Evils of planned obsolescence

Of all of our consumerist, capitalist sins now wrecking havoc on the planet, planned obsolescence is possibly the worst. Or the most irritating at least.

Defined as designing a product with a purposefully limited useful life, planned obsolescence seems to be a hallmark of modern life.

Rather than frequently upgrade to the newest and best, I prefer to hold on to things. My car is 15 years old. My bedroom furniture was purchased when I was a teenager. Having older things doesn't feel like a hardship--I rarely crave the newest and best. Plus, keeping things for as long as possible is not only good for the planet, it's also great for your wallet.

When making a larger purchase, I take my time, do extensive research and buy carefully. It's a time-consuming process that I prefer to repeat as little as possible. This is especially true for electronics.

My mp3 player is an 8-year-old second generation iPod nano that only shows a white square on the screen. But it still works just fine and 95 percent of the time I use it in my car and control it via the stereo anyway. The living room TV is a hand-me-down from the boyfriend's last upgrade with some dead pixels at the top, but most of the time I forget they're even there.

My smartphone (my first and only that I was given last year) is a hand-me-down iPhone 5 that I'll use until it dies. I keep my computers until well-past using them becomes inconvenient.

But planned obsolescence makes it increasingly difficult to keep possessions for long, especially in the case of electronics. Apple seems to be especially bad at this with their frequent operating system updates that don't always work well on older devices. I experienced this recently when my Feedly app on my ipad mini updated to an iOS 9 compatible version that crashed immediately after launch. I'm still using iOS 7 because of reports that the new software renders older ipads so slow that they're virtually unusable. I tried all my usual tricks of rebooting the ipad, re-downloading the app, etc. to no avail.

In case you're thinking, so what, it's just one app, Feedly is a news aggregator that makes it quick and simple for me to read dozens of blogs and websites that I follow from multiple devices and the web. While not the only aggregator out there, for me it's by far the best and my most used app. And while it still worked on my phone and laptop, I prefer surfing on my ipad as it's far easier to read than my phone screen while still being much more comfortable to use than the laptop.

After two days of complaining about my Feedly-less life. my boyfriend suggested that I might just have to buy a new ipad mini so I can use my favorite apps since it's something I use so often and enjoy.

While he has a point on one hand, it seems almost criminal to have to spend $400 or more for a new device when the old one still functions perfectly well except for some software issues. The miser in me was very unpleased with this idea.

Luckily it didn't come to that as I was able to revert to an earlier version of the app using these instructions and all was well again. Although I know it's only a matter of time until more issues crop up.

What about you? Are you a serial upgrader who prefers the latest and greatest? Has planned obsolescence caused any issues for you?

Adapting

I've never been big on change just for change's sake. No, I'd much rather get things exactly as I like and have them stay that way. But the thing about gardens, houses, and, well, life, is that even if things seem quite perfect for the moment, they eventually change. Sometimes they change for the better, and sometimes not. And we have little choice but to adapt.

Last year was a big year of changes and I've been trying to adapt ever since. This long holiday weekend I continued on our efforts to get the garden back in order. Tiny steps you know.

before

From a distance it was still somewhat passable, but eventually I could no longer deny that the front yard needed some serious help. The white picket fence I'd once loved was in need of a good coat of paint, which I considered until finding out the wood was mostly rotten. And the purple barberry bushed were overgrown and dying. Not to mention their copious thorns which stuck me every time I tried to garden around them, no matter how thick my gloves or careful I was.

So early this spring the boyfriend pulled out the bushes with his truck (I guess there's a redneck side to all of us, but it was fast and it worked) and pulled out the fence. We loaded up the bushes in his truck and after a stressful drive where I fretted about us losing our precariously balanced load all over the road, we made it to the compost site and got rid of those suckers.

Then I weeded and weeded, and planned and shopped for something to replace the bushes with. The boyfriend campaigned for flowers only (no more pesky overgrown bush issues with those), while I thought we needed something bigger to fill the large gaps.

