The 6th R…Sharing (?)

Project affirmation! While reading the assigned chapter from Roseland’s “Toward Sustainable Communities” I stumbled upon this little gem: “People who rethink their priorities and habits often realize they just don’t need so much stuff! For most of us, this is likely the most effective means of not only waste reduction but higher personal satisfaction.” Woo! I think I'm on the right track.

This week’s chapter on waste reduction and recycling emphasizes thinking outside the box, so I’ll try to take you down the wormhole I fell into tonight. Seeking inspiration, I visited the Story of Stuff site once again, only to discover I had been missing out on “The Story of Solutions!”

The video makes quick reference to the idea of COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION, which is really just a fancy word for sharing. I Googled for more info, and found this TEDx talk (below) delivered in Sydney by the author of a book called “What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.”

The part that made her message most clear to me came near the end - “I don’t want the DVD, I want the movie it carries. I don’t want a clunky answering machine, I want the message it saves. I don’t want a CD, I want the music it plays. In other words…I don’t want stuff, I want the needs or experiences it fulfills.” -- Now, you will hear in later blog posts why most of my CDs will survive the “Less But Better” clean out, but the message still resonates. -- These words summarize why sharing resources that accomplish tasks could be one of the simplest things we as individuals can do to reduce our consumption without decreasing our quality of life.

After watching this, my question was - where does sharing fit in to the waste hierarchy (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover)? I suppose it’s a form of reuse, but the benefits and barriers to sharing are much different than those for reusing. Benefits include community ties, cost savings, and resource conservation, while the barriers seem mostly tied to availability of suitable sharing programs. Rachel Botsman goes on to explain that, lucky for us, four factors are actually leading to a HUGE growth in suitable sharing programs these days. Those factors are:

She also delineates three types of sharing systems that are on the rise:

• Redistribution Markets (think Goodwill, eBay, Craigslist, sites like Freecycle and Swap.com, or even just trading goods/services between neighbors)
• Collaborative Lifestyles (think local examples like Bloomington Co-Operative Living and COWORK BTown)
• Product Service Systems (think community libraries, ZipCar, Netflix, tool lending libraries, Air BnB, and more)

I’m curious what everyone else thinks of the potential for “collaborative consumption” to meet the needs of both humans and our environmental systems. Does this have the potential to significantly reduce our consumption of “stuff” and thereby lessen our ecological footprints? Will humans readily adjust their habits to fit this model, or will full ownership of resources remain the norm? EVERYONE, please share your thoughts! I'm quite curious J

The "Less But Better" Closet

It’s been fun to get moving on de-cluttering my life, examining my purchasing habits, and hopefully decreasing my impact. To begin with, I’m digging into my closet! Most clothing that we purchase in the USA has a very complicated life cycle. If you think a t-shirt is surely pretty simple, watch NPR’s “Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt.” Really amazing stuff. Producing the stuff that ends up in our closets creates impacts that are spread all across the globe affecting people, economies, ecosystems, and more. Buying less clothing means lessening these impacts. This week I’m cleaning out my closet and making strategies for buying fewer clothes in the future. Here are all the things I’m eliminating from my closet:

Looking at this collection of stuff, some might think, “Does she even have any clothes left to wear?” The answer here is yes. Very yes, unfortunately. Cleaning out my closet proved harder than expected, and even though this is a good start, my closet is still BY NO MEANS minimal. Ugh. The thing is, everything that escaped this pile is still contributing to my happiness. Whether it’s a boost of confidence, sentimental value, or just warmth on a cold day, many of my clothes are staying because they are more of an asset than a burden.

The stuff you see above is the stuff that has become burdensome. None of these 60 or so belongings are quite right for me anymore. Some of them never were. Today, I grouped these newly orphaned garments into categories that represent the reasons they are no longer meant to be mine. This was a very helpful exercise that has helped me set a few ground rules for purchases in the future.

Consider quality and longevity

The items above have actually all been worn for years and years and years. They were GREAT purchases. These garments didn't fall apart when I washed them, and they weren't so trendy that they went out of style in one year. In the future, when I do need an article of clothing, I should remember to buy classic styles that are made to last. These things are only making an exit because either they don’t fit, they have been damaged by accident, or they are no longer age-appropriate.

