Work clothes that aren’t made by little hungry children putting in 18 hour days
Good news, Homies! I just acquired my first white collar job in a while. My wardrobe is almost completely unprepared for this, and I really feel strongly about not buying sweatshop-made clothing.
I am normally a big thrift or vintage shopper, but as everyone who does this knows, it’s kind of luck-of-the-draw on whether you’ll find anything. I’m a mediocre seamstress, but not good enough to produce my own clothing en mass. Combing the internet for non-sweatshop goods, I find a lot of men’s bike clothes, a legion of organic hemp t-shirts, and a variety of beautiful things which are way too hippie to be my regular style, and not a lot I can wear to work.
If non-sweat shop clothing is also a priority for you, how do you make it work?
Would you buy a replica of your favorite designer?
Let’s face it: not everyone has the wallet to afford designer furniture. Every time I daydream (i.e. surf the internet) about the perfect egg chair, my heart ends up broken by the price tag. Every. Time. Well, not exactly every time. Not since I discovered the very interesting world of copies. Shhh, don’t say it too loud. It’s not allowed. It’s bad, very bad. But is it, really?
How doing chores makes me feel empowered
This might seem paradoxical, and it probably is, but adding more chores to my daily life has actually given me the feeling I am more in control of my life. Some might call this backwards. Isn’t evolution supposed to drive towards a simplified life, with fewer and fewer chores?
How to consume ethically: reducing and recycling electronics and home goods
Recently we discussed Lolly’s question about how to consume ethically. Here’s what we came up with.
Moral dilemma of a first worlder: Let’s talk about the ethics of the goods we buy
What with recent events in the news about Foxconn, the Chinese company that produces gadgets for Apple, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and others, I’ve started to sit down and wonder if I really want to be purchasing products that were made by people living and working in poor conditions. But I need tech. What do I do?
The generous materialist’s confession: I give stuff away so I can get more stuff
First confession: I am a materialist. I like stuff. I like acquiring it, I like having it, and I like organizing it.
Second confession: I am a preener. I need to interact with my possessions — I need to use my things, touch my things, smell my things, and wear my things, to fully appreciate the things. This love of interacting with my stuff combined with sharing a one-bedroom home with my family of three means that I am a hoarding materialist. I need my possessions close at hand — if it’s stored, I can’t touch it and I might as well not have it. My friends with overstuffed, intimidating storage units packed tight with crap will tell you this quirk is a blessing. As much as I love something, if I’m not actively engaging with it, then it’s time to get rid of it. And if I want to get something new to preen over, then I need to get rid of something old. One in, one out.
This means I give a lot of stuff away.
Why we shop at our dingey local grocery instead of the place with all the possibly-better food across town
While we have several quality grocery stores that sell all kinds of delicious, organic, 100% good-for-you kind of food, we tend to opt to shop at our local supermarket instead. And by local, I don’t mean locally-grown, I mean… right down the street. We don’t do this because it’s close per se — the location is part of the appeal, but that’s because John, the man who owns the store, employs people who live in and around our immediate area. His store services people who live near us, and we routinely see the same people working and the same people shopping.
Walking the parent consumerism line: how much is too much?
What did you get while you were pregnant? More importantly — what didn’t you get. How can parents STOP with the rampant consumerism already?