Compacting Mommas Late Summer Thread - Page 5

[VeganCupcake]

Originally Posted by erthe_mama

Is this part of compacting, or something extra?

I can see that going TV free would help in other ways too: by keeping you away from a huge amount of advertising and other programming that makes you want things you don't need.

I would love to go TV free, but DH enjoys it too much . . . .

[Charmie981]

I'm getting to a place where I want to go on the compact. Right now my biggest thing is that I want all of this "organizational" stuff because I'm decluttering and making my house easier to maintain. For example, I've NEVER been good about recycling because we don't have curbside service and I don't know how to organize my recyclables. The other day at Ikea in Dallas, I saw something that would be perfect for my recycling station and I would actually DO IT. So, do I buy it even though it's new plastic stuff, or do I try to find a way to make recycling work w/o it (even though I've not managed to find a system that works for the over 6 years since we had curb service?). In the last year or so, I've been focusing on just reducing trash leaving my home rather than recycling, but I know if I recycled, I could virtually eliminate my family's contribution to the local landfill.

Anyway....I might talk to DH about the compact tonight. We need to make some major financial changes in our lives, and this would probably be the best way to do it. So as you read my post, keep in mind that I'm NOT on the compact, just thinking about it a lot .

AngelBee: for water, could you buy a reusable 5 gallon jug (you can get these in glass for $30 or in plastic for less and you can probably find a used plastic one)? We have a water cooler and that's what we did before our well company paid for an under sink reverse osmosis water filtration system (because the other option was to redrill our well at no cost to us ). If you don't have a water cooler, I'm sure it would an easy item to find used, or I know there are some that are nonelectric made of crockery and wood. I think overall, that would involve the least waste (no filters or packaging to buy or throw away), but it would cost in the beginning and you would have to travel to the water refilling station (around here Wal Mart has them and there's a locally owned water store that refills them).

I know where you're coming from with homeschooling. Once you decide what you want to use and what works for you, it's hard to change that. We use four workbooks per child per year (two for grammar and two for math) and my IG. I bought all of my spine books used from amazon.com after looking at paperbackswap.com and seeing that they didn't have any of them. We're using a weekly trip to our excellent library for the rest of our books and learning. I did buy new supplies at Hobby Lobby for our weaving project this week, but now I'm thinking of taking all but the essentials back .

[Charmie981]

Cat Litter?

DH and I have both been really frustrated with Cat Litter lately. We buy scoopable cat litter because we have a LitterMaid cat box. Scoopable littler only comes in these big plastic buckets and while we have tried to reuse them as much as possible, we have gone through a LOT of cat litter in the 3 years we've had our cat and more than a few of those buckets have been thrown away (because of my issues with recycling, as mentioned in the above post .

We've thought of switching to a regular cat box with clay litter because you can buy it in paper 50 pound bags. We've thought of switching to wheat litter (ack, so pricey!!). We've thought of teaching them to go outside, but they aren't outside cats. The baby was ferrel and is scared to go outside and the older one will escape for a day at a time, then when she comes back inside, RUN to the litter box like she hasn't peed the whole time she's been outside . None of these really seem like good options, except switching to clay litter, but that scares me because I know how bad we are about cleaning the cat box when its clay litter...

Does anyone know if you can buy scoopable cat litter in bulk? I'm off to check my co-op catalog .

[rsps]

Petco sells bulk scoopable litter. You buy the container the first time, then just bring it back to refill after that. It worked fine for us. (We haven't had a littler box in about 8 years --- buts that's what we were using before.)

http://www.petco.com/petco_Page_PC_s..._-hdr-_-locate

[Begunda]

Petco is not convenient to me so I use Arm and Hammer scoopable litter. It comes in cardboard boxes so they can be recycled. Our Target carries it.

[snowbunny]

I need some help. I am really struggling with something, and I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to order up a whole bunch of clothes online.

I am down to two outfits to wear to work and that's it. I need to find professional clothing, but short of shopping online I'm out of luck. I haven't found much on Ebay, and nothing in local thrift stores. It's a struggle because my appearance has become progressively poorer and poorer at the office and that's not a good thing. I'm really hard on my clothes too.

Sewing is a great option, but since we're organizing the farmers market this year I have not had a free weekend or free evening at all this summer.

I just need a little encouragement right now. If I can make it to October, it'll be one year of compacting.

[Aguazul]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

I need some help. I am really struggling with something, and I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to order up a whole bunch of clothes online.

I am down to two outfits to wear to work and that's it. I need to find professional clothing, but short of shopping online I'm out of luck. I haven't found much on Ebay, and nothing in local thrift stores. It's a struggle because my appearance has become progressively poorer and poorer at the office and that's not a good thing. I'm really hard on my clothes too.

Sewing is a great option, but since we're organizing the farmers market this year I have not had a free weekend or free evening at all this summer.

I just need a little encouragement right now. If I can make it to October, it'll be one year of compacting.

I wish I had some creative solution for you, but I am in the same boat. I have a grand total of 2 skirts and about 4 blouses. I work 5 days a week and attend religious services every Saturday. Its getting to where I kinda feel sorry for my co-workers having to look at the same clothes all the time and I can imagine what they say/think about me. I don't even know how to sew nor own a sewing machine so that's not an option for me right now.

