On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.
Favourite Comments. Enjoy!
This comment from Ideealistin is a great example of how ease of use is better than unnecessary backups.
This comment from Moni proves that there is a positive side to every situation.
Loretta takes both the environment and her budget into account when it comes to how much stock of anything she keeps on hand.  Fear of running out is not her motivator. Like me she has plans on how to make do. Read her comment here .
I had to laugh when Andréia said she didn’t agree with me in her comment when in fact, from the way I read it, we agreed almost entirely. If Shampoo and olive oil are the only things she cares about running out of then she is doing just fine.
I enjoyed Dagmara take on her comfort zone in this comment. I am with you Dagmara, why step out of your comfort zone when you can expand it from the inside. I also felt like that is what I did when it comes
Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!
This week I am only going to link to two posts. I have chose these two because they get to the core of how to distinguish the good things from the clutter and how modern society ended up down this path of consumerism leading to the clutter issues we have today. Both these posts are worth more than one read through I think.
1. http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/how-to-make-trillions-of-dollars/
2. http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/i-dont-want-stuff-any-more-only-things/
Today’s Mini Mission
Electrical appliances. Like anything else on this week’s list of mini missions these items will wear out from being used but at least then you will have gotten your money’s worth out of them. Having left electrical items in storage when we moved to America and then coming home to find they no longer worked I know for sure that it is a reality the they don’t like sitting idle for too long. so if you have gadgets you aren’t using pass them on now before they die from lack of use.
Eco Tip For The Day
My daughter was just saying she read an article which had a suggestion about saving water when washing your hair in the shower. After wetting your hair turn off the water, lather and turn the water back on to rinse rather than leave it running continuously. Do the same during the conditioning process. It might be a little cool in winter to attempt this but it would work just find in the summer months.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Sanna says
Thank you for those links, Colleen. They got me thinking.
Colleen Madsen says
As I had hoped.
Deb J says
You just seem to have so many good comments on the blog. I don’t know how you find a way to just pick out a few. I really like Raptitude.com. Those were some good posts.
Colleen Madsen says
Some weeks there have been so many great comments early on that I stop choosing by Wednesday. However I would prefer to include one from Cindy’s post and now yours as well. When your post publishes in future would you like to pick out one to include that week for the Friday Favourites.
I subscribed to Raptitude because I found lots of posts that I tended to agree with. This week’s one did not resonate with me so well though. Can’t expect 100% agreement though and that is fine.
Andréia says
My comments to your links are: Wow!!! The change in attitude is the most important one. Without geting out of the same way of thinking, the same set track, we never go anywhere. Never. Raptitude didn’t say anything that has not been said, by Colleen and other posters, in this blog, only in another words. This week my husband went to the laundry room and unearthed 2 boves he said could be recycled. I had an urge, a desire to open the boxes and assess what was in them. I resisted. The boxes had been forgotten there for nearly 10 years and if I did not know or miss what was in there, they made no difference now.
😉
Colleen Madsen says
Well done with those boxes Andréia. As they say, what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
Delores says
I just came across a delightful book at the library called An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. It talks about using what you have and using what is leftover and then making it do some more. All in a well written thought provoking style. It’s not about doing without but more about using everything to its fullest capacity.
Moni says
Delores – I am going to hunt down that book – I’m on a self-imposed challenge to not waste any food, factor in that I’m kitchen-challenged to begin with, and I’m on a big learning curve. I’m on Day 25 and can proudly state that so far the only food that has been tossed is 2 stale chocolate chip biscuits that were discovered in my daughter’s lunch box (we’re on summer break from school, so there was no hope for those) and 4 left over beans that were stringy. I have expanded my repertoire of recipes and dare I say it, I might even be enjoying myself. My hubby said he feels a bit like a force fed guinea pig, but a very happy guinea pig! The kids – who are traditionally very suspicous of anything new put in front of them are now suggesting I make extra potato salad or whatever so I can have enough left overs to make the by-product meal!
Colleen Madsen says
Exactly Delores.I have been doing this a lot this week. The last little bit of last week’s vegetables went in a curry my husband had for lunch all week. Monday’s leftover cooked vegetable were my veggies at dinner on Tuesday. Wednesdays leftovers were Thursday’s lunch. My lunch today with samosas that I made late last week. When I get a chance, and when I have finished the books I already have waiting in the wings I will see if I can pick that one up at the library.
Being content with leftover and not your favourites instead of always aiming for perfection is helpful too. I find this issue with people who seem to think that every meal they eat should be something delicious to them instead of appreciating it simply for the nourishment it gives. So long as something isn’t hideously distasteful it fills a gap and that is all that matters. Unless you are at a restaurant and paying big money for it of course. And even in that situation the choice is yours as to what you order. I dare say there is a link to the obesity levels in modern society because of this issue.
