NYU: Walking the Walk

So aside from feeling guilty that a) I haven't done any homework yet this long weekend (we have today and tomorrow off for "fall break" - HA) and b) I just spent a total of about $267 on a new coat and boots for myself (I actually feel kind of wretched and nervous, but I need these things! I essentially deconstructed my old coat because the cheap snaps fell off and I tried to re-sew them numerous times to utter failure), I would say I've had a pretty good weekend.

I went with C and her friend M to Prospect Park yesterday. It's in Brooklyn, for those who don't know. We had a lovely picnic, which resulted in the glorious gift of my having guacamole which now desperately needs some chips to go with it. We saw cute children on boats, many many wedding crews taking pictures, and the beginnings of fall colors. We also visited the zoo at the park and had a lot of fun randomly talking about and cooing over the animals.

After that we went on a tour of the Tenement Museum, which was very interesting! I'm not usually a history person, but I can take it in short bits like this; the tour was about an hour long. We learned that sometimes in the garment workers' working areas it would get to be 120 degrees! I thought that was unbelievable; I'm amazed anyone survived those conditions.

Right near the Tenement Museum is a vegan/gluten-free etc. bakery called Babycakes, where I got this crazy, cute cookie sandwich thing. It's a teeny tiny bit expensive, but pretty impressive for not using animal byproducts!

It's been a good couple of days. Now it's time to creep ashamedly back to reality on all fours, head bowed and ready to work. I'm getting kind of worried that I don't take my work seriously anymore. I think I overcompensated with enthusiasm at the beginning of the year.

Housesitting

This past week, I house-sat for a family I've also been babysitting for. The family went on vacation to Disneyland for the younger daughter's 4th birthday and asked me to care for their 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 rats. It was an interesting experience... culminating, on the last day, with the dogs running away and my mother's wrists being punctured by one of them as we tried to lead them back home. She had to get stitches, and it was very traumatizing, but she'll be ok.

I learned a lot from observing their house. Keep in mind that it's a pretty busy household, but here is what I noticed:

• Box clutter: We had this problem at our apartment, too, of keeping enormous boxes for no reason. And I've talked about it a lot. :) This family had a four-foot tall empty box from a portable air conditioner just sitting in the master bedroom - they got the AC unit two weeks ago, around when I started babysitting! I know that they might want to keep it for the two little girls to play with, but big boxes should have a proper home, either in someone's play area, the garage or in the recycling.


• Clothes: I have a feeling the little girls are a tad spoiled. I love them to death! But they haven't yet learned the value of picking up after themselves. Ok, fine, they are four and eight, but still! Keep those adorable hampers accessible, not jammed in an already-bursting closet. I do like their dresser system, though, when they use it! The eight-year-old has categories for each drawer, and the "star drawer" is specially for pajamas.


• Garbage: It was difficult for me to find a trash can in most rooms of the house. The kitchen didn't even have one! So I used some Safeway bags that I assume were for that purpose. Even more sad, the recycling was hard to find as well. I admit, it may be because I'm not used to their system and they don't need/use labels. But I've found in my own living spaces that having a trash and recycling in each room (or at least most rooms) makes things a lot easier. It's funny how lazy we can be if the recycling is even one room away!

I tidied up as best I could (and as much as I dared, for fear of seeming rude), but I was depressed to see that all my work had been erased when I went back two days later to babysit. Toys and food all over the floor! Kitchen table hardly visible! I guess I shouldn't try to change them if all they're paying me for is animal care and babysitting...

Thanks to Housesitting for the photo. :)

Be Even More Greener

Things you may do to be green but may not do the most efficiently:

RECYCLE
In this age of the green trend, more and more Americans are recycling. This is definitely a good thing! But old habits still die hard - you may still choose the wastebasket over the recycling bag out of laziness. I'm certainly guilty of this! But just remember that there are so many things you can recycle! Jewel cases, styrofoam (just find the right service!), many plastics, and the traditional paper/plastic/glass/aluminum. Depending on your location, you might even be able to get money for these things! Think twice about our rising landfills when you want to throw non-biodegradables in that garbage!


SPRING CLEANING
Many people have a great routine set every year for spring cleaning, which I truly admire! But you can always do better. :) Instead of viewing it as a horrible chore that you have to tackle on your own because no one else around the house helps, make it a fun family event! Make a game out of organizing and cleaning out for the kids, and devise rewards for the grown-ups. The outings to Goodwill etc. can be fun mini road trips, too.

