Commemorate going back-to-school with a sustainable upgrade on a classic staple.

I so love the look of the traditional composition notebook. But ever since that less than stellar showing in advanced penmanship, I’ve forced them into the annals of fourth grade memories. The Decomposition notebook, however, well, that’s a concept worth revisiting.

Made from 100% post consumer waste recycled paper, it makes the grade for being environmentally kind. A notebook of eighty college ruled sheets costs $4.95 each and is available in Topographical Map, Woodgrain and Cherry Blossom.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

The post Lustables: Decomposition Books appeared first on EcoSalon.

1. Paper Files

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Guilty! It’s tough to break the tactile filing habit when it comes to bills, work, pets, life. Sure, many have adapted to online banking but still feel the need to keep hard copies of tax-related documents, invoices, receipts (you can turn them down, now) and other proof we disorganized, overwhelmed consumers paid up, signed up, renewed and gave.

2. Non-recycled Tissues

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Your ass is not grass and your nose knows. Sand paper won’t go there, happily. It’s too bad they cannot make a softer, gentler toilet paper or Kleenex, and until they do, I pick the less prickly of the varieties – paper products that don’t give me a rash and turn an already bumpy nose into a Rudolph shiner.

3. Leather Goods

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While we have increasing evidence that it isn’t good to eat anything with a face, it is the year of the boots – thigh high, equestrian, chunky heeled, wedged. And leather jackets are cool, way more cool than fleece and hemp but perhaps not as functional and certainly more destructible. It seems easier to say no to fur than to the hide. Sorry. I like belts that are wide.

4. Camera Wizard

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Are you a walking, breathing Kodak ad? I seem to go through my HP ink too fast for comfort – and it costs a bundle. But it is very tempting to print out images that connect us to memories, photographs and scanned artwork. Digital photography and Microsoft technology has made all of us little Annie Liebovitzes. Download off Facebook or your camera, crop, re-size, print and frame. Oh, and don’t forget the holiday cards you customize.

5. Gas in the Tank

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Commuters are on bikes, everywhere, risking life and limb to save on gas and stay in shape, while others hop on public transit. Even so, we can’t stop filling the tank in our own machines for those times when it is simply too complicated to ride: Carpooling to school, late night parties, camping or other sporting trips, and places where we shouldn’t drive but are just too tired or lazy to opt for the alternative.

6. Buying Books

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No pulp is just too cold for many of us. This, despite the fact Kindle ereaders are a mega hit with users who enjoy being able to download dozens of reads for that commute to work or time off on the beach. Authors and publishers make money, either way, but we cannot let go of that romantic attachment to the hard cover or paperback in its classic form.

Yes, the commercial airline industry has taken a hit but we continue to fly business and first class as write-offs when just about any meetings and conferences can be done via telecommuting in the year 2010. No one wants to see jets grounded for good, but there was a time when flying was a privilege, a luxury. But now, with the frequency of boarding a Greyhound bus, we round-trip it on Southwest, figuring the fuel cost outweighs a six hour drive, any day. Meanwhile, we await that cost-effective jet biofuel the Pentagon announced it is developing.

8. Non Organic Meat

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Restaurants, markets and diners cite every excuse in the book for preferring Midwestern prime over free-range, grass fed beef. And surprisingly, America’s top-notch steak houses are still serving up factory cow to their discerning customers, saying it’s a matter of taste and access over health and humane conditions. Sorry, Temple Grandin and Michael Pollan – but humanely raised local organic is not what’s for dinner in a majority of kitchens.

9. Replacing Worn Running Shoes

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The sports shoe industry is designed like the cell phone trade; the product becomes unattractive, unhealthy and useless to us over time, so we do the all-American thing and replace it. I moan each time my tread gets worn down while the canvas and leather and rubber or whatever else makes a running shoe seems to be in great shape. Until we can just replace the treads, we keep getting new ones.

10. Using Conventional Beauty Products

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It’s the other green thumb, the one that has icky smelly trendy polish glossing it. It’s not like we don’t know the dangers of nail polish exposure and other beauty products we use religiously, but we do get lazy about picking stuff up when and where we can, such as buying mascara at the drugstore and undergoing a quick and dirty mani-pedi at the hood’s micro spa. I feel pretty but my health could be worse for the wear from all the chemicals. Guess we all could use a cleaner foundation!

Images: ibjorn; Katie@!, theimpulsivebuy, Thai Chu, 365mayhem, riza, Ben+Sam, Binder.donedat, Don Hankins, Mindsay Mohan

The post 10 Things We Just Can’t Give Up for Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

I’m not married to an SUV and don’t recognize the sound of a garbage disposal any longer. Still, there are some impure, clumsy little things that are hard to totally relinquish in my quest to qualify as a steward of the planet.  You might recognize some of these attachments as ones you are struggling to let go of, as well.

1. Paper Files

Guilty! It’s tough to break the tactile filing habit when it comes to bills, work, pets, life. Sure, many have adapted to online banking but still feel the need to keep hard copies of tax-related documents, invoices, receipts (you can turn them down, now) and other proof we disorganized, overwhelmed consumers paid up, signed up, renewed and gave.

2. Non-recycled Tissues

Your ass is not grass and your nose knows. Sand paper won’t go there, happily. It’s too bad they cannot make a softer, gentler toilet paper or Kleenex, and until they do, I pick the less prickly of the varieties – paper products that don’t give me a rash and turn an already bumpy nose into a Rudolph shiner.

3. Leather Goods

While we have increasing evidence that it isn’t good to eat anything with a face, it is the year of the boots – thigh high, equestrian, chunky heeled, wedged. And leather jackets are cool, way more cool than fleece and hemp but perhaps not as functional and certainly more destructible. It seems easier to say no to fur than to the hide. Sorry. I like belts that are wide.

4. Camera Wizