Rubbish Revealed and Reviewed

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Many aspects of organisation and sustainability could probably fall into the ‘sexy’ category.  They are fun, presentable and generally OK for public discussion.

But underpinning all of this is rubbish.  The stuff that gets shoved into garbage bags bought specifically for the purpose, then dropped into the ubiquitous ‘wheelie’ bin and dragged to the kerbside.  A truck lumbers past, the automatic arm grabs the bin and upends it into the depths of the truck.  We are relieved of the detritus of our lives for the week and will do it all over again next week.

It is time to get down and dirty.  This photograph shows the bag of rubbish for 10 days from our 2 adult household.  267 grams of waste for 10 days – that is less than 15 grams per person each day.  It is not zero waste and I am not sure that I will achieve that anytime soon but I do work hard to keep our waste to an absolute minimum.

Here are the contents of the bag.  Let’s examine what is in it.  You will probably have a hard time identifying some of the items so I will help you out.

2 pasta packets – I refilled the jar containing pasta in the pantry.  I am using up my stock but I will be making my own pasta with my pasta machine once the existing supplies are used up.

Foil tablet sheet – there is one each month from essential medications.

Foil pack from cat medication – one every 3 months from worm/flea treatment for the cat.

Non-recyclable lids – I always recycle any plastic bottles but as far as I am aware the lids are not  suitable for recycling.  I must check and see if this is still the case.

2 pairs of broken glasses – these are a one-off thanks to The Duke getting rid of some clutter.  I send any OK glasses to be re-used in Third World countries but ones that have broken are no use to anyone.  Check with your local optometrist for information about the recycling program.

Silver foil wrap – this is what was removed from the balloon topiary stands when I recovered them last week.  The new covering is recycled brown paper made from carry bags.  The bows are scraps of fabric from a recycled dress.

The rubbish bag is packaging from a parcel I received.  This will be sealed with a rubber band before I put it in the bin.

There are also assorted other small bits which I cannot easily identify but by now you get the picture – very little goes to landfill from our home.

We only put our bin out every few weeks or if there is something that would be unpleasant to leave for any length of time.  This means that most weeks the truck does not need to stop outside our property.  This saves fuel and the noise of the constant starting and stopping.  Consider putting out your bin only when required rather than every week through habit.

TO BE CONTINUED – There are so many other things I want to say about rubbish but I will save it for another day later in the week.  In the meantime I would love to hear you thoughts about rubbish and how you deal with it.

Read and Re-focus

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I am currently reading “The Joy of Less” by Francine Jay aka Miss Minimalist.  I enjoy her blog posts but this book is just brilliant.

Francine’s writing style is gentle and inspirational.  Unlike some decluttering and minimalism writing it is neither prescriptive nor extreme.

I am inspired and also reassured.  Inspired to continue on my quest to have only what I actually need and love as well as reassured that I am on the right track even though I am quite some way from what I would describe as a minimalist.

The best thing is that this ‘book’ is on my Kindle e-reader.  It is bought and permanently owned by me for future reference but is taking up no physical space.  How good is that?

Rainfed Rice

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Shopping with a conscience can be a real challenge.  There seem to be so many competing priorities.

I try to buy things that are produced as close to where I live as possible.  I look for things with no packaging or minimal packaging that is recyclable.  I support small businesses in my local town rather than multi-national corporations.  The coffee I buy is Fairtrade and the meat is grass-fed and poultry is free-range.

Rice is one product that has caused me much soul-searching.  I actually refuse to buy Australian rice because of the growing conditions it requires and the water used in the growing of this crop that we simply do not have available.  Instead I choose to buy imported, organic rice from the local Co-op.  This is sold from bulk bins so I take my own paper bags and there is no packaging waste.

However, everything changed today when I went into the Maple Street Co-op to buy more rice.  I noticed an extra bulk bin with Australian-grown, biodynamic brown rice.  It had an information sheet on the side about Rainfed Rice.  This rice is grown and milled on the farm near Casino, NSW.  I was so thrilled to discover this product that I changed my plan and bought a small quantity to try it out.

