Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Repair.

I wonder if reduce, reuse, recycle, and repair are lost on us as a society now. I remember growing up that reduce, reuse, and recycle was taught to us in grade school. Now it seems that everything that has been used up or is broken just gets tossed out with the trash and new ones are purchased. This apathetic attitude towards are things is certainly bad for our pocket book and bad for the environment.

Unless you're recycling what can be, those items end up in a landfill, their new forever home.

I started thinking about this when I was getting ready to ship a painting to a friend. I needed a box that was the appropriate size and some bubble wrap to protect it. I knew I had a box at home I could use, but needed to get the bubble wrap from the store. I made several searches of my house and garage for a box. The only one big enough was a little too big, but I decided to use it instead of purchasing a new one. Money saved! As I wrote down UPS on my list of To Do's I remembered that my mom had used plastic grocery bags to stuff a box that had Christmas presents in them. I always use saved grocery bags to clean out the cat's litter box so I pulled them all out from under the kitchen sink and in the process found a small box and a paper bag full of even more plastic bags! I used these to stuff the box and still had some left over. More money saved! The painting should make it safely to it's destination.

This has gotten me thinking about other items I may throw away or choose to recycle. While I can recycle plastic water bottles, I can't recycle the lid. Why is that? The lid is plastic too! Or how about purchasing bottled water in a cardboard box? Boxed Water aims to do it better.

Take a look around your house. What is taking up so much space that you need to pay for a storage unit? Are you endlessly doing laundry? Do you only grocery shop once a month, cramming your fridge with food that eventually goes bad? I recently went through my closet and got rid of at least 80% of my clothes. I only kept what I knew I would wear and some items I now only have one of. Pairing down my items helped me to declutter and will save me time of doing huge loads of laundry. I also grocery shop every week, buying only what I need for that week. It keeps my costs down as I only shop for a week at a time and it avoids foods getting spoiled.

What can you reuse instead of throwing away? I've created shelving out of stacked boxes and draped them with a blanket. I've reused boxes to ship things. I've turned a bench with cubby holes into a desk with spots for books and shoes.

What can be repaired (for a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new one)? I have yet to repair anything that has been broken, but that is my next decision when something is and I'll be sure to write about it when I do!

Peace and Love!

Don't You Know You're A Slave?

I feel trapped by society's creation on how we should live [in society]. This is what creates my anxiety. I shouldn't have to conform to laws or social standards I didn't vote for or agree with. Why can't we all live how we truly want? The seatbelt law was created before I was old enough to vote. I don't agree with the law. It's my choice, everyone's choice, on whether or not they want to wear a seatbelt. The true purpose of the law isn't to help save lives. The true purpose is to make money. If someone exercises their own right to choose to not wear a seatbelt and are caught not wearing it, they are ticketed and forced to pay money. Our right to choose has been taken from us.

I believe that TV, Facebook, constantly checking emails, etc. are just band aids. Things that keep us busy so that we don't reflect on how we really feel, what we really believe in, or who we truly want to be. And we're distracted from what really goes on in the world. Currently, all the news is about the alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win. What is this story distracting us from?

We don't think for ourselves anymore. We have no original thoughts anymore. Everything is conceived for us, ready to consume, and repost. We weren't created to work, struggle mentally and physically, and then die. We weren't created to serve the oligarchy, making them even richer and more powerful. We are all equal and should be helping each other regardless of circumstance.

I believe in community, in villages raising children, like indigenous tribes. Adapting to our environments instead of destroying them so that they conform to us. I believe in things that make our lives better at the core, not just superficially.

I want to escape this trap. Our money is stolen from us. Our quality of health is dictated by the "choices" we're given and who can afford them. This society is the death of our identities.

Everything Owns Us

We own nothing. Everything owns us. Think about it. What is the real cost of living? Do we ever buy something just once? How much does your car truly cost? We never stop paying for things.We're the only species on Earth that pays to live here. I saw a picture on Facebook with a caption that read "Who did the government buy the Earth from? Then why do we pay the government to live here?" What if we paid for nothing? What if everything we needed was given to us? What if we traded goods and services for other goods and services instead of money for goods and labor for money? The world's economy runs on consuming. What if we all stopped consuming? Would the world collapse? Would we be forced to help each other survive? What if we all just STOPPED? Don't set your alarm. Don't wake up for work. Goods and services don't get delivered. We can't buy or consume what isn't there so we must grow/produce/create what we need. Everyone becomes equal.

What if we taught for free and learned whatever we wanted? Can a society like that be created?

"The only currency is Love."

Back to the true cost of things. Here's the purchase price of your car, plus insurance and registration and DEQ and maintenance and repair and interest.

Purchase Price: $$$$
Insurance: $
Registration: $
DEQ: $
Maintenance: $$
Repair: $$$
Loan Interest: $
Gas: $

True cost: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (multiplied by ?)

The 20k you financed to buy a car is really costing you exponentially more. In order to pay for this ever growing cost we have to work more. So in reality, you don't own that car. That car owns you.

Remove what we think we own and all of the sudden our financial burden decreases which means we don't need to work as much and those things no longer own us.