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She had a point. Living without things is impossible.
她的话有道理。离开物品的生活是不可能的。
And things can give us experiences of joy.
物品可以给我们带来快乐的体验。
Things connect us to each other, our pasts, our identities.
物品将我们与彼此、我们的过去、我们的身份相连接。
Even if we loathe some things for the destruction they bring, we love the things that make us who we are.
即使我们因为物品所带来的破坏而讨厌一些物品，但我们也喜欢那些成就我们自己的物品。
After all, humans have long depended on our things.
毕竟，人类长期以来一直依赖于物品生活。
“What if,” I improvised, “we don’t do a no-buy year, but a slow-buy year? Besides necessities, we each only get to buy five things this year.”
我临时提议道：“如果我们不是一年不购物，而是一年放缓购买物品呢？除了生活必需品，我们今年每人只能买五件东西。”
We considered this. I drafted a list of approved items, not to be counted toward our five things: food, school and work items, health necessities and car parts (if needed).
我们考虑了这个建议。我起草了一份获批的物品清单，不计入我们的五件物品：食物、学习和工作用品、健康必需品和汽车零部件(如果需要的话)。
We could accept gifts from others, though we would discourage them.
我们可以接受他人的礼物，尽管我们会劝阻他们不要送。
But if we bought gifts to give, then it would count toward our five.
但如果我们买了要赠送的礼物，那就算进我们的五件物品里。
Everyone happily agreed.
每个人都高兴地表示同意。
But after I closed my laptop, I began to think about all the things I wished I had bought before we arrived at this plan – another phone plug, a better automatic cat-feeder, running shoes, sunglasses … maybe this was going to be more difficult than I’d imagined.
但在我合上笔记本电脑之后，我开始考虑所有我希望在我们达成这个计划之前就买的东西——又一个听筒插头，一个更好的自动喂猫器，跑鞋，太阳镜……也许执行这个计划比我想象的要困难得多。
My family’s effort was a version of minimalism, a growing movement in many consumerist societies to live with less.
我们家的努力是极简主义的一个版本，在许多消费主义社会中，这是一种越来越流行的运动，要求用更少的物品生活。
There are those who refuse to bring more stuff into their lives.
有些人拒绝把更多的物品带进他们的生活。
Elizabeth Chai, a 40-year-old in Portland, Oregon, got rid of 2,020 possessions and didn’t buy anything in 2020 except food, drink and toiletries.
俄勒冈州波特兰市40岁的伊丽莎白·柴在2020年丢掉了2020件物品，除了食物、饮料和洗漱用品外，什么都没买。
Others refuse to buy certain things, such as anything made of plastic.
还有一些人拒绝购买某些物品，比如任何塑料制品。
Others may give up single-use gadgets or fast fashion or things that just seem wasteful, such as paper plates.
还有一些人会放弃一次性的小物件、快时尚或那些看起来会造成浪费的东西，比如纸盘。
Then there are individuals committed to the ethic of reuse, who throw away less and save items that would otherwise be tossed.
还有一些人致力于重复使用的行为准则，他们减少丢弃物品，把那些本来会被扔掉的物品保留下来。
In recent years, the app Nextdoor has gained popularity: neighbours use it borrow tools, trade items and give away things headed to landfill.
近年来，Nextdoor应用程序越来越受欢迎：邻居们用它来借工具、交易物品、将要扔进垃圾填埋场的东西赠送出去。
Nextdoor reports that it is used in 11 countries and in nearly one in three US households.
Nextdoor报告称，11个国家以及近三分之一的美国家庭都在使用它。
