In Defense of Plate Hoarding

by Katy on November 27, 2010 · 34 comments

In my family, Thanksgiving is always hosted at my house. Not only do I have the space for it, but I am a bit of a late-to-life control freak who needs to have things done my way. (Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie prepared the day before, with rolls and veggies done at the last minute.)

And most importantly, I have enough dishes and serving ware to host a lot of dinner guests. This year saw only twelve people at the house, but we’ve had as many as twenty without having to resort to *gasp* mis-matched plates, or *gag* paper plates.

I was admiring my hyper-organized cupboards last night, when it occurred to me that I should count how many plates I own. I stopped at 102, although there may have been a few that I missed. Yes, I included platters and dessert plates, but I really didn’t inflate this number whatsoever. (I just realized that I actually skipped the built-in buffet in the dining room.)

Do I have too many plates? No way! I have room for them all, and since they all match, (Fiestaware) they serve as both form and function. The combination of color and shape are almost sculptural in quality, and frankly I never had a chance to not collect Fiestaware, as I my sisters, mother and father all suffer from the same affliction. (And yes, my great grandparents lived in the same tiny Ohio town where Fiestaware continues to be manufactured.)

I no longer use the vintage dishes due to lead concerns, and I certainly stay away from the “Red”, (actually orange) dishes that include enough Uranium to make a geiger counter dance the jitterbug. But I love it all anyway.

I may be looking to pare down my excessive belongings throughout the rest of my house, but I will hold onto these dishes as long as I have room for them. Which I guess, is why I’m getting rid of so much stuff everywhere else. šŸ˜‰

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Black Friday Musings

by Katy on November 26, 2010 · 18 comments

I’m not sure when it happened, but somehow the day after Thanksgiving became known as “Black Friday.” My guess is that this term had been used by the business community for decades, and only recently entered the vocabulary of American consumers at large. I’m not going to mock those who choose to pick up these screaming deals, as these sales do afford a lot of people to buy gifts they could not otherwise afford. I do find the term a little creepy though.

To me, there is no deal that screams loudly enough for me to get up at 2:00 A.M. and stand in line. Especially when I’m freshly off a pie bender. Oy.

I actually enjoy figuring out gifts for my friends and family. Yes, we’ve winnowed down the gift list over the past few years, but I really enjoy the challenge. I have a reputation for giving really good gifts, despite mostly shopping at thrift stores. I totally cheap out on some things and then completely splash out on others. (We usually give my in-laws a $100 gift certificate to their favorite restaurant.) Of course, I totally panic at the last minute as I try to figure out those last minute gifts.

What am I giving this year?

Unlike previous years, I’m almost done buying for the kids’ Christmas stockings. I’ve already stashed away cute Xmas mugs, (free pile) iTunes gift cards, (Swagbucks) as well as a few cute thrift store finds, (like a new-in-the-box tiny Japanese calligraphy kit.) I have amassed a large amount of Amazon gift card codes, (also through Swagbucks) and will judiciously use these to fill in the gaps. I subscribe to Frugal Living NW, which is a fantastic source for great Amazon deals, (I bought my husband a $5 subscription to This Old House magazine and my step-mother will be receiving a $10 subscription to Real Simple magazine.)

My husband and I do not exchange Christmas gifts, as neither of us see the point in spending unnecessary money. My husband took some convincing in this matter, (he likes to buy me stuff) but my birthday is January 4th, so I do allow gifts then. (Aren’t I fun?!)

I am neither artsy nor crafty, so it would actually be insulting to give anyone a handmade gift from me. (Seriously, nobody wants my patented rocks with googly eyes.)

I have tried hard over the past couple of years to transform the holiday season from a time of dread and stress into something joyous. But as a non-consumer as well as a non-religious Jew, it’s slim pickings.

