October 15th 2023.
Anna Kilpatrick is a 50-year-old, luxury second-hand home influencer, taking social media by storm. With 44,000 Instagram followers and a growing movement of second-hand clothing and furniture influencers, Anna is showing that you don’t need money, or youth, to be sustainably stylish.
Anna’s journey began after a divorce and losing her four-bedroomed family home. She was working full time as Head of English in a local school and needed to provide for her two children, who were just 7 and 4 years old. She moved into a tiny third floor flat, with her ex-husband having suffered a brain injury and Anna shouldering the financial burden.
‘It was in a grim state,’ she says, ‘but it was the one place that I could afford.’ She made herself a bed that went over the hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard space with a curtain, and her children were given the two bedrooms. Anna started to buy second-hand clothes and furnish the flat almost completely with pre-loved furniture found on local Facebook sales and at the tip.
After hearing people comment on her style, Anna started to post her outfits on Instagram. She quickly gained a following, and is now working on a book all about ‘The Joy of Enough’. She proudly states that she’s kept her household going on very limited means, with no other support.
Anna’s boyfriend Gus, a single dad with three children, is a builder and has helped her renovate the flat. They built the worktops from Anna’s old kitchen table sawn in two, and the copper pans were found at the tip. Her new neighbour came to see the flat and they talked about the joy of enough, the idea that you can be content with what you have, and not feel the need for bigger and better.
Anna admits that she did look at buying a tiny terrace house last year, but was grateful that she failed as she wouldn’t have been able to afford it. She now feels happy and safe in her small community, with warm enough, fed enough, safe enough.
Anna is keen to spread the message that life can be happy with ‘enough’. She suggests three tips for feeling happier with enough: try to notice at the point of buying if you’re buying for your real life, or if it’s for an imaginary life; notice ‘satiation’, when you have enough of something; think of an important person in your life and try to visualise something they wear often.
Anna’s story is an inspiring example of how you don’t need a fancy lifestyle to be content. With a bit of creativity and resourcefulness, you can make the most out of what you have.
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