Cheap looks cheap -and- Mull it over

These items were all pretty inexpensive. Ultimately, I stopped wearing most of them because they looked cheap…how did I not see that coming?? In two cases, they were things I needed at the last minute for an event/trip. Of course, Target was there to help with inexpensive options, but I ended up with stuff that didn’t quite fit right because my purchase was rushed. In the future, I should foresee these needs and give purchases an appropriate amount of thought.

Reaffirm personal style

There are very distinct patterns to what I typically buy. The above purchases are exceptions to this truth. I thought I’d enjoy these uncharacteristic pieces, but when I wore them, I didn't feel like myself. I should stick to what I know and love.

No heels

I’m 5’11’’ and don’t particularly care to be any taller. I bought one pair of these on sale and the other at Goodwill, and I've never worn either of them. I should stop lying to myself...I don't actually like heels.

Beware the Anthropologie effect

I think sometimes it is hard to separate individual items you like from environments you like. If you’re a girl and you’ve ever been to Anthropologie, you probably know what I’m talking about. Everything in there is curated into little collections…and it smells so good! Nevertheless, I need to remember that just because something is on sale at a store I love, that doesn't mean it's worth buying.

Pick favorites

Whenever I’m headed out the door, I grab my favorite necklace, my favorite purse, and my favorite sunglasses. I don’t need a zillion accessories, because I tend to gravitate toward the same ones over and over again. If I’m going to buy a new belt, it had better be able to contend with my current favorite.

Even if it’s used

Here’s my biggest challenge. All the things in the photo above were bought secondhand. I love consignment/vintage/thrift stores, and making purchases there seems almost guilt free! However, when people bring their excess stuff to one of these stores and I buy that stuff, the EXCESS has been transferred to me…And excess stuff is what I’m trying to avoid. So when I’m at Goodwill, I still need to apply all the above rules. I should be asking the same questions and considering the same factors before I invite any more stuff into my life.

The "Less But Better" Project

I've lived in seven places over the last seven years. I know what you’re thinking…that’s a lot of moving! Well on top of that, about two years ago I helped EACH of my parents move out of houses they’d lived in for 15+ years. Lessons learned? …Humans have a tendency to accumulate A LOT of stuff. Especially us Americans. To give some perspective, photographer Peter Menzel documented statistically average families in various nations surrounded by all of their possessions in a book called "Material World." Here's the USA (left) and Bhutan (right):

Obviously, we (Americans) don't need all this stuff.
Could we even use it all if we wanted to?

If you’re at home, how many things are within your view that you haven’t used in over a year? I can see the book I've been meaning to read since last August, the doorstop I bought two houses ago when I had a door that wouldn't stay open, the binders of old class notes that I swore I’d want someday soon, the highlighters I bought and later realized they're too bright to actually read through, the DVD that I found in the $5 bin, and so on…

Some of these things I bought because they were cheap, some because I thought I “needed” them, and others I've been holding on to just in case. Unfortunately, all this stuff has started to feel more and more overwhelming with each consecutive move. Even between moves, I find myself spending insane amounts of time tidying my space, dusting things, organizing, and reorganizing. A lot of my stuff is making me less happy than I used to be before I bought it, so why keep it?

The Minimalist Movement is gaining traction as more and more people ask these hard questions. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, two influential bloggers (also TEDx speakers) known simply as “The Minimalists,” pitch their lifestyle this way:

Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

Luckily, minimalism should also make room for sustainability! By using less, we throw a wrench into the "Story of Stuff". By reducing our stuff, we avoid the impacts that occur at every stage in production, from extraction, through transportation, manufacturing, consumption, and disposal. This is why my personal project for the semester will be a foray into minimalism. German pioneer of minimalist engineering and design, Dieter Rams, eloquently summarized my goal decades ago:

“Weniger, aber besser” translates to “less, but better,” and this was a philosophy he lived and designed by. I’m going to try to live by it too by focusing on a different category of belongings each time I blog (during weeks between my blogging on the V515 readings) and clearing some of the stuff from my life. I’ll examine why I bought these unneeded things in the first place, then formulate some rules/guidelines for all my future purchases. By thinking about my purchasing habits, I can make careful decisions before inviting anything new into my home in the future.

For each post, I’ll weigh the pile of stuff I want to get rid of, then set it aside in one big pile. At the end of the semester, I will go back through the pile to determine what stuff will finally be recycled, donated, sold, or thrown away. This will also give me the chance to accept some things back into my life that were truly missed over the course of the semester. I've set the project up like this so that I can be aggressive in my reduction attempts, knowing that if I make a mistake I can get something back without having to repurchase it (which would defeat the whole purpose of the project).

