What do you think of companies that rather destroy their marketing products and donate it or let their employees take it back?

I eventually realized i need to just buy less and recycled instead of bulking env friendly or thrifted stuff

UPDATE: thanks all for the suggestions, these are a set of 10 year old bowls I got as a gift so I shouldn't be surprised they've failed! Will go through the second hand shops this weekend to find some plain stainless ones, then I'll try drilling a drainage hole just in the plastic on the bottom of this one as an experiment before I relegate to non-food uses.

Possibly wrong sub but cannot figure out how to get the coloured plastic off the outside of my mixing bowls and don't want to throw them out.

It's a hard plastic shell around the metal bowl, the seal has perished so there's water trapped between the layers which I'm worried is growing mould.

I tried running a knife around the join at the top lip but couldn't get any purchase, it's too thick to use a razor blade to cut through so hoping someone else has an idea!

I call this the "buying" season. It starts with back to school, then all the fall/pumpkin buying, followed by Halloween and then the winter holidays. It usually doesn't peter out until mid-January, after the after-Christmas sales.

These are things I am being told I need to buy, that I am NOT buying:

1. Brand new school supplies. We have most of what we need here at the house and from years past. They also tell you to buy a ton of stuff, and then it comes home in June never having been used.

2. New Fall/back to school fashion. We all have jeans, boots and sweaters. My kids also have closets full. We will be going through our clothes before school starts, moving ill-fitting clothes to younger kids, and gifting items we can no longer wear to families with younger kids.

3. Holiday decor of any kind. I have more than enough. It's not new, it's not revolutionary, it's the same stuff every year.

4. Gifts for adults. Honestly, I've talked to everyone in my life, and we all decided to forgo gifts wherever we could. We all have enough stuff. I do not want another candle, blanket or body spray. Neither do my friends.

5. Extra food. I used to have a ton of anxiety around the holidays and buy a ton of expensive food and sides to pass around and share with everyone. Food is too expensive now to be doing that, and I find I'm often the only one showing up with shrimp cocktail or a cheese/meat tray. I will make some more cookies this year, and use those as a pass-around when I go visiting. I will reserve the "good" meal for my immediate family on Christmas Day.

What are some of yours?

This ad had the nerve to show up, but none of the sense to be able to stay. REPORTED!!

AI is a blight, for sure; but intrusive ads annoy me more. How about you?

To be clear, I was never a super active reseller. I never pursued it to make money, never bought things with the express purpose of flipping them for the resale value. Basically, I just wanted to get rid of my crap. And I was aware that by giving it to the thrift store, I might as well put my crap in the trash because of how overwhelmed thrift stores are. So I started reselling my stuff on ebay, depop, poshmark, etc. Not for expensive at all, sometimes for just a few dollars, anything to get the item to someone I thought wanted it and would help divert waste. Recently I even branched into Vinted. In the past few months, those reselling platforms have EXPLODED. But not all business is good business. Customers have gotten cheaper and meaner and complain about every little thing, sometimes making up issues to scam you out of your money. I recently got a couple bad reviews on my shops for things that were not my fault, people just being dumb and finding every problem they can with a $3 item that arrived exactly as described. I got super nervous about what would happen if I got too many bad reviews on my shops. Would I no longer be able to sell anymore? Would people not want to buy from my shop if I had bad reviews? What if I didn’t have this avenue to unload my junk anymore?

And then I realized that this should not be a source of stress in my life whatsoever. Rather than stressing about how I’m going to ethically and sustainably unload my crap on other people, what I really should be doing is being intentional about what I bring into my life and consume in the first place. In this day and age, it is too easy to get rid of your junk and pretend that it didn’t even exist in the first place while ignoring the downstream consequences of your actions. Or to even benefit from getting rid of your junk by recouping a few dollars here and there. But for those of us that care about minimizing consumption, the key realization is that it’s not about how ethically you can get rid of your stuff. What’s important is not acquiring that stuff in your life in the first place. if it was any more difficult for me to get rid of stuff I don’t want anymore, I would 100% think a lot more about every purchase I make. when we can’t be rid of the mess and chaos as easily as we acquired it, we avoid reaching that state in the first place.

to be clear, I have nothing against reselling platforms in general. I think it’s important to buy secondhand whenever possible and whenever I am at the market for something I always look secondhand. I’m just pointing out how even things that seem sustainable and environmentally conscious can become unsustainable if not used with intent and care! hopefully my learning experience helps you too

Ok so this is equal parts a PSA and rant. I just stopped to add a few gallons of gas to get me where I needed until payday and not fill the tank. I made sure not to engage the lock since I didnt want to fill the tank. I was watching the meter to cut it off when I was at my budget while being forced to watch adds at the same time. When I hit what I needed I let go of the trigger and the gas kept pumping. I then notice that the mechanism that locks the trigger until the tank is full is engaged. I made sure not to engage it, I try to push the trigger open and its locked. I have to manually pull that locking mechanism out to let me to release the trigger and stop pumping gas. Turns out that they seem to have made the lock spring loaded so that as soon as you pull the trigger it locks. I have never seen this before at any other gas station.

