The Story of Stuff

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted on this blog. Perhaps starting it wasn't the best idea....

Anyway, I just finished watching The Story of Stuff, and I think I'm going to set myself a reminder to watch it at least every few months. I already know many of the topics covered, in at least some way, but it's helpful to see it all together and to be reminded that the US's reliance on stuff cannot keep up at the rate it's going.

There are so very many ways to reduce reliance on and consuming of stuff. Here's a few of the things that I am doing:

1. I am determined never to become a collector of anything again. In high school and college, I was a fan of dolphins (still am, but not as openly so). Apparently, choosing something you like means that you will suddenly be bombarded with a plethora of stuff pertaining to that thing. I have dolphin doodads out the wazoo. I am going to donate them to Goodwill and will not collect this type of thing again.
2. My husband and I are in the process of purchasing a house. The one we have selected is pretty much the same size as our apartment (which, granted, is pretty large for an apartment - 3 bedrooms). Which means that we will not need to acquire more stuff once we move. In fact, we are trying to purge (responsibly - Goodwill, veterans, recycling) the stuff we do not currently use.
3. We use canvas bags instead of plastic ones 95% of the time (we still forget, but have gotten much better).
4. We do not drink bottled water, but instead have nice water bottles. I use mine every day at work.
5. I intend to ask for a few small things that I want for Christmas and then ask that any other gifts to me be either donations to charity or homemade gift certificates for time spent together. And perhaps gift certificates to Lowe's for home repair. But I also hope that my husband and I are able to get a lot of stuff from Pittsburgh's Construction Junction, which offers used building materials for cheap resale.
   
6. We do not buy DVDs. This was actually my husband's idea. So much is now available through Netflix that if I get a craving for a certain movie, I can either find it immediately through streaming or I can wait a few days to get it through the mail. In the past I have still asked for DVDs as gifts, but I will not be doing that any more.
7. My husband and I share one car. And a fairly efficient car at that. We now drive a new Honda Fit, but previously we shared a 1997 Honda Civic (until August 2010). We walk and bike to work as much of the year as we can tolerate, and we hunted for 10 months to find a house in our price range that kept us close to both our works as well as stores, restaurants, and a park.
8. We recycle extensively.
9. We make it a goal never to have more than one bag of trash a week, and usually are closer to a half bag.
10. I kept my previous cell phone for, I think, 4 and 1/2 years. Planned obsolescence lead to it recently being unable to find service like it should, so I upgraded. I donated the old phone, as well as my husband's old phone, to a campus fundraiser in the hopes that they would be reused or recycled.

Ideas I have for the future:

1. I have a lot of friends who garden, and it seems like many of them end up producing an abundance of a certain type of crop. I think it would be great to organize a group of these friends who get together to share the abundance, so that everyone ends up with a variety. Our new home has apple trees that definitely produce a lot, and I would much rather share apples than see them go to waste.
2. Even though we have a front and backyard (shared with the upstairs neighbors), I haven't composted much yet. I intend to change this with our new house. I love houseplants and gardening so this would save me from buying soil.
3. Our new house will have a rain barrel.

There is so much we can do to reduce our consumption of stuff (and non-local foodstuffs). If you have any other ideas, let me know!