I am trying out an experiment in trust over at The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group. Click HERE to see the photos of what’s all over my front steps.
And if you haven’t added yourself to the Facebook group yet, please do, as I post extra content there on an almost daily basis.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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Photo courtesy of The Frugal Girl
I don’t know of any of you have noticed, but I have completely and utterly fallen off the wagon when it comes to my 52 Weeks 52 Letters Project. I had been really good about staying up to date, but then I suddenly stopped. At first I gave it no thought, as I’ve had a few weeks when I’ve written a couple letters, but somehow two weeks stretched into three, and then. . . well, you get the gist. I suppose I could bend the rules and point out that I sent out seven books for giveaway week, or that I’ve been mailing out eBay packages left and right, but that’s hardly in the spirit of things.
I did actually write a letter to Tammy of Rowdy Kittens last week, but upon close inspection the letter was too personal and frankly somewhat odd. Don’t want to be sending that out into the world!
I wish I could say that I wrote a letter today, but such is not the case. Instead, I entertained Dusti Arab of Undefinable You (and her toddler) this afternoon, wrote three columns, took my son to a doctor’s appointment, made a rather delicious dinner, and potted up a couple dozen desirable yet decidedly volunteer plants to sell. (Euphorbia, Lady’s Mantle, Japanese Iris and Valerian.)
I have not given up on the letter writing challenge, and will most likely sit down and put pen to paper this evening. But please do know that just because a project has stalled doesn’t mean that it should be abandoned.
Are you still writing your letters? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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My husband and I just completely reseeded the grass in our deeply shady backyard. Actually, we reseeded it two weeks ago, and until yesterday there was zero sign of any growth. I looked in the morning when I hung my laundry on the clothesline, and I again when I took it down. And guess what? In the hours that it took for my towels to dry, the grass sprouted! Teeny-tiny blades of downy soft grass, but it’s there. I guess all it took was a bit of warmth.
There’s just something so affirming about planting things. Faith in the future.
I can now picture the summer we’ll have enjoying our beautiful backyard.
Ahh . . . .
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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Shady backyard? You can still use a clothesline. Just make sure to get your laundry out early in the day.
I know many Americans are banned from stringing up a backyard clothesline, but for the rest of us, air drying your laundry is about the smartest thing you can do. It’s frugal, it’s eco-friendly and it makes your clothes last longer.
I live in depressingly soggy Portland, Oregon, yet I’m still able to use an outdoor clothesline April – October, (although it’s sporadic in early spring.) I use indoor racks for laundry the rest of the year.
Don’t want to look at a clothesline when not in use? Here’s my cheap-o alternative to a retractable line:
I screwed this eye bolt into one end of my back porch and tied the clothesline onto it.
I tied the other end of the clothesline onto a clip, which I then attached to another eye-bolt. (This is our play structure.) I can then unhook the clip and attach it onto the porch end when I care about how my backyard looks. Which is about twice a year.
I also use a couple of different indoor/outdoor clothes racks. This one I bought at Ikea and have been happy with. It fits a surprising amount of laundry, and I’ll often use it to dry our cloth napkins on the front porch, which gets strong afternoon sun. No neighbors have ever complained.
I make sure to wash our cloth napkins separately from our clothing, as they can be greasy and have been known to put oily stains onto our clothes. This is not a big deal, as I now have a specific basket in our kitchen for soiled dish towels and napkins. I usually wait to launder them until I'm washing our bath towels.
You may surprise yourself and find that air drying your laundry is actually an enjoyable task. There’s no way to hurry the process, so it ends up being a bit relaxing and meditative. Your clothes will smell fantastic, and your sheets will be downright luxurious. I get embarrassingly excited when sunny days return to Oregon, not because I can start hiking, biking and playing in my ironic hopscotch league. No, because I can finally start air drying all my laundry again.
Need additional information about air drying your laundry, (although seriously, you might be over-thinking it) you can always click over to Project Laundry List.
Team clothesline!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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$213.50 for three marbles. Who knew?!