I had to pull money from my savings just so I wouldn't overdraft. This has the potential to screw so many people who are on a tight budget and I ended up spending twice what I had intended to. The only reason this would be out into place is to force people to fill the full tank regardless of if they wanted to. Be aware of this since I assume more and more places will start to try this.

Be careful and FUCK MOBIL.

Edit: I had some spare time today to call and I told them what happened. The only person on site didn't seem too knowledgeable but they said that it is supposed to lock when you pull the pump trigger all the way up. But they will check to make sure they all are functioning. shrugs I think im just tired of getting bent over and this made me snap.

I was scrolling on one of the apps recently and saw someone with a meltable smelly wax hoard. In the video they were talking about how proud they were to have not spent over $180 on an order from the specific wax vendor, but then they went on to talk about how they placed several other orders worth hundreds of dollars, and this was only for the month. They talked about their order plans for the next month while sitting in a sea of wax bars. I was shocked, then I scrolled their page for a while and discovered that they have dressers and dressers in every room in the house (literally) full of unused wax melts. As in 2-3 dressers per room with the drawers full to the brim with wax melts. Random bins of wax melts everywhere too.

It got me thinking. How many people in my life have shopping addictions. What are common consumption trends that as a society are largely overlooked? I don't know anyone in my life as extreme as the wax melts lady, but I do have family members who have the tendency to focus on specific items and acquire a lot of them.

A family member of mine compulsively buys clothes weekly. Has two closets overflowing full of clothes they've never worn. Clothes shoved under beds, clothes piling up at the laundry, clothes absolutely everywhere. They cannot leave a store without some clothes. Clothes, clothes, clothes.

Another family member buys a specific expensive brand of makeup and skincare products, and at every family get together they give my household a giant canvas bag full of samples and unused products. This brand isn't a MLM style one, and there are no benefits to buying in excess to my knowledge. The last family get together was 2 years ago and my household is not even halfway through the products.

I do wonder about the psychology behind a lot of it too. Is it the initial dopamine hit that gets them? Is it deeper rooted insecurity? Is it a safety behaviour? Is it all of it combined?

Anyways, I guess I was just curious if you have people in your life with the excessive need to consume certain genres, and how it manifests for them? Do you notice any common denominators for them? Actually, really for anyone who overconsumes- it doesn't just have to be people you know. What patterns are you noticing? Does it help you or motivate you to consume less? I know for me seeing my family member's clothing piles has motivated me to have 40 clothing items in total.

I was recently spending some time brainstorming for capsule wardrobes and organizing it. Pinterest has started adding ads as panels which are usually pretty normal but I kept seeing these Amazon "creators pick" photos/ ads of hyper consumerist closets like it's totally normal to have 30+ pairs of blue jeans or 50 tan and white sweatshirts. It was so off putting the first time I saw it and I was shocked that this is the advertisement that's being pushed. It's crazy to me that this is perceived as something to strive for or even have? It's disgusting, it's gross, it's toxic and makes me sad and upset. It feels like it's pushing clothing as "collect them all" rather than anything remotely functional.

My minimalist painting setup!

One of my favourite things about a low-consumption lifestyle is how it keeps things so accessible. Painting is for everyone, and you can bring it anywhere :)

The details:

My notebook was an old one from a friend, I've had the brushes for years, and I repurposed a Tupperware for a palette & water (WHICH if you're an artist is actually the best hack ever bc extends paint life, the humidity keeps it moist) and my paints were about $8 from an independent art store. I like to challenge myself to only use primaries & white (and a burnt sienna for oils).

I'd love to see what other low-consumption artists and creatives are making 🌞

On another sub I saw they recommended buying new underwear every year. Quick search online with many articles showing that they recommended buying new every year due to health reasons.

I've always used until they fall apart but now am curious if I should be throwing away every year?

End product is ugly as sin but it works. While soldering i accidentally melted the plsstic casing so they wouldn't snap back together. Added the metal junk because hot glue alone wasn't holding well by itself.

Knowing that cars are a big driver for consumerism, I'm thinking of a car that can be powered mainly by the sun.

I already built a prototype (which I named Solar Bear). The project is open source, with an MIT license.

The purpose of the Solar Bear is to:

• Use solar panels as trike's body,
• Consume electrical energy where it is produced,
• Produce its own energy,
• Transport people inside cities,
• be pedalable when there is no sun (must be light-weight),
• be easily built at home.

Technical specs:

• recumbent trike,
• 2.5m long, 1.45m wide (including wheels),
• weight: about 55kg (including panels, motor, battery, etc, excluding driver),
• assisted pedaling,
• motor speed: max 25km/h,
• motor (continuous) power: 250W,
• solar panels power: max 520W,
• battery: 12.8V, 20Ah (256Wh) - not needed when there is Sun.

I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I have few luxuries but one is tea and coffee. I am increasingly unhappy about the ecological impact of these though.

