Wastefully Yours

So it turns out quitting your job after 3 years and transitioning to graduate school while maintaining an active social life, taking care of two cats, and getting a normal amount of sleep results in not having a lot of free time to update a blog.   Sorry if I’ve left any of you dangling in suspense, but somehow I doubt thats the case.  Its been a hot sunny summer, and I hope people have been enjoying it by spending time outside.

Speaking of the heat, a  steamy summer is incomplete without iced coffee. For a hahhhdcoah New Englandah like me, Dunkin Donuts is the way to go.  So it does not make me very happy to admit that of all the coffee shops in the area, Dunkins is the only one that consistently uses styrofoam cups for iced coffee.  Worst of all,  its styrofoam cups with plastic cups inside. Why do you need two cups for one drink? I do not know… but this is the result:

First of all, don’t litter on the T.  Seriously folks. If you’re old enough to ride the train by yourself, you’re old enough to know where trash goes, and its not on the seat.  There are also trash bins all over every single T station I’ve ever been in. I wish they’d start fining people for being pigs.  I almost said something to the woman who left this cup, along with her Metro, but she was too busy saying “HELLO? HELLO?” in to her cell phone… in an underground T station.  A+ at life!

Secondly, styrofoam? Really? Almost every other fast-food chain has eliminated or at least cut way down on styrofoam containers.  But summer in Boston means plastic cups inside styrofoam cups ALL over.  The DD’s I go to at North Station automatically doubled up the cups, and I’d have to give back the styrofoam one. Other places don’t do it automatically, but I see people asking for it. WHY?!?!  Can someone explain this to me please?  Is it because the plastic cups get wet on the outside?  Okay, use a napkin?  Or one of those sleeves that are made out of recycled cardboard.   The double cup thing is the epitome of wasteful.   There’s just no reason to create twice as much garbage as you need to. More importantly, the plastic is recyclable. The styrofoam is not.  MOST importantly, littering is gross. You learned that in pre-school.

Now, I’m loving our new apartment, and I don’t blame them for this as I realize the phone company distributes these… but… when is the last time you actually used a phone book?

Here we have about four dozen phone books individually wrapped in plastic. First they sat outside for about a week, and it didn’t appear that any were taken. Then they sat in a plastic mail bin in the doorway for over a week, and no one took them. After that, they were dumped on the floor under the mailboxes where they sat for a few weeks, and then vanished all at once, presumably to the trash.   I do realize there may be some people out there who don’t have the interwebz and still rely on a phone book to find the nearest cheap Chinese delivery instead of Yelp or MenuPages, but considering most people my age don’t even have land lines anymore, it really doesn’t make sense to make so many phone books.  And why do they need to be individually wrapped in plastic?  They may as well pack them in styrofoam boxes too.

The main point here is that no one needs to go to extremes to be more eco friendly.   I’m pretty sure our lives would not be adversely affected if our iced coffees only came with one cup, and a simple call to phone company would get you a free phone book.   Find a  fine line between knitting your own organic clothes, living off of water and seeds – and being that lady on the train yelling and littering.  It can’t be that hard to do.  :)

How to be a clean dirty hippie

Have you ever glanced in the mirror to check your hair and thought to yourself, boy, I could really use some Isostearamidopropyl Ethyldimonium Ethosulfate, Ricinoleamidopropyl Ethyldimonium Ethosulfate, Citric Acid, Glycerin, Sodium Styrene/Acrylates/Divinylbenzene Copolymer, Ammonium nonoxonyl4-Sulfate, Methylparaben, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Sodium Chloride, FD&C Yellow 5,F&DC RED 4, and a bunch of other combinations of letters pretending to be words?

I know I certainly have.  Because that would be the average bottle of 4 dollar brand name shampoo.  Nonoxonyl 9 is a manmade chemical spermicide which can also kill the HIV virus. Nonoxonyl 4 might be 9′s little brother, but still, does that REALLY need to be in my hair?  And are all the dyes really necessary? Does shampoo clean your hair more effectively if it comes out of the bottle in a pretty color?

Michael and I have started shopping for shower products by finding the bottles with the fewest amount of ingredients and the fewest amount of nonsense words.  This is also true of cleaning sprays, dish soap, etc.  I know the epic awesomeness that is Trader Joes has not reached all 50 states yet, but for those of you lucky enough to have one nearby,  making the switch to organic and earth friendly cleaning products isn’t nearly as expensive as one might think.

