I ran across this series of photos of various families around the world showing all their worldly possessions. It’s interesting to see people live with so few things compared to this country.

My local gas provider, Southern California Gas Company, offers incentives for homeowners who make energy improvements to their (single family detached) homes. Your local provider might do the same!

In six days the city council of L.A. will vote on whether to ban single-use plastic bags. These bans are the only thing that’s proven effective in getting people to stop using them, and, I’m sure you know, they’re deadly for local marine life and create a massive amount of pointless waste. If you support the bag ban, add your name to the petition.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Don’t fall prey to Big Baby — the industry that expects you to go into debt just because you’re expecting.  Follow these twelve tips to save money and the environment without sacrificing doing what is best for you and your infant.

1. Know where to look

Shop for used items at yard sales, thrift stores, and baby consignment shops as well as on Craigslist, Freecycle and eBay.

2. Learn how to play the game

At Salvation Army, most items are marked to 50% off after one week.  At Goodwill, items tagged with a specific color price tag are marked down each week.  Many smaller thrift stores offer “bag sales” where you can fill an entire grocery bag for a set price, which is especially economical if you’re buying tiny items like baby clothes, bibs and blankets.

Baby consignment stores tend to be more expensive than thrift stores, but the quality of the items is usually better. Search for “baby consignment” on Yelp for options near you.  If your town isn’t lucky enough to have baby or children focused thrift stores that are open on an ongoing basis, find out if there’s a place that holds annual or seasonal consignment events. Here in Los Angeles, L.A. Kids Consignment is open only twice a year at each of their three locations.

3. Develop “The Eye”

Since there is no maternity section at most thrift stores, learn how to scan thrift shop racks for pants and shorts with the highly identifiable stretchy waist band and shirts with an empire waist, which cinches right below the bust. (These shirts are usually nice and flowy over the belly, whether they are made for maternity reasons or not.) Knowing the popular maternity brands can help you identify a shirt that looks like a regular t-shirt but has extra fabric to give you that much needed belly coverage. Look out for A Pea in the Pod, Duo (JC Penny’s maternity brand) and Liz Lange (Target’s maternity label).

4. Do your research

Turn to sites like Amazon for product reviews so you’re aware of products’ weaknesses as well as complementary products that you might find useful — like what brand of covers will fit the diaper changing pad you want.  Check out Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association or recalls.gov for safety tips and recalls.

Crowd source.  Ask your friends what they’ve used and loved.  More importantly, find out what they bought and never used.  The most common registry regrets I’ve seen are wipes warmers and Diaper Genies.

5. Buy by the bundle

When an individual is selling baby gear, it usually means they aren’t expecting more kids, so ask if they have maternity clothes to sell, too. See if they’re willing to take off a few bucks from their asking price if you buy multiple things.

6.  Don’t get roped in by extra items in a multi-item listing

Getting a discount for bundling multiple items sounds great, but sometimes you’re tempted to buy something you don’t need.  Don’t do it!  A multi-item listing I responded to had the playpen and swing I wanted, but also mentioned a wonderfully-priced activity table. Once I checked out the online reviews I saw that it was prone to breaking and that babies were eating parts that came off easily.  Eep!

7. Consider the lifetime of the item

Babies grow quickly!  When deciding whether to get a tiny bassinet or a larger one with a more snug insert, try to go for the one that has a longer useful life.  Many parents find that a crib that converts to a toddler bed gives them a better bang for their buck.

8. Don’t over buy

Tip #7 applies to clothing as well as baby gear.  Babies outgrow each size of clothing in one to three months.  Before you buy that great 6-9 month sized winter coat for baby, figure out if your baby is likely to fall into that size range in the middle of summer.

Most women only wear maternity clothes for four to five months.  When you try on maternity clothes, pull on the belly a bit to see if it’ll last your full pregnancy or if you’ll outgrow it in a month.  Heck, ball up a towel and shove it under your shirt.  You’re in the dressing room. No one’s looking!

9. Repurpose items

You may not need a bag that is marketed as a diaper bag when a large purse will do. Make your own burp cloths and receiving blankets by cutting up a large flannel sheet from a thrift store. Buy a short chest of drawers and top it with a changing pad instead of buying a piece of furniture specifically marketed as a changing table.  Use a pillow case as a hamper for soiled baby items. Think back to what our parents or grandparents might have used before there were hundreds of products made for every specialized perceived need.

10. Borrow

Before you go on the hunt for an expensive baby carrier, check with your friends who may be between babies and willing to lend you theirs. Libraries have large selections of audio books on parenting and music CDs and DVDs to keep baby entertained, too.

11. Put it back on the market

After your baby has outgrown something, keep it out of the landfill by posting it to Craigslist or donating it to a thrift store.

12. Some things can’t be pre-used

Many people will tell you that the only item you have to buy brand new is a car seat.  Like a bicycle helmet, a car seat is made of plastic, which degrades over time. It also can’t be reused after an accident. If you choose to purchase a secondhand car seat you should obtain the instruction manual (which can sometimes be found online), ensure all parts are present by referencing the manual, verify that it has never been in an accident, and make sure the model has not been recalled.  A thorough checklist for used car seat safety has been created by the website CPSafety.

With all this secondhand baby shopping you’re doing, your family and friends might be a little depressed that they can’t shower you with gifts from a baby registry. Let them.  Fill your registry with items that have to be purchased new, like baby wash, baby shampoo, baby wipes, diaper rash cream, breast pads and cream, teething ointment and gas relief drops. You may feel that used pacifiers, bottles and nipples are fine once they’re sterilized.  If you don’t, stick those on your registry.

Doing what’s best for baby

Remember that by reusing existing products and reducing the need for the manufacture of new ones, you’re giving your baby the best gift in the world: a better planet for tomorrow.

In awesome thrift store news, this lucky fellow bought a Picasso print in a thrift store for fourteen bucks and it turned out to be an original numbered and signed print, worth around $6,000!

I picked a few sellers to interview about their philosophy and process. I chose them based on the materials they use (both use plastic, which is not truly recyclable and suffers from a host of other problems, and is thus a great material to repurpose) and because I think they both make really nice-looking stuff. Below is the interview with Kim Baldwin of Life Accessories who makes jewelry and Sally Stokes of sararacha who makes jewelry and very cute baskets made out of recycled plastic bags.

1. What’s your main motivation for using recycled materials?

(SS) I use recycled materials for two reasons: they don’t cost anything, and I like preventing stuff from ending up in the landfill. I am very frugal and cringe when I see how much art supplies cost.

(KB) I enjoy seeing something different in an object then what it was originally created for and then giving it new life. I love art that you might not see the recycled pieces in at first glance, you just see the art, but upon further inspection you can see the upcycled gems that really make the piece special.

2. What is your process for coming up with a new item? Do you get
inspired by the material and work from there, or do you have an item
in mind and then find the appropriate materials?

(SS) I get inspired by the materials. I am always saying there has to be something useful I could make out of this.

(KB) I sometimes will have a new object in front of me for months and sketch all of the things I can imagine using the item. With my book dioramas I use old vintage puzzle pieces, and I will make up to thirty sketches before I decide on a design. I use my glass tabletop as a whiteboard to sketch the exact size of the pieces and get them into the right placement. Next, I make or find objects needed for the design and put it all together. This all takes time and love for the design!

3. Do you consider the environmental impact of the support materials you might use on the product (varnish, etc.) or the process (burning plastic?)



(SS) Yes, I do. My recycled baskets are made 100% out of recycled plastic bags. All I do is cut them into strips and weave. When I first started making recycled plastic baskets I had to try several methods including using scotch tape and hot glue before I was able to work out how to use only plastic bags. I am always trying new (to me) weaving methods which require other materials like wire.

(KB) With my bracelets I am a little worried about the resin I use. I looked into “eco-friendly” options but many of those products were less efficient. With my paper creations I try to use white glue as much as possible.

4. Where do you obtain the raw materials for your items? 

(SS) I have been saving plastic bags for about five years now. I have one large bin full. Being an old environmentalist, I have always used reusable shopping bags for grocery shopping. Once in a while, though, I will end up at a store without my bags and will end up bringing home a few single-use bags. I also have several friends who save me their single-use bags. I know someday single-use plastic bags will be a thing of the past.

(KB) Most of the things that I like to work with were discarded (used gift cards from friends or businesses, old wood, cardboard) and others are found at garage sales, thrift stores and sometimes others trash. ☺

5. Do you feel that working with recycled materials changes the way you think about waste in general?

(SS) It does. I have always been an environmentalist and grew up recycling, reusing and thinking about the impact I have on the earth. It also changes the way my friends think of waste. They are always asking me if I could use something they are tossing out. I am not a hoarder but if a creative idea comes to me the instant they ask I will accept the challenge.