I have been having fun selling on eBay over the past few weeks. I had bought a Goodwill vase full of antique marbles a few years ago, researched them using a library book and am only now getting around to listing them online. I had thought I needed to photograph them perfectly, but I finally decided that less than perfect was better than nothing at all. This may sound like pocket change, but this lot of three marbles alone sold for $213.50. Mostly, they’re selling for less, but it’s still going to be a rather profitable endeavor.
Although I have a day job as a labor and delivery nurse, I am always looking for ways to finesse some extra money. The way I think of it, my work money goes towards the expenses of daily life, and anything extra can guiltlessly be spent on saving for extras like travel or my kids being able to afford college some day. I clean rental houses for my mother, I blog, (although the amount I make from blogging is laughable. Despite thousands of daily readers, I made less than $35 last month!) I’m planning a garage sale for this weekend and I sell stuff on Craigslist every now and again.
But I would like to hear from you, the readers. What do you do to bring in extra money? Do you sell on Etsy? Do you participate in surveys? Do you play your guitar on street corners?
Please write your money making hacks in the comments section below. I look forward to hearing your stories and maybe even learning a trick or two.
I would love to get as many ideas as possible through this post, so please feel free to repost it on your blog or share it on your Twitter or Facebook. Hey, we could all use an extra buck or 213!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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Congratulations to Erin whose comment was randomly chosen to win a copy of Susan Freinkel’s Plastic: A Toxic Love Story. I will be mailing out her book at the same time as this week’s eBay purchases. (Gotta batch those errands!) Thank you to everyone who wrote up their plastic minimizing actions in the comments section. Great ideas from a great community.
Here’s just a few of the wonderful comments. Click HERE to read them all!
Erin:
“Wow, this sounds like a great book. I would love to give it a read. I have spent the past year focusing on not using plastic bags from the grocery store. We have decreased our number of them a significant amount. We will continue to do this as well as reusing plastic containers before buying new ones.”
Marianne:
“I try to find items without plastic packaging (glass or paper) but also try to find items without any packaging too! My new favorite thing is to bring little mesh laundry bags to the grocery store to carry fruits and veggies instead of taking a plastic one off the roll. I keep them in my canvas bags so they are always accessible.”
Queen Lucia:
“I’m going to follow the Frugal Girl’s example and make homemade yogurt in glass containers. We eat a lot of yogurt and I’m tired of tossing the plastic. I could choose to reuse the containers, but A) I just couldn’t reuse that much and B) they are not quality containers, so couldn’t reuse for long. Thanks for the chance to win this!”
Summer:
“We have stopped buying bottled water. We saw “Tapped” about a month ago and have not bought a plastic water bottle since. It’s silly how easy it is to mindlessly consume plastic.”
Lauren:
“Since moving in together, my boyfriend and I have begun using mason jars of all shapes and sizes as food storage containers. We do not buy soft drinks in plastic, and I have given up purchasing yogurt in plastic cups, and instead make my own in glass containers (milk still comes in plastic though, boo). I bring my lunch to work each day is reusable containers, using actual silverware, and I never have garbage to throw away at lunch. We use reusable grocery bags at the supermarket (and other places too). I think it is a success to go a few days at a time without having to put plastic trash in the recycling bin. This year, we turned a dozen gallon water bottles into a container her garden.”
Kayduh:
“I bought a set of flatware at the thrift store to use when I bring my lunch to work. No more disposable flatware!”
Ciara:
“I am trying to get into the habit of keeping a “to-go” container on me at all times. For restaurant left-overs.”
Elizabeth B:
“I’ve already got some bags for bulk goods–I made the bags out of a bleach-accident sheet that I got for practically nothing at Goodwill–but I need to make more, because I sometimes still run out and have to use plastic.”
Marci:
“One area I focused on the reduce plastic use is the bathroom. We switched to solid bar products for soaps, shampoo and conditioner. No more bottled body wash, hair care products and bubble bath. Many bar soaps are sold in paper packaging and the ones from artisans at farmers markets usually just have a simple paper wrapper. Lush carries a nice selection of solid shampoos and conditioners and our local health food store recently starting stocking some solid shampoo options. My husband now uses a shaving brush, bar and mug instead of canned shaving cream. And even though our razors and toothbrushes are plastic, we switched to the ones made by Preserve. When it is time to replace the toothbrush or razor, we can ship them back to the company who will use them to make park benches and play equipment.”
Yuliya:
“My next step is to shop the bulk section with my own containers. And after that it’s figuring out how to make my own yogurt.”
Gerard Kiernan:
“We use a seltzer maker and no longer buy seltzer in disposable bottles. Less cost , less work, less plastic. A triple win.”
Dannon L:
“I would not use straws when I go out to eat.”
Thanks again to everyone who entered. Your ideas were both informative and inspirational!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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A second silverware basket was exactly what I needed.
Last Wednesday, I skipped the knitting group I’ve been starting to frequent, (not a huge sacrifice since I don’t actually knit) and joined up with my friend Sara of Go Gingham at The Goodwill Outlet store, A.K.A., “The Bins.” When Sara first proposed this pilgrimage, I was far from tempted. I have been to this Goodwill multiple times, and once had someone push my son to the floor in an effort to get first dibs at a bin that had just been brought to the floor. But it’s been years, and I figured I would give it another try, especially since I would be sans kids.
I have become insanely picky about what I bring into my home since starting my decluttering efforts, so I mostly just watched Sara and her blog readers pull their pay-by-the-pound goodies from the bins. However, I started to get in the spirit when I saw a new looking dish drain exactly like mine, from which I plucked the silverware basket. Okay, that’s practical, I can defend this purchase. I had been wanting a second one. I then came across a bin full of silverware. My son’s middle school is switching over from plastic silverware to reusable stuff, and asking for donations. So I pulled out all the cheap-o stainless steel forks I could find, (maybe 20?) and then found a nice Wilton brand frosting spreader. My younger son had specifically asked for one of these, as he’s in the midst of a Cake Boss obsession, and his birthday is coming up.
Sara found much more stuff to bring home, including a nicely matted, but awfully tacky print of a baby, still in its shrink wrap. She then explained to me that she bought it for the mat. When paying by the pound, these kind of purchases are crazy cheap!
In all I think I spent a little more than a dollar, which is actually a bit high for the Goodwill Outlet. But the silverware was kind of heavy. Nothing too exciting, but still a fun afternoon. Thanks, Sara!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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I am lucky to live in a neighborhood that provides pretty much everything I could hope for within easy walking distance. Restaurants, library, a Boutique Goodwill, food carts, Groceries and one of my favorites, Old Portland Hardware. My neighbor Nancy and I were leisurely walking home from a breakfast outing yesterday when we stopped in for a look-see. This store’s motto is “Pieces of history for your home.” although I see it more as “Eye candy for your home,” because the objects and creative reconfiguring of antiques are sweet enough to incur the wrath of dentists worldwide. Seriously, check out this photo:
I wasn’t there to shop, as my family’s finances are still reeling from this year’s tax bill, but this store is always worth a visit. I was wandering through admiring everything, when my eye fell upon a couple rows of the most darling antique Kerr canning jars from 1903. Wavy glass, air bubbles, hefty weight, these jars had it goin’ on! And the best part was the addition of the word “Economy,” jauntily flowing up at a diagonal on each jar. Priced at $4 apiece. But wait, I had a vintage faucet that my mother had passed along to me a few months back when she converted her clawfoot tub into a shower.
Thinking these would make the most adorable vases, I walked home, bringing the faucet back to the store. The owner happily swapped out three jars for my faucet. No fuss, no muss, and no money switched hands.
Man, do I love my neighborhood!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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The Earl of Sandwich would not be amused that both of my kids took turkey sandwiches to school, only to bring them home again. This was not discovered until around 11:00 P.M. when the the offending food stuffs were too sketchy to salvage.
William and Kate, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would not approve. Especially on their wedding day.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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This video of a Barcelona apartment is just about the most clever thing I’ve ever seen.
Watch it. Study it. Love it. Ignore the 100 steps. Watch it again.
It’s that cool!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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