Stuff

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Stuff

1rastaphrog
Mar 15, 2015, 6:53 am

I was reading an article in this weeks Time magazine about "downsizing" how much we buy/own that mentioned this video. It's pretty good, and there's a bunch of other videos by the same folks on related topics of stuff we all buy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

22wonderY
Ene 26, 2016, 1:41 pm

An excellent website

http://storyofstuff.org/

3MaureenRoy
Feb 8, 2016, 6:06 pm

Now there's a website that only sells stuff that will last you for your whole lifetime:

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/blogs/website-only-stocks-produc...

4margd
Feb 9, 2016, 9:11 am

Having dealt with parents' estate, and presently decluttering my house, I've been thinking about items of mine (and theirs) that might become heirlooms for which future generations might even (gently) compete: some pieces of furniture, a couple pieces of jewellery, huge stainless steel shears, palm sander (my uncle's), cast iron pans, top-line stainless skillet...

Maybe even my small artificial Christmas tree, hung with 4 generations so far of costume and broken jewellery. (In addition to necklaces, broken and plastic children's rosaries serve as "garlands".) Really glitters when lit at night--I can see it one day becoming my main Christmas tree.

5margd
Dic 27, 2017, 8:47 am

Graphic of weight of human influence upon the earth at

The Weight Of Human Influence On The Earth
Martin Armstrong | Feb 23, 2017

No other species has had such a dramatic effect on planet earth as that wrought by humans. According to research published in The Anthropocene Review, the weight of the 'material output of the contemporary human enterprise' amounts to 30.11 trillion tonnes. The largest share of this weight is accounted for by urban areas, with 11.10 trillion tons. The estimates also consider trawled sea floor, eroded soil and reservoirs - all signs of the immense human influence on the little blue planet.

https://www.statista.com/chart/7175/the-weight-of-human-influence-on-the-earth/

6margd
mayo 13, 2018, 8:10 am

Thinking about ‘functional possessions’ you already use at home can reduce your urge to make impulse purchases, new research suggests
Meera Jagannathan | May 13, 2018

Reflecting on recently used personal possessions can help stifle the urge to impulse-buy, according to new Rice University research slated for publication in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. This reflection reduced study participants’ willingness to purchase new items by about 14% compared to a control group, the study found.

...One 29-year-old woman’s response, by way of example: “I just purchased a Kindle Fire. It is black. I can read books and access the internet. It opens a world of novelty to me. I read a book in bed and checked the weather this morning before even getting up. I spent about 45 mins. I also downloaded several apps. I was laying down and the ease of Kindle use allowed me to comfortably read without noise to wake up my partner.”

Participants were then shown five products — a sweater, a stainless-steel watch, a chair, a box of Godiva chocolates and a coffee maker — and asked to estimate the product’s actual price and indicate their willingness to pay for it. People who engaged in reflection on a recently used possession, the researchers found, were less willing to pay for the basket of items than were those in the control group or planning group....

https://moneyish.com/upgrade/this-simple-trick-could-help-you-stop-overspending/

________________________________________________

Utpal M. Dholakia et al. 2018. Should I Buy this When I Have so Much? Reflection on Personal Possessions As an Anti-Consumption Strategy. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. 3 May 2018. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3163924

Abstract

Despite having ample possessions, many Western consumers continue to buy new things. Our central proposition in this research is that one approach to resist shopping temptations and stifle buying urges is to get consumers to reflect on, and evoke momentary desire for, recently used belongings. We contribute to the anti-consumption literature by theorizing that the desire to consume, like willpower, may function as a limited motivational resource, becoming depleted upon reflecting about favored personal possessions, leaving less desire for subsequent shopping urges. Across four studies, consumers who reflected on their recently used personal belongings experienced less desire for an unexpectedly encountered product, were less likely to buy impulsively and expressed a lower willingness-to-pay for new products. This research broadens the scope of anti-consumption theory. In addition to rejection, restriction, and reclaim, reflection is proposed as a fourth strategy for individuals to regulate purchasing activities. Reflection provides a practical intervention for policymakers, consumer advocates, and consumers to consume prudently.