SHOPPING GREEN
Shopping green is the best kind of shopping. You feel great about your purchases and can sometimes save money, like when you buy local at the farmer's market. But make sure you get the most out of your experience. Don't buy fancy green products unless you NEED them and will USE them! Otherwise it's just more clutter and a waste of money. For example: knickknacks made of reused plastic bags are great, but are they going to clutter up your home more/will they get any use? Also, try re-using the produce bags when you shop at the farmer's market. I have more about plastic bags if you're interested. :)

Anything I left out?

Thanks to Tales at Twilight for the image.

Safeway is King

Yesterday, my mom and I did a buttload of errands. Some de-cluttering, some not. We were all over the place! The best part of the day was finding the recycling center back behind a nearby Safeway that recycles lots of stuff and offers CRV (California Refund Value). They even take #6 styrofoam (those huge annoying blocks)!!! It was a bit ironic that we found out about the styrofoam though, because we had just tossed a huge collection of styrofoam blocks, after coming up short on recycling resources. (Waste Management told us it counts as garbage in this area so we could throw it out. My mom says they were just trying to steer business their way, which sucks because throwing out styrofoam is SO BAD for the environment!)

Moral of the story: your city probably has some amazing resources that are hidden behind random grocery stores or other weird places! Do some hunting and find these great places.

Anyway, things are looking better every day! I drew up some ideas I had for floorplans when we're ready to move stuff around. I have one for my room and one for the living room. Maybe I'll post them tomorrow! In the meantime, my friend L and I are hosting a hillbilly hootenanny birthday party for ourselves tonight, so I might not post till late tomorrow. :P

Do It Yourself

Well, it's been a busy past few days! Not only with de-cluttering, but with birthdays and hanging out with my best friends for summertime fun and trying to get myself a job. I did de-clutter one of our couches in the living room. However, I sat down on it today and realized it's a depressing spot! It receives almost no light, even though it is about five feet from the window. Of course, this is because one of our bookshelves is placed illogically and uglily between the two! Hmm. I can't wait to start the re-arranging part of our project. In the spirit of DIY thinking*, here's a fun link about how to fuse plastic bags to make stuff! Just don't inhale those hot plastic fumes, kids.

Via Curbly.com

* Ok that's kind of a stretch, from my progress to "DIY" but I don't have much to write about...

Sites I Like #6: Freecycle.org

Ok I know I like JUST did a Site I Like, but this one is actually helping me in my progress! I'm giddy right now.

Today's site: FreeCycle.org



This is a .org site, but the part of it that I'm making the best use out of is the Yahoo group for my area. Basically, it's a very well-run organization of people pawning off the crap they don't want, and for free. There's no trading, no adult themes, and no money involved. Also, there's no worries about clogging those landfills or making some epic trek to a specialty recycling center. If you've got something that works but that you no longer want, you send an e-mail to the list serve (with title tags such as OFFER, WANTED [they prefer you don't use this one much], TAKEN [for completed "offer" transactions], and RECEIVED [for completed "wanted" transactions]) and interested parties e-mail you back.

Around 5 p.m. today, I put up two posts: one offering this stupid old floor ab machine (like the one at the bottom of this picture), and one offering two body pillows I don't want anymore. By the time I got home from a crepe outing tonight at 9:30, I had four replies - one for both posts, two more for the ab machine, and one for the pillows (it read: "i am interested in your pillows." Nothing more.). As I type here, I'm simultaneously making arrangements with the first woman who replied to have the items picked up. She's the one who wanted everything, and I suspect she is a compulsive/impulsive shopper, but that is fine with me, since it gets rid of my stuff for me haha.

We'll see how it goes! I'm excited to get rid of more crap and brighten somebody else's day. :)

Bay Area Awesomeness

Today we went to the Alameda County Computer Resource Center to drop off a box of jewel cases. I am proud to say I now have no more commercial jewel cases in my room (by that I mean cases that came with CDs I purchased; I have a few of the slim ones for CDs I'm going to use to back up my computer before we take its half-dead self into the Geek Squad)! Next is to donate our now-superfluous CD storage.

I've had the site for the jewel case recycling place up here on my "resources list" since the first day, but we hadn't made the trek out there till today. Turns out they take much more than jewel cases; just check out the site. I'm very pleased in general that it's so easy to find sustainable solutions around the Bay Area. Maybe it's because I haven't lived in New York long enough to understand all their environmental workings, but it seems like a less progressive place than the Bay. I constantly see people in New York toting their plastic bags, often throwing them out, and the littering is a huge problem, even though it's improved a lot over the past decade (I hear). San Francisco, on the other hand, made the decision last year to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags, which I appreciate. When I'm home, I love the fact that I see so many people whip out their canvas or other eco-friendly bags, not only at the grocery store, but many other places too.

