When does hoarding become a bad thing?

Hands up those of you who saw the documentary about hoarding last night?

Judging by Twitter I wasn’t alone in feeling very disturbed by the lack of compassion or understanding that some of the neighbours displayed    ..and a feeling of intense claustrophobia! 

 Mental health issues aside, what particularly struck me was how fine the line is between storing and hoarding. At what point do you tip over from being someone who stores things to protect your resources and reuse where possible to being a ‘hoarder’? Is it about the sheer quantity of ‘things’ that you keep, or whether you actually reuse, recycle or upcycle them?

I'm sure that many of our MIAMI friends and members are very good at not throwing things away indiscriminately, but what is it that stops us keeping everything? Where do we draw the line? Keeping something that's broken or not to your taste or useful any more isn’t sustainable either. Taken to extremes you're just creating a landfill site in your home.

So what do you do if you don’t want something anymore, but can’t stand it being thrown away? Obviously you can reuse it or repurpose it, but if that isn’t going to happen, you could offer it to someone who might want it. There are lots of sites on the net where you can donate, swap sell or recycle your goods, so it's worth spending a few minutes seeing what other people want.

So as we rush headlong into Christmas and the chance to acquire yet more ‘things’, 

what's going to dictate what you throw away and what you keep? 

What’s your litmus test?  

Tell us where  you draw the line? 

>>Click here for your chance to catch up on Obsessive, Compulsive Hoarder

Hilary Bruffell

Council orders grandmother to dig up beloved garden to store unsightly wheelie bins

This headline appeared in one of the papers this weekend. Admittedly it was the Daily Mail and so there's always the temptation to take it with a pinch of salt, but it seems that this story is true….or at least according to various news agencies. 

Why didn’t I believe it at first? Because at no point in this story does it make sense!  If it does to you, can you please explain it to me?

I'm all in favour of sensible recycling, but Harlow Council have brought in two large wheelie bins and a collecting box to collect recycling.  Unfortunately for Sandra St John, she has nowhere to store them. At first the council suggested that she keep them out the back and manhandle them through her house on collections days. When she pointed out the impracticality of this, they told her she must pave over her lovingly tended front garden to make room for the two big bins.   Understandably Joan was upset: she's tended the roses and lavenders in her garden for 22 years and was attached to her garden.

A lot of local flooding is being blamed on people paving over their front gardens so that they can park.  This large scale paving of front gardens is apparently displacing the water and causing all sorts of flooding issues as well as destroying wildlife in urban areas. Last year the RHS flower show championed designs for front gardens that allowed for off road parking, whilst still remaining environmentally friendly. 
Moreover, as of October 2008, there are regulations in place to stop people randomly paving over their front gardens and you now have to apply for planning permission. Yet here we have a local council actually advocating this!

What I also don’t understand is why, when Sandra is quite content with the recycling baskets she currently has and feels no need for any more, is the council foisting these giant wheelie bins on her…and god only knows how much the production of these monsters bins puts on our environment.  
Why can’t we just go back to weekly collections and recycling rates might even rise, as already proven by Gedling Borough Council in Nottinghamshire who when, they finally did a U-turn on weekly collections found that their recycling rates rose dramatically.
Even more to the point, why aren’t the government and the local councils encouraging us to reuse things rather than send them to recycling. We really don’t need any more encouragement to throw things away. How about supporting the MIAMI take on life and go back to the old skills. What alternative use can you find for those old curtains, those empty jars, that bubble wrap, all that compost material for your garden?

Come on guys, lets get a little perspective on this whole recycling lark  and think before your throw….because, as we keep saying,

life’s too good to throw away.

Get your plastic bags out!

So you now use reusable cloth bags when you go to the supermarket.

You keep a foldaway bag in your handbag and some spare bags in your car.

But what happens on the odd occasion when you are out and about and buying some last minute groceries and discover you've left your bags at home so you have to resort to suprmarket plastic bags?

Well don't beat yourself up - just make sure you reuse the bags.

