My first Vintage Shopping Experience
April 10, 2019Since my year of no shopping is done, several people asked me: “Have you been shopping? What did you buy? Did you go crazy and get a bunch of new clothes?” There is such an overt pressure from other people to buy, buy, buy. No one asked me “What did you use up or wear…
A Reduce our Waste Christmas
December 26, 2018I love Christmas. For me, Christmas is the most magical and exciting time of the year. Strangely, I have maintained my childlike love of the holiday season. I love the music, the decorations and the food. Even though we weren’t particularly well off, my mother and father always managed to make Christmas special. Our tradition…
Reduce our Waste Halloween
October 28, 2018Zero waste halloween: quite the oxymoron. Bea Johnson,the priestess of zero waste, tells you to simply refuse the holiday. But since my goal is to reduce my waste while still having fun, I decided that I would look for ways to partake with minimal impact on the environment. My decorations have always been rather simple:…
Fashion Minimalism: 10 by 10 Fall 2018 Challenge
October 24, 2018Fashion is one area of my life where adopting a minimalist approach has been difficult. Even though I was mostly unsuccessful in my first attempt to reduce my wardrobe earlier this year, I want to give it another go. Lately, I have been reading a lot about capsule wardrobes. Did you know that the average…
Reflections on 9 months of Reduce our Waste Living
October 17, 2018Fall is now in full swing: On October 1st, I reached a milestone: 9 months of “reduce our waste” living. I don’t like to call it zero waste living because that still seems too daunting. We have not been able to keep our garbage small enough to fit into a jar. That being said, we…
Reduce our Waste Business Travel
August 17, 2018Hello dear reader! It has been a while since I have written, however, I have still been busy looking at ways that I can reduce my waste, even during a recent business trip. I had the very good fortune to travel on business to the beautiful town of Vevey, Switzerland on Lake Geneva: But even…
Sustainable Summer Style
July 11, 2018I have not been shopping for 6 months. 6 whole months. Wow. I never thought that I would be able to make it. While I am proud of that achievement, I have to admit that I wouldn’t mind going shopping to get something new and trendy. But then I remember that my closets and cupboards are…
On the Way to Zero Waste: The 5 Rs
March 12, 2018I recently had the privilege of talking about the 5 Rs of waste management at my workplace. Our company, like many other companies, is interested in achieving “zero waste” as it represents cost savings and shows the company is a responsible corporate citizen. I wanted to share the key points raised during this presentation as…
Don’t Throw Out What You Can Fix or Mend
January 29, 2018I was walking around the house when my husband said to me, “There’s a hole in your sock. You should throw it out.” That got me thinking about how we are so quick to throw things out when there is something not quite right with an item that we own. It used to be that…
The 52 Week Experiment
December 31, 2017Welcome to our 52 week experiment to reduce our waste. My name is Sandra and I am a very busy-fifty-something-wanna be fashionista-working mother of two wonderful daughters. I have been married to a very patient and understanding man for 26 years. Yes, I am indeed blessed. In spite of this, I have decided to put…