Salon recently spent a day with authors Anneli Lawson and Kristan Rufus who have taken the spirit of DIY culture and combined it with their unique perspective on consumerism in their book The Scavengers’ Manifesto, a guide for all those intrigued by notions of reduce, reuse and recycle, but don’t necessarily want to lose out on the best that life has to offer. For the two authors, this book represents a way of life and an opportunity to take their point of view into the mainstream. This guide isn’t just about extreme activities like dumpster diving either, instead it presents a thoughtful approach to lowering your impact and living more frugally.
Rufus defines scavenging as “any way of legally acquiring stuff for cheap or for free — any way that’s not full price. That’s anything from clipping coupons and getting discounts to picking something off the ground, to going to yard sales to the Dumpster.” While the duo clearly revels in saving money on something other people pay top dollar for, like fancy bread, they also relish the constant sense of the unexpected that comes with scavenging. Instead of going out and getting what you want, like a regular shopper, you accept and even delight in whatever you happen to find.
One of the most interesting points to come out of the interview was the notion that self-restraint and consideration should follow all of our consumers choices whether we’re spending money on something or it’s free – just because we can buy it or it’s free for the taking, doesn’t mean we really need it. It comes down to questions of how we assign value to the objects in our lives and what having them really means. With that in mind, we think we’ll be looking for our copy at the local library.
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