72wonderY
Sep 2, 2018, 11:42 am

Interesting that plastics are posing a conservator’s nightmare in museums.

These Cultural Treasures Are Made of Plastic. Now They’re Falling Apart.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/science/plastics-preservation-getty.html

82wonderY
Sep 19, 2018, 9:06 am

An opinion piece in the NYT today:

I Highly Recommend Joining This Cult

Let me tell you about the cult I have joined: the cult of thrift.
...

I am recognizing and appreciate my privilege in being wealthy enough to live well and still save, rather than feel dissatisfied by what a tiny percentage of the global population has that I do not. The experience has not been so much one of going without pleasure as about savoring each moment of pleasure rather than racing on to the next one.

This approach is important, not just for personal satisfaction but also for politics. When professionals on relatively high wages in wealthy countries complain that they cannot get ahead and life is too expensive, they are not speaking in solidarity with the poor — they are actually insulting the poor.

If we want to tackle inequality, those in higher income brackets must understand that they have the power to live within their means, that they have more than enough, not only to support themselves but to give more to others in the form of taxation or philanthropy.

And the same goes for tackling environmental damage. The environment will not be saved by a consumerist mind-set in which the developed world rapidly throws out its consumer products to replace them with brand-new, more-energy-efficient consumer products, as if the environment can be saved by a fleet of shiny new Priuses bought on credit.

I still have a long way to go in reducing my consumption. As my journey continues I plan to seek inspiration from people who have less than me rather than people who have more.

92wonderY
Sep 19, 2018, 9:14 am

That article points to several proponents of thrift.

David Ramsey

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, whose website is HERE.

Marie Kondo

Scott Pape

102wonderY
Oct 30, 2018, 11:48 am

At least in Britain, 'fast fashion' is in the news related to its' cost environmentally. I've seen several articles about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion

I recently read Overdressed : the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion, and learned some of the hard facts.

NPR did an article on that info in 2016:
https://www.npr.org/2016/04/08/473513620/what-happens-when-fashion-becomes-fast-...

Here's a good primer on strategies and alternatives:
http://www.greenstrategy.se/sustainable-fashion/seven-forms-of-sustainable-fashi...

My strategies:
-buy secondhand
-buy natural fabrics
-repair as needed (my family still darns, even some wool socks.)
-wear it forever
-cut it up and find another use for it (eg: I use rags around the house rather than paper towels.)

112wonderY
Ene 9, 2019, 6:34 am

Legislation proposals target obsolescence - “right to repair” - in EU and US states

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46797396

12margd
Ene 9, 2019, 9:39 am

I just had to replace a vacuum cleaner. My handy spouse scoured the Internet and all his usual sources, but could not find a simple (clip?) that failed in it. (Unfortunately, being a handy, thrifty sort, he stored the mechanical bits in a box with other stuff in the basement...)

Sometimes he has found such parts in China--and has been amazed at how cheaply they've been mailed to US (and to Canada). Exhibit A for international postal agreement that Trump rails about, I suppose?

132wonderY
Ene 9, 2019, 10:10 am

>12 margd: Ha! My sympathies.

I have several vacuum stories of my own.

My MIL gifted me with a Hoover canister model when we bought our first house in 1978.
It was submerged in the Great WV Flood of 1985. I disassembled it, cleaned and dried it, reassembled and plugged it in. It started right up.

When it finally expired, I immediately replaced it with the same, but updated style. Since then, I've picked up two more identicals at thrift stores, one for the KY house.
One at the main house was stashed away because the cord rewind didn't function. But when the power button failed recently on the main machine, I was able to switch components and keep my favorite.

14margd
Ene 9, 2019, 10:50 am

As a student, I worked for GE Canada one summer ~1970, assembling lawn mowers, fans, heaters--and vacuums. While a great experience for a middle-class girl, I was greatly inspired to return to my studies! (And to appreciate unions--compensations, safety--and others' manual dexterity, which I lacked!) Anyway, my impression was that appliances back then were durable (still have a box fan and an electric fan from those days) and simple, so repairable. One of my jobs was quality control and I remember that vacs of the day were HIGHLY variable in their suction, and I don't think nearly as powerful as today's...