This past year, after my suitemates and I quickly amassed a collection of plastic bags by the end of the first month of school, I grew to hate the plastic bag. But I found a way to take advantage of it: Tip: Keep one plastic bag in each of your purses or bags (yes men you can do it, too), so that when you're out and buy crap on an impulse, you don't have to consume more plastic bags and realize later you have no idea what to do with them. Another nice option for around the home is the Cole Hardware Biobag (an SF-based company :D), which my mom told me about.

Thanks to Art.com for today's image. You can buy the print, by artist Daniel Menchaca, at that link. P.S. for the non-natives, that's the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate. :)

All Quiet on the Wrapping Paper Front

I had an idea for the wrapping paper that was so controversial in our house before. I'm beginning to free up space in my bedroom closet (we left Barbie Double Skatin' Fun in the capable hands of Books for the Barrios today - I don't know if that's the kind of toy they want, but it's the kind of toy they got today), and I want to start migrating the crap from my bedroom itself in there.

The problem is, the boxes I have to store my stuff are mostly horrible old moving boxes - cardboardy and belabeled (now incorrectly) in bright red marker. So I was thinking of how I could make my closet storage prettier. While I first thought of buying some classy boxes like these ones from Ikea (in red, because I think it looks so impressive and bold, and I'm formulating a color scheme plan for my room involving white, brown and red), I had a better, more sustainable idea.

Since my good friend, who has been posting very helpful suggestions and feedback here, reminded me of the importance of reusing, I thought I would take some of our wrapping paper and use it to cover my moving boxes. I'm thinking I'll use one paper for a few boxes on the floor of my closet, and maybe a couple different ones for the boxes that will sit on the top shelf I have. Labeling is of course necessary, so I think I'll concoct some sort of handwritten, concise labels out of paper lying around, backed perhaps by construction paper. I do enjoy construction paper (it makes me feel like the kindergarteners I work with during the school year :D)! I'll be sure to post photos when they're completed. (Sadly, there are no real before pictures of my closet, because my stinking rechargeable batteries die if I don't use them within 24 hours of charging them. Any tips?)

Sites I Like #2: Green Upgrader

Something I've been thinking about lately is the recycling chain. We've recycled a lot of things in our project, and it's felt really good. But that twingey guilt still sets in occasionally. Why? I think it's because I realized that, to actually be green, we need to complete the circle - not only should we recycle, but we should, as consumers, buy green materials. For example, we're doing ok (but not awesome) if we recycle our old paper and then buy new paper that was created from recently killed trees. Buying recycled paper is really the way to go, even if it's a little more expensive.

Being green is a big part of our changing lifestyle here at the house of declutter-in-progress. A great site that's green is today's Site I Like!

Today's site: greenUPGRADER

This site is amazing. They post helpful links about everything environmental, ranging from "return to waster" junk mail stamps (I never realized just how much paper those stupid companies are wasting!) to scientific articles on global warming and green inventions. This graphic about the world "greendex" shows the alarmingly bad habits of the U.S. in comparison to 13 other countries. It's pretty much horrifying.

The site has a great organization and navigation, with sections from DIY Green projects to a fun and games section with comics and videos. From the DIY section, I love this idea of an invisible book shelf! That might segue nicely into a post I'll do later on book storage. :)

Credit to today's picture, oddly enough, to Alternativechannel.tv, not our featured site.

Sites I Like #1: Clutter Busting

The Internet is a big place. Surprise! Haha, I'm sure you knew that. But it hit me the other day when I installed the StumbleUpon add-on for my browser that there are so many things out on the interwebs that I've never even dreamed of. Cheesy, yeah, I know. But I also discovered that there are a lot of sites relevant to my own blog project. So I'll introduce you to my favorites by blogging about them!

Today's site: Betty Kramer's Clutter Busting column

Perfect relevance, right? This woman lost everything she owned in a fire and started her life anew sans clutter. She's a professional organizer, too, with a business called Professional Organizing Services. If my mom and I had the money, I think she would be perfect for cleaning up our place. At this point, though, I think we're invested in this as a DIY project. :)

Kramer's main column has lots of neat little how-to articles, including a recent one that I think has worked well for my mom and me: using a timer (image thanks to Kramer's site) to make sure you get in some time every day to work on the de-cluttering process. In fact, my mom came up with pretty much the same idea (and even a little better) on her own without the Kramer lady's help!

Tip: My mom's suggestion is even green-minded: take at least one waking hour out of your day to not use electricity. Naturally, for us, that hour is what we spend to work on de-cluttering. Generally, we take it during the afternoon, when we can get good light from the now unblocked balcony window area. This time period is also good because it's peak time, when electricity costs are high and everyone is using their computers, etc.