Here’s my approximate blogging schedule:

• September 21^st - Clothes and other closet items
• September 28^th - (Blog on readings)
• October 5^th - Toiletries and other bathroom items (girls have a lot of these)
• October 12^th - Home goods and decorative items
• October 19^th - (Blog on readings)
• October 26^th - Gifts (birthday week! ...rethinking what others buy for us)
• November 2^nd - Entertainment items
• November 9^th - (Blog on readings)
• November 16^th - Miscellaneous items
• November 23^rd - Items in storage (home for Thanksgiving...clearing boxes)
• November 30^th - Project wrap-up

So, as I work throughout the semester, my goal true goal will be to become happier with less. I don’t expect to pare down to 100 things like some minimalists or even to fit all my stuff into one car. I just want to feel better about the things I buy and use. Since this isn't particularly measurable, I’ll weigh things as some indicator of progress. Let the other indicator of progress be “Before and After” photos! Here’s a look at my baseline:

So, that’s a pretty detailed look into my life and my stuff...hopefully I don't get super embarrassed and regret sharing this later. Eeek! Follow along to see what “goes” each week. Maybe you can rethink your purchases as well and find a little more happiness in a “Less But Better” lifestyle. Wish me luck!

Individual Action and Good Intentions

Here I am, now a graduate student in Bloomington, Indiana. I can no longer call myself a temporary Tica or a mountain-dwelling educator. I created this blog in 2011 during my tenure as an intern at UGA’s Costa Rica campus. I wanted to catalog my adventures, photos, random thoughts, etc. This proved easy enough while I was away, and when I returned to the United States I thought something like, “Hey, I should keep this up! It’s a productive means for reflection, I can go back and read it later, PLUS my friends and family can all learn more about me.”

Months passed. Then over a year…still no blog entries. As you can see below, I posted one measly update near the start of my time working at the Len Foote Hike Inn (a very neat sustainable community in it’s own right). My intention was obviously to continue blogging. Unfortunately, it seems Augusten Burroughs and I have something in common:

Why exactly is it, though, that my good intentions fail me every time I think about what a great blog entry my last trip would make? Or every time I jump in for a planned 5-minute shower, only to emerge 10-15 minutes later? Or when I walk into Target and fall hopelessly for yet another pair of shoes that I vowed I wouldn't buy?

I have a sneaky suspicion these misalignments between my intentions and my actions have little to do with economic burden or gaps in my knowledge. Perhaps instead of focusing on these often-presumed causes of poor behavior, identifying the benefits and barriers of all these different actions and making a plan accordingly could help me act more in line with my intentions? Dr. McKenzie-Mohr certainly thinks so. Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is his framework for shifting behaviors toward sustainability, though it can be applied much more broadly. CBSM is a process by which individuals and communities can:

1. Identify behaviors they’d like to change
2. Explore the various barriers and benefits to these and other related behaviors and
3. Strategically target behavior change using social cues, commitments, reminders, incentives and more

The complete framework also includes a very important pilot phase when strategies are tested on a small-scale before full implementation.

This stuff is INSANELY interesting to me. As an undergrad at UGA leading a club called Students for Environmental Action, I was getting so frustrated that no matter how many film screenings we hosted, informative signs we hung, or hours we spent tabling about the issues, people just weren't jumping on board for our cause! If this frustration sounds familiar, then you might love learning more about behavioral psychology too. It's the subject that CBSM hinges on, as does the fascinating book Nudge, and Dr. Attari's V550 class called “Human Behavior and Energy Consumption.”

From my perspective, no amount of effective policy could equal the Earth-shattering (or rather, Earth-saving) potential of a strong social movement. That is, individuals making voluntary decisions to act differently. What do you think? My impression, supported by Roseland page 34, is that sustainable communities are built from the ground up. Individual behavior changes will be integral to the survival of our planet. Accordingly, I’ll look forward to the next wave of V515 blog entries where we will begin sharing our personal project goals for the semester. Mine? I’ll be rethinking my purchasing habits, so it seems this isn't the last you’ll hear about my battle with the shoe section at Target. We are all doing what we can, when we can...but let’s see if we can get a little help along the way from community-based social marketing J