Thursday evening I went to the garden center and spent a lovely evening picking out two dwarf butterfly bushes, a baptisa smoke, three Veronica speedwell plants, lavender and an obedient plant. Then on Friday and Saturday I weeded some more, amended the soil, moved plants, planted new ones and mulched.

after

My body still aches from the effort, but finally it's finished and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

That's one small corner of life sorted. For now, at least.

Why the Open Shelving Trend Is Not for Me

I'm ecstatic that its spring and warmer weather is on the horizon. Not just because this means we can stop being cooped up in the house and enjoy being in the garden, letting in the fresh air, etc. What I'm really happy about is that its almost outdoor painting weather. Which means I can stop looking at the scene above every day.

Every single thing in the kitchen cabinets has been on full display for the past six months (almost seven actually) since our outdoor cabinet spray-painting project was interrupted by, of all the nerve, winter. That's since last the end of September. Last September! As I'm more of a "hide all the stuff where I never have to look at it" kind of neat freak, this has been rather disturbing.

All-in-all I've handled it pretty well I think. I haven't murdered anyone, or had any major breakdowns (at least not since I spent a week painting the cabinet boxes). We even had some guests stay for the weekend. But as we get closer and closer to outdoor painting weather I've been itching to see my dishes and food stuffs hidden behind freshly painted white doors. And kitchen drawers! Remember self, when we had kitchen drawers to store stuff in? Oh, the luxury!

In a way, I guess I could take this experience as a great exercise in learning what we really need for day-to-day living. There is a rather large blue IKEA tarp bag hidden in the basement full of kitchen stuff from the drawers and cabinets that we've lived without quite easily for the past six months. I went from one drawer of cutlery and a second for utensils to a single drawer of both, and yet we were still able to cook. As I think about it, I'm not even sure what all is in that bag besides extra dish towels and the remains of the junk drawer.

Another thing the "great open cabinet winter of 2013" has confirmed is something I've long suspected. The trend of open shelving and open cabinetry is absolutely, positively, not for me! When the boyfriend's mother came to stay, she kindly remarked that she liked the open cabinets so much she thought I should leave them that way. While I'm glad that not everyone thinks the current state of my kitchen is as hideous as I do, there's no way I would choose this look on purpose.

Please don't misunderstand, I've seen pictures of some absolutely gorgeous kitchens that feature open shelving  and open cabinetry. What I question is the practicality of this trend. Perhaps if one lives without pets, hair, and has only beautiful dishes and kitchen items, then it's a lot less hassle. But for us, with three cats, one boyfriend, and my long hair, it's a disaster. I've been vacuuming the shelves because there is some hair, and a lot of dust everywhere. Do people dust their shelves and cabinets every week? Because more cleaning and maintenance is not my idea of fun.

I've also had two open shelves ever since I've lived in this house. I use them to store my decorative-only collection of vintage Pyrex. And they are purely decorative in part because you would need to to scrub them before every use due to the dust and sometimes bits of grease that find them. They look nice from far away, but I always hope visitors don't get too close and wonder if all my dishes are so sketchy. (They're not, pinky swear).

Readers, I'm curious, what do you think of this trend? And if you have open shelving in your home, how has the maintenance issue been? Do we just live in a freakishly dusty and furry house?

Getting Cat Pee Out of Laundry

I know it's hard to believe that one of these little angels (har har) would pee on laundry, but once in awhile, especially as two of them have reached their mid-teens, it has happened. The good part is that so far it has happened in the part of the basement that just has a cement floor, so the only casualty thus far has been laundry.

In the latest incident, a drop cloth, my favorite bathroom rug, and some towels were the victims. The drop cloth was immediately trashed, but I wanted to at least try and save the rest. In the past, the boy has tried washing pee-soaked laundry several times in a row to now avail. Obviously I needed to take a new approach, so I turned to the all-knowing Google.