Do you stress out over the holiday season? Do you have any tips to share to magically turn a season of teeth gnashing stress into a blissful time? 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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“Be Thankful, Not Wasteful:” A Challenge and Guest Post from Wasted Food’s Jonathan Bloom

by Katy on November 24, 2010 · 4 comments

The following is a guest post from Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food. There is simply no such thing as a Thanksgiving meal without bestovers, (and seriously, what would be the point?) and staying on top of avoiding food waste can become a daunting and often frustrating task. The following tips will hopefully inspire you to be as waste-free as possible.

Please spread the word of “Be Thankful, Not Wasteful” on your blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter. (Click HERE to view Bloom’s original post.) Let’s band together to make food waste avoidance more important in 2010 than 5:00 A.M. Blu-Ray doorbuster deals. And don’t forget to read American Wasteland, Bloom’s in-depth look at food waste, from farm to crisper.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”


I hinted at this on Monday, but I wanted to throw down an expanded call to action for Thanksgiving and after:Ā Be Thankful, Not Wasteful

Thanksgiving celebrates abundance. And we should absolutely enjoy the celebration. At the same time, I donā€™t think we honor anyone or anything by wasting food.

Iā€™m calling on you to help ensure that your family or friends do their best to eliminate or minimize waste at your Thanksgiving feast.

Here are a few ideas:

  • Be sure to distribute the bounty. If youā€™re the Thanksgiving host, suggest that your guests bring along a few plastic containers of various sizes to fill with leftovers (or have a bunch on hand). Thereā€™s no sense centralizing so much food that weā€™ll struggle to put to use. Being so overt about leftovers may feel a bit odd, but that slight discomfort will pale in comparison to the disappointment from having to toss pounds of once-good food.
  • Celebrate abundance, not excess.Ā Donā€™t take too much when you serve yourself. You can always go back for seconds! Keep in mind that the average Thanksgiving dinner today comes in, conservatively, atĀ 2,057 calories. And remember, whatā€™s on our plates is seldom saved.
  • Properly save those leftovers. And do it quickly. Not letting foods sit out too long in theĀ bacteria danger zone (40-140 degrees F) will mean theyā€™ll be safe to eat and also last longer.
  • Plan for your leftoversā€¦and eat them! Whether itā€™s a turkey pot pie, turkey soup or turkey tacos, find someĀ fun ideas thatā€™ll get you excited to use up your T-day remains.

Share Your Tips and Tricks:

Help others reduce waste around Thanksgiving by sharing your insight. Weā€™ve already received a few helpful tips, including Rachelā€™s idea to make notes on the number of guests, the amount of food eaten and the amount remaining to help prepare the right amount next year.

Iā€™m directing people to theĀ Wasted Food Facebook page where we are compiling a series of tips, successes andā€“should they occurā€“failures. These can be videos, photos or descriptions from inside peopleā€™s Thanksgiving dinners.Ā  Feel free toĀ post during the prep, the dinner itself, or the ā€œaftermath.ā€ Together, weā€™ll create a living blueprint for how celebrations can balance abundance with respect for resources.

A few more ideas:

ā€¢ Videos describing what your friends/family are doing this year to reduce food waste. Or, if a video is too much, a photo or description of the steps taken will work just fine.
ā€¢ A recipe or two for your favorite dishes made from Thanksgiving leftovers.
ā€¢ Your preferred way to make the perfect leftover turkey sandwiches.
ā€¢ An ā€œunboxingā€ video of leftovers from the dinner you attended.

Spread the Word:

  • I hope you will consider letting your social network know about theĀ Be Thankful, Not Wasteful initiative. Please share this post and ask folks to take action on their own. (And of course to post their results!)
  • Do you blog? Please consider a post or video encouraging your readers to participate. Ask readers to join you in adding their voice to the discussion.
  • Mention the initiativeā€“andĀ this fabulous new bookā€“at your Thanksgiving celebration. I mean, I donā€™t want you to start any dinner table arguments or anything, butā€¦
  • Solicit tips and tricks from your friends and family who arenā€™t social media savvy and post them yourself ā€“ I know Iā€™ll be asking my Grandma for some ideas.

Thanksgiving is the one day of the year where weā€™re all focused on food. Letā€™s leverage that as a call to action to change our wasteful ways for the rest of the year. I think the day will be more meaningful that way. And remember ā€” even incremental changes can have a massive effect if theyā€™re done by millions of Americans.