Previously, I have had a few unsuccessful attempts to cook brown rice so I was not overly confident.  My fears were unfounded as this rice was perfect and once we have finished the other rice we have in the pantry, I can see that this will be the only rice we eat in the future.

I am excited to have found a staple grain which is grown biodynamically without irrigation within 200km of where we live.  I can buy it without packaging from a local, independent retailer.  What more could I want?

Please click on the link in this post to read all about this product.  I have no affiliation  with the growing or retailing of Rainfed Rice.  I am just one very happy consumer.

Digital Decluttering – Part 2

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I am having a break from sorting photographs but my focus over the past 48 hours has been the emails.

A few things had conspired to ensure that my emails were out of control.  Not the least of these was the change in format of Gmail.  I kept putting off finding out how to effectively use the new format and although I had deleted many emails as soon as they hit the inbox I am ashamed to confess that the total emails was in excess of 1500!

The first thing I did was to unsubscribe from several sites which sent frequent emails that we really do not need.  My mantra is, “If I want something, I will go and find it.  I don’t need to be constantly bombarded by offers.”

Then it was a matter of deleting the old, unwanted and irrelevant stuff and finally creating folders for the ones I wanted to keep.

I have promised myself that I will keep my digital mail filed and tidy just as I would ‘snail mail’.  This is particularly important as we try to receive as much correspondence as possible via email to reduce the environmental impact of posted mail.  There are often emails with critical information that we cannot afford to lose amongst a pile of ‘junk mail’.

As with all of the organising projects I have undertaken, I hope to have made the email filing simple and effective so that I can maintain it with the minimum of effort while moving on to tackle other projects.

My project for tomorrow is to finish a linen blouse that I started making during the week.  I will post a photo of it when I finish it.

5,000……….and counting

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Today the inverter for our solar panels recorded that we have now generated over 5,000kWh since the system was installed 12 months ago.  Ours is a 3.7kW system made up of 20 panels.  The upfront cost was substantial and the calculations were that, based on our usage, we would wipe out our electricity bills and receive a credit of around $2,000 per year.

Our savings are difficult to calculate due to the continuing tardiness of Origin – we have yet to receive our statement from the meter reading at the end of August!!  I have given up stressing about that because I am secure in the knowledge that we are in credit.  I do not think our credit will be much more than $1,500 this year due to the very wet and cloudy summer at the beginning of the year.

While I was doing some paperwork today, I had occasion to write the byline for this blog – “An organised, sustainable life”.  I started thinking about what this means and how the two facets are inextricably linked.  Once you start looking critically at your organisation and how you are living sustainably there are many, many examples.  I will discuss more of these in future posts but for tonight let us consider the electricity.

During the day the generated power goes firstly to our usage and then the excess is exported to the grid.  The tariff we are paid for this is 50c/kWh but what we draw from the grid at night is charged at 19.4c/kWh.  Therefore, there is a 30c/kWh benefit if we use the power at night.  This has necessitated some changes but being organised means that I have been able to change and do the washing, vacuuming and most of the ironing in evenings rather than on the weekend.  This saves us money and exports the maximum amount of power to the grid.

What examples do you have of being organised contributing to a sustainable lifestyle?

Seasonal Storage

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My last post really sparked some interest!  Welcome to those of you who have become subscribers.  Thanks to everyone who responded by sending a little bit about themselves.  Although I know there will always be many unidentified readers, it is nice to be able to connect with my regular readers.  I hope you keep coming back and please let me know your thoughts on the content and direction of the blog.

Now that the holiday is over is is time to re-focus on the organising aspect.

In my reading the other day, Carol posed the question, “Where do you store your Christmas tree?”  When Carol was clearing out the main bedroom in readiness for it to be painted, she pulled the box containing the tree from under the bed and found it covered with dust and felt that it could not be healthy to have a collection of dust under the bed.