As always happens when one consults Google, I found varying opinions. Some said vinegar would work, others said if the urine was dried (as it was in this case) the only chance was using an enzyme cleaner, and even that might fail. I decided to try using things I have on hand, which worked perfectly.

Steps:

1. Soak laundry overnight in washing machine with one cup of vinegar. Set water at lowest setting possible that will cover laundry.
2. Next morning, rinse laundry and spin out all water. Add detergent and 1/4 to 1/2 cup Borax.
3. Hang clean laundry outside in in sun to dry.

And, voila, I got my laundry back.

Duh Moments on My Green Journey

image credit: kerryvaugh

Do you ever have a realization that it so simple you can't believe it took you so long to discover it in the first place?

Case in point, despite the fact that we go through 35 cans of cat food a week, and despite the fact that I try to recycle as much as possible, I just starting recycling cat food cans yesterday. Yesterday! And I consider myself a somewhat intelligent person. At times. Although this is obviously not a good example of that.

What gives? Honestly I didn't even think about recycling cat food cans at first. Then, once I did I thought, they're so stinky, smelly and gross that recycling them would be way more of a pain than it was worth. You know how much of a pain it actually turned out to be? No pain whatsoever. When a can is empty I simply fill it with water and put it in the sink. After 15 minutes or whenever I'm in the kitchen next I dump the water out, do a 2 second rinse, and voila, a clean can. Why the heck have I been waiting so long to try that?

Although I have the best intentions of being more green, I think the biggest thing that trips me up is just accepting what I've always done in the past, or seen family do, as sacred. Throwing compost in a used coffee can under the sink felt cumbersome at first, but now it feels weird not to do it. Or when I finally tried drying clothes without dryer sheets, and discovered I didn't miss them. Oh, and when I never remembered to bring reusable bags to the store until I finally started keeping them in the trunk of my car instead of in the house. Or how about when I finally tried online banking and instantly loved how much faster it was to pay bills.

Yeah, so obviously I'm not so good with change (shut up, boyfriend!), but please tell me I'm not the only one who frequently has these duh moments? What other easy green tips might I be missing?

Recognizing Enough

When I bought my little 742 square foot house I considered it a starter home. Since it was the height of the housing bubble (not that I realized it at the time), and I refused to leave my current neighborhood, I knew I was going to have to buy small. My little 1940s ranch is definitely small, the living area has a kitchen, living room, one tiny, tiny bathroom and two bedrooms. Yes, you read that right, there's no dining room and no coveted half-bath.

my teeny, tiny bathroom

There are some bonuses though. Half of the basement is finished, thanks to the boyfriend's drywall and ceiling installation skills. There's also a walk-up attic, so storage is not an issue. My mortgage payment is the same price as my former rent on a (cheap) townhouse.

There are some definite drawbacks as well. There's only room for a maximum of three people at the kitchen table, and that's pushing it. There's room for an office or a guest room, but not both. There are two closets on the main floor, and both of them combined are not able to accommodate an average American-size wardrobe. And did I mention I'd kill for an extra half-bath?

I always planned on upsizing to one of the numerous cute cape cods in my hood. Something that has a dining room, an extra bathroom, a third bedroom, and a large upstairs master. But those bigger houses have a huge drawback: more bucks for the mortgage and utilities, more time spent cleaning, more house to maintain etc.

After a few years of slowly culling some of the extra stuff from our lives, I came to what was first a surprising conclusion. My starter home has more than enough space for two adults and three cats to live in comfortably. Even more surprising, the boyfriend agreed with me.

Realizing this is enough, did require letting go of some previous notions, including:

• I don't need an office; I end up sitting on the couch to use my laptop anyway.
  
  
• I'm not the dinner-party-hosting type, and I rarely used a dining room when I had it anyway.
  
  
• While having an extra bathroom would be devine, we're surviving quite fine without it.
  
  
• Once I got rid of all the extra stuff cluttering my house, and the extra clothes cluttering the closet, the rooms didn't feel so tiny anymore.
  
  

I wouldn't want a smaller home either. While I find tiny homes charming, I don't think they'd be comfortable for me in my present lifestyle. Somehow I managed to pick just enough space on my first try.

How much living space is enough for you?

Minimalist Fail

Last Saturday the Boy and I loaded our trusty Civics to the brim and drove 45 minutes to sell our crap in my mom's community yard sale. I had been dreading this for weeks because although I have some stuff I'd like to sell, garage sales never work out for me.

The Boy however had a lot of stuff to sell, stuff that was taking up space in the attic, stuff that could actually sell and make money, so I went along mostly to help him and my mom. Sure I was hoping to make some money too, but deep down I knew that wasn't likely.

Are you wondering where the failure part comes in yet? Hang on, it's coming.

I was already grouchy as we packed the cars. The point of how much energy and time our useless crap takes up became crystal clear as I added up the time spent gathering crap to sell, cleaning it, pricing it, packing it, plus the hours of the actual sale itself. And don't even get me started on how much money I wasted on crap I never used or barely used.

At least, I reassured myself, this would be the last time I ever had to do this again. I promised myself I would never again stray from my usual method of packing crap up and donating it to the local Volunteers of America.

The sale itself went more smoothly than expected. When it ends, my mom is happy, the Boy is very happy, and I made my best haul ever, a whopping $50. Yes, 50 bucks for well over 8 hours of time by my estimates. Completely. Not. Worth. It!

The Boy had enough stuff left over that he announced he would be participating in our neighborhood sale next month. Not me, I said, I'm done. I'm out of the yard sale business.

So we begin packing up our wares and deciding what we would take home and what we would donate to the charity who came to take any worthy leftovers each year, when my mom offers to give us her donations to sell at our sale and keep any money made. The Boy heartily agrees, and even I, greedy with the thought of making some extra dough, said yes.

So we go from being able to fit everything in just the Boy's hatchback to....wait for it.....stuffing our cars even more full with crap to take home than it was when we arrived that morning. Yes, we left the yard sale with more crap than we came with.

I was fuming before we even finished packing the car. Mad at myself for getting so caught up in the prospect of an extra buck or two that I readily agreed to do another day's worth of something I truly detest. The lesson of just donate it that I'd promised myself I wouldn't forget? Already gone. Le sigh.

Self, repeat after me: Yard sales are NOT simple! Donating your crap is simple.

image credit: Jan Tik

Gardening for the Rest of Us, Part I

Think you can't garden?
Overwhelmed by the task of planning and creating a new garden?
Think you can't afford to have the unique plants of your dreams?
Think you need to plan your garden to the ninth degree before planting?

I know how you feel. To me gardening was an overwhelming task until I realized that plants have been blooming without our help since before humans existed. Eventually, I've learned to let go and just get my hands dirty and try things in the garden. Now some people compliment my garden (which is still in the minor leagues of gardening in my mind) and say "I could never do that." Well if I can, then trust me, anyone can!! But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I knew nothing about plants or gardening when I bought min hus and wanted to create a garden. I didn't grow up around any gardeners, and I didn't have friends nearby who were into it. So, as I do whenever I want to learn something new, I went to the library and checked out a bunch of books on gardening. Make a plan before you plant anything! was the credo I read over and over again. So I planned and planned. I wrote list of flowers that would grow well here and bloom for a long period of time, then I drew up a plan for the garage bed.

Finally, after way too much time had passed, I went to the garden center armed with my shopping list of flowers to buy. And you know what? They didn't have most of the plants on my list. Where was all the beautiful and unique flowers I'd lovingly selected from my gardening in Ohio books? I didn't want a garden full of geraniums and petunias like everyone else. I wanted to garden creatively! Far too overwhelmed and disappointed to change my plan on the spot, I left the garden center.