Jonathan Bloom

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My Island Dreams Don’t Involve Balmy Breezes

by Katy on November 21, 2010 · 29 comments

I wrote last week about how I’ve been hunting down the perfect kitchen island. I had looked at an island from Craigslist, rejected it and then stopped at an estate sale on the way home. My friend Sara was also at the estate sale, and she told me about the kitchen island she had constructed from chrome metro shelving and a piece of butcher block. Sara is super creative and a fantastic seamstress, so I knew I needed to see this for myself. A few days later I finagled an invite to her house, and camera in hand, invaded her kitchen.

Sara’s kitchen island for her “One butt kitchen.”

Sara calls her kitchen a “one butt kitchen,” referring to the small space and apparent frequency of bumping butts when more than one person attempts to work in the kitchen. Luckily my kitchen is more like a “four butt kitchen,” so I envisioned a larger island. Sara had bought used metro shelving at a restaurant supply store, adding a few new components such as the wheels. The butcher block top was bought elsewhere, with holes drilled to accommodate the posts.

I drove that afternoon to Rose’s Restaurant supply to scope out the prices and availability of used shelving, and was less than impressed. There was only one shelf piece without rust, and didn’t relish the task of buying one piece at one store and another across town. I wanted the kitchen island complete before Thanksgiving’s mega cooking spree.

My husband pointed out that we already had a large metro shelving unit in the closet of our downstairs bedroom, but I didn’t really want to cannibalize it, as it was in use by the Japanese teaching intern who’s living with us. Sure, he’s in Japan at the moment, but I didn’t think it would be very nice to remove his storage. But then I took a second look at at and realized that there was actually enough shelving for my kitchen island andĀ his stuff.

The butcher block top I knew would be cheapest from Ikea, although I did put the question out there on my Facebook page for other ideas. My friend Bryony responded, saying she had a large butcher block table top in her basement which had been used for their kitchen island, but had since been replaced by granite. It did have a big chunk cut out from where the cooktop was, but I was welcome to come take a look at it. Sadly, the available footage was too small for what I needed, but we had a lovely couple of hours bonding over our shared love of frugality, (her house was 58Ā°, there was laundry on an indoor rack and her cup of tea was reheated, although mine was fresh.)

Okay. I had explored the non-Ikea options, it was now time to admit defeat and drive over to the mega mall/mecca of Scandinavian design. I had been over earlier in the weekĀ on a fact finding mission and knew exactly what I wanted, which was a the NumerƤr birch 49-5/8″ X 25-5/8″/ 1-1/2″ thick butcher block. I brought some muscle, (my husband) and the kiddos and even fed them from the cafeteria. (Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for the adults and breaded chicken and fries for the kids.) We scoured the scratch and dent department to see if they had any butcher block, and then finally shelled out the $89.

Once home, it was a matter of maybe an hour to assemble the shelving and drill the holes. And now I have exactly the kitchen island I want. And my vintage dinette table? It’s on Craigslist for $100.

My new kitchen island! I had my husband orient the butcher block so there’s seating at one end. The stool was sitting unused in the basement!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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The Story of Electronics

by Katy on November 18, 2010 · 3 comments

Please keep this in mind when you’re doing your holiday shopping, or when telling friends and family what you want.

Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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99Ā¢ Breakfast and a 10Ā¢ iPad

by Katy on November 18, 2010 · 16 comments

My iPad

I drove my Japanese host son to the airport yesterday morning for an early morning flight, and decided to stop into Ikea to scope out their butcher block for the kitchen island I am designing. (Both Ikea and the airport are a bit of a schlep from the house, so it’s good to batch these errands.)

Unfortunately, Ikea doesn’t open until 10:00 A.M., (although they do open the cafeteria and showrooms earlier.) I sat in the car, watching the wind whip the flags around and started to wish that I’d had the foresight to bring my laptop along for the ride. I then realized that I had a spiral notebook in the car, so I started to write a to-do list, notes for blog ideas, and a first draft for a column. Time passed quickly, and I realized that the parking lot was filling up, so I brought my notebook into the store and ordered one of their 99Ā¢ breakfasts and enjoyed some delicious free coffee.

