UsedEverywhere.com

A bit about needs and wants. And a DIY container for your cotton swabs.

Every year for the past five or six years our family has participated in an annual Shopping Embargo. The goal of the Embargo to be more mindful of our purchases and drastically reduce impulse buys. And it works.

Our rule is this: From Boxing Day until the end of February, we restrict our purchases to the bare necessities; groceries/consumables, gas, basic hygiene (shampoo, soap, but not cosmetics), medicine and essential clothing.

That means… no spontaneous purchases of lip gloss (my personal weakness), video games (my husband’s) and a wealth of other non-essential items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

You can read more about our Shopping Embargo here.

The hardest part about it is probably determining the difference between needs and wants. Everyone has different priorities, and frankly, it’s easy to persuade yourself that a want is really a need. It became an annual debate with my blog readers. One year I felt that I needed a housecoat. I didn’t actually own a housecoat. So was this a want or a need? You can argue the finer points until the cows come home.

One of the items we tussled about was decorative containers for the bathroom, you know, the things that hold cotton balls and cotton swabs. Are these a want or a need? I’d argue that it’s a “want” because you can technically keep the extra Q-tips its original box under the sink. The whole issue of having decorative bathroom containers seems like such a first world problem, doesn’t it? Well, you can avoid all that by making your own.

Easy peasy.

• Take two matching jars (these are relish jars), soak off the labels and wash them out thoroughly.
•  Find some pretty paper and trace the lids. Cut the paper out and glue onto the lids.

That’s it! You have your own customized containers for bathroom supplies! And you didn’t need to break the bank (or your Shopping Embargo).

Eight things to do with stray socks

During the infamous basement purge (which is still under way) I got rid of a large basket of stray socks. It felt good, REALLY GOOD, to shove them into the trash bin.  The vast majority of them were not only sad socks without partners, but various other socks in varying degrees of breakdown. Many were also socks the girls had outgrown. It was a mess.

Sidebar: I’ve learned to buy kiddie socks in larger quantities (i.e packages of 6 identical pairs). This means that if one gets lost it doesn’t matter as much because they’ll always be a match. If you have two children of the same gender with sizes that are fairly close, I recommend colour coding each kid. For example, the eldest girl can have mostly pink, purple and red socks. The youngest can have mostly orange, green, and blue socks. It takes the guesswork out of sock sorting!

Anyway, the aforementioned basket ‘o singles was an idea I had some time ago. Instead of putting the strays back into the drawer hoping for a miraculous reunion, I just weeded them out, making room for happy pairs. Smart eh?

But I digress.

Now that I’ve tossed out our old singles I’ve realized there are a bunch of things I could have used them for.

1 – The thing that had me recently rooting for a stray sock is the sock bun. It’s an easy way to create a swank updo. (And yes, you need a sock for this!) If I can just make a recommendation, don’t use a white sport sock (um, like I did, because that’s all I had)… it might peek through your hair. Use a darker sock, or better yet, one closer to your hair colour.

Here is the YouTube video that inspired me to try it (and it totally works by the way).

2 - Dust rags. Yes. Boring. But stick a sock over your preschooler’s hand to introduce them to Dusting 101. (I believe in startin’ them young!)

3 - How about a classic hand puppets? Here is an excellent sock puppet monster tutorial

4 - Sock dogs. Once upon a time I made some gifts. They are surprisingly easy to make, even for someone like myself. Photos and instructions over here.

5 - No sew sock snowmen! I think this is a really cute idea.

6 - Sock bunnies! (Easter is coming, so get started!)

7 –  Baby legwarmers. Cut off the toe off a couple of fun socks, and voila, baby knees are protected from wear and tear.

8 –  A budget friendly iPod protector, to keep your tech toys safe and warm.

Can you think of any other ways to use those old stray socks? Please share!

Five used Valentine's gifts. For me.

Would you consider buying secondhand gifts for Valentine’s Day? Why or why not?

I’ve been giving this quite a bit of thought lately, and I think the answer is… it depends. Like any gift-giving scenario, you need to know the recipient. And excellent gift giving requires a few different things: (a) Listening. If you’ve been paying attention you should already know what your loved one likes. (b) Creativity. This is where the Used sites come in! (c) Time. So start shopping now!

