Stuff Control

One of the things that keeps coming up on my radar lately: recommendations that we simplify our lives by divesting ourselves of stuff. Postconsumers and Leo Babauta tell you how to decide what to toss.  A Guy Named Dave has thrown down the gauntlet with his 100 Thing Challenge.

Getting rid of stuff is important.  More important, I think, is not acquiring stuff in the first place.

Let's say, for instance, I decide to purge clothing: give a bunch of stuff to charity, keep just enough clothing to get through half a week or so.  In a year or two, the clothes I have left will be worn to shreds, and I'll need to replace them with new stuff.

I think it makes somewhat more sense to stick with the clothing I already own, and make the commitment not to buy anything new until what I have has become unusable.  Better yet, make a commitment to reduce by, for instance, buying a new item only when two items can't be used any more.

The purgers say you should get rid of stuff if you haven't used it in six months, or maybe a year.  Also important, I think, is to avoid buying stuff (on impulse?) that won't get used regularly.

On the other hand, I own things (camping and hiking equipment, mostly) that I used to use regularly, but when The Offspring was a wee thing, that stuff saw the light of day very infrequently.  By the six-month or even the twelve-month rule, a lot of those things would have gotten tossed out -- and now, if I could afford replacements, I'd be buying new camping gear.

In fact, I'm glad I held on to it all.

Same goes for kitchen utensils, bath towels, and all other stuff around the house.  I don't see the point of purging perfectly good stuff, if there's a reasonably good chance you're going to be able to use it in the future, just for the sake of owning less stuff.

(I do realize there's another side of the argument: the problem with owning so much stuff that you end up moving to a bigger apartment or house just to store it all.  That's for another day.)

2012

Goal 1: Cut back on driving.  In Fall of 2010, my goal was to take public transit to work once a week, and I made it through the whole semester.  In spring, bronchitis and then pneumonia meant I couldn't handle the bike rides at each end, and I went back to driving.  In Fall of 2011, I took the train at least twice each week, and at one point went a whole month without driving my car to work.

This semester, I'm going to aim for fewer than five car trips.  For the whole term.  Plus the two weeks before the semester starts, and the week of Commencement.  Eighteen weeks in all.  I'm glad it's supposed to warm up a little tomorrow, because riding when it's below freezing can get a little ugly.

Goal 2: Pack more lunches.  Health benefit, from avoiding cheap Chinese food or student food court fries; environmental benefit, from avoiding all that plastic packaging.

Do you do resolutions?

I'm Not Sick

I went for a run this afternoon.  Yes, that's right.  It's January, and I went out for a run.  I don't know how many years it's been since I haven't been laid low for much of the winter by pneubronchashthmitismonia. 

And I don't know why it's different this year.  Maybe it's because of the vitamin D my new doc put me on; maybe it's because The Offspring hasn't been sick much, and we had only a few nights last fall interrupted by asthma attacks.  Maybe summer's Lyme Disease somehow knocked the socks off my immune system.

The wheeled briefcase I use on "crip days" is gathering dust at the back of the closet.  I haven't been to the doctor in months.  Regular exercise, good food, lots of sleep -- I'm gathering strength and energy.  And I'm trying to avoid wondering when luck will run out, Fortuna spin her wheel, thrust me back down to earth.

I'm trying to be grateful for being in good health right now.  I can see this as a gift of awareness, the ability to savor good health rather than taking it for granted until suddenly it's gone.  Rather than the fear of what might be around the corner, I'm trying to focus on that gift -- today.

Just One Appliance?

I'm hearing on Twitter from a lot of entities to which I do not subscribe.  Now that the semester and the holidays are over I'm going to have to figure out why this is so and what to do about it. Meanwhile, Sears wants to know: "What's the one appliance you couldn't live without?"

I suspect what they really want is to encourage people to buy another appliance.  But I like the idea of living with just one appliance.  Maybe none.

On the other hand, I have eleven appliances in my house, and I'm not in a hurry to get rid of any of them.  The most recent acquisition is a dishwasher.  What a relief.  If I had to give up all but one, I'd have to say that's the one I'd hang on to. (Is it cheating that I'm assuming I'd get to hang on to the washers and dryers in the basement of my apartment building?)

The dishwasher is the only appliance we use daily.  Every week, often multiple times: toaster, rice cooker, crock pot, blender, coffee grinder, spice grinder.  Maybe once a month: mixer, cuisinart.  Less than once a month: waffle maker, 12-cup percolator.  (No, in fact I don't own a hair dryer.)

It's a long list, especially if you've recently read a book like Little House in the Big Woods. 

In my defense? Most of these are once-in-a-decade purchases, if not less frequent.  The percolator and the cuisinart are hand-me-downs; the crock pot came out of the trash (with a note on it that said, "It works").  The mixer was a wedding present; I bought The Mate the waffle iron before The Offspring came along, so it's been around for quite a while.  The blender jar broke a few months ago, and a couple of weeks ago I finally replaced it -- with one made of stainless steel, that should last longer than the motor in the blender.

It's an interesting idea.  If you had to live with just one appliance, what would it be?

Green Resources

Although the New York Times has dismantled its environment desk, the BBC and the Guardian both have web pages devoted to reporting on the environment, as does the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, if you can read German.

Magazines with extensive environmental coverage include the  New Scientist and the Mother Jones,  blog The Blue Marble.

More specialized web sites for environmental coverage: 

Bike Blog NYC
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Environment Magazine
Environment News Service
Green America
Grist
Slow Food USA
Treehugger
Union of Concerned Scientists

Please add your own favorites in the comments.

Texting Here and Texting There...

...texting almost everywhere.

• At the intersection: the crossing guard, after the kids have all gone by (and only after, I hope)
• In the coffee shop: people at the same table texting other people instead of talking to each other
• At the beach: the dog standing ankle-deep in water watching the guy texting, waiting for him to play
• At the wheel of the car: driver swerving into one lane or the other, or drifting forward at the red light
• At the wheel of the stroller: mom or dad pushing with one hand, or in suspended textimation, not having noticed the light has changed.
• In the synagogue we didn't end up joining: teenagers everywhere
• In the classroom, particularly in the first few weeks of a term: students, until they get the idea that I really mean "no texting"

Greenest Christmas Tree

Okay, I give; this is an easy one for me since I don't celebrate Christmas.  We have two menorahs; one comes from The Mate's family and the other was a gift to The Offspring several years ago.

A few years back I bought a package of window-cling Hannukah decorations because The Offspring was glum about the lack of Hannukah glitz to be seen in a city full of Christmas decorations.  Yeah, they're plastic -- but we're not eating out of them, and we've been reusing them now for at least three or four years.

Recyclebank wants you to know about the pros and cons of live, cut, and artificial trees.  They make a couple of out-of-the box suggestions; those are what I'm intrigued by. Decorating a tree that lives out in your yard is a possibility if you have a yard with a tree in it.

Decorating a house plant intrigues me the most.  It would need to be a fairly hardy plant in order to tolerate stuff hanging off it; I think attempting to decorate any of the plants clinging to life in my own apartment would be the end.  But if your thumbs are greener than mine, would you consider making miniature ornaments and carefully decorating, say, a ficus or a cactus?

What about decorating a hat rack, or putting some branches in a vase and hanging decorations off them? Or get the Charlie Brown Christmas Book and Tree kit, and begin an annual holiday tradition of decorating that tiny tree:

Am I clueless? Let me know what you think.