My new machine is a vacuum robot, which I am loving. Afraid, though that it won't prove durable, and that one day its parts will reside in its own box in the basement. Good idea to buy same brand if one can: DH is SO stoked when he can use some doodad he's stored away!

(BTW, those wooden CD racks people have been giving away are perfect for keeping doodads visible in plastic jars (peanut butter, Costco pesto, etc.), so handy, thrifty sorts can more easily find the piece they need!)

152wonderY
mayo 7, 2019, 11:37 am

I didn't even know what they are. The article makes the statement - "Some scientists have even started to refer to the present as the Plasticine."

AirPods Are a Tragedy

The particles that make up these elements were created 13.8 billion years ago, during the Big Bang. Humans extract these elements from the earth, heat them, refine them. As they work, humans breathe in airborne particles, which deposit in their lungs. The materials are shipped from places like Vietnam, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, and India, to factories in China. A literal city of workers creates four tiny computing chips and assembles them into a logic board. Sensors, microphones, grilles, and an antenna are glued together and packaged into a white, strange-looking plastic exoskeleton.
...
Destroying the mild nuisance of headphone jacks comes at two costs: One, it locks people into a system of limited, compatible, proprietary products that are inevitably going to die in a few years. And two, it creates a dilemma at the product’s end of life. If you try to recycle AirPods, a worker at a recycling plant will have to engage in the risky and mundane task of separating the glued-in lithium-ion battery from the plastic. If you try to throw AirPods away, you run the risk of starting a fire in a garbage compactor facility. And if AirPods wind up in a landfill, the earth will embed the earbuds into its crust for at least a thousand years.

AirPods were destined to become e-waste from the moment they were manufactured. And AirPods become e-waste after just eighteen months, when the irreplaceable lithium ion battery dies.

On a global scale, our economic system is predicated on a disregard for longevity, because it’s more profitable for companies to make products that die than it is to make products that last.

So sure, AirPods aren’t the most expensive earbuds on the market, and the jokes that the product is a display of wealth are largely tongue-in-cheek. But in truth, AirPods are a symbol of wealth. They’re physical manifestations of a global economic system that allows some people to buy and easily lose $160 headphones, and leaves other people at risk of death to produce those products. If AirPods are anything, they’re future fossils of capitalism.

162wonderY
Jul 29, 2019, 3:32 pm

Earth Overshoot Day Shows We're Tearing Through Resources Faster Than Ever

It’s taken us only 209 days to burn through a year’s worth of resources — everything from food and timber to land and carbon. We are using up nature 1.75 times faster than it can be replenished. To do this sustainably, we would need the resources of 1.75 Earths.

17margd
Nov 27, 2019, 3:18 am

I've been rear-ended twice leaving parking lots while holiday shopping, I don't enjoy crowds/the search/sold-out items/, and we share one vehicle, so home delivery has its charms. Maybe too easy, though?

How our home delivery habit reshaped the world
Samanth Subramanian | Nov 21, 2019

The great trick of online retail has been to get us to shop more and think less about how our purchases reach our homes.

...The great trick of online retail has been to get us to do more shopping while thinking less about it – thinking less, in particular, about how our purchases reach our homes. This divorce of a product from its voyage to us is perhaps the thing that Amazon has sold us most successfully. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, never wanted his customers to worry about shipping – about how much it cost, or about how long it would take – and he relentlessly shredded delivery times to make shipping incidental to the purchasing experience.

Amazon’s emphasis on speed compelled other retailers to hurry, too, and encouraged us to believe that if something cannot be had quickly, it is barely worth having at all. It is as if we have forgotten that a product is an object moving through space, fighting gravity, air resistance and other forces of nature. Companies, though, are only too aware of it. While we choose and buy our purchases with mere inch-wide movements of our thumbs, they are busy rearranging the physical world so that our deliveries pelt towards us in ever-quicker time.

The frictionless appearance of a box on the doorstep is such a seductive notion. We have come to rely on it in such a brief period that we have not been able to grapple fully with the scale or the meaning of home delivery. For thousands of years, human progress was indexed to the ease and speed of our mobility: our capacity to walk on two legs, and then to ride on animals, sail on boats, chug across the land and fly through the air, all to procure for ourselves the food and materials we wanted. In barely two decades, that model has been turned inside out. Progress today consists of having our food and materials wing their way to each of us individually; it is indexed to our immobility.

The deliveries of e-commerce are radically different from those we knew earlier: milk, or newspapers, or pizza, brought home by businesses who did one thing and one thing only. Internet shopping invites you to gaze out upon the entire bazaar all at once and to indulge the merest whim. Perhaps online retail’s closest kinship is with the thick Sears catalogue sent out across the US early in the 20th century, listing more than 100,000 products: pianos, books, barbershop chairs. You could buy an entire house and have the parts shipped over in two railroad cars. Shipping was not free.

But the catalogue’s aim was to continually expand choice. E-commerce’s additional aim, and now its primary one, is to continually compress time...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/21/how-our-home-delivery-habit-r...

18margd
Dic 8, 2019, 4:40 am

Finds this year at a local secondhand store: necklaces, coffee carafe, wool blanket, milk crates, DU wood duck house, books, carboy, corker. All in great shape, if dusty. Necklaces are beautiful after a soaking--my small luxury.

I've had good luck buying travel books from well-rated thrift shops via amazon--I figure at worst my money is going to a good cause, but their books have arrived without problem. A friend was thrilled with a replacement I found for her much used, unbound & tattered Julia Child cookbook. Also, Master of the Senate, Book Three of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.

'The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,' Says 'Secondhand' Expert
Terry Gross | December 4, 20191:42 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air (37 minutes)

"Your average thrift store in the United States only sells about one-third of the stuff that ends up on its shelves," (Adam Minter, author of 'Secondhand') says. "The rest of the stuff ends up somewhere else."

...On how the environmental impact of stuff is more on the manufacturing side

A "life cycle assessment" is basically where somebody goes and looks at the full environmental impact of a product — say a smartphone — from manufacturing to disposal and looks at what the air pollution impacts are, the mining impacts, the carbon impacts. The one thing we do know is that the biggest impact of most products is the manufacturing side. So if you want to reduce the environmental impact of your consumption, the best way to do that is to not manufacture more stuff. In that sense, the best thing you can do is not buy more stuff.

If you want to reduce the environmental impact of your consumption, the best way to do that is to not manufacture more stuff. In that sense, the best thing you can do is not buy more stuff.

The longer that your product lasts, the longer that you use that smartphone, the less likely it is that you're going to be buying a new one. So the goal really should be to keep your stuff in use for as long as possible, whether it's by you or somebody in Ghana or somebody in Cambodia. So in that sense, it's a really good thing, because if somebody in Cambodia is using your phone, they're probably not buying a new cheap handset there.

On where goods go to die

They end up in the landfill or the incinerator. I mean, there is no green heaven, if you will. Everything wears out eventually and everything gets tossed out. ... That's the fate of stuff. That's the fate of our consumerist societies. If we spend our time thinking this is going to be used perpetually, forever, even the best-made garment, the most robust smartphone, we're deluding ourselves a bit. Eventually, everything does have to die. ... It's sort of the ultimate story of consumerism and it's the dark side. We can't really delude ourselves into thinking everything lasts forever.

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/04/784702588/the-best-thing-you-can-do-is-not-buy-mo...

192wonderY
Dic 8, 2019, 5:06 am

I think of wool blankets as riches. They’re not valued by others though - they usually sell for one dollar around here.

20margd
Editado: Dic 9, 2019, 4:18 pm

This one cost a bit more but looked like it had seen little use--maybe in a spare bedroom? It looked like new after a soak in Woolite and a day in sunlight! I've bought a couple that were more "loved" to stash in kids' cars for the winter. A freebie lines the dog's crate in winter. :)

21MaureenRoy
Dic 9, 2019, 1:01 pm

The original Santa Claus -- Saint Nicholas -- celebrated the Christmas season in a sustainable way. Ho ho ho! We are now fast approaching the Winter holiday season. For those of you who celebrate Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Christmas, Kwaanza, New Year's Day, and other such events, happy everything!

22MaureenRoy
Sep 23, 2020, 2:18 pm

Speaking of "stuff," here's the latest compelling reason to boycott the Amazon website/empire:

"Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos promised in February to pour at least $10 billion of his personal fortune into fighting climate change, and that the effort would "begin issuing grants this summer.

Yesterday was the first day of fall, and the Bezos Earth Fund -- as he dubbed the venture -- has yet to announce a single grant. Further, there's been little public evidence of much other work or spending."

-- Source of this quote is The Climate Wire.

23MaureenRoy
Editado: Oct 2, 2020, 7:00 am

Ever since Amazon announced its use of warehouse robots, and then its use of Prime member days, I suspected that both initiatives have increased the exploitation of Amazon warehouse workers. Finally, here is the evidence that confirms those suspicions:

https://revealnews.org/article/how-amazon-hid-its-safety-crisis/?

24margd
Oct 29, 2020, 6:53 am

Fix, or Toss? The ‘Right to Repair’ Movement Gains Ground
Paola Rosa-Aquino | Oct. 23, 2020

Manufacturers of a wide range of products have made it increasingly difficult over the years to repair things, for instance by limiting availability of parts or by putting prohibitions on who gets to tinker with them. It affects not only game consoles or farm equipment, but cellphones, military gear, refrigerators, automobiles and even hospital ventilators, the lifesaving devices that have proven crucial this year in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, a movement known as “right to repair” is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions like these.

This August, Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to block manufacturers’ limits on medical devices, spurred by the pandemic. In Europe, the European Commission announced plans in March for new right-to-repair rules that would cover phones, tablets, and laptops by 2021.

In less than two weeks, Massachusetts voters will consider a measure that would make it easier for local garages to work on cars. And in more than 20 statehouses nationwide, right-to-repair legislation has been introduced in recent years by both Republicans and Democrats.

Over the summer, the House advanced a funding bill that includes a requirement that the FTC complete a report on anticompetitive practices in the repair market and present its findings to Congress and the public. And in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Marine Captain Elle Ekman and former Marine Lucas Kunce last year detailed how mechanics in the American armed forces have run into similar obstacles...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/climate/right-to-repair.html

25John5918
Editado: Oct 29, 2020, 7:37 am

>24 margd:

That's one thing Africa is good at. You can get most things repaired here, although it gets increasingly difficult with some of the newer technical devices which require special equipment and tools to diagnose and repair them. Friends tell me that they can even get their most modern iphones repaired here, although if you then ever try to get anything done to it by a registered dealer elsewhere they won't touch it once it has been repaired unofficially.

I drive a twenty year old Land Rover and most bits of it have been repaired or replaced at some point, including a new (secondhand) engine, the gearbox dismantled and rebuilt, roof and two doors replaced, new radiator, modifications to the fan, etc. And it's still going strong - it will probably outlast me. Something like two thirds of all Land Rovers ever built during close to seventy years of production are still operational!

26PossMan
Editado: Oct 29, 2020, 7:53 am

>22 MaureenRoy:: I doubt that I will ever boycott Amazon. I don't think of it as a charity. It's a commercial concern and as far as I can see very efficient at what it does although I admit I use it mainly for books because the local bookshop is so poorly stocked.

27SandraArdnas
Oct 29, 2020, 9:07 am

>26 PossMan: So, only charities have any ethical or other obligations towards its workers and the world at large? Commercial concerns' only responsibility is to be profitable, or to use your euphemism 'efficient'? You seriously do not see how this lopsided view is problematic?