Megan S says
Yes Colleen the Raptitude posts got me saying Wow!!! also. As Andreia said, the messages are those you have discussed and are so near and dear to the hearts of this wonderful community. However to read how this young man expresses his views in his own unique and humorous way was indeed a joy. When I think of the influence for good that he and other younger people like Francine Jay and the Minimalists are having it gives me great hope that gross consumerism will lessen in the future. Thank you for sharing this link – I’ve made it one of my favourites.
Colleen Madsen says
I am glad you liked it Megan S and even more glad you wholeheartedly agree.
Jen says
Great post today, Colleen! I really enjoyed raptitude.com. I read the link and continued reading the final report of his “A Place for Everything”. In my own life much of the items I possessed were not things, but merely stuff that was taking up way too much space in my mind and in my home. Letting go of one item a day is freeing that space so that I can concentrate on more important things. Most stuff that comes into our homes remains just that, “stuff”, because it usually does not get to see the light of day. I know personally that I have bought things that have never even made it out of the container they were originally packaged in, sometimes not even out of the store bag it came home in. When this cycle continues, stuff ends up in the back of a closet, drawer or pile and forgotten about it. Having a purpose (and place) for everything we own can make us more grateful too.
Colleen Madsen says
Hi Jen, if I remember correctly the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright believed houses should be made with open storage. I think his theory was to then only own thing that you would want out on display or be using. Personally I would rather most things were behind closed door. You don’t have to dust them there. It sure would keep you aware of what you own though.
Ideealistin says
Frank Lloyd Wright – albeit a genius – was pretty oblivious to mundane things like housekeeping I suppose. After all he is known to have cares for looks and the big theme much more than for comfort or the wishes of his customers.
I definitely prefer closed storage as well – mixed with some open storage for the things that are used all the time and to display some things that make me happy with their looks. But things like my vacuum cleaner really don’t have to be pretty as long as they are working fine. But I don’t feel compelled to look at them all the time neither only because they are useful.
Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) says
Thank you for the fantastic web finds.
Inspirational. Thoughtful. Beautiful story telling.
Colleen Madsen says
Reading things like the post on becoming a trillionaire inspires me to stick to the manufacturers and buy as little of their products as possible.
Wendy F says
Loved the links, Raptitude is excellent reading. Cheers
Colleen Madsen says
Yes Wendy they are. While you were at the blog did you find that other post I keep promising to send you the link to. I will go and find it and send it to you now. Providing of course I can now remember which one it was.
Moni says
I enjoyed Raptitude – I’m mainly commenting on the ‘stuff’ article.
(1) I enjoy the youthful perspective (and I haven’t even turned 40 yet!)
(2) I loved Thog The Caveman – that just tickled my sense of humour – yep Thog would only be interested in the very basics.
(3) and I liked “to own only what we have the capacity to respect” – respect as in use and maintain. I’m inspired, I’m going to go home after work and hiff something out.
Loretta says
Thanks for including my comment (but I always cringe when I reread what I say: WHY do I always sound so bloody smug?? I really don’t mean to!)
Fabulous Raptitude links; how could I have missed this blog? I’m going to spend some of my day catching up on all the posts.
I just ordered John Naish’s “Enough: breaking free from the world of excess”, which I read a couple of years ago, but it really resonated with me so I feel I need to have it on hand to remind myself what I truly believe.
Colleen Madsen says
I didn’t think you sounded smug at all Loretta.
Another interesting sounding book for me to check out. Now if I just had time to read them.
Cindy says
We’ve definitely linked to both these posts before, and the one from raptitude is an all time favorite of mine. I’ll see if I can dig up the single blog post that has been most inspiring to me, and if I do, you can run it next week.
Becky says
I’ve only read the first link so far, but had to come and say that this is my favorite quote from the post in the first link:
“It is a sad Man indeed who cannot achieve a comfortable life without running hundreds of millions of people into the ground to make it easier to get at what’s in their wallets. ”
Here in the United States we sure are being “run into the ground”. 🙁
Colleen Madsen says
That quote said a lot to me as well Becky. However if you think the USA is bad try working in some of those asian sweat shops or rummaging in the muck sifting out the recyclables in a dump to make a few dollars a week or exposing yourself to toxic substances in the bid to remove and sell precious metals form electronic waste. This is one thing that really makes me think twice about over consumption. Someone somewhere is working for peanuts making all that stuff that we don’t really need. I know there is also the argument that if we stop buying it they may have no means of income at all but there has got to be a better way. I am happy to strive towards that better way even though I don’t know what the solution is. I am sure it will work itself out if the change is gradual.