I Can’t Remember

The winter holidays are about shopping and getting stuff, right?

At least that is what people who sell stuff would have us believe!

Remember: don’t trust anyone who acts like they’re doing you a favor and then charges you!

Not only is there a magazine about shopping, called “Lucky“–as in “gee, aren’t I so lucky to be buying a collection of ads so I can then know what the people who want my money want me to buy and how much it’ll cost me!”
but there is also blogs about shopping, like ShoppingAddicted. At least they admit that shopping for some is an addiction, similar to a gambling addition in it’s self-destructive pattern. And the first step is admitting you have a problem.

I’m serious, here! I could not be more appalled!

Want to get your friend or relative the “perfect” present?
Make sure it’s consumable, because if it takes up any space at all it could end up costing them big.

Check out Paul Graham’s assessment on how much “stuff” is costing us to store and upkeep–to the point that stuff isn’t even valuable anymore, and how those who grew up poor are still hoarding in a misguided attempt to be rich:
Stuff
And MSN’s late cover if the same topic:
The hidden costs of too much stuff

Some people try to make “eco-friendly’ complicated, expensive, or “alternative.” In truth, it’s just a matter of combining common sense and frugality. Take the Holidays, for example. Most of us will spend way too much money, be stressed out, and end up hauling 12 bags of trash to the curb the next day. Not very friendly to yourself or nature. So here are some tips to make the holidays even easier for both of you.

Decorations: the “disposable” ones inevitably fall apart before the season is over, causing you more headaches. Just buy a couple sturdy nice ones that you love and reuse them every year. Resist the urge to buy junk every year. Give away to charity (in November!) all those tangled strings of light. Buy the minimum you need—and make them LEDs. Less time figuring out which ones are the ones you want to use this year, and less energy use, which is easier on the planet and your pocket book.

Gifts: the thought really should be all that counts, because even when you spend hours finding the “perfect” gift, you still can’t predict how well it will be received. Give things that get used up, like food or perfume, or a gift certificate to a restaurant or tickets to an event. You know they’ll use it, and it won’t end up in the landfill or their hall closet when it breaks.
For kids this means finger paints, play dough, art supplies, and stickers. They like these best anyways. When you feel you must buy a toy, buy something with the least amount of packaging: it’s easier on the environment, your back, and the parent’s patience. The blinky-light, vibrating, noisemaker in the flashy packaging needs a parent with tools to unwrap it, batteries to operate, and gets old quickly—except for that one sound button which the child will push over and over because it drives mom nuts!
A heirloom-quality small wooden toy, puzzle, game, or blocks will cost the same, not annoy anyone, pollute less, and will be played with again and again. And it won’t require batteries. Speaking of which, rechargeable AAs and a battery charger would be a fabulous gift for any parent on your list. If this seems too practical, throw in a gift certificate to a movie theater or a video store.

Food: have you ever actually run out of food at the holiday dinner? Neither have I. Don’t buy so much, and the less-packaging rule applies here too! The more packaging food is in, the more chance that it’s bad for you. If you want “convenience food,” order sides (or the main course!) from a local deli or grocers—you can’t get more “convenient” than that. Ask at the Farmer’s market for local meat for your main course: it’ll taste better fresher, and generate less pollution from shipping.

Technorati Tags: decorations, Eco-friendly, environment, food, gift ideas, Holidays

When decorating your living room, consider what you use the room for first, then decorative elements like the scale, color, and texture of the walls, floor, and furnishings.

USE
What do you use your living room for? Is it only used for entertaining guests, or does it double as your family’s living space? Who uses the room most and how do they use it? Can multiple people use it at the same time? If your teen takes up the whole room playing video games while the rest of the family congregates in the breakfast room, it is time to put the television in an out of the way corner with a comfortable chair close to it, and add a card or tea table and chairs near the couch for the rest of the family to use. Avoid putting a television where it dominates the space or where people have to walk in front of it if the living room is used for any activities besides television watching.

Include furnishings for all of the activities, and storage for accessories. Make sure there is convenient and accessible storage for remotes, toys and magazines. Consider other family members activities. Does someone sit in the living room and knit? Place a small blanket chest beside the chair they sit in. Do you eat in the room? Make sure the tables are high enough and free of knick knacks. Does someone read the paper or do crosswords? Make sure the coffee or end table has drawer space. Clip coupons on the couch? Make sure you have a safe place to stash the scissors. Does someone do work or play puzzles? Add a small table and chair in the corner of the room or behind the sofa.

SCALE
The scale of furnishings in the room can make your living room seem cozy or expansive, no matter how large the room really is. Large items to fill up the space if you want a cozy room that will envelop the occupants. Small lighter or more delicate items will make the room seem more expansive. A short sofa with a tall painting over it makes the room appear to have higher ceilings, as do curtains that fall all the way from the ceiling to the floor. A smaller lamp makes the table it sits on seem larger, while a large floor lamp next to a normal-sized chair can make it seem more petite. Experiment with mixing different sized furnishings and accessories to emphasize different features of the objects.