Have you checked the trading post here at MDC? Any family members or friends have clothes that they want to get rid of while decluttering? Didn't there used to be a yahoo group for the mamas who were compacting, where you could say what you need and others might have it?

But anyway, you are doing GREAT! You are a source of great motivation for me and I'm so proud of you. I remember we started compacting at the same time last year, and I didn't last long at all and here you are almost at a year!!!!! Way to go!!!!

I'll try to think of other ideas for you!

[Charmie981]

Do you have a friend who has gained/lost weight or gotten pregnant recently? I know my friends and I pass clothes around when things like that come up. We're mostly SAHMs, but even so we've made some trades that have really helped out.

Have you tried looking at the yard sale ads on Fridays? Generally if there are women's clothes they'll say what size so you'll know beforehand if it'll worth your while.

[Fiestabeth]

I was just taking a break from sorting clothes that I'm getting rid of! I am happy to go through and see if there's anything that would work for any of you if you tell me sizes, and I am also happy to let it go free for shipping. Just let me know. In pants I have sizes 14 and 16; tops are all L and XL. I also have a few nice size 2 pants and skirts that I had just bought to resell, and would let those go at my cost, plus shipping - they were $3 or $4 each. I have pictures of those ones on the TP. The stuff that came from my own closet I don't really want to take pics of; that's why I'm just donating it.

[MamaPam]

If there is no where else in your area to Check, the only other place I can think to check out is the trading post.

[VeganCupcake]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

I need some help. I am really struggling with something, and I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to order up a whole bunch of clothes online.

I am down to two outfits to wear to work and that's it. I need to find professional clothing, but short of shopping online I'm out of luck. I haven't found much on Ebay, and nothing in local thrift stores. It's a struggle because my appearance has become progressively poorer and poorer at the office and that's not a good thing. I'm really hard on my clothes too.

Sewing is a great option, but since we're organizing the farmers market this year I have not had a free weekend or free evening at all this summer.

I just need a little encouragement right now. If I can make it to October, it'll be one year of compacting.

I'm struggling with sort of the same thing. My job just transferred to a department that has very strict dress standards and I'm a bit at a loss. I haven't hit the thrift stores yet, though--I feel a bit discouraged just thinking about it, because of all the work that's involved. But even finding one or two things will feel like a huge accomplishment. One fun consignment shop isn't even worth visiting in this situation because I *know* it won't have anything that meets the dress code.

Oh, one thought: Etsy! I found this, which I totally love, but probably isn't suitable for my workplace. I doubt there are business suits on Etsy, but there are lots of interesting, funky clothes.

[rsps]

Most people have an exception for required work items in their compact. So if you aren't able to meet you job's expectations without buying new, then that is okay -- just don't buy too much.

[erthe_mama]

Originally Posted by Charmie981

DH and I have both been really frustrated with Cat Litter lately.

Have you tried the Litter Kwitter? (toilet training cats) I'm going to get one from ebay. I'm not on compact yet, but even if I was, I figure it's justifiable for the amount of kitty litter that would be thrown out otherwise. The litter box can just be freecycled as well.

[Charmie981]

First day on the compact

:

And I celebrated by shopping??

:

I've been going through the winter clothes I have for the boys, trying to plan ahead and get stuff ready for our local biannual children's thrift sale. I never put anything in because I never plan for it, but I'd REALLY like to be able to go the participant's only sale. All of my items are laundered, hung, and tagged *and* I know what I need for the boys for winter. My compact makes an exception for the boy's pants and shoes, because they are very hard to fit, but even with the exception, I'm going to TRY to find used before I buy new, so I've made a list and I'm on the lookout for clothes for them.

I got an email reminder that this weekend is the half off sale at our local Goodwill, so I planned to get up this morning and go see what I could find. As expected, I couldn't find ANY pants for them (their pants MUST MUST MUST have the adjustable waist or they simply don't stay up!!), but I did find 6 shirts for Samuel (all he'll need for the winter!), and 4 for Atley (more than he'll need because he has Samuel's hand-me-downs). I got to the front and discovered that half off day ONLY applies on Monday (*SIGH*), but even so, I spent only $32 on 10 shirts. That means I'll have money for pants at the thrift sale *or* if I go on Monday to the other Goodwill and find pants, I can just have some income from the thrift sale. I'm so excited. I've never really had any luck finding clothes for the boys at Goodwill, but I think it's because I often get frustrated with the hunting involved. It was still frustrating (there is NO ORGANIZATION at our stores), but I feel like it was successful and all of my purchases were well thought out, which is one of my major goals for my 6 months on the compact.

Two of Samuel's shirts look brand new..they were $1.99 each
The rest of Samuel's shirts are polos with one button down...all $2.99 each
Atley's shirts are a mix of polo and button down...$2.99 each

[AngelBee]

How is everyone doing?

[Aurora]

Is there anyone still doing this? I have been considering this for months and am ready to start come January. I am excited and scared, but mostly excited.

[VeganCupcake]

Yes, there are several of us compacting now.

Here's the thread: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=774844

Come join us!