This was pretty much the sum of my garden that first year.

I didn't end up planting anything my first season in my house until July and that was only to spruce up the place before some friends came over to have dinner and see my house for the first time. I bought my first plants from the farmer's market: two yellow coreopsis, two balloon flowers and two purple sage. July in Ohio is hardly a good time to plant anything, it was 90+ and the area was in full sun, but I watered them and managed to keep them alive. That was all I bought the first year except for fall bulbs and a few planters for my deck.

Gardening turned out to be a lot harder than I'd thought.

Read part II and part III.

DIY Fail: Cleaning Wool Rugs with Snow

A few weeks ago I spotted this Apartment Therapy post on cleaning a wool rug with snow. Brilliant!, I thought, I have a rug in desperate need of cleaning and now can finally put all the god-awful snow we've received to good use. I excitedly sent the link to the boyfriend. Go for it, he said.

But first I had to wait for fresh powdery snow. Mother nature obliged and on Saturday morning I hauled the rug shown above outside to clean. The boy and two of our three cats crowded into the kitchen window to watch the show, and what a show it was. I beat the stinkin' rug until my arms hurt (which took about 180 seconds) and then kept beating it. I flipped it over, dismayed not to see oodles of dirt in the snow, and flipped it again. Then I ground some snow in to the front for good measure to try and get more stains and dirt out. Didn't work.

Eventually I gave up and hauled the rug back up to the deck, hung it over the railing and beat it some more to try and get the excess snow off. My still-stained rug was now wet to boot, so with the boy's help I dragged it inside, into the basement and we hung it on the basement clothesline and I proceeded to consider the entire ordeal a giant bust.

The boyfriend jumped on his white stud of a computer (okay it's really black, but that didn't fit the analogy, now did it?) and called the rug cleaners and found a place where we could drop off the rug that day for cleaning for only $17. And that's where we stand until Monday, when I see if anything can save that darn rug.

To be fair, I did screw up on a few accounts:

• It wasn't cold enough. The directions state to clean the rug on a day where it's well below freezing, which is wasn't, but patience has never been one of my virtues.
  
  
• Grinding snow into the rug didn't help get out any stains and only contributed to the wetness issue.
  

Lessons learned: Don't use oxy-anything to clean a wool rug and when it needs a good cleaning, save yourself some agony and just take it to a rug cleaner already.

Frost is Coming, Are You Ready?

last harvest of 2009

Well, it's officially fall: gloomy, rainy and chilly. And now that the first frost is coming tomorrow night, I can no longer deny that it's the end of a another garden season as well.

If you're a noob like me, I'd like to offer some words of wisdom I learned the hard way: don't take the first frost too lightly. It doesn't take much to turn those green tomatoes, veggies and flowers to mush, so if a frost is coming to your area get ready to cover up your delicates or pick them early.

Picking the almost-ripe produce is a no brainer, but what if frost is headed your way and like me your garden is bursting with green tomatoes or other unripe produce? Don't despair, those green tomatoes need not go to waste. Just pick them and either fry them and enjoy, or wrap them in newspaper and place in a cool, dark spot and they'll still ripen. I haven't tried ripening green tomatoes indoors yet because last year I thought the first frost wouldn't hurt and I lost a LOT of tomatoes, but I'll let you know how it goes this year. I've already got some green lovelies tucked in the basement and waiting, just in case, even though the frost won't hit tonight.

Don't forget about annuals or other flowers either. If you want to cover them go ahead, but if not, cut em and bring em inside to enjoy for a little while longer. Afterall winter is coming and it will be a while before we enjoy them again.

Fixing the Leaks: How I Got My Living Room Back

During my first two weeks off I spent the vast majority of my time doing projects around the house, mainly a lot of scraping, paint preparation and a little painting. Most of the results wouldn't stand out to the average min hus visitor, but they do make the place look a little brighter and cleaner.

