Just Use: Certified Pre Owned Cell Phones

I have a confession to make.  I jumped on the cell phone band wagon pretty early in the game.  In 1999, we had just begun our little family and were living in Estes Park, Colorado.  Trips down the canyon to Fort Collins for "supplies" were fairly common, and it put everyone more at ease for the new mother/lone driver to have a cell phone in the car.  Then, once we did the math, we realized we could cancel our long distance plan and just use the cell phone to call far away friends and loved ones instead.

However, because I seem to be genetically programmed to not like shopping and not be tempted by new technology and gadgets, I have only owned three phones since then.  Up until last fall, I was still happily using my old flip phone, not as a camera or a mini computer, but as just a phone.  And then I washed it.  In the washing machine.  This particular phone had already survived being dunked in a glass of water repeatedly by a toddler (someone else's) and falling in the toilet (freshly cleaned, thankfully), so I somewhat confidently took it apart and set it in rice, expecting it to dry out and come back to life.  No luck.

As I browsed Verizon's website for my new phone, I just felt sick to my stomach and could not commit to a purchase.  I knew from start to finish the damage a cell phone causes to the environment.  The components of a cell phone read like a Top Ten list of major pollutants:  lead, nickel, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and plastic treated with brominated flame retardants.  From mining to manufacturing to usage to disposal these devices poison people and places at every stage.  The numbers are staggering.  There are 3.5 billion phones in use world wide.  The average user upgrades every 18 months (U.S. users are closing in on once a year). Only 20% of users get a new phone because their old one isn't working. Tossed cell phones account for 65,000 tons of electronic waste annually.  And yet, my life right now is structured in a way that it would be difficult to go completely without one.

Frustrated, I finally called Verizon to talk to a sales representative about my dilemma.  It turns out they, and all other major carriers, offer Certified Pre-Owned phones.  It takes a little digging to find them on their websites.  Verizon's is listed under "Deals", assuming your motivation is to just save money.  And although I'd love to get to a point where a cell phone is not a necessity in my life, buying a used phone, with the same kind of warranty granted a new one felt like a workable solution for now.

Other solutions to deal with the cell phone crisis:

-treat your phone carefully so it will last, keeping it in a case and not using it precariously where it might fall (no more talking to my sister and cleaning the toilet simultaneously for me!)

-only upgrade because your phone stopped working, not just to get the newest feature or cool kid toy

-recycle your old phone, but be careful it isn't just getting shipped to a third world country, look for a non-profit organization that actually uses them 

Just Use: Remnant Fabric

As Project Run and Play draws to a close this month and my Alice in Wonderland collection goes on display tomorrow night, it is time to turn my attention to some sewing projects around the house.  We have been in our home for a little over a year, and although we accomplished some pretty major renovations (knocking out two walls, new flooring, building a peninsula in the kitchen) my husband and I are both feeling inspired to get back at it again.  This winter we hope to finish painting, tile the backsplash, install countertops, and paint the kitchen cabinets.  We have also determined our north facing windows need window treatments after all.  It has been tempting to leave all of our windows exposed to keep an illusion of openness despite the small square footage of our house, but we need a little more privacy and a way to block some neighboring light sources on this side of the house.

In order to keep the lines as clean as possible I am making Roman shades.  Normally, I would have checked at the Pacific Fabrics Outlet on 4th in Seattle for any great deals on remnant decorator fabrics.  Unfortunately, they switched this store to a regular retail location earlier this year and I am not sure where their remnants end up now.

So, I have been researching sites dealing specifically in remnants online.  The two I am most excited about are Modern Fabrics and Warehouse Fabric, Inc.  Both have a pretty wide selection of home decorator fabrics that you can buy in yardage (as opposed to precut one-yard samples).  Also, both are reputable and carry recognizable lines of fabric.  Initially, I looked on ebay, but it was difficult to wade through the choices and none of the sellers instilled confidence in case I did not like my purchase.  I find it intimidating to buy fabric or other textiles online without having seen them in person first.  The color might be off and the weight or texture might not work with your project.  Warehouse has a blanket 30 day return policy and Modern considers returns on a case by case basis.

Although the majority of textile waste comes from the garment industry, it certainly exists in every area that produces fabric.  Both sites are run by married couples, and James and Ewa at Modern Fabrics are very pointed about the environmental impact you can make by choosing to use remnants.  If all goes according to plan, I should be posting soon about my purchase and my finished shades.

Just Use: Handwoven Towels

It is a rare occasion that I purchase a new textile product.  Knowing the excess that occurs at all stages when it comes to producing textiles, buying secondhand feels like a stop gap (albeit a tiny one) in that cycle.  However, the dish towels people donate to places like Goodwill are either often a) very worn or b) very ugly.  After several years of settling for un-absorbent and unattractive kitchen towels, I decided to invest in some quality, handwoven organic cotton ones.

Reader, (I've been re-reading Jane Eyre lately) I will never go back!  The difference is a hundredfold.  Just by touch you can tell the item will hold up to a lot of use and will last a long time.  The longevity of a product's lifetime justifies purchasing new.  I think I  found my new go to present when it comes to weddings.

I used the term "invest" when I described my decision, because an individual towel can run between twenty and thirty dollars, but a set of three is likely to last ten years or more and is not contributing any textile waste to landfills.  Also, you are getting something very practical and supporting a local artisan.  While I purchased my towels from the fiber arts and textile collective where I am a member, there are many weavers listed on etsy or to be found locally.