1. Renpure Organics – Shampoo and Conditioner – no dyes, preservatives…or spermicide. A few nonsense words, but also lots of nice simple things like “pomegranate”, “green tea”, and “sunflower oil”.  All ingredients are certified organic.   Regular price is 6.99, but I’ve already found it twice in the last 3 weeks on a “buy one get one free” special – once at Whole Foods, and once at Walgreen’s.

2. Shikai body wash.  This stuff is great. Its 2 dollars per bottle cheaper at Trader Joe’s than at Whole Foods (5 vs. 7 for a bottle).  I love the cucumber melon and gardenia scents.  100% organic, no dyes, no parabens.  It doesn’t come with fancy light refracting sparkles or “moisture ribbons” or any of the other ridiculous marketing gimmicks you see advertised on most body wash products, but guess what?   I don’t need my body wash to do tricks.  It cleans skin, and it smells nice.  End of story.

3. The Marcal “Small Steps” line.  No more excuses about earth friendly products costing more. The Small Steps toilet paper, tissue, and paper towels are made of 100% recycled paper, and are all the same price or cheaper than non-recycled brands like Bounty or Kleenex.   Its pretty basic stuff, so you won’t see a smiling animated bear wiping his ass or a golden retriever puppy snuggle with this toilet paper on TV any time soon, but really, can you survive without hammocks for your puppy out of your toilet paper?  Or walking around the forest caressing your face with it?   Its for your butt. It doesn’t need to be made out of clouds or quilts or angel hairs soaked in aloe.   Seriously, save money AND trees. I promise you will survive.

Not pictured (because cleaning products aren’t as fun to look at as puppies and bears frolicking in toilet paper):   7th Generation and Simple Green cleaning products (kitchen wipes, cleaning spray, dish soap, glass cleaner, and carpet cleaner).  All available at Target, sometimes on sale.  The 7th Generation products tend to be a bit pricier than the common brands, but not expensive enough to noticeably change our monthly expenses.  They smell less chemically (the all purpose spray smells like orange, and the 7th Generation wipes smell like lemon) and I feel better about not using harsh chemicals and bleach on surfaces the cats frequent.

Give just a few of these products a try, maybe just start by replacing one product at a time,  and you’re well on your way to being a CLEAN hippie – no sandalwood, pachouli, or birkenstocks involved!

Before and Afters – Round 1

Well, we did it!!  We are moved in and (mostly) unpacked.  Many thanks to Stephen, Mike D, and my parents for helping us move with only a half day UHaul rental – no big trucks or movers, and as few trips back and forth as we could manage.

We still have a bit of furnishing and decorating to do, but I figured it was worth posting what we’ve done so far.

Living room before:

After…

the Buddha carving isn’t staying on the floor – we just haven’t figured out the perfect wall space for him yet.

More living room/breakfast bar:

Kitchen:

Not a whole lot we could do with the kitchen, but it needed some color.  Michael suggested blue light bulbs… I didn’t really think that was a good idea, so we compromised, and his man room is now decked out with blue LEDs (thanks, Ikea)

Master bathroom:

After!

and the most important addition:

More to come next week, but for now, I have to focus on studying for my midterms instead of decorating.

This DIY stuff could get dangerous…

In the alternate universe where I have tons of money, my bedroom would look like this, only with an exposed brick wall instead of concrete:

…but in reality, Michael would probably hate it, Shep would destroy the very expensive bedspread, and red wine would be spilled on that white carpet within a month.  Also… more than one pillow might be a good idea.

So back to reality, where Michael and I are moving TOMORROW!!!  We have a very nice queen size memory foam mattress sitting on the plain old 20 dollar metal frame. Which is fine, I guess, I mean, it’s not like its ugly – its just not much of anything.  I’ve been scanning craigslist off an on for an actual bed, but haven’t found anything worth buying.

Then it occurred to me that all we really need is a headboard. We already have the frame, and really, what is the point of a footboard?

After having a pretty good experience with table making…  could I make a headboard with recycled wood?   Could that be more complicated than making the table, other than the measurements needing to be more precise?

