I’ve been obsessing about where I could put little curtains in my home because I think they have such a great casual, warm feeling, and here AD did a whole story about them!

A trend I’ve been noticing is people obsessing over hiding OR elevating their home’s functional bits. Regular light switches are becoming push-button switches and outlet covers are being painted to match the walls. I like it. And the click of a push-button switch is so satisfying. Maybe this is my next mini-project.

And finally, it’s time to go get your bulbs!