STREAMLINE – If One Comes In, One Goes Out

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Posted on November 1, 2013

This is a fairly simple strategy – for every item that you welcome into your home another one needs to leave. Whilst this strategy will not turn you into a minimalist overnight, it will certainly maintain the status quo.

One of the most popular applications of the ‘one in, one out’ rule is clothes. Buy a new shirt and then choose one that you can move on. If you are having trouble letting one go, perhaps it is time to ask yourself why you bought the new shirt in the first place. Did you really need it? The last time I looked, we can only wear one shirt at a time so why do we need a wardrobe bulging with clothes?

Appliances are another area where we can tend to buy a new version yet retain the old one. It is usually consigned to the back of the cupboard or the garage ‘just in case’. Just in case the bright new shiny one breaks down? Do we really buy things expecting them to fail? If the previous one needed replacing it is time for it to go.

We recently purchased a new refrigerator. After a considerable time spent looking and debating the various options available this is the one we bought.

Of course, there was the question of what to do with the old one. The Duke briefly canvassed the option of keeping it downstairs as a ‘beer fridge’ but we realised that it was completely unnecessary and would use up space and electricity. I advertised it on Freecycle and am pleased to say that it has gone to a young couple who were trying to set up a home with very little in the way of resources.

Most of us live in relative affluence and virtually everything we buy is an upgrade/replacement/newer version of something we already own. Therefore, there will be something to move out of your home. If the previous item was broken it should be consigned to the rubbish/recycling. If it is still functional someone else may benefit from having it. No-one benefits from it being stashed away to deteriorate in your garage or basement.

As an aside, I find this principle of ‘one in, one out’ a fantastic disincentive to shop. “Why spend my hard-earned cash on something when I have a perfectly good one at home?” is the question I often ask myself.

How effective are you at ‘one in, one out’?

Wardrobe Workhorses & Wishlists

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Posted on August 13, 2013

This week the weather has turned warm, even hot by some standards and it is officially still winter.

Many of my clothes are suitable for most of the year depending on how I wear them. However, the warmer weather has made me stop and think about what new things I might consider buying this season. I have 3 good pairs of shorts and probably enough skirts but it might be time to get some new tops. Other than that the 2 main things on my wishlist for summer are sandals and a hat. My current sandals are well-worn and have been repaired. They will keep going for some time yet but it would be nice to have a new pair to wear to work during the summer months. The hat that I crave is a straw one in a dressy style. Since I am not tall, I find that I need a hat with a straight or slightly upturned brim or otherwise I end up looking like a mushroom. I have a fabric hat which is fine for travelling and beachwear but I would really like one that I can wear with a dress in the city.

That is enough about my wishlist, now for the workhorses.

These are some singlet tops that I bought at Uniqlo when we were visiting Japan in 2009. They are some of the most versatile items I have ever owned. I wear them as singlets in winter, pyjama tops with boxer shorts, tank tops in summer and even to work as a camisole with a skirt and cardigan. The lace edging and straps are actually elastic lace and they are really comfortable. When these wear out I will definitely buy more or possibly make some if I can find suitable elastic lace.

Having items of clothing that do double or even triple duty will be very useful when I come to pack when we travel overseas. I am hoping to travel as lightly as possible. Do you have any particular ideas that have worked for you?

Plastic Free? – Not Yet

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Posted on July 26, 2013

As we approach the end of the month I feel as though I am limping towards the finish line with respect to Plastic Free July.

On Wednesday we bought a new telephone for home. It has an inbuilt answering machine and a second handset. It was packaged in a cardboard box which is great but every single item was separately wrapped in plastic!

I generally keep any plastic bags that do happen to make their way into our home. Even ones with air holes are used for containing rubbish. These are too small to be of any use so I think I will have to pack them all inside one bag and then put them in the rubbish. This is far from an ideal solution but the main thing will be to ‘dispose of thoughtfully’ so that they do not end up in the marine environment where plastic does untold damage. Here is an example that I saw posted on Facebook the other day. It comes from this page.

Photo: As a little baby this poor snapper turtle swam through a plastic ring and got stuck. Conscious Consumers - think about the plastic you buy and how you dispose of it.

Today I bought a book for our guests to write comments on their stay. I looked at several different ones but in the end I decided that rather than a generic one with a black vinyl (plastic) cover from the newsagent that I would buy a handcrafted one from an independent bookstore in our town. It is made in Sri Lanka using handmade paper from elephant dung and post-consumer waste paper. The only problem was that it was packaged in shrink-wrap plastic. This will go in the bin along with the telephone packaging. Here is the book (plastic removed) and the addition of a title (printed by me).

I have also bought more yoghurt, cheese and milk – all in plastic.

So what have I learned from participating in Plastic Free July? Awareness, mostly. It is pretty difficult to live an existence that is completely free of single-use plastics. I think in the scheme of things that I do quite well, but there is room for improvement. The dairy products are the only things that I buy regularly in plastic. Reducing consumption in all aspects of your life and not buying new will certainly limit the plastics more than anything else you do.