Here are a few ideas I might run by Dad and the nice folks at Longleaf to see how DIY-able they are.

Obviously my version would be on a much smaller scale than these, and I’m certainly not planning on covering our apartment walls with floor to ceiling wood, but using a similar look, I wonder if I could just make a simple headboard that would lean against the wall with the bed frame we already have pushed up against it.

Opinions anyone??

This weekend’s challenges:

- Figuring out to move the most stuff in the fewest number of gas-wasting trips.  Michael is moving from Brighton, I’m moving from Andover, the apartment is in Melrose, and we’ve got a family reunion in Methuen to get to.

- Another DIY project: moving 3 couches, a queen size bed, and a 50 inch flat screen from a 3rd floor walk up, with no professional/paid movers or equipment (but great friends and a cheap Uhaul!)

- Trying to convince the boyfriend that buying brand new cardboard boxes from Uhaul is wasteful (financially and environmentally) and just plain silly.   He didn’t like the idea of going to ask for boxes at the grocery store, and I was too busy this week to do it for him.  Waste averted thanks to my mom, though, who brought boxes home from her work.

From a barn to my apartment – the story of a plank of wood

A few weeks ago, my friend Catherine and I visited Longleaf Lumber in Cambridge.   While their speciality is flooring, their website had a lot of neat random antique wood items.  I decided it was worth a look.

I’ve been oogling the reclaimed wood tables I’ve seen on Etsy and Viva Terra, but they are all well beyond my price range. I’ve also been laughing at stores like Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn that sell “antiquED” wood tables – rather than actually using restored or reclaimed wood, they take new wood and beat it with chains to make it LOOK old.  This seems very silly considering the amount of ACTUAL antique wood that is available, but oh well – it’s over priced regardless.

Since my dad is pretty handy and told me he’d be willing to help, I decided it was worth trying to make my own table. Even if it came out horrible, my parents could use it for storage in the basement or on the deck, and I’d have a better understanding of why furniture like that costs so much.

When Catherine and I walked in to Longleaf, looking pretty clueless, the woman at the front desk immediately asked us if we needed help, and listened patiently while I tried my best (in very non-experty fashion) to explain what I was looking for.   She took us to a huge barn filled with more random pieces of lumber than I could have imagined.  While most of it was WAY too big for my project (mostly for flooring, beams, and larger construction projects), it was still neat to look around and consider all of the history stacked up and sorted by size and wood type.  There were pieces of barns, beams of old houses and factories, flooring and pews from old churches, and pilings from old docks, including lumber from the Charlestown Navy Yard.

I probably could have wandered around there aimlessly for a while just looking at everything, but the woman helping us had quickly found a few pieces that might work for my reclaimed wood table.  I decided on an inch thick piece of cherry, originally from a barn (I’m guessing the barn floor, based on the thickness and gouge marks on it).  I never would have found it if she hadn’t been helping us,  especially since I didn’t really know what to look for.

When we went back in to the office to pay (only 40 dollars, by the way!), I spotted a box of old shoe lasts from a factory in Lawrence.  Since my great grandmother worked in a shoe factory in Lawrence, I thought that was pretty cool – so I got one (for 1 dollar).  They were also selling cutting boards made from old church pews, with half of the sale price (10 dollars) donated to a food pantry, so I got one of those too.

Catherine was kind enough to model them for me, and also helped me put the wood plank in my car:

After purchasing 4 very simple legs at Ikea for 10 dollars each, and some sand paper for 8 dollars,  then waiting for a weekend that my dad and I were both around, it was time to try making a table:

First we had to saw off a little over a foot – partly because the plank was too long, but also because it had a pretty big crack on one end. My dad did the sawing because…well… if the power saw was in my hands, I could ruin a lot more than an old plank of wood.

Then we brought it outside to meet the power sander.  Dad helped, but I did some of this on my own.  The first few passes with the sander removed a cloud of dirt, then the color of the wood started to change and the gouge marks faded.

After sanding for 15 minutes or so, I wiped it off and brought it back in to the basement for the clear polyurethane coat.  My parents had some leftover from an older project, but it happened to be water based – which I would have bought if we didn’t already have some.  Though it requires more coats than oil based, and doesn’t protect quite as well against spills on the wood, it is far less toxic, easier to clean up after, dries faster, and is biodegradable.