I continued writing until the store officially opened and then tucked my notebook under my arm and made my way over to the butcher block area. I spoke with the salesperson, made notes on sizes and prices and then performed a look-see though the seconds department.

No fuss, no muss, 99Ā¢ breakfast. And my iPad was bought for 10Ā¢ during the summer’s school supply sales.

Who else needs a ride to the airport?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Bank Robberies, Kitchen Islands and Porn. Oh My!

by Katy on November 16, 2010 · 36 comments

It’s been a week since I started taking a break from writing The Non-Consumer Advocate, and I have to say that it’s kind of weird. I keep coming across things I want to write about and then realizing that I don’t need to do it. I mean seriously, a Portland green living/backyard chickens/frugality blogger was arrested for a series of bank robberies. How could I not write about that?!

I went to look at a kitchen island from Craigslist, (which I didn’t buy) and ended up stopping at an estate sale and running into a friend Ā on the way home. She told me about how she fashioned a kitchen island from a used restaurant steel shelving unit, to which she attached a butcher block top and wheels. I will be going to her house and taking pictures, as I love this idea. (I did pick up an extra pie spatula for 50Ā¢, which will come in handy on Thanksgiving.)

I drove all the way into work yesterday, (a 20 mile round trip!) only to find that I wasn’t actually on the schedule. I made up for it by lying on the couch all day intermittently napping and watching The Tudors on the streaming Netflix. I had listened to a library audio book of Ā The Other Boleyn Sister earlier this year, so this is piquing my interest. However, I have to keep the remote control right next to me, as anyone walking through the living room might assume I’m watching porn, as this Showtime series is not shy with the sex scenes. Not shy at all.

I hope you are all doing well and surviving without your daily dose of Non-Consumer Advocate.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Missing The Non-Consumer Advocate?

by Katy on November 13, 2010

If you are missing the discussion and community of The Non-Consumer Advocate, I want to point out that there’s a Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook Group that includes an underutilized discussion area. I will continue to post links and information on the group’s pages to keep things going.

All are welcome to post on the wall and I encourage involvement from any and all non-consumers.

You can also follow me on Twitter.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

Some Explanation

by Katy on November 10, 2010

I wanted to take a chance to thank (most) everyone for their kind and thoughtful comments on my decision to take a break from writing The Non-Consumer Advocate.

The response to my blog post about shopping at Safeway vs. New Seasons really put a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, the majority of comments were benign, but a few were mean spirited, condescending, elitist and downright bizarre. (Seriously, you assume because I bought two cans of refried beans, that I’m feeding “lard” to my family?) I am a 42-year-old registered nurse and do not welcome online letters written to me about how important it is to eat fruit and vegetables. Seriously. No, I do not want your guidance.

My first response was to write a post about all the healthy and impressively green choices I make for my family, but then kind of decided that I didn’t want to be writing The Non-Consumer Advocate from a position of defense or one-man-upmanship.

The result of all these ruminations, was that it made me question why I write The Non-Consumer Advocate, and I couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. I have enjoyed creating what I thought was a positive and non-competive environment for frugality and sustainable, but everything has its end.

I think I might move towards writing an e-book, although I might not. I’m not really sure what’s next and if I’ll even be able to stay away from the blog.

Please do know that I am not doing this because there’s anything wrong in my life, nor am I burning the candle at both ends. My life is fine.

If you’re missing The Non-Consumer Advocate, please feel free to browse through the archives. Surely there’s something you haven’t read before. There are 917 of them.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

A Break for The Non-Consumer Advocate

by Katy on November 8, 2010 · 182 comments

I am going to take an extended leave from writing The Non-Consumer Advocate. I have enjoyed writing about frugality and sustainable living over the past two-and-a-half years, but today’s mean spirited and elitist comments kind of burst my balloon.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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