I bought the regular things that I do this month so this is a true indication of the single-use plastics that I contribute to the waste stream.

Filling the Freezer

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Posted on July 22, 2013

I am putting the disaster of my photos behind me and moving on.

This week is going back to the basics of the things I do.

We have a refrigerator with a freezer section as well as a small upright freezer which is the size of a bar fridge. It has been turned off and not used for a couple of months as I simply did not need it and it seemed pointless to be wasting electricity when I could fit everything in the other freezer. However, I turned it back on last night as I opened a large, catering-size tin of crushed tomatoes and divided them into portions to freeze.

I also cooked a quantity of refried-beans in the slow-cooker.

Tonight I removed the frozen blocks of tomatoes from their containers and placed them in a double bag. These are old bread bags that have been washed and re-used many times.

The containers were then re-used to freeze the refried beans.

There was some leftover quiche which I portioned up for my lunches and 2 pieces are ready for the freezer.

The plastic sheet to separate the slices is from cereal packaging. I rarely buy prepacked cereal of any kind but these have been saved and rewashed many times. I store them in a bag in the kitchen drawer when they are not in use.

The freezer is not full yet but I will be working on that over the coming days.

Of course, there are many other things in the freezer such as meat, cooked rice, spreadable butter, grated cheese and sliced bread.

What is in your freezer?

Plastic Free July – Update & A Refresher

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Posted on July 13, 2013

Today I am reviving an older post that should help in our quest for Plastic Free July and also in the future.

Do you buy pure butter in a compostable, paper wrapper? Or are you like the majority of the population and buy margarine or some type of spread in a plastic container? Want to stop getting those plastic containers? Here is your answer.

I have been reasonably successful in sticking to plastic-free options so far this month. My list of items containing single-use has been updated with a couple more items. You can find it here.

Last night we ate out, at our local pizza restaurant. There was no plastic involved as they use proper crockery and cutlery, however, the soft drink always is served with a straw (plastic). I thought of this before I went so when we ordered our drinks I specifically asked for no straw. I should really have taken it a step further and explained why I chose not to have a straw.

I was discussing this with The Duke and said that for Plastic Free July to have any real value, I needed to push the boundaries and not just do plastic free things that are part of my normal routine.

Have you done anything different this month?

Time Is The Enemy

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Posted on July 7, 2013

We have had a busy few days and my plastic-free challenge has taken a bit of a beating. On Friday we went shopping and I had my share of successfully avoiding plastic packing. However, some items were not so easy.

First, we bought sausages at Aldi for a planned BBQ with visitors on Friday evening. I buy these because a) I like them and b) the sausages are gluten-free. The downside is that they come in a plastic tray and are covered in cling-film. I try to limit the damage (marginally) by buying the bulk pack of 24 sausages. Am I kidding myself?

The other purchase pictured below is some bells in a plastic packet. I wanted these to make some Christmas earrings as we were going to a Christmas in July celebration on Saturday evening. They were not an essential purchase but I did share them with a friend and I will store them in the original resealable packaging so that I can use them on other occasions.

On the other hand, I did do better with some of my other shopping. I went to the butcher to buy chicken breast fillets, chicken thigh fillets and minced beef. All of these were packed into my own containers (plastic) that I took with me to the shop.

The cabbage in the background was bought at the local fruit stall were I shop regularly. The usually have cabbages cut into quarters or halves and wrapped in cling-wrap. I asked if I could have a whole cabbage and the owner happily collected one for me from the cool-room. I did not really need a whole cabbage but I used this strategy to ensure that I did not get one wrapped in plastic. I will make sure that it is used and not wasted.

The cream cheese was another rare purchase for me. It was required for a recipe I was making to take to the Christmas in July party. I made a conscious decision to buy the pack in the cardboard box rather than the plastic tubs. Inside the box the cheese was wrapped in foil which I carefully washed and dried but then discarded in the rubbish as I was not certain whether it was coated with plastic film.

I do not have a photo but I also bought a 500g punnet of strawberries for the recipe as well. They came in a plastic punnet but it was marked with a recycle symbol so that is where it ended up. I also bought the larger punnet so that there is potentially less plastic per strawberry. Perhaps??

What I have learned from this is that the less time you have, the more likely you are to succumb to items with plastic packaging. If I had more time I would have sought more plastic-free options. For example, I know that if I drive about an extra 4km I can pick my own strawberries and bring them home in my own fabric bag. If I had remembered to source the bells last week I could have looked in some craft shops near my work and maybe found some being sold as loose items. That way I would have ended up with 2 bells (what I needed) instead of 12. I rarely buy cream cheese but this has reminded to me to look into alternatives which I may be able to buy without plastic packaging. I also need to look into buying sausages from the butcher. They will have to meet a couple of criteria – be suitable for my dietary requirements and also that we actually like them.