After this coat dried, we sanded it lightly, and applied the second and final coat.  If I wanted it to be really glossy and better protected, we could have done a 3rd or even 4th coat, but I wanted this to look more natural and a little rustic.

Next,  the part I thought would be easy turned out to be the hardest part, and if I didn’t have my dad to help, I would have ended up very frustrated with a very lopsided table.  One thing I hadn’t considered about the very old wood – it was a little bit bowed.  Not enough to be visible by looking at the plank alone, but when we were lining up the legs, it was pretty damn obvious.  I didn’t take pictures of the process of making the legs even, because I don’t think Dad would have found that helpful.  :)

Not counting letting it dry for an hour between each coat,  it took less than two hours and just about 100 dollars to make this table.  I could be biased, but I love it!!  In a few days, it will be in the new place!

So if you can’t afford the expensive version, and you know someone handy with a power saw, give it a try!

BamBOO?

Remember the smell on your hands during the frog/fetal pig/cat dissection in 10th grade bio?

Formaldehyde is a very old and very common fixative, and one quick glance through the wikipedia page reveals that it is used in far more products than most of us are probably aware of.  While it may not be the most horrible substance in the world,  it certainly doesn’t coincide with those happy “Eco-Friendly!” labels on practically every bamboo product out there.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you have noticed the bamboo trend in everything from flooring to clothing.  As someone who loves trees (and Asian inspired decor), I jumped right on this bandwagon. Unlike woods from trees,  harvesting bamboo does not involve cutting down 50 year old trees and throwing away the bark.  Technically, bamboo is a grass. Like grass, it can grow pretty much anywhere without the help of pesticides and fertilizers, and if you pull one blade out of the massive web of roots, another blade will pop up in its place almost overnight.  Some species of bamboo mature in 5 years, and can grow more than 2 feet in a 24 hour period.   Because of its size, rapid growth, and some other sciencey stuff I won’t get in to, bamboo also releases more oxygen than trees.

If you think about the impact of harvesting enough trees from a rainforest to floor a home, versus harvesting enough bamboo to floor a home, it is clear that bamboo has a significant environmentally friendly edge (and it looks awesome too).  The same goes for any product that can be made with bamboo instead of hardwood – like those cutting boards and utensil trays that are sold pretty much everywhere right now (and they are usually priced nicely, too).

But according to EcoVillageGreen and several other sources I found, “while the growth and cultivation of bamboo is very much organic, the manufacturing process that converts it from woody plant to end product is definitely not green. For flooring, for example, bamboo goes through a complex process ranging from steaming under pressure to kiln drying to hot pressing, all of which are very energy-intensive.  Additionally, some grades of bamboo flooring use formaldehyde adhesives of unknown quantity.”

This is a bit of a dilemma!  While using bamboo products removes that mental image I get of a monkey coming home from a hard day at work to find his tree has been cut down to make a floor in a yuppie mansion, I really don’t relish the idea of eating off of something that could be fixed with a chemical that can preserve dead tissue for decades and smells like the cat I had to cut apart in my high school bio lab.   In terms of eco-friendliness, it still seems that bamboo beats wood in a cage match, but be on the lookout for products that are labeled “formaldehyde free”, especially something in large quantities like flooring or something you’ll prepare food with (I’m giving my bamboo sauce spoon a suspicious glare right now).    My homework now will be to check out the bamboo kitchen accessory section at HomeGoods and see how many, if any, of the products are labeled “formaldehyde free”.   I also emailed the Etsy store I purchased the little sushi plates from to see if they know one way or the other.

The other increasingly common use of bamboo is in textiles – clothes, rugs, robes, towels, etc.  It feels amazingly soft, is usually priced reasonably, and like the bamboo “wood” products, is often labeled “eco friendly”.   It turns out though, this is not often the case. Bamboo fabric is far less environmentally friendly than the other form because of the steps required to turn a wood-like grass in to a silky fabric.   I found a description of the treatment process here, quoted in part:

Bamboo leaves and the soft, inner pith from the hard bamboo trunk are extracted and crushed;

The crushed bamboo cellulose is soaked in a solution of 15% to 20% sodium hydroxide at a temperature between 20 degrees C to 25 degrees C for one to three hours to form alkali cellulose;

The bamboo alkali cellulose is then pressed to remove any excess sodium hydroxide solution. The alkali cellulose is crashed by a grinder and left to dry for 24 hours;

Roughly a third as much carbon disulfide is added to the bamboo alkali cellulose to sulfurize the compound causing it to jell;

Any remaining carbon disulfide is removed by evaporation due to decompression and cellulose sodium xanthogenate is the result;

A diluted solution of sodium hydroxide is added to the cellulose sodium xanthogenate dissolving it to create a viscose solution consisting of about 5% sodium hydroxide and 7% to 15% bamboo fiber cellulose.

The viscose bamboo cellulose is forced through spinneret nozzles into a large container of a diluted sulfuric acid solution which hardens the viscose bamboo cellulose sodium xanthogenate and reconverts it to cellulose bamboo fiber threads which are spun into bamboo fiber yarns to be woven into reconstructed and regenerated bamboo fabric.

I’m no scientist,  but very little of that process is natural, and I have a hard time believing any of those chemicals are remotely eco friendly.   Another dilemma – because cotton goes through the same process to become rayon, but requires pesticides to grow, which bamboo does not.

So what to make of the set of beautiful, soft, affordable, and 100% bamboo towels I ordered from Viva Terra last month?   There is no information on the website or on the tags regarding the manufacturing process – it just says “100% pure bamboo fiber”.  That might mean it was manufactured using the more expensive and less common non-chemical method – I certainly hope so, considering Viva Terra’s eco friendly promises, but it doesn’t seem likely I could find out for sure.  One company that has promised eco-friendly bamboo textiles is Gaiam – but no bamboo towels there.

I guess the takeaway message here is that unless you floor your home with only natural tile and dry yourself off from the shower with leaves, you are going to buy products that would normally be made with wood or cotton.  As an alternative, many of the same things can be purchased in bamboo form with a decreased environmental impact, but not quite a negligible one.  Hopefully as bamboo maintains popularity and more consumers demand to know how their products are made, fewer and fewer chemicals will be involved in the process.

Save some for the pandas though, because they are a lot cuter than humans, and they knew bamboo was awesome long before we did.

More fun with Air Plants

I finished my air plant project!  Here are all three together:

From left to right:

My first try – a beach rock on a slate tile with green air plant

My second piece – another slate tile, with a stone I picked up from the grounds of Chichen Itza in Mexico last year and a reddish purple air plant

My third and final (for now) – a limestone and coral clump I picked up in Key West that happened to have a perfectly sized hole in it, and a green spiky air plant.

Again, I can’t take credit for this idea. It was inspired by the artwork of the person I purchased the plants from. Check out her Etsy shop here.

I’ve had them for a few weeks now and have managed not to kill them, which is impressive for me.  I spray them every few days and leave them in my window where they get sun for about half of the day.  I can’t wait to hang up the tile pieces on the wall in the new apartment.  The coral piece will go on the top shelf of my desk, where it will hopefully* be safe from the curious and deadly claws of Shep.

The total cost of this project was under $25, and that’s including the tiles which are repurposed. The only unnatural component is the silicone glue, but I don’t know if there’s any way around that other than mixing my own concrete.

Speaking of natural materials,  I had a coupon from VivaTerra, so I splurged on two items: bath towels and place mats:

I looked everywhere before I bought these, but couldn’t find anything like them anywhere else.  They are so simple and natural (just rocks glued on to black felt), but they also have a modern look that is not likely to go out of style or clash with any dishes I’d buy in the future.  I photographed the placemat with one of the bamboo sushi plates I purchased from Etsy, but of course this will look a whole lot better set up on the counter rather than my bed!

I must confess though, I had jumped on the bamboo bandwagon without doing my research, and while this shouldn’t really be a surprise, some of the “eco friendly” marketing angles of bamboo products are deceptive.  Wait! Now don’t go throwing away that bamboo cutting board quite yet!   In my next entry, I will post the results of my research on the pros and cons of bamboo.

Happy Summer Solstice to all of you!

Fun with Craigslist Scavenging

One day, a guy named Craig was sitting around, lamenting the fact that he could not find a pitbull, a babysitter, a used futon, and an erotic massage all in one place.  And so, as neccessity is the mother of invention, Craigslist was born.