COLOR
Color is the easiest and most inexpensive aspect of a room to change. Wall can be painted, furniture slip-covered, and accessories swapped for those elsewhere in your home or attic. The colors in a room can even be rotated seasonally by switching out slips, rugs, pillows and decorative items. Darker colors are more dramatic and can make a room seem smaller. Lighter colors, even warmer ones, can make the space seem larger and cooler. Yes, pastels, even on the “warm” side of the color wheel (like orange, yellow, and red) can make a room seem cooler. Think of Southwestern style and you imagine plaster wall in warm pastel hues. These colors actually cool off the space. Color combinations can indicate a decorating style. Blue and yellow is country style, while blue and burgundy is formal or colonial. Check out the paint chips with color combinations on them in the paint store and use them for inspiration.

TEXTURE
Texture is the most forgotten element of any room. The texture of the walls and furnishings can influence the perception of the room’s style and climate. Slick fabrics can be seem formal, and also more cool. Nubby fabrics convey the feeling of warmth, and are usually more casual. A highly textured wall is more casual, while a slick wallpapered or mirrored wall is more formal. Combining smooth and texture surfaces in a room can create a variety of styles. Combine smooth metallic surfaces with furry ones for a modern feel. A chenille sofa can be dressed up with smooth throw pillows or dressed down with a woolen throw. An unadorned wood or smooth laminate floor coveys simplicity, while a carpeted floor layered with rugs and throws conveys luxury and warmth.

By considering your living room’s purpose first and style second, you will ensure that your family can enjoy a living room that is as usable as it is beautiful.

Technorati Tags: color, decorat, living room, scale, style, texture, use

Just in case we’ve forgotten about these site, don’t forget to click daily at the Hunger Site and others like the Rainforest Site, the Child Heath Site, and others.

You “click to give” and it takes you to a page with static banner adds from sponsors. These sponsors pay per person per day for people to look at their names. And the money goes to charity! Brilliant!

That’s “eco” as in economical as well as “eco” as in eco-friendly.

Have you price Thanksgiving dinner? Made as list of everything you’d need to cook everything from scratch and added it up?

It’s cheaper to cater it.
No, really!
And while you’re at it, cater it from your local (or not so local) eco-friendly market. Do the whole dinner, or just part.
I’ll be cooking a local, free-range grass-fed turkey, and then ordering all my sides from Whole Foods.

Crazy, but true!

Technorati Tags: eco, economical, environment, Thanksgiving dinner

If the thought of making own cleaners is causing you to have bad flashbacks to high school chemistry, rest easy. The easiest way to make cleaners is to not mix anything! The best cleaners are baking soda, vinegar, and plain old soap. Do not mix vinegar and baking soda together: that will really remind you of chemistry class!

Baking Soda
Baking soda is your scouring powder. Scrub off dried on goop with it. Add it to your laundry as a fabric softener. Use it a carpet deodorizer. Dump it down your drain. Use it to soak up grease and anywhere there’s a bad smell. If you must mix, mix it with water to create a cleaning paste.

Vinegar
Vinegar is your liquid cleaner. It shines stainless steel better than any commercial product you can buy. Plastics were first used to contain acids, so acids like vinegar clean anything plastic better than base cleaners like ammonia and bleach. Vinegar can be used as a color-safe bleach to remove stains from fabrics and carpets–but be sure to test for color-fastness in an inconspicuous spot first! Soak a cloth in vinegar and leave it in place to remove stains from linoleum. Mix vinegar with water to clean glass: but realize that the first time you use it on your windows the vinegar will be removing the film left behind by other cleaners. Until this film is completely removed, your windows may streak. But vinegar will leave your windows streak-free. As a bonus, vinegar can be used to make your hair shiny: just rinse your hair with diluted white or apple-cider vinegar!

Pure soap
Need a “soft scrub”-type cleaner and vinegar and baking soda won’t work? Use soap. Just plain glycerin soap. It will not lather up very well, especially if you have hard water; detergents lather up well, but they are not as safe. Remember high school chemistry and all the silly-looking safety equipment you had to wear? Put away your gloves: pure soap is a gentle cleaner that can cut through most greasy messes without you having to worry about keeping it off your skin. Use pure soap on laundry stains and you will be amazed that you ever spent money on so-called “stain removers.” Shave off a little bit of the bar of glycerin soap and dissolve it in a little water to create a cleaner to use on easily-scratched surfaces.

Best of all, these natural cleaning products are as economical as they are safe, unlike detergents, bleaches, ammonias, and alcohols. Safe for you, safe for your family, and safe for the environment. And, oh, so easy to use, too!

Technorati Tags: cleaner, eco, frugal, home