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!
Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!
Sanna brought my attention to this web site and I think you will enjoy it ~Â thesimpleyear.com ~ The-great-library-book-hunt-of-2013
I love this song by Peter Doran, brought to our attention this week by the guys at The MinimalistsÂ
Here is a link sent to me by Wendy F. ~Â www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/sunday-review/should-america-bag-the-plastic-bag. It seems the USA is ahead of Australia with this move. No states have instigated a ban the bag here.
www.time.com ~ Don’t own, share
Today’s Mini Mission
Last week I was determined to do a little more reshuffling in my craft area. As a result I decided to part with some items that hadn’t been used in quite a long while, or at all in the case of some. I figured if I haven’t found a use for them yet then I probably never will.  Do you have craft or hobby items that you haven’t used in a long time. Perhaps they just don’t appeal to you anymore so let them go.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
I loved the link about plastic bags.
Here, in Latvia, several years ago some kind of law or something was accepted and after that lots of places stopped giving free plastic bags. You can still get one if you spend a certain amount of money or pay a fee for it. Most of them are marked as made of recycled or biodegradable materials.
But not everyone does that and in those places, when you say that you don’t need a bag, they often are surprised.
Anyway, it got me thinking that I should refuse to take them more often, especially if I don’t really need them (and if they are not the right size for garbage bin).
That is great Anda, another convert to using less plastic bags. Good for you. I take a fold up light weight bag in my tiny little handbag wherever I go. It has been used so many time to pick up a few groceries when I am out and about. I can’t even imagine how many plastic bags it has saved so far.
Yes Colleen I also always have two small fold-up bags in my handbag. One was a gift and may I suggest that if there are any of you out there who still like to give “things that are useful” as gifts, this is one of them. I have given many as gifts and after I gave one to my daughter she said she would do the same with her friends.
This is one way to avoid plastic bag usage but I’m disappointed that all the talk of banning them in NSW seems to have stopped altogether. Everytime I go food shopping I’m appalled at the number of people who have not brought any of their own bags.
Way to go Megan S. I wish they would ban them in the whole of Australia or at least all start charging for the privilege. Aldi and Target charge. Target’s bags are biodegradable. I am not sure about Aldi but theirs are intended to be used over and over. I hope they do get used that way because there is a whole lot more plastic in them than in a regular grocery bag.
There were some really good comments and the links are great. 1. I hope the writer of the The Simple Year will get things decluttered and organized so she doesn’t pay out money for library books again. Sad to say lots of people seem to do that. 2. I love the song by Peter Doran. I have shared it on Facebook. 3. I wish Plastic Bags would be banned all over the world. I have about 10 cloth bags in the car to use but there are times when they aren’t enough like when I get the monthly groceries. I haven’t seen a paper bag at the one store we use the most so I am thinking I might get some small crates. That way things stack better, they won’t get over loaded so I can’t carry them and they can be used for other things. Plus, they will all fit inside each other so I can leave them in the car. 4. I love the sharing idea. I wish I could find a car sharing group here. But so far the only thing I have found is more of an occasional rental and still too expensive. Once our church no longer meets in a school but has a building of it’s own i am going to suggest we have a sharing center where we can share tools, etc. Seems it would be a great help to many.
There are some towns that have banned plastic bags, from memory in South Australia, and I know Coles Bay in Tassie have done it. The IGA in Port Fairy have, but it really needs to be a country-wide ban, as I make it my mission everyday to pick up plastic and cans from the roadside (sometimes I feel like the only one doing it!) I HATE them, and have started lining my kitchen bin with newspaper: if I compost, and have zero food waste (working on it), I shouldn’t need them at all. Pity my husband keeps bringing them into the house, despite the myriad cloth bags we have, grrrrr.
Loretta, my mother hasn’t gotten with the program either. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get away from the plastic trash bags but we are required to set them out for the trash pickup rather than a trash can. they also don’t want the dumpsters to have loose trash. So for now I am stuck. Somewhere I saw these biodegradable paper trash bags and when I find them again I might go that route if they aren’t too expensive and I can find them locally.
In regard to the plastic bags, I use them for my smaller trash cans, but also, the stores I shop at have big bins to recycle them, which is good. But I agree – don’t like ’em.
Oh, look what just happened the other day!!!
http://mps.tas.greens.org.au/2013/05/plastic-bag-ban-clears-last-hurdle/
Go Tasmania!!!