Need to rent a clearly illegal basement apartment in Dorchester? Done.

Used breast bump? Got it.

Awkward adult encounters?  Yep, all set there, too.

It’s difficult for me to figure out if Craigslist is more awesome than it is creepy, or vis versa.  Not even touching on the whole “Craigslist Killer” thing, it only takes a 5 minute scan through any of the discussion boards or personals posts to be thoroughly grossed out by your fellow humans.   Even in the categories that seem tame, like boring old “Help Wanted”, you are bound to stumble across gems like “human sushi platter wanted for private party” and “part time housekeeper…  must be willing to work in lingerie”

My personal favorite was an email I received through craigslist the last time I was looking for a roommate.  A kind, classy gentleman, without ever having seen a single picture of me, offered me a room in his supposedly stunning penthouse condo in Beacon Hill, with my own bathroom, a parking spot, etc…  for free, so long as I signed a contract that I would spend a certain amount of time walking around naked.  Nothing like swapping your dignity and pride for a sweet pad, right?  I wonder if he ever found a taker…

Anyway, my point is that Craigslist can be awesome, if you are careful.  I am by no means a fearful person, but there are certain risks that you just don’t need to take.  Whenever possible, especially if you’re buying something small, like tickets, always meet the person in a very public place. If possible, dont even get out of your car.   When it comes to buying larger items such as furniture, always bring someone with you.  This doesn’t need to look like you’re being paranoid, but that you just brought a friend to help.

I am guilty of breaking this rule recently, because after talking on the phone with the seller first,  he was clearly very gay, and I didn’t feel even remotely unsafe meeting him outside of his apartment.  That probably wasn’t the brightest move on my part, but I guess I’m just a sucker for very lispy gay guys with apartments full of Crate and Barrel.

For one of the aspects of my attempt to go greener, I wanted to avoid buying new things.  For someone who loves shopping as much as I do, this isn’t easy.  I also have pretty high standards when it comes to what I want our apartment to look like, and Michael and I don’t always agree on styles – which limits the number of acceptable furnishings.  This means that yard-sale hopping would not be an efficient method of finding some of the things we needed (stools for the breakfast bar, a desk for me, and a bed frame).

After we’d looked around on websites and in stores, we’d agreed on a few specific items we wanted:  West Elm breakfast bar stools, priced at $149 each (though they happened to be discontinued) and the Crate and Barrel Ladder Desk ($139).

Even though it took a few weeks of searching (just a couple of minutes when I checked my email each morning), the benefits turned out to be far greater than the minor inconvenience of not just driving to the store and making a purchase:

1. The eco friendly part – not major, but it all adds up – 1 less box full of plastic wrap, packing peanuts, and styrofoam, one less box, one less paper instruction manual, receipt, 1 less desk in demand, etc.

2. The money saving part – I paid 120 for BOTH stools (less than the cost of 1) and 60 for the desk (more than %50 less than retail).  They’re both in good condition, but thanks to being pre-owned, I don’t need to worry about being responsible for the first scratch.

3. The satisfaction part – even though typing in the name of a product in the little search bar on craigslist every few days is FAR from challenging, somehow it is more satisfying to get what I want, at a great price, without stepping foot in a store.  Plus,  no assembly required as long as it fits in your car!

Overall, Craigslist makes the “Re-use” part of living green pretty effortless.  Next time you see something you like at a major retailer, give yourself 2 weeks to find it on craigslist before you buy it new.  My next goal is a platform bed from West Elm, but we’re waiting until we’re actually moved in for that, since I’ve already filled my parents basement up with my stuff.

IKEA – The Original Hipster

You all know a hipster. They are always striving to be so super unique, just like the 5 million other nearly identical hipsters. You just heard of a cool band? Well, trust me, they were listening to that band WAY before they were cool and they will sneer condescendingly at you for enjoying the music of “sell-outs” (because we all know that REAL musicians strive to remain in their parent’s basements playing at the local VFW on Tuesday nights).

Well, like your friendly clove-smoking androgynously styled hipster, IKEA was in to fair trade and eco friendly business practices long before it was cool.  Also, like a hipster, IKEA wants you to believe you are purchasing a cool, unique piece of furniture, despite that fact that approximately 2 billion other people from here to Antarctica have the same exact product.