28margd
Oct 29, 2020, 10:38 am

>25 John5918: DH's pretty handy, except as you say with the newer technical gizmos. Amazing difference between our 33 YO Maytag washer and dryer, which he keeps going courtesy of Internet, a local parts store, and sometimes parts directly from China, which come incredibly cheap, and new Maytag dryer we bought for summer place when a hand-me-down (Inglis) apparently died. The new Maytag is no doubt more efficient, but what amazed us most is that its (difficult-to-repair) electronics diagnosed our original problem. Wasn't the poor Inglis's fault at all, may it RIP, but rather a microscopic crack in an electrical fixture. Without new Maytag electronics, it would have cost us $$$ to diagnose, I bet. (DH, engineer, and cousin, electrician, missed the crack in spite of their probes.)

29John5918
Editado: Oct 31, 2020, 11:21 am

>28 margd: electronics

Electronics is the curse of modern cars. When the computer detects a problem, it often shuts the entire car down, and you can't restart it until someone comes with a laptop and the right software to diagnose, fix and reset it. Not much fun if you're stranded in the bush with no means of communication. Whereas with my old car, you can limp home slowly, or get a bush mechanic to do a temporary repair. I've been able to drive it with a failed turbo, once drove 350 km with a rear shock absorber missing after it broke off in a place where I couldn't get a replacement, and on another occasion drove with a snapped throttle cable by leaning out of the window and grasping the end of it with a pair of pliers. Many years ago I drove a different car 1,500 kms with a leak in the cooling system plugged by putting raw eggs in the radiator. Can't do any of that with modern cars!

30PossMan
Oct 31, 2020, 11:17 am

>27 SandraArdnas:: Well I was responding to a post which gave as a reason Jeff Bezos's failure to donate $10 billion of his own money to climate action. So I take it as a post about charity not corporate responsibilities in general.

31SandraArdnas
Oct 31, 2020, 11:32 am

>30 PossMan: Sorry, I didn't check and thought it's about >23 MaureenRoy:. Still, the point stands. Until people start expecting corporations to consider anything other than profit, it will certainly not happen. In fact, promising to fund climate action and not following through is what I'd call playing the public for fools. It's free publicity for Bezos as long as no one notices he gave squat in the end

32margd
Nov 1, 2022, 1:06 pm

‘Fast Furniture’ Is Cheap. And Americans Are Throwing It in the Trash.
The mass-produced furniture that sold furiously during the pandemic could soon be clogging landfills.
Debra Kamin | Oct. 31, 2022

...Ikea...Wayfair...Amazon...

...Each year, Americans throw out more than 12 million tons of furniture, creating mountains of solid waste that have grown 450 percent since 1960, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Bits of tossed furniture can be recycled, but the vast majority ends up in landfills...

...For all of its flaws, fast furniture offers millions of homeowners the opportunity to live in a stylish home at an affordable price point. As young people contend with skyrocketing housing prices and economic anxiety, even those who would prefer to browse antique markets or shop for custom pieces simply don’t have the resources to do so...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/realestate/fast-furniture-clogged-landfills.h...
------------------------------------------------------

And some young people don't want the solid family pieces offered to them, even with reupholstery thrown in... :(

332wonderY
Nov 1, 2022, 2:42 pm

>32 margd: That is sad. My adult children love oak furniture. And maple; and mahogany, and pine, etc. I’ve been known to rescue pieces from curbside and even the city dump.

We’re not snobs about it. IKEA has it's place. I installed a whole wall of Kallax in my basement, and it’s probably there till the house falls down.

There is a poster on Instagram who photographs all the stuff she rescues in NYC. Bins of stuff still with original price tags. That makes me ill.

34margd
Editado: Nov 1, 2022, 3:45 pm

>33 2wonderY: I seem to be the family repository. Only one young'un seems to want or appreciate family stuff. Now looking for interest among cousins' kids. SO NICE when I find a good connection, but so far it's been small pieces, not furniture. When my time comes, what's left may all have to go to secondhand store, where hopefully SOMEBODY will appreciate it.

Took an upholstery class, but some of it's beyond my skill level, so have to send it out. Certainly have had to find help with woodwork.

We also have some modern pieces, one a desk office set that has lasted far longer and better than I would have expected. Passed it to a kid whose spouse broke up the set, something I wouldn't do...

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