One fix does make a pretty big difference however, and it's the project that pushed me into project overload: fixing the leak damage in the living room. Long story short, the living room has had a moisture problem for, oh, way too long. It was an extremely slow leak, but over time it did some ugly damage.

So why did it take me so friggin' long to fix the leak? Well, it was way above my knowledge level so I turned to family, friends and finally a roofer for help. Multiple quick fixes were tried and failed. Many inspections and estimates were obtained and finally, I hired a roofing company to redo the chimney flashing (in two spots). I'm still shocked they didn't say I need a new roof, let's hear it for honest roofers.

And while I'm still not convinced the roof leak is 100% fixed (call me pessimistic, but if it's not fixed, I'm pretty sure I know the cause and a fix is already planned), I couldn't stand looking at the damage any longer. Really, I can't even guess how much time I've spent glaring, cursing and crying because of that wall. Oi.

So on Wednesday I finally started scraping all the loose paint and whatnot off. The area under the window, which had cracked paint, was the worst. The layers of paint came off pieces so large that I literally got nauseous. Fortunately, feeling nauseous is a common occurrence for me during projects, and it's only since I've survived it several times that I was able to not cry, freak out and call for reinforcements. The damage was so bad in fact that even the boy thought I'd gotten in a little over my head when he came home and saw with the first coat of patching compoun applied.

After a lot of scraping, and a little panicking, I patched the wall, sanded, patched, sanded and finally painted. This took two and a half days (lots of drying time is required of course) and brought me to the end of my project patience, but in the end it was worth it. Yesterday I celebrated by deep cleaning the room and house, doing some small rearrangements and then calling an end to all projects for the rest of the weekend. Aaah!

My patch job isn't perfect, but I'll worry about that after I know that the leak is completely banished. For now I can once again sit in the living room and relax.

Even the scary patch under the window looks good again!

Beware Home Depot's Free "In-Home Design Service"

Yesterday we stopped at Home Depot so the boyfriend could visit the compressor he's lusting after. AGAIN. As usual I had to visit the kitchen area so I can indulge my new kitchen fantasies. So I was drooling over some new countertops when an associate asked if we knew they were offering free in-home design consultations where someone would measure and give us prices on countertops, cabinets, cabinet refacing, etc. I was mulling over the value of adding free measurements and realistic estimates to my kitchen dream plans when the boyfriend said, just do it.

So we sat down to sign up. The associate asked what we're interested in and I said countertops, cabinets, backsplash and floor. Would I be interested in cabinet refacing, he asked? Well maybe, I said, a price would be nice, but that wasn't something I was that interested in, because if I keep the cabinets we would fix them ourselves. Well we can do all that for you, he happily exclaimed. Then he called someone who would actually book the appointment. So again I was asked what I was interested in and again I repeated the whole shebang.

"So you're interested in cabinet refacing?"

"I'm considering it, but I want to know about countertops, etc."

"Ok, so is there anything else besides cabinet refacing you might want?"

"Um, yes, countertops, backsplash, a floor."

I was asked the same question aout five times in a five minute phone call and I began to see where this whole free business was going. Yes, there's always a catch. So I make the appointment anyway and we leave.

Twenty minutes later we're in the car and the phone rings, it's Home Depot to confirm our cabinet refacing consultation.

"But it's not just cabinet refacing right? I want to get countertop prices, etc."

"Oh, you wanted something else too, well then..."

"I went over this FIVE TIMES when booking this appointment. Can you just cancel it? This is already more irritating than it's worth."

"Sure, we'll cancel the appointment for you."

Today I got my confirmation e-mail from confirmation@cabinetrefacing.com. ARGH! I can't stand when someone tries the bait and switch. If you're just offering cabinet refacing consultations, that's great, but don't waste your time and mine trying to trick me into one when I'm not interested. I also can't stand when people read from a script and don't listen to your answers, but just keep asking the same question over and over again.

I still like Home Depot, but that's the last time I'm falling for any free consultations!