I do not store anything under beds for this very reason.  In fact, the base of our bed is only about 5cm off the floor so storing anything under it is impossible.  I regularly enlist The Duke’s assistance and we remove the ensemble (mattress and base) from the frame and I use the opportunity to vacuum the floor and damp dust the metal bed frame as well as the skirting boards.  I also wipe down the window sill and about once every 3 months I clean the windows and insect screens, too.

Back to the storage dilemma.  I have a storage bag for Christmas tree that I was lucky enough to find on Freecycle.  You could easily make a similar bag from an old sheet.  My storage bag has a zipper but it would be just as effective to make a drawstring opening at one end.  Before I acquired my storage bag I had always kept the tree in its original box, but like so many things, it is a challenge to fit it back into the factory packaging.

Since there is only the two of us at home we have the luxury of plenty of storage space, so I keep the Christmas tree in its bag on a shelf in the wardrobe in the guest room.  I have recently rationalised and re-arranged the Christmas items that we keep from year to year.  These are now all in a plastic tub which is next to the tree.  My tree decorations are fairly minimal and I have a wreath for each of the external doors plus a small table centrepiece.

I have added the wrapping paper, cards and gift tags that I have accumulated, to the tub and am determined that I will not buy any more until all of those are used up.  That has been my line for about 3 years and still I have plenty.

I have a balloon pump and 4 stands for making “balloon topiary trees” for festive table decorations.  I have had these for over 10 years and have used them for 18th, 21st and 50th birthday celebrations as well as a school reunion.  I will use them again in a couple of weeks for an 80th birthday celebration.  I will probably recover the stands to refresh them for their next use.

We do not really have any other things that are specific to certain seasonal celebrations.  However, there could be Easter items or Halloween costumes.  How do you store and keep track of things that are perhaps only used once each year for a few weeks?

Why Subscribe?

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Hello subscribers, friends and occasional readers old and new.  If you are new to reading this I hope you find it interesting and worthwhile.  Please leave a comment or you can email me.

I have been writing this blog in its current form for a little over 7 months.  This is not long in the blogging world and a I hope to continue with it for much longer.

This is a Word Press blog and so, rather than “followers” as you see on Blogger, the term used is “subscriber”.  I have now reached the dizzy heights of 18 subscribers – thank you to each and every one of you for the time you take to read my ramblings.

If you have subscribed I would love to hear from you and find out a little more about my blog friends.  I would really appreciate it if you could either post a comment or send an email with your general location, your interests, how you found my blog, what keeps you coming back and of course the big one – how I can make it better.  Constructive criticism is welcome.

I will be updating my profile and also profile picture so that will be coming soon.

For those of you who have not subscribed, please consider this option.  You can go to the top right-hand corner of my home page and click on the button labelled “Sign Me Up”.  Once you have subscribed you can adjust your preferences to receive email notifications or not or add to Google Reader.

We have now returned from our holidays so in the next few days I will go back and respond to your comments on previous posts.

Have a great day and I look forward to hearing from you. 🙂

Contributing to Christchurch

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Yesterday we returned to Christchurch for the final night of our trip before flying home today.  This has been our first visit to Christchurch, so unfortunately we have never seen the city before it was devastated by the earthquake in February.

We spent 2 nights here at the beginning of our holiday and on the Sunday we walked around the perimeter of the barricaded city centre.  I found it eerie and quite depressing and did not take any photos as that seemed almost disrespectful.

However, yesterday was quite a different story.  The Re:Start precinct in Cashel Street was humming as people came to celebrate the first tentative steps towards rebuilding the city.  This area has been open for less than a week but the tenacity and optimism were obvious.  The shipping containers which house many of the outlets are unrecognisable once you are inside them.

I know that it will take much more than a small number of retail outlets to rebuild a city but it is a start.  I did my bit by buying some shoes and books.  I bought these ‘Ecco’ brand thongs in Ballantyne’s.  They are really comfortable and will get lots of wear during the summer.  I have other ‘Ecco’ shoes which have stood the test of time.