(KB) Yes. I am always thinking about our world and the impact of the waste we as consumers create. I think we need to take more responsibility for the destruction we cause and not look at the earth as if we were consumers of it, but the caretakers.

Thanks so much for participating, Sally and Kim!

First of all, the yard sales are nearly year-round, and if you target wealthy neighborhoods, totally worth your while. (A barely used breadmaker for $5? A metal colander for a buck? I’m all over it.) If you don’t enjoy poring over a stranger’s belongings spread out on their lawn on a blanket, that’s okay. The thrift stores are also quite good. I’m going to break it down for you.

Clothing

There are numerous places to buy used designer clothes in L.A. at a fraction of the original cost, such as the AdDress boutique in Santa Monica and 3020 Designer Resale in Brentwood. There are also several fashionable used chains such as Wasteland which cater to a younger demographic. But my dead favorite place to buy clothes is It’s A Wrap, with one location on the west side and one in Burbank.  These clothes are all barely used (sometimes not even worn once!) and hail from shows and studios around town. I have purchased many a pair of Bebe and Theory pants and one murderously awesome Nanette Lepore blazer (——>) from this store, usually at about 50 – 75% off the original price. (The blazer was $15! Why am I not wearing it right now? Don’t know, and seems like a bad call.) The selection is great if you’re on the small side, but they do often have plus-size stuff as well. And if you’re the kind of person who gets a kick out of wearing a scarf that was featured on a Law and Order episode or a shirt from That 70s Show, that’s a little fun bonus for you.

If you’re on a really tight budget, It’s a Wrap does have a rack outside both their stores which features items around $10 (and sometimes less), and you could probably throw together a decent outfit for $15 or $20 on a good day. (I have a jacket from there which I got for $6 which I wear quite a bit.) All the Out of The Closets I’ve ever been to also had very wearable used clothing sections that are quite inexpensive. Also the Salvation Army boutique in Santa Monica (with a regular Salvation Army next door) also features high-end clothing in excellent shape at reasonable prices. Especially good if you need some stuff for work but don’t feel like blowing your whole budget.

Furniture

Especially if you like vintage stuff, the two best used furniture places on the west side are easily Wertz Brothers and Pepe’s. Pepe’s is particularly good in terms of customer service, and they just seem like super nice people. Wertz Brothers is massive, their prices are good, and they have both contemporary and vintage items. If you’re looking for something really contemporary and specific, like a Pottery Barn couch that you can’t quite afford but you really dig, you can continually check craigslist and one will eventually turn up — that’s the magic of living in a big city.

If you’re willing to travel south a little Studio Antiques in El Segundo is also pretty great, as is Street Faire Antiques in Torrance, which is where I bought my beloved dresser. They also sponsor a monthly street fair with antique dealers from all over, which is a good size and a lot easier to deal with than that flea market at the Rose Bowl.

Miscellaneous

There are several National Council of Jewish Women’s Thrift Stores in L.A. which I think are generally overpriced, though they are well-organized and tidy, which I appreciate. I hear occasional stories of some good deal had in the clothing department, but they skew pretty old ladyish, if you ask me. However, in the plus column, if you’re out for dishes or knick-knacks, it’s not a bad place. They do have decent vintage furniture sometimes. Also, because it’s not exactly run by hipsters, you can occasionally find something on the cheap that they simply don’t realize would be valuable in another setting, such as my matching mid-century lamps with shades, which I got for $25 apiece (<——-that’s one of ‘em). I saw a very cheap mission style chair there recently which I fervently hope went to a good home.

For general household items, I’ll generally go to any Out of the Closet, has many stores throughout southern California. If you need something to hang on the wall, a teapot, or a lamp, you’ve got a good chance of finding one at a reasonable price.

Good luck out there, fellow shoppers!

Some environmentally-minded people in New Orleans are looking to get people to recycle the 25 million pounds of plastic beads that make their way to that city each year during Mardi Gras. But apparently New Orleans has a long way to go to even embrace curbside recycling in a big way. Let’s hope it pans out!