Any suggestions for avoiding the dreaded plastic would be appreciated.

Failure or Opportunity?

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Posted on July 3, 2013

It is now the end of Day 3 of Plastic-Free July. I was doing well, mainly because I had not bought anything, but tonight we called in to the supermarket on the way home.

We bought ice-cream in a plastic tub, milk in a plastic bottle and a block of butter wrapped in paper. 2 out of 3 – FAIL! So now I can do one of three things:

Declare this challenge a failure and give up – not likely!!

Accept that this will always be the case and not worry – possibly??

Keep a list of all of the single-use plastic items that we buy during July and use it as a prompt to consider alternatives, both this month and in the future – definitely!!

The list will be added as a tab at the top of my blog so you can keep track of how I am going.

A Challenge – Plastic Free July

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Posted on June 29, 2013

I know I said I would be back on Sunday evening with my next slow living blog post. I will do that but in the meantime I wanted to share something which I heard about today.

Plastic Free July started in 2011 as a community initiative of the Western Metropolitan Regional Council in Perth, Western Australia. From that small beginning it has spread with individuals and groups all over Australia and New Zealand becoming involved. 2013 is the year it has gone truly international.

I only became aware of this today. First, I read an article in the ReNew magazine which is published by the Alternative Technology Association. Later, I saw a link to the website posted on Simple Savings.

It seemed as though I was meant to find out more about this and I checked out the website and signed up for the challenge. Will you?

Individual bags

We do not use a great deal of single-use plastic in our home but I will be keeping track more closely over the next month and blogging about our progress every Saturday so make sure you pop in and see how I am going. It would be great if you can join in too and share your story.

Bulk Buying

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Posted on May 29, 2013

Buying in bulk does not need to be restricted to food items. We recently bought a ute-load of mushroom compost which was delivered right by the gate near the vegetable garden. There are several local mushroom farms not far from where we live so we usually take the ute and pick up several ‘trays’ of compost. The trays are rectangular plastic bags in which the mushrooms are grown.

Buying in bulk worked for us this time as we needed a large quantity while we are establishing several raised garden beds at once. There were no plastic bags to dispose of in the rubbish. Even accounting for the delivery, I think it worked out more expensive than our normal source. However, the convenience needed to be considered this time.

On balance, I do not think we will want or need to buy this amount again. We will go back to buying 6 – 10 trays whenever we want to replenish the beds.

What do you buy in bulk? Have you reviewed whether it is the best option?

Project 333 – Winter Wardrobe & Wishlist

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Posted on May 28, 2013

Since it will officially be winter in 3 days I thought a post about my winter wardrobe was in order. We live in a relatively mild climate but it still gets cool enough to need more than summer-weight skirts and t-shirts.

Over the last 10 months I have lost 8kg so that has necessitated moving a number of items along as they were simply too big. This has pared down my wardrobe even more. However, a bonus is that I can now wear these 2 jackets.

They were a neat fit when I bought them a couple of years ago and a little over a year ago they were destined to be given away.

I also have a black cord jacket and a pink suede one.

One of the few things I have bought for this winter is a new pair a tailored black trousers as I did not have any trousers suitable for wearing to work in winter. I gave my only pair away at the end of last winter as they were too big. Last week I had to buy a belt because even my new trousers are a bit on the loose side. I did try the next size down but they were a bit too tight.

I generally wear a collared shirt (3/4 sleeve) under the jacket to work as I don’t want to be rugged up because I work in an air-conditioned office. I have 5 striped shirts. There are also these 2 lightweight knits.

A couple of sleeveless vests, 2 pairs of jeans, 3/4 sleeve tees and a couple of rugby tops pretty well round out my work and casual winter wardrobe.

My shoes are 2 pairs of flats – red and pewter, red lace-up casuals and RM Williams boots.

Now for the wishlist:

Black skirt – purchased and waiting for me to shorten the length
Grey patterned cord skirt – waiting for me to refashion it from a skirt that is too big
Plain black lightweight knit – in the cupboard but need grey skirt to wear it with
Grey/charcoal trousers – need to buy
Black flat/low heel court shoes – need to buy
Black low heel boots (knee-high) – need to buy to replace the high heeled ones I have given away as they were too high and I did not feel confident walking in them
Black stockings – need to buy
Scarves – I would like some lightweight plain coloured scraves – probably black, fuschia and red with possibly mint green or purple as well. Just need to go looking.

I need to try on some boots to see whether they will suit me as I am not overly tall.

I have 6 pairs of grey stockings (most unworn) that I bought last year in the USA and after wearing them a couple of times I have decided that I do not really like the colour, hence I need to buy some black ones.

Recently, I bought 2 pieces of cotton lycra fabric which I hope to be able to make some 3/4 sleeve tees. One is black and cream striped (narrow stripes) and the other is plain in a raspberry colour.

Now that I have written it all down, my plan seems quite realistic and doable. What do you think?