pmhandley 's review for:

A Life Less Throwaway: The Lost Art of Buying for Life by Tara Button

4.5

hopeful informative medium-paced

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Any book in the self-help or adjacent category is really hit or miss. It's easy to pick one up and get something that is mostly filler and stating the obvious with maybe an actual helpful line thrown in here and there. A Life Less Throwaway, however, I found was very practical, with actionable advice. There's the occasional thought exercise that feels corny and the author promotes her own website, sure, but it's admittedly a helpful website and it's obvious the book is much more than a vehicle for self-promotion. (I used it immediately to look up a quality umbrella, since the drug store ones I buy appear to be single-use, and coincidentally Button gives an umbrella recommendation later in the book.) As someone trying to consume less, I appreciated the reframe of "curating" your possessions as opposed to just accumulating them. This is not a decluttering or "minimalism" book, although those topics are discussed. It is much more long-term minded. I do wish the sections that did discuss getting rid of things you don't use touched on the problems with donating things. It's presented as a fairly neutral solution when the truth is a lot of donated goods are going straight to the landfill, and people will use donating their old belongings to justify the constant hyperconsumption. All that said, this is not a decluttering guide, so I can see why that wouldn't be addressed.