I worked for IKEA from 2003 to 2006.  In order to work for the company, coworkers must participate in enrichment courses – some about Swedish culture, but many about the history and philosophies of the company.  Ingvar Kamprad (the I and K of IKEA) started the business at some point after the ice age, selling pencils door to door on his bike – another hipster connection!!  (Though I doubt he customized his bike with “mods” or ironic stickers).

A few veneered tables and several kazillion dollars later, Ingvar is one of the richest dudes on the planet (I think right after Bill Gates and the Virgin guy), but as of my last encounter with him, he still drove his own car, flew coach everywhere he went, and insisted on using coffee grinds at least twice before throwing them out.  When store managers sent limos to pick him at the airport in an attempt to kiss his ass, he would refuse to get in them.  If there is a way to use something over and over again until it becomes dust, this guy has thought of it (and then turned the dust in to a plate).

Before the term “eco friendly” was coined, Ingvar was called “cheap”, or “thrifty” if you didn’t want to sound rude.  But the bottom line here is, you can feel generally good about shopping at IKEA, though like anything else, if not limited by budget, there are even better alternatives.  I can also say from personal experience that they treat their employees well and offer insurance packages beyond compare of most American companies (find me another company that offers 2 weeks fully paid PATERNITY leave?).  Not sure what came of it, but when I still worked for them,  I heard that a plan to sell solar panels was in development.

But in the immortal words of Levar Burton, “you don’t have to take my word for it!”:

Supereco.com

buyerbefair.org

Press Release

The biggest downside to shopping at IKEA is…shopping at IKEA.   The stores, all nearly identical in layout, are intentionally designed to get you lost,   forcing you to look at every single product before you wind up crawling to the checkout, and of course by the time you get there, you’ve worked up a mean appetite –  but don’t worry – there’s the meatballs!!

The other drawback is that after you’ve spent 4 hours on your hands and knees with an allen key and a wordless “manual” creating your masterpiece,  your friends will come over, glance at it and say “oh! you got that at IKEA!”, which to me, doesn’t translate to “oh! I love that!”    Although on the flip side, having such a recognizable product does make it easier to recycle when you’re done with it.  When I moved out of my apartment in NYC, I sold pretty much everything – and the IKEA stuff sold the easiest and for the most money, without a doubt.

So,  a hipster is annoying and a little cliche, but you’re probably friends with one anyway.  Think of IKEA the same way.

=

I managed to do something crafty without gluing my fingers together or starting a fire!

When I first came up with the idea of creating a green living space and a blog to go along with it, my friend Ray asked me if I’d ever heard of Etsy.   I hadn’t.

She warned me that discovering it may be dangerous.  2 purchases (but still under 40 dollars) later, it is too soon to determine the level of danger this website poses to my efforts to stay frugal.  I’ll be patriotic and use our nation’s uber-effective color coded “How Scared of Muslims Should I Be Today?” alert system: at the moment, we’re at code Yellow.

Etsy.com is a website where people far more talented than I can sell their handmade, handgrown, and homecooked goodies.  Everything from expensive art to affordable soap, cufflinks made of old typewriter keys, plant arrangements, and everything in between.

Last week, I stumbled across a “store” featuring air plants being sold on their own, or attached to magnets and tiles. I loved her arrangements, and was drawn to the modern but natural look of the air plants. I immediately thought of the small pile of slate tiles I had sitting in my trunk, left over from the fireplace in my last apartment.   After asking the artist if I could buy her plants and steal her idea, I received my plants in the mail over the weekend.  Thanks, Kara!

I only made one today,  just in case it came out horrible, I would have only ruined 1 of the 3 beautiful plants she sent me.  However, I don’t think it came out horrible at all! In fact, I’m kind of proud of it!

Ingredients:  one air plant (10.75 for a set of 3), one natural slate 2×6 tile from Home Depot (I had purchased 4 boxes of these last year at 4.99 each) , one beach rock (free), and some silicone glue (4.99 at ACE Hardware).

Result:

Here is another picture of it,  place on top of the salvaged wood cutting board I purchased this weekend at Longleaf Lumber, which will be the subject of my next post!

I’ll make the other two this week if I have time.