Here's some suggestions:

• Stuff your bags into an old tissue box and leave it in the car so you'll always have a supply for the grocery run >> read our tip
• Make fused plastic and use it to make a >>laptop bag or a tote bag
• If you have a dog you know what to do! So please make sure you do it!
• Use the old bags to line your pedal bins or wastepaper baskets
• Give yourself a banana and mayonnaise hair treatment and intensify it by wrapping your hair in a plastic bag
• Turn your bags into yarn and >>knit yourself a bag with them

We'd love to her from you if you have any other ideas for using your spare plastic bags.

A new lexicon for recycling

If you’re not ‘recycling’ some things at least some of the time, we have only one question? Which planet are you from and how recently did you arrive on Earth? It’s good to recycle but you also need to embrace a much broader set of principles to be a true Make it and Mender. Here’s our 're’ glossary to help you.

recycle – ensure that as much as possible is reused or reclaimed in some way. Thoughtful and careful rubbish sorting is all you need to achieve this.

Consider recycling as your last resort. The 2 ‘life steps’ that should always proceed recycling are reduce and reuse.

1. Cut your consumption by careful shopping, so, for example, less food goes off.
   
2. Compost any vegetables that can’t be used (because they’re too far gone for even soups and stews) and avoid packaged and wrapped items as much as possible.
3. Reuse as much as you can – such as plastic drinks bottles. Try and buy fewer bottled drinks by always taking a drink out with you.
   
4. Here are 2 things to do with plastic drinks bottles before you put them in the recycling:
   

• Use them again to carry a drink in!

• Cut the base off, remove the screw top and stick them (upside down) in the ground next to thirsty plants. Immerse about 2 to 3 inches of the upturned bottle into the ground. (You may also need to secure the bottle by driving a plant support into the ground and through the mouth of the bottle so it doesn’t fall over.) Water your plants via the bottle. This reduces the amount of water run off and directs the water towards to plant roots where it does more good.

We have some great tips to help you reduce and reuse >> Check out our Inspired recycling ideas
You can also find out more about >> Using leftovers , with a whole page dedicated to >> mashed potato tips.

upcycle – take something that was designed to be disposable and give it a second (hopefully more permanent) life and a higher value. The true principles of upcycling can be learned from, so called, ‘third world’ countries where upcycling skills have been developing for centuries.
Upcycling has been embraced as a clever way of dealing with our excessive consumption and waste - but beware. True upcycling is not about enthusing over abstract art created from paper coffee cups, only to carry on ordering takeaway (guilt free) lattes.
How to Upcycle:
As with recycling – the first step is reduce. If you do like your coffee from Starbucks, or Café Nero, take your own travel mug and get them to fill that.
And all of us should be campaigning to reduce the amount of items that are designed to be ‘disposable’ and or come with ‘built in obsolescence’.
Where we do need to upcycle, the emphasis should be on the practical first and the pretty second.

Here’s a great home and garden upcyling project: this comes courtesy of Anne’s cousin John who has been experimenting with using old tyres as planters.
The simplest way of using them is to stack the tyres (they need to be the same diameter) on top of each other and fill them with earth. “The weight of the tyres tends to keep them in place,” says John. They’re particularly great for growing potatoes as you can start with one or two tyres and sow your seed potatoes and then put another tyre on top and fill with earth, ensuring they get a good covering.
“The other great thing about tyre planters is it brings the height of the bed up to a level where I don’t have to bend down so much and it saves my back,” adds John. Chat up your local garage or scrap yard to acquire tyres, or ask for your old tyre back when you get a new tyre fitted.