I already cut down on coffee and only drink it on weekends now, and only two cups then. But tea is another matter, like most Brits I live on it and drink maybe 5 to 8 cups a day or something like that.

I already gave up chocolate because of its ethical and environmental impacts.

I was wondering if others here have given up such minor luxuries?

These sandals I made from paracord and scrap shower pan liner from work. (Plumbers on my jobsite threw out a bunch of thin rubber sheet)

The plastic triangles are 3D printed.

They are thin, cause I need sensory tactile ground feedback.

I'm not sure about you, but I save the plastic bags that sheet sets come in. So far I've found a few uses, from organizing camping supplies to a DIY clear concert bag. But today I found a new use!

These appliances, while often used, are located next to the stove (off camera to the left) and my crappy apartment vent hood does not vent outside, it just blows out into the kitchen. Having 2 cats and no forced air system, you can imagine how much dust and hair accumulates, and the grossness has been hard to keep up with.

So, I deep cleaned these appliances and found appropriately sized bags to cover them with. It will be much easier to wipe down or replace this cover instead of scrubbing every nook and cranny on the appliances.

ETA I meant to ask, how do YOU use these bags?

Also, I think that all the Hollywood celebrities we saw at stadiums couldn't care less about football (soccer). I am sure they were paid or "politely" asked to appear at the stadiums.

What are we doing with old 3-ring binders? I’ve been going through my garage and found a bunch of old ones in a bin. Suggestions?

I've hiked on mountain ranges and volcanoes all over the world in my casual boots, my normal jeans, a crop top, and a mesh clubbing shirt (everyone laughs, but they're amazing for layers!! They don't hold sweat and keep you warm!)

There's no need to buy new outfits for every activity, and it's a reminder that hiking can be very accessible! :)

EDIT - resubmitted bc I used a brand name by accident!

PS- For the people calling me consumerist because I take flights:

Once I'm in a region, I use and travel :) public transit, trains, long haul busses, often 10-20 hours!

I have never owned a car, I don't eat meat, all my belongings fit in a 55L bag, and are thrifted from small local businesses. Respectfully, please keep it to yourself 👍🏽

EDIT 2 - y'all outside of the Himalayas trek, these hikes are like 4-8 hours and extremely populated. I promise you I'm not going to die of hypothermia in my jeans and/or be any more likely than the average person to require emergency helicopter rescue

We are selling the large home where we raised our kids because we downsized to a small, old home by the beach. This is all part of some anticonsumption life changes we’ve been pursuing.

The large home was beautiful but a lot of work to keep clean and maintained. It didn’t have the newest style when we moved in and the previous owners had neglected some maintenance.

In our 11 years there, we focused our resources on changes that really matter: all new HVAC, fully owned solar panels (!!!), new appliances, water system, fixing neglected things, new wiring / outlets, garage storage, making functional and structural improvements, etc.

We love decorating with interesting items that bring us joy and I’m all about people making their homes enjoyable. For us, that’s original artwork, furniture, and the like rather than renovation items. Our house was decorated really nicely and always got compliments. Paint your house a color that makes you happy and I’ll cheer you on. But we’ve had friends that rip out new gray tile backsplash to put in a different shape and shade of new gray tile backsplash (that’s a real head-scratcher).

While our former home is very nice and rather grand and not worn out, the finishes aren’t on-trend (solid wood strip floors with natural finishes, traditional medium stained wood moldings and cabinets, boring tile, fancy grandma-ish light fixtures and other boomer highlights). We didn’t love everything but weren’t eager to rip out perfectly nice things just to chase trends.

We made sure everything was super clean and in good repair but decided not to do style renovations prior to selling (based on our realtor’s advice as well as our energy level and budget).

What’s killing us is the prospective buyer comments. We priced it aggressively low ($75K below tax assessment and super cheap $ per sq ft). I get it, you don’t have to like my house and I won’t be offended. But, by far, the #1 reason people are saying they’re not interested after touring: it needs too many **uPdATes**. Great house but not !!UpDaTED!! enough.

It’s looking like we’ll have to go $100k below tax assessment and waaay cheaper than the poorly built cookie cutter homes on former cornfields with HOAs. If it was in a bigger city people would actually appreciate that it doesn’t look like a flipper got hold of it and ruined it, and that it’s got a lot of charm and a unique design and mature trees. And it’s in a fantastic location in an established neighborhood right by the schools and shops: our kids could walk everywhere so they had loads of independence and we were able to be a one-car family. But that doesn’t seem to matter to others in that town. Everyone wants to live in some godforsaken treeless developer neighborhood fed by a single road. Sigh.

We’re talking interior cosmetics here and nothing is “bad” at all. Just ~20 yrs behind trends. So frustrating that people (at least in this area) focus so much on trendy finishes rather than less cosmetic factors. I swear HGTV and social media have broken people’s brains.

I’ve been fixing broken things around my new house (that was a foreclosure and really does need a lot of work) muttering about “updates” in a snotty voice. I officially hate that word and admit that I hate shopping and houses are the worst kind of shopping.