Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Aug 7, 2007

Thinking Out Loud: Want not waste not?

Filed in Blog

The other day I heard that San Francisco was working towards banning the use of plastic bags. Since millions of plastic bags are used and discarded every day, I think that’s a good idea, though it might be hard to retrain everyone. I know I frequently kick myself for not having canvas bags with me when I go shopping, even though I do hang them up by the doorway.

And then today, going through my Freecycle list I sit there and wonder, “Who needs an electric wok/belly button wash/portable bidet, anyway?”

I lean towards frugality. It’s a choice I make because I do not want to work 60 hour weeks to maintain a big house and a flashy vehicle. I also make it out of some vague ethical thought that actually if we just stop using stuff to fill the gaps in our hearts created by working 60 hour weeks so we can afford stuff, we might have a shot at killing this global warming stuff dead.

Let’s take those plastic bags. I do reuse mine as litterbox receptacles, but even then I think, “that’s a lot of bag just to put cat poo in.” Maybe, in the ethics of using less, it would be better to buy little individual bags and then not take the plastic bags home from the supermarket. That way, little shop-bought plastic bags would come in a handy roll and the bags would not float willy-nilly around my kitchen until I get around to putting them away. But it still raises the issue of “isn’t there a way to do this that doesn’t involve bags at all?”

In an urban setting, I guess the answer has to be no. While I would dearly love to leave the builders who are going to replace my mobile home park with townhomes an editorial comment in the form of fermenting cat poop compost, I don’t have enough land, really, to make that feasible. And, also, compost made from the poop of meat-eating critters is not considered good for spreading on one’s snow peas and lettuce. Not that I grow those any more, but I used to.

So I do what I can. I reuse what I can. I don’t buy much these days; I look for used stuff if I absolutely must have it. The days of my wanting a rainbow-colored assortment of stoneware are gone. I don’t live that kind of a life.

We have learned the hard way that $1 pans from the dollar store are awful, and so it makes more sense to buy longer-lasting, better quality pans. On sale, of course. Always on sale.

I really detest gadgetry. It fills space and serves little purpose, and clutter makes me feel ill. Yet, looking at Freecycle, which on the face of it is the ultimate frugal resource–free stuff!–I see so much of it being given away. People buy it then don’t need it then offload it. It might have been better to never have bought it in the first place.

During this long drawn-out process of leaving my home I think I have downsized my possessions by 50%. If I had been more ruthless I could have reduced them by 75% and I probably wouldn’t have cared for more than a few minutes. Most of what I found myself keeping were books I thought I would read again and personal items such as photographs. At the end of the day, I won’t have to carry this stuff when I move, and that’s a bonus.

My tip to anyone contemplating the dual concepts of waste reduction and frugality? Stop wanting stuff. Failing that, try this link. Or you could try the book below, which is one of the few that I kept around and didn’t put into storage.