I decided to pull together a list of things that are on the UsedOttawa site right now that I think would make compelling Valentine’s gift ideas for someone like myself.

1) A one carat naked diamond. No setting, just the rock. I would carry it around in my wallet, just to say I had a diamond in my wallet.

2) A Pandora bracelet with a starter bead or two. Voila! You have the next 20 gift-giving occasions taken care of!

3) Something that has the words “vintage” “designer” and “Italian” in the title. Like this silk scarf. Again, you need to know your gift recipient!

4) A gorgeous tote or handbag, like this lemon yellow Charles David.

5) A romantic weekend at a chalet in Wakefield. Ok, so maybe this one doesn’t actually qualify as “used,” but still, it’s pretty nice. And don’t forget to arrange child care!

Unacceptable Valentine’s gifts (according to me) would include exercise machines and kitchen appliances. You know what they say, buyer beware! Good luck with your shopping!

Skiing on the cheap

I’ve often said that in order to survive an Ottawa winter you should be prepared to get outside and make the best of it otherwise it will seem like the longest and coldest six months of your entire life.

One of the things that makes winter go by a little faster for us is cross-country skiing.

Skiing can be one of those pursuits that can be incredibly expensive (designer duds, top-of-the-line gear, ski passes and/or lift tickets) but it can be done totally on the cheap as well.

My husband and I already have the gear (albeit my snowpants are from the early 90’s… much to the horror of my tween daughters), so all we need to do is worry about getting the kids outfitted. Last year we discovered that Trailhead offers seasonal rentals of ski packages, which we decided to do since our kids are still growing. It is a bit of a gamble because skiing is so weather dependent. It can be a snow-heavy winter or not. The conditions can be downright Arctic-like, or not. You can be a motivated skier, or not. But we did it and it turned out to be a good deal that year.

This time around, because the snow didn’t hit until late in the season, we decided that we’d opt for weekend rentals instead. We picked up the skis last Friday afternoon and went out on Saturday and Sunday. This option only cost $25 per kid, and that’s because they’re into adult sized boots. It’s even cheaper for really little kids.

We debated whether or not to check out the trails in Gatineau, but since our goal was to ski as cheaply as humanly possible (you have to buy a pass in order to ski there) we decided to hit the Trail 26 at Stony Swamp on Saturday and Shirley’s Bay on Sunday. Both were free, and both were amazing trails for novices like ourselves. In fact, I’d say that Shirley’s Bay was a notch more interesting, what with the view of the water and the ice fishing huts. It was incredibly pretty and peaceful.

Skiing out on to the water at Shirley's Bay

It’s a 4 km loop that we managed to do in less than an hour, and cuts though a variety of interesting landscapes.

Skiing is a great way to spend time as a family. Not only is it great exercise, but it tires the kids out and practically guarantees a good night’s sleep for all.

Looking for cheap skis for keeps? I recommend checking out the skiing category of one of our Used sites right now. There’s a lot of great gear to be found there, not just for cross-country but for downhill too.

Good luck, and happy skiing!

A peek inside my collections: vintage Valentine's Day cards

My most devastating Valentine’s Day memory is from the second grade. Steven, my neighbour and the love of my life, tore up the Valentine I gave him RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. He didn’t just tear it up, no, he made a big production out of shredding it into teeny little bits and tossing them in the air. It was heartbreaking. It was a very special Valentine too. I picked it out just for him and painstakingly tore it out of one of those huge perforated books my mom bought for me that year. (Remember those?) It was a picture of a cat holding a lemon, and it read “Don’t be a sour puss.” I think I beat him up after that.

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I have a smallish collection of vintage Valentine’s Day cards. They make me smile every time I look at them. I love the artwork, and I love that some of them aren’t exactly P.C. anymore. I think modern day kid’s cards – the kind we buy in paper boxes to give out at school – just don’t hold the same charm. What do you think? How can Spongebob, Spiderman, or Barbie compare to these little beauties?

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Go retro

My family is in the planning stages of a massive renovation of our Ottawa home. For the past year I’ve been deep in the throes of big picture planning and we’ve been asking ourselves lots of questions such as: how many bathrooms do we need, what’s the best kind of kitchen layout, and can we make do without a garage? My head is spinning. Pinterest, along with all the inspiring interior design articles I’ve been consuming lately, has me bursting with ideas. But I’ve had to take a giant step backwards and start with nailing down our personal style. Frankly, I’m still not sure if I can define it. Retro modern? Casual glam? Quirky country? Classic contemporary? Gah. The one word that jumps out on that list for me is retro. I think when people introduce retro design into their homes it makes their living space really shine, and this personality injection is something I’d like more of.

One easy way to do this is to introduce a few retro elements into a household. There’s no better way to do this than by scouring Used listings (which I have been doing, rather obsessively) for inexpensive touches.

The one thing I’d really like is a working rotary phone. Extra points if it’s a wall phone, or if it a black one, like this one on UsedOttawa.

Or what about an antique radio? They’re not very expensive. We actually have one! Here is ours, nestled in our bookcase:

They don’t make them like this anymore. It has a solid wood casing, and actually works (which just adds to the cool factor if you ask me).

Another item that can add a retro element to a home design is seating. Retro chairs can be a relatively inexpensive way to inject some fun into your decor. Check out this red chrome chair.  I love this yellow one too!

What about old signs? Even if they’re new ones made to look old, they can be pretty cool. Especially in a rec room. Here’s one I like from UsedOttawa.

Before our children came along, my husband and I had a collection of vintage cameras on display. It got put away awhile ago, but I think once our reno is over we will resurrect it. It’s too good to keep squirrelled away in storage. This one would be a good addition to our collection. Maybe we could find a way to display it on this liquor cart! Ha. I think my parents had one just like it.

Another inexpensive way to add that retro touch is by printing vintage images and having them framed. How about scanning some vintage hockey cards and turning them into a poster?

If you have the “retro” bug like I do, let me give you a tip. Use use “retro” or “vintage” or “antique” as one of your search terms the next time you are browsing your local Used site. You never know what treasures you might find!

Hello New Year goodbye junk, and a game of Keep Or Toss

I spent a large chunk of yesterday alone, in our basement, sorting though bins and boxes and stacks of our stuff that have been accumulating down there since 1997. You see, our basement has served almost exclusively as storage for us (with a small corner for laundry and another for a tool area) and so it has been used (and abused) as such. The problem is, if you have too much storage space you tend to fill it. And this is precisely what we’ve been doing for over a decade.

We’re going to be renovating our home and will be moving out in the Spring, so it’s important that we get rid of as much unwanted junk as we possibly can before we start packing. I really don’t want to pay someone to haul and store our garbage.

To make my work a little more fun for myself I tweeted as I went. Pretty soon I had a little Twitter cheering section (or maybe it was more of a support group?) that helped keep me going.

Care to play a game of KEEP or TOSS with some of the items I unearthed yesterday? Tell me, what would you have done with the following:

Bridal magazines from the year we were married (circa 1998):

My wedding dress, which I haven’t looked at since August 7, 1998. My kids thought it was a hilarious when I tried it on:

My grandmother’s parasol; fabric top, wooden handle, in perfect condition:

Kiddie art. This one says: “I have seen squirrels pick their noses”:

The first gift my husband gave to me (and behind the kettle is a chocolate advent calendar. That’s where he hid my engagement ring when he proposed):

My husband’s old textbook:

My high school graduation photo:

A complete set (at least I think it is) of E.T. cards:

A cool-looking Coke can:

Champagne flutes that were an engagement gift:

What would you keep? What would you toss? I’ll tell you what I decided to do with each item in the comments below in a couple of days.

Where to find free moving boxes

We’re getting ready to move out of our house in the Spring. We’re prepping for a massive renovation and need to get most of our stuff out of here. But first we want to spend some time going through our things and paring them down. For this we need cardboard moving boxes. LOTS of cardboard moving boxes. The question is, where can we pick some up for cheap, and preferably free here in Ottawa?

I put the question out to my friends on Twitter, and they totally came through. They came up with a lot of great suggestions including checking the local grocery stores such as Food Basics and the LCBO. Photocopy paper boxes make good ones too (I hadn’t thought of that)! FrogBox was also suggested to us, and I like the idea but it’s not cost efficient over the 6-8 months. But then someone suggested I check UsedOttawa (doh) and I did. And you know what? I found someone who was getting rid of 40 new moving boxes. And right after that someone on Twitter offered her moving boxes as well. It took about 10 minutes to find more moving boxes than I will ever need.

Twitter wins!

Where do you stand on Christmas cards? And where do you put them?

A few years ago I had to do a serious Holiday Reassessment. I was taking on too much and buckling under the pressure of it all. I had to decide what would stay and what would have to go.

Holiday baking, pretty much, had to go. I don’t really enjoy baking cookies (although I do love baking bread), and don’t have patience for finicky decorations. Besides, this is something that can be easily outsourced.

Shopping and gift buying had to stay. Obviously. But I could pare it down by buying fewer things and shopping online.

Decorating was pared down to a tree and some greenery on the mantle.

And then there was the issue of Christmas cards. I love receiving cards, but in order to receive I realized I had to send. And so I found myself returning to this tradition year after year, and quite often the kids got involved too, even when they were too young to write:

Sadly, it’s rare that I’m able to get the cards out on time. In fact, I still have a stack of them right here, almost ready to go. Oops. Perhaps I’ll just call them “New Years” cards instead of Christmas cards. That way I can send them anytime in January!

Displaying the cards has also been an ongoing issue for me too. Some years we’ve strung twine across our faux fireplace or across the window, but there are a few other options that I’m considering for next year:

• I like the idea of creating a giant collage
• Pinning them to ribbon on the back of a door
• Making a fun wreath
• … or a tree (!)
• Stringing them along a bannister with pine boughs

Do you send cards to family and friends this time of year? Why or why not? And how do you display them? I need more ideas!

Giving charitably

SVdP Thrift Store (photo: helpingthepoor.org)

I’m taking a wee break from my collection posts because I wanted to write about something that’s more important this week.

A few years ago I wrote a newspaper feature about a local secondhand shop called St.Vincent de Paul. It’s an interesting place. It’s set up to accept donations of used goods, many of which are then sold at an affordable price in their little store, but I bet more people don’t know that certain people in need – referred by their church – can walk in with a note from their pastor to do some shopping and not have to pay anything for the items they pick up. The manager gave me an example of a single mom who’d left an abusive marriage. She finally got her own apartment but was lacking in all the basics, everything from linens to can openers and dishes. She had the opportunity to come in and furnish her apartment with the goods at St.Vinnie’s.

The manager stressed the need for donations of these kinds of gently used household items, heavy emphasis on the gently used. He was quite dismayed in regards to the poor quality of donations some people left in the donation bins. He told me about disgusting stained mattresses that are regularly donated. He didn’t think the person who donated a stained mattress would want to sleep on a similarly stained mattress, so what makes them think a poor person would want to sleep on one too?

Sadly, many donations just end up in the garbage bin, because that’s what they are… garbage.

Some of you might remember my community bookshelf idea. I first wrote about it here, but to summarize, I had an idea that our local rec centre should have a free lending library. That was a couple years ago, and I have to say, it’s been a great success. I drop by every few weeks to check up on it. The books are always different, which is great, because it means they are circulating and donations are coming in on a regular basis.

I brought a huge box of great books the other day, ones that were donated from a holiday bazaar. It was a mix of contemporary fiction (i.e. James Patterson novels) and bright board books for pre-readers. As the person who initially helped set up the community bookcase I take it upon myself to sort the books and weed out items that don’t really belong there. I’m talking about worn textbooks for ancient computer programs that can’t possibly be in use anymore (Microsoft Publisher ’93 for Dummies anyone?) and paperbacks with pages torn out of them. I pitch these into the garbage without a trace of remorse.

Who would donate half a book? And why?

If you’re preparing a donation of secondhand goods to charity, please look everything over with a critical eye before you drop it off. Is that shirt stained or torn? Is that appliance clean, and in good working order?  Put yourself in the shoes of someone in need. Would you want to read half a book?