There’s >> a useful article about upcycling on our website and >>tips for sorting your recycling

decycle.1 – this definition defines decycling as anti-recycling (possible irony), the purposeful disposing of rubbish to landfill or ‘spoiling’ recycling by mis-sorting items to make them unrecyclable. We hate this definition.

decycle.2 – the Make it and Mend it definition defines decycling as reducing the number of energy consuming processes we use to get from one point to another, or to turn one thing into another thing in the most energy-efficient, least wasteful way. We love this definition.
For example, we should rinse bottles and cans before putting them into recycling but we shouldn’t use fresh water to do this. That’s a waste of drinking water and the energy used to purify it. Instead, use old dishwater. Use water swilled around the first bottle to rinse out the second and so on.

downcycle – this is the opposite of upcycling and describes the process of turning things into new items which are of a lower quality and lower value.
Some things might be better suited to downcycling than upcycling (particularly if the upcycling alternative involves more energy and creates something decorative rather than useful).
And a lot of recycling is, in fact, downcycling. For example, paper recycling leads to a shortening of the paper fibres, which means that recycled paper is more likely to tear and is therefore a lower quality with more limited uses. And often new raw materials have to be added to recycled paper to make it useable. (Thanks to Grant for this insight.)
So, again, it’s very important to try and reduce and re-use paper waste before even thinking about recycling. Downcycling should be viewed as better than nothing.

Here’s a home downcycling project for carpets for you to consider if all else fails.
Old carpet often ends up in landfill. Start by seeing if it can be recycled after cleaning or dying a darker colour. Old, good quality fitted carpets can be cut into rugs and ‘whipped’ – the edges are bound professionally. If that’s too expensive, try edging the rug with hessian tape using strong twine and a very thick needle.
But carpets that don’t find a second life as carpets can be downcycled into weed barriers for gravel beds in the garden, or under paving stones. Old carpet – ideally, hessian backed and wool - can be laid over allotments that have become overgrown with weeds. But check with your allotment first. Some have banned carpet as people start the job and then don’t finish it, leaving the carpet to become weed infested. Don’t leave the carpet down for longer than a year or the weeds may grow through, making your job trickier.
• Some animal shelters may accept old carpet for bedding.
• Use pieces in the car to protect the fitted carpets from footwear or in the boot, particularly when taking garden refuse to the tip (for suitable recycling).
So what sort of "cycler" are you? Please tell us in the Comments section

Make it and Mend it - a call to revolution!

For too long we have been accustomed to buying stuff and then when it breaks or gets a bit worn, chucking it away and getting something new.

This isn't just wasteful, it is also expensive and these days as we are tightening our belts, it makes sense to start making do and mending.

This blog and our growing website will chronicle the movement to make do and mend: helping you remodel that garment, shift that stain, or mend that light fitting. We will highlight inspirational examples, share tips and ideas and pass on useful information for living more creatively and sustainably.

Please check out http://www.makeitandmendit.com and send us your own tips and suggestions too.

The blog will focus on news and stories and examples of people who are living Make it and Mend it (we call it MIAMI). It is meant to be a source of inspiration on how to recycle, reuse, adapt, repair, make and refashion.

We heard an inspiring story this week, which shows it's not just women that are making and mending. This young man has shown that what Granny knows can turn into a lucrative business and set you on the road to becoming an entrepreneur.

Fraser Doherty, 19, dropped out of university to devote more time to his fledgling jam-making business. This started out as a kitchen table enterprise and grew from the passion Fraser developed for jam-making after being taught at age 14 by his grandmother. He got up to 1000 jars a week in his parents' kitchen before moving the business into a factory. He is now selling half a million jars a year, under the brand name Superjam and the business is growing fast.

Recognising what he owes to his grandmother, Fraser has launched a charity, "Superjam Tea Parties" to get old people socialising over tea (and jam!) at community centres across the country.

We really like this idea of acknowledging the contribution older people have made to society and can still make. One of our missions at Make it and Mend it is to tap into the vast knowledge and skill base of older people and find ways to bring this experience to the forefront. As part of this Jam Boy (as he is known) has supported the elderly folks in a nationwide Knitathon to knit squares to amke blankets for for Indian orphans. To find out more about Fraser and his Super Jam parties have a look at his SuperJam Blog.

Do you know of any inspirational role models? Do you have ideas on how to share the knowledge and skills of older people? Are you in touch with a local community group that is doing this?
Contact us below or on info@makeitandmendit.com
See also our website post on Knitting a square to help a child
Meet the MIAMI team