Some hunter and climate change denier guy is prepared to give you a fancy gun if you can convince him that climate change is happening. Attention, small subset of human who are environmentalists and gun enthusiasts. Get on that!

And some woman in Florida burned down a 3,500 hundred year old cypress tree while smoking meth inside it. It’s such a famous tree it has a name and I’ve heard of it: The Senator. She even took photos of it burning down and showed them around, which is what ultimately got her nabbed. Not exactly a victory for humanity.

Have a great weekend!

It is not that surprising that a few scraps of fabric are almost valueless to most people, since clothes have become so crazily inexpensive in the last hundred years that even individuals who live well below the poverty line often have extensive wardrobes, mostly consisting of cheaply-made clothes from sweatshop labor. Today the average American buys 60 items of clothing per year. When I worked with homeless teens about ten years ago even they could afford to be selective about what donated clothing items they would accept. They’d tell me stories of dumpster diving and finding clothing items with the tags still on. Getting into all that, however, is a post for another day.

So, for today, I’m just asking you to consider starting a rag bag, if you don’t have one already. Wouldn’t it be great if you could stop buying paper towels (which can’t be recycled, FYI)? Oh, how superior you’d feel to all those suckers in places like Home Depot that actually buy rags.

Oh, how your mirror will shine. (And they’re great for dusting, too.)

*Could make a great song. Someone get on that!

So is it worth the effort to recycle at all? I’m going to take a look at some common categories and we’ll review.

Aluminum. Recycling aluminum cans is a fantastically efficient process with no obvious downside. It takes 95% less energy to produce a can from recycled materials than new stuff, which is probably why you could always get a nickel for these babies even before recycling came into vogue in its recent form. This one’s a no brainer.

Paper. Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry accounts for 4% of the world’s energy use, and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry. Plus, paper is made out of trees, and trees are pretty useful to have around to take in carbon dioxide (to combat global warming), provide habitat for animals, and put treehouses in. (Clearcutting forests to make a bunch of brochures probably isn’t going to fall into the “worth it” pile in fifty years.) According to Earth Greetings, recycled paper uses 36% less energy consumption and 44% fewer greenhouse gases than virgin paper, and those are significant numbers. Also, the argument goes that paper that goes directly to the landfill emits methane, a greenhouse gas, as it decomposes. One ton of paper = 1.38 tons of Co2. (Though it’s not clear when and if this actually happens, given studies that show landfills don’t allow for enough oxygen for anything to really break down, so put this in the maybe pile.)

While recycling paper is worth it, it requires a lot of energy and water to either recycle paper or make it from trees, so use both sides and limit your use of paper where you can. When you do recycle your paper, know that China will take it, and that fact has made this woman rich.

Glass. Glass is made out of sand, which is pretty awesome, if you stop to think about it. Not only that, but it is pretty much infinitely recyclable. Recycling glass is only 21% more energy efficient than making new glass, which may not sound like much compared to the efficiency of aluminum, but if you worked for a company and had an idea that was going to make things 21% more efficient, I’d guess you’d be in for a big fat raise come performance review time. Because glass is heavy and thus requires a lot of fuel to transport from one place to another, it’s possible that there are specific situations (like being hundreds of miles away from a recycling location) where it might make sense to throw away glass bottles rather than recycling them. However, unless you are in such a specific situation, I would advise always recycling your glass. I would also always advise choosing glass over plastic when the choice is available, because glass is made from a plentiful source, is inert, and poses no real threat to anyone outside of a barroom fight. Whereas plastic, its most likely substitute, sucks.

Plastic. Plastic is light, versatile, and a serious environmental problem. Plastic recycling doesn’t even really exist, not in the way that people think. While an aluminum can can go on to many lives as another aluminum can, and the same goes for glass bottles, your plastic water and beverage bottles are “downcycled” into other products, like patio furniture and car parts — almost always items that are a dead-end, recycle-wise. I guess that’s better than nothing, but that means every time a bottle is manufactured virgin materials are being used — which in this case is crude oil, and all the problems that entails.

Much of it ends up in the oceans and forms the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, which both feature floatable plastic debris spread over a significant, hard-to-measure area. While these phrases bring to mind a massive area with endless pieces of plastic clearly visible to the naked eye, and that’s not quite accurate, it’s still pretty offputting. Plastic is also responsible for polluting many a formerly pristine beach, like Hawaii’s Kamilo Beach, which gets about 15-20 tons of trash a year washed in from the ocean. The most direct victims of all this plastic are seabirds, who mistake it for food and eat it. This plastic gets stuck in their stomachs,
leaving no room for actual food. A study from 2005 shows that 95% of all fulmars washed up dead at the North Sea contained fragments of plastic.

