What We Use

Things. Things? Things!! thingsthingsthingsthings....

There were the repeating thoughts over and over again for the past few weeks as I was moving. After a good one and a half year run on my apartment that got such a good offer that I can't refuse, and when school is happening in August, I decided to move back to parent's place for the time being while searching for my next good buy.

Moving back into an old space somehow gives a new perspective. Pre loved things with no more functional reasons are still hanging around, like clothes that I never even remembered I had them, that coin bank that was chucked at the back of the shelf, that bag that I hadn't used for ages....I am, categorically, a hoarder. And I am sure I am not the only one...space that I emptied out was somewhat invaded by my sis, whose bags and clothes far surpassed me when I was her age. Looking at all the things that I am surrounded, I suddenly wonder how much things that one really need.

The last few years have seen me become more conscious about...things that I consume or use. It started with shark fin, which led me to think about why we eat the way we do. I wonder why we buy so much stuff we don't need, taking resources from the things we depend on for our survival (the sea, the land), and then make them redundant to become waste and toxic, ironically , to the very things that we depend on for our survival (the sea, the land, the air).

Especially with my own place, and a small one at that, I start to be more circumspect about how I live

• I start to recycle stuff, re-selling them or even donate them for free (craiglist is dabomb! Salvation army too!), just that it is a pain to find recycling bins, especially those which are not already abused and treated like normal rubbish bins.

• I re-discovered repurposing via Pinterest (the DIY page always excites me no matter what..kinda bring out the nerd in me), and repurposed stuff into wrapping paper holders, watering jug, box for all the laundry bags and knick knacks... next project, I'm going to redo the face of my old Ikea clock since the mechanism is still working but the face was crumpling on me. 

• I start to take less plastic bags and shopping bags (do I really need that bag to carry a small piece of puchase? Nah, I'll just dump it into my bag), and I carry my own bag for grocery shopping and other stuffs. This actually solved my problem as I was struggling with the number of shopping bags and plastic bags that I have that threatened to overwhelm my drawer space. "Aiya so easy..just throw them away if they are getting in the way!" Sure....so these bags were only useful for that short time from store to home, which seem a great deal for nothing for the material and effort that went into making them..If so, then why take them in the first place?

• I have my own Keep Cup that I use for my daily kopi runs ( I hate Starbucks and the likes, give me a cup of kopi anytime. Exceptions though for artisan coffee :p ), which at least saved 15-20 disposable cups on my account every month (though I decided to stop buying when they raised the price -  a cup of kopi for $1.60?? No thanks.) and I declined taking disposable cutlery if I can help it. Hey, it's even easier to eat with proper fork/spoon/chopsticks that I keep in my office than those filmsy plasticky things.

• I bring my own water bottle and not buy bottled water if I can help it. Note the latter caveat. I am not going to refuse bottled water if that is all I have access to at the moment. The leap of faith happened in India, where we, being worried about drink water even though it was boiled, tried to buy bottled water in Lachung, North Sikkim but was told it was banned. Why? Because the water there is from the mountains, and technically, spring water. Plastic bottles will only pollute their environment, and why would you want to drink water from those plastic bottles..when spring water is all around you? Right..but I dont trust the pipes :( Anyhow, we drank the boiled water and yes, we survived. So, why do we need bottled water in the first place when clean water is all around us in Singapore?

• I buy clothes only when I have enough hangers or rather, if I am willing to "give up" a hanger. It started when I bought this set of white hangers from Daiso when I first shifted to my place just cos I am tired of hangers of all jumbled colours, and guess what, Daiso stopped carrying the white hangers ever since. Crap. Either I get hangers of a different colour, or I just live with it. But I stuck to the latter. It somewhat made my life easier as I don't have to fight with the hangers anymore (you mean your hangers never get entangled in the wardrobe because they were cramped so close together?) and it has definitely made me change my shopping habits. I only buy stuff that I really, really like, since getting any additional clothes will force me to "decommissioned" another piece. And if you think about it, where did the cheap clothes come from? If they are so cheap, that transfer in cost could probably have been a result of cheap (exploited?) labour. 

Well, it was not as if I don't take plastic bags at all - I still do when I am running low on garbage bags (I always favoured NTUC plastic bags - just the right size!) and there were times when I decided to just trash recyclable materials when I didn't have time to seek out the recycling bins, or succumbed to using disposable cutlery when otherwise, there weren't any other things I could eat with. But just the thought about where these things came from and how many hands did they pass through before they became what they are, how long are you going to use them for (30 mins maybe for that disposable cup?) and where they going to end up - landfill? Incinerator? I am sure like any other things on Earth, there has to be a more meaningful purpose for every object and matter, than for them to only serve a short life span before dumping them into the great mass of nothingness.

Just a matter of putting some thoughts into what we use, when we are using them., but still, it never amaze me just how much waste one person can even generate on a normal routine basis.

I digress. For the past week, I have bee ruthlessly thrashing those things that I can't salvage, listing out items on craiglist to sell off and giving away for free, beside donating items which no one will take up to the Salvation Army.

Hopefully a new start again on being bogged down by less "things".