Thanks Loretta and yes Go Tassie.
Love the song.
Terrific comments this week and great links. I enjoyed the song. I also love the idea of sharing with others vs. owning items. Especially for things that would not be used very often. Not being able to find those library books can be expensive, not to mention, the time that is wasted trying to locate them. Having less stuff makes it a little less likely that things will get misplaced, but not impossible for it to happen though. Less plastic bags or none at all would help the environment for sure.
A large retail chain store here The Warehouse introduced a system whereby if you wanted a plastic bag you paid ten cents for it, and even though it is only ten cents, people didn’t want to pay for a plastic bag (especially a red plastic bag) and so they almost dried up after that.
Pak n Save also charge ten cents a bag (and who wants to pay for a bright yellow plastic bag?) but you can help yourself to as many cardboard boxes as you want. I am avoiding using the cardboard boxes these days, and so have been taking my laundry baskets to carry my groceries. Really, its only to get the groceries from the trolley to the boot of the car and then in the front door.
I also like the sharing article.
I particularly buzzed over Creative Me’s comment yesterday about pre-defined space. I liked the way she summed up the concept.
I really appreciated the post on Space Allocation, I know the idea should be really obvious, but it is an angle I’d never had spelt out to me so clearly – Colleen you’re probably quietly hitting your head against the wall hearing that from me – but its so logical and obvious that I completely missed it! It is easy to allow a particular category of stuff to spread into another area, especially if there is available room, but this doesn’t put parameters on the number of items in a category. I don’t think I have a big problem with this but it is definately a fresh perspective with which to view cupboards and drawers etc, especially in storage areas.
Over here there is a fee for all big plastic bags in supermarkets. However, these very small and thin plastic bags to wrap fruits are still free. Also, all clothes and other non-food stores still hand out sturdy plastic bags.
The recycling system in my city allows to put them with all other plastic or metal items though, which obviously increased the rate of proper recycling by far.
Lately I once again got fed up with my stuff and haul as many things as I can out. I really don’t feel like having to move things in order to put something away any more. It’s worst in the kitchen though and there is just little storage in the kitchen, so it will probably never be “perfect”, but then, maybe I just can’t imagine it yet. Anyway it will be nice as well, when the kitchen is the only place around that is a little tightly packed.
Hi Sanna, I understand the reason for the fruit and vegetable bags. Over there the fruit and veg can be taken without being bagged to the checkout where it is weighed by the cashier. Not bagged, weighed and the price sticker put on like I remember doing in Europe. We still have the bags in the fruit and veg department but I haven’t used them in years.
I understand your frustration with having to move things out of the way to get to the thing you need in the moment. I am pleased to say that after all my decluttering I don’t suffer this problem anymore. There is hope Sanna, just keep at it.
Thank you, Colleen! I think, I’m making progress here, but in my small apartment it’s always a jumble when I’m in some bigger decluttering project, so it feels worse at the moment. I’m looking forward to when it’s all cleared though. 🙂
As I mentioned I’m also getting rid of some furniture and pretty up some of the remaining (I’m making new covers for the sofa and use up some fabrics), so it’s feeling rather chaotic right now.
Sanna, I understand the chaotic but just think you will have things all new looking and spiffy. I wish I could make a cover for our sofa. Neither of us like it but to buy a fitted cover would cost more than we can afford and neither of us want to try tackling something we have never done before like a cover for it. Good on you that you are doing that.
Thank you. I hope, I’ll manage to do it. I already finished the one for the ottoman and I’m happy with that, so I think I’ll get the sofa cover done as well. They will be removable covers though, so that I can wash them, which will be a plus in itself. 🙂
I actually liked the old cover, but it started to look a little shabby, so it just needs a new cover. The sofa isn’t big, but it’s curved, so the cover needs to be custom made – as I don’t have money to pay someone for that, I’ll give it a try myself. The fabric had no other purpose anyway and just sat in my stack, never quite right for anything.
Sanna, I like the idea of removable covers because you can change them, wash them and even alter them. I’m still thinking about getting one from Ikea that I think would fit.
Hi Deb J, regarding your sofa, try ‘The Nesting Place’ she made her own sofa covers and there is a link to how she did it and how to make the pattern. Check it out, it may be just what you need 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Deb J, here is some sofa covering inspiration too http://www.easierthanithought.com/
Dizzy and Calico Ginger, thanks or the info. I will look into it.