There are also studies from the Center for Disease Control that show possible health risks from some type of plastic use, notably polycarbonates (marked #7 on the bottom), which can leach a potentially harmful chemical into your food.

In a lot of ways, I wish there were no “recycling” program for plastics, because I think that would make people think twice before buying or acquiring it. I think it’s pointless enough to be almost a feel-good exercise, which is why I’m pretty haphazard about throwing my shampoo bottles into the blue bin. It’s far more important to minimize your contact with the plastics industry than to “recycle” your own plastic, because if you’re creating a market for this stuff, that means more plastic blown out of recycling and garbage trucks and into the streets, more overturned shipping containers full of plastic products or nurdles that go directly into the ocean, and more seabirds with their bellies full of plastic.

If you think I’m anti-plastic, you should check out the website of this woman who has almost completely eliminated her plastic use since 2007.

Also, limit your rinsing out of recycled items to the bare minimum. This is solely to keep away pests and has no impact on the recycling process itself. Conserving water is always worth it!

If you still have any burning questions about recycling, let me know, because I’m going to try to interview someone from the LA County Recycling Program in the next few days.

1. If you think of something you need to do which will take five minutes or less, do it right now.

2. Don’t buy placeholder items. If you need a set of dishes and you see one that you don’t particularly like at Target and think you’ll buy them and use them temporarily until you find a set you really like — don’t. Put in the time to get a set that is of good quality that you really enjoy. You can keep them happily for many years, and you don’t have to deal with getting rid of the placeholder item.

3. Maintain. Get your teeth cleaned, get your oil changed, polish your shoes once in a while. Clean your wood floors every week or so. Eat some vegetables. It’ll all save you time in the end.

4. If you think of something that has to be done that will take 10-15 minutes, do it by the end of the day, or tomorrow at the latest.

5. Do one more thing than you planned on every day.

6. You should not have paid storage unless you are (a) temporarily moving out of the country or (b) running a business which requires it. Unpaid storage areas (like attics or garages) should contains only items that you use, but infrequently, like camping equipment, Christmas decorations, or painting stuff. If you have furniture, clothes, or old toys in there, get rid of them.

7. Try to figure out what you are doing that is a waste of time, and stop doing it. When I turned 40 I stopped reading introductions in books and balancing my checkbook. So far, so good.

8. Working on something for ten minutes right now is better than an hour tomorrow.

9. Don’t buy something for an anticipated need, only for an existing need. I’m not saying you can’t buy a new shirt once in a while for variety’s sake. But don’t buy a parka because it’s on sale and going to Antarctica’s on your bucket list; wait until you have the ticket in hand.

10. Buy quality items without a lot of moving parts. A basic toaster will last forever; a blender/chopper/rice maker will lose some of its capabilities at some point. Make sure it’s still going to be useful to you when it does. And don’t buy a vacuum cleaner that needs bags. At some point you won’t be able to get them anymore, and the item will be obsolete.

11. Don’t spend extra money on something which isn’t going to matter. If I can buy a used paper shredder off craigslist for $15, is that going to make me less efficient or less happy than buying a new one at Staples? Doubtful.

12. Understand your priorities and act accordingly. If you really want to do something that is in your power, start on it right now. Do you dream of starting a clothing line? Whip out that sketchbook! Do you desperately miss your cousin who lives in Iowa who you haven’t seen since 1992? Get her on the phone. The less time you waste, the more you’ll have to spend on what really matters to you.

I hope you all accomplish your 2012 goals, whatever they are!

I am also super pleased to let you Angelenos know that light rail is on the way to our fair city. Phase 2 of the project, which was approved in 2010, means the line will be extended from Culver City to the beach. Boiling this down to a more Nancy-centric interpretation, that means I may eventually be able to take light rail on my daily commute. I look forward to it!

Google is always looking for ways to use green energy to run their business, and has taken the recent step of investing $94 million in large-scale solar plants.  I really appreciate that Google is forward-thinking in this way, and sees these investments as not only socially responsible but good business. I hope this will inspire other corporations to go this same route.