Naturally, we could not resist having a peek in a bookshop while we were there.  I bought these 2 books at Scorpio Books.  In fact I stumbled on a fantastic bargain as “From the Earth to the Table” was reduced from $60 to $16 and the other one turned out to be from the selection of titles that were free with the purchase of another book.  I will tell you more about both of the books in more detail in a future post.

We will now return home with positive hopes for all of the people of Christchurch.  Here is a final sign of new life and renewal.  We saw this family near the footpath adjacent to Hagley Park as we walked back to our accommodation after our successful shopping expedition.

Digital De-cluttering

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While we have been away I have been working on making some order of my digital photographs.  It is all too easy to simply download them from the camera and go no further.

My earlier feeble attempts had resulted in me putting the photos from each major holiday since December 2005 into their own folder.  I had not made any further progress.

During this holiday I have sorted through each folder and selected those that have some merit and deleted many which simply do not make the grade.

The joy of digital photography is that you can take lots of shots and then choose the best ones.  However, after taking heaps of photos, you do need to actually follow through and complete the process by deleting those that are not worth keeping.  You know the ones – sloping horizons, blurry, too far away, can’t remember why you took it etc.

After culling the excess, the next step was to number them so that they would stay in the order I wanted them.  The system I use is a 3 digit numeral eg:  001, 002 and so on which is followed by a description.  Without the numerals at the beginning the photos will be sorted alphabetically by the title which is not helpful when you want them to follow a sequence.

I have completed the descriptions on the photos for 6 of the trips plus about half of our last trip in May.  I also made sure that I have done the ones for the current trip and kept up to date each day.  This is how I intend to do it in the future 🙂

Once I have done all of the holiday photos I will then need to work on all other the others – children, grandchildren, house, garden etc.  It will be a long process but hopefully worth it in the end.

Inspired by Sandra, I will then scan all of the existing print photos that are in albums and sort them in a similar way.  Hopefully, my children will never have to sort through shoeboxes full of un-named photographs when I am gone.

I have included some of the photos that I regard as the best of what I have sorted through recently.  I hope you enjoy them.

Holiday Eating

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One of the biggest holiday budget killers can be food, especially if you find yourself eating out.  It does not have to be high-quality restaurant dinners either.  Coffee and cake for afternoon tea or a sandwich and juice for lunch – it soon adds up.  $5 or $10 here and there can quickly add up over a couple of weeks.

After our road trip in the middle of the year to NSW and South Australia we decided that it is definitely worth it to pay a little extra for self-contained accommodation where you can cook your own evening meal as well prepare food for travel/sightseeing the following day.  A couple of nights we stayed in basic motel rooms and found that we ended up spending more by the time we had even a basic pub meal.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it has been a little trickier this time as we were travelling internationally.  However, we brought a set of the bare minimum of our picnic set.

It all packed into a small cloth bag.  The bag was the ‘packaging’ from the last set of sheets that I bought.

We brought a few bags, including these ziplock bags which have proved to be very useful.

Avoiding packaging has been a bit of a challenge but I feel that I have done the best I could under the circumstances.  The supermarkets here have bulk bins of various items so we managed to utilise the ziplock bags to buy cereal as well as nuts and dried fruit for snacks.  Bread has been my downfall but I have kept any bread bags to pack our sandwiches in for our lunches as well as finally using them for rubbish bags.  I have also bought meat on styrofoam trays covered in cling wrap from the supermarket.  It has reminded me of how much packaging I actually avoid at home by making our own bread and taking our own containers when buying meat from the butcher.

These are some of the groceries we have bought along the way.  The scrambled eggs, baked beans, chicken and pasta meals have meant that we could budget for some special meals as well.

We have eaten out a few times and really enjoyed the meals.  The Thai meal we ate in Christchurch was excellent and the food highlight of our trip so far was our meal at the Harbour Light Bistro in Nelson.

Holidays are not all about the food, although The Duke may beg to differ.  We have enjoyed being able to take a couple of tours which, although not cheap have been really interesting and good value.  I have already told you about the one to Farewell Spit and yesterday we went on the Mailboat Cruise on Queen Charlotte Sound.