Linda and I are accumulation averse. We are perpetually wary of letting anything into our personal space, whether it was bought or free.
Halt! What goes there?
This goes doubly, Linda points out, if we are talking about any products that have anything to do with body maintenance, or body image, including duds like processed/fast foods, cheap, throw-away clothing, and pretty much anything that has to do with grooming.
Nothing gets past our front door until we have conducted a thorough grilling of the product (and the company that makes it).
Will the thing make our life better? How? For how long? How much maintenance is needed? How often will we use it? How much space will it take up?
Is the manufacturer engaged in a sustainable, value-added environment in which workers rights are respected? Are its source materials ethically and sustainably harvested?
In the end, the question has to be for every little thing that crosses our threshold,
"Will this product/thing/object enhance or detract from our life force and that of our planet?"
Very, very few things make the cut, and successfully gain access to our simple, sparse home.
As it should be.
A person needs remarkably little to live a happy, contented life.
Everything else is a lie and should be strongly opposed.
The questions you ask yourself before letting something into your home are excellent. I've also started to ask myself 'what happens to this when I have finished with it?' That is usually enough to stop most items coming in.
ReplyDeleteI was online a while back making my usual wholefoods bulk order. This is from a company that claims to be ethical, sustainable and so on. I decided to look at the country of origin for each food I was purchasing and was a bit floored to see that about half the items were not grown in Australia. The locations were as far-flung as Hungary, Bolivia, Mexico, Switzerland (organic sunflower oil - who knew?).
After I mentally screamed 'whaaaaaaat???' I went through my order again leaving only the Australian items in my basket. Barley, millet, olive oil, sunflower seeds, almonds can stay. Buckwheat, sunflower oil, brazil nuts, sesame seeds, sesame oil and pepitas all have to go. Sigh...But we still have plenty of good food to eat :-)
Madeleine
Thank you for filling in "what happens to this in the end?", which completes the life cycle of things. Most stuff does not operate in a closed loop. It is a linear progression straight to the landfill, or somewhere else polluting the environment.
DeleteWe have been buying some of our groceries online for the past year and a half. In the beginning they listed the country of origin for their products. Then we noticed they changed to "may come from this country, or that country, or..."
After that they just quit listing where their products originated. Hmm. Seems like they don't want us to know. If there was full transparency, we would realize the foolishness of such outrageous supply chains, and stop buying certain things, as you have done.
But as you point out, even without far away food, there is still plenty to eat. Right now we are tying to keep up with our tomatoes and cucumbers. It's crazy abundance!
Oh I'm glad you have crazy abundance!
ReplyDeleteThis year I am trying to grow a variety of tomatoes that are traditionally used to make tomato paste and passata, as tomato paste is still something we buy. I will let you know how it goes! I already make my own passata using a traditional mouli (hand food mill, for anyone who hasn't used one. The French and Italians commonly use these wonderful electricity-free tools). The flavour of our home-grown tomatoes made into passata is astonishing.