It sounds like a wonderful work in progress Sanna. Enjoy the process.
I already finished the sewing! 😀
Now just to get rid of the clutter. 🙂
Sanna, I hope you are able to find a way to get things more put away in your kitchen. I know how that can get old. We have room for some of the things that are bothering me but I still wish they were gone. A big one is a ice cream maker I bought. I need it because I have to make my own ice cream because you can’t buy gluten-free, diary free, sugar free in the stores. Still I hate that we have to have it. We have a couple of things like that–we have to have them but I wish we didn’t.
It’s not even big appliances here, they have rather good homes – I am just bothered by bowls stacked one in another and stored above my head etc. Actually, compared to other people’s kitchens, I think our kitchen is quite “normal”, but I don’t really like that balancing act to get the biggest bowl out and back in again, always having to take the other bowls out as well etc. There are so many things that only fit if they are stacked correctly and that is rather annoying. There is potential to declutter our kitchen a little further, but I think, some of these problems will just remain due to the layout of our kitchen.
If this was the only part of our apartment that required “correct stacking” I should be glad though. So I think, I’ll just do some more overall decluttering. Experience shows that some problems take care of themselves even if you start at the other end of the house. 😉
Maybe your ice cream maker gets less bothering, too, when you’ve cleared the other areas that bother you at the moment.
Everything is stored away nicely but just having it bugs me. I don’t want to have an ice cream maker. I know I’m nuts. Oh well. We have too many things stacked for my liking too. Good luck with finding a way to get things to where you feel comfortable with them.
South Australia banned plastic shopping bags way back in May 2009 🙂
http://www.epa.sa.gov.au/councils/resources_for_councils/plastic_bag_ban
Hi Tanya, that is good news. I had no idea. It is a shame this sort of good news isn’t delivered across Australia as a good example to other states. The news is so often full of doom and gloom or sensationalism these days that good stories like this get forced to the background. For that reason I don’t watch it very much so perhaps that is why I just missed this good news. I have been told that Tasmania is on the same path.
So does that mean that no shops in SA use plastic shopping bags. Did that increase the use of paper bags or have people learned to bring their own reusable bags?
I can remember the first day I was handed my groceries in a plastic bag. Prior to this time, the grocery gave us our purchases in paper bags. I loved the paper bags because I could use them for newspaper recycling. At the time, that was the only recycling pickup we had and the county asked us to use paper bags to hold the newspapers at the curb since there was no dedicated trashcan. Now that I bring my own bags, I rarely get plastic and miss them for collecting the trash in the bedrooms and bath. I have been using all the leftover shopping bags and miscellaneous bags I can find at home for trash but will soon be using “purchased” plastic trash bags.
I have some stacking bowls, too, and would like to declutter enough that each type bowl, small, medium and large, can have its own spot so there is no moving everything to get to the biggest bowl.
Love the links today. It’s good to see other people’s thoughts on having a minimal amount of things or decluttering. Thanks for sharing those with us. And, of course, like rereading comments from other posters.
Hi Maggie, I remember the old paper bags too. In fact when I lived in Washington state in the USA there was a choice of paper or plastic. Now I believe that Seattle at least has banned the plastic bag. Also when we were children there was no such thing as plastic trash bags either. Whenever there were scraps from a meal we would wrap them in old newspaper and put them in the outside bin. We had one tin can outside bin that was only half the size of the smaller version wheelie bin we have now. That bin was enough for our family of seven for a weeks worth of trash. There was no need for a recycling bin because we didn’t buy much aside from food. Granted the cardboard went straight to landfill back in the day but that at least is biodegradable. There were no plastic bottles. Milk came in glass and orange juice was something you made with oranges if you felt the urge. We had cordial but it came concentrated in a little glass bottle which you then made up with sugar and hot water. Oh how things have changed.
As for that stack of glass bowls you have ~ I also have a set like that. Yes at times it does seem annoying to unstack them to get the one you need but it is all exercise. Don’t think of this kind of exercise as inconvenience as it is all good for you. Convenience has cause us to become so lazy these days. Meanwhile our bodies need movement and weight bearing to stay healthy and strong. Like changing our mindset on clutter we can change our mindset on what is inconvenient and what is a healthy challenge.