Sunday Scarps: Buy Less. Share More. And Maybe Get your House Organized, But Probably Not

Can You Get Rid of 100 Things a Year?

Hi, it's Amber- and welcome to Sunday Scraps! Every week, I send you creative ideas, book recommendations, and, hopefully, a kind nudge to turn what you love into positive action. I'm obsessed with the materials around us and finding ways to combat the negative impact of fast fashion and overconsumption.

Three ways that you can make an impact this week:

1. Sign up to get a postcard: It’s 100% FREE. I make the postcard, pay for the postage, and you enjoy the note.

2. Leave a comment and let me know if you’re going to adopt the 100 Things Practice.

3. Help welcome teachers as they head back into their classrooms, by adding to the library. Donate a copy of The Weaving Book or The Oddball to a local school

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Seven months in, I've removed 74 items from my house; what about you?

Try the 100 things challenge. Get rid of 100 things over the next 365 days.

Before you spiral and create a BIG heaping pile of garbage, that's not what I mean. While you may throw a few things away, there are many other ways to get rid of things that don't require you to help fill the nearest landfill, and that can be far more fun than endlessly trying to organize your kid's crafts supplies for the 100th time.

Carbon paper experiments. I’ll share more about these later. All of my “scrap” play this weekend was exploring how to use boxes of carbon paper.

Use them.

Before you brush this obvious advice to the side, I see you. How often do you buy another pack of hair ties because you couldn't remember if you already had some? How many boxes of toothpicks that you never use would we find stashed in random drawers while you head to the store to buy another box because you need some for the next picnic?

Instead of buying another hair product that promises to smooth your curls in under 30 seconds and hold for 50 hours, check to see if you still have a stash of hair products. Then, use them and create a tally each time you make it through another tube.

Give them away:

Have a postcard collection that keeps growing that you never look at? Start sending a postcard a day. Finished a book that you desperately want to talk to someone about. Jot down a few notes, then wrap your book and send it to a friend. You can give yourself two tally points, one for the book and one for reusing some of those paper bags or cardboard boxes you've been saving.

Do you have so many jars of apple butter that you're considering building a new shelf to hoard a few more jars from this season's apple harvest? Skip building the new shelf and find a few friends, or have an apple butter party and explore ALL the things that are better with apple butter; hint: it's great in oatmeal.

One Hundred Things is not about holding all your objects and determining if they spark joy; it's about paying attention and approaching goods and objects with intention, being aware of what you have, and pushing you to think creatively about using, donating, or gifting them.

The Benefits of not putting your laundry away.

Three baskets of clean laundry filled to the brim, and my summer clothing drawer was getting relatively empty. It's one giant drawer under our bed, and the only people who should be allowed access to such large drawers are those who are much more organized than I am. If the Home Edit were here, they already would have ordered 5-10 plastic bins, added labels, and demonstrated the perfect way to fold your underwear. While I like the idea of beautifully organized things, no one needs another plastic bin, and I would follow the system for maybe three days. You'll find t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, skirts, socks, underwear, and a few scarves in one drawer because why not? This type of clothing chaos means that items are buried and forgotten, only to emerge if I refuse to put the laundry away for weeks.

I found three scarves that work perfectly as head scarves to tame or at least hide the frizz from the humid east coast summer.

100 Things Lightly Held Rules:

• Give yourself credit when you donate or gift something that you already had

• Give yourself a tally when you finish something that isn't automatically going to refill. For example, I don't give tallies for things like toothpaste or toilet paper, but you might if it's something that you buy too much of at any one given time.

• Pause before you purchase. Do you already have something that will meet the need?

• Makeup ways to celebrate and reward yourself as you go.

• Encourage family members to contribute

If you’re trying to select a tracking system, I love Trello. I create a new card each time I “get rid of something.”

A few things that have counted towards my 100 things:

• Sending cards [ The Analog Habit postcard project is a perfect example of using what I have to create cards and send mail.]

• gifting a CJ Hendry patch from my collection

• using all of my skincare samples

• finishing a pencil

• reusing saved packing materials

• eating items from the chest freezer

• Spools of thread, I've been collecting them for years

• plant cuttings

Read:

I’m still reading The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, but it’s not really holding my attention, so I decided to pause and start another one of my library books, The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, and I’m glad I made the switch. I was instantly hooked.

The Sun Does Shine is a book about an innocent man who spent 30 years on death row.

“On April 3rd, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton was released from prison after spending nearly thirty years in solitary confinement on Alabama’s death row. Mr Hinton is one of the longest-serving condemned prisoners facing execution in America to be proved innocent and released. Most of us can’t possibly imagine what it feels like to be arrested, accused of something horrible, imprisoned, wrongly convicted because we don’t have the money needed to defend ourselves, and then condemned to execution. For most people, it’s simply inconceivable. Yet, it’s important that we understand that it happens in America and that most of us need to do something to prevent it from happening again.”

Wrote

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PS: Thank you to each of you who has purchased a book, I hope you can hear me whisper my deepest thank you each time I see an order come through.

Support Afghan Refugees

I’m from Lancaster, Pa, a welcoming city that is home to countless refugees. As federal funding as made serious cuts to supporting refugees, Lancaster Refugee formed to support Afghan SIV refugee newcomers. The group helps find housing, set up housing, transportation, and jobs. This week all proceeds from orders of The Oddball, will be donated to Lancaster Refugee to support their work.

The Oddball teaches children to celebrate their strengths and the differences of those around them. This is a playful story where all kinds of sports balls, play, explore and get to know each other, which the exception of one ball, that doesn't feel like it fits in.

The Oddball is filled with rhythmic words and bold bright illustrations to keep children engaged page after page.

Written and illustrations by educators, the book also includes drawing, matching, and movement activities, making it the perfect addition to any classroom.

• 40 pages with color illustrations

• 46 pages of interactive activities including movement games, spelling and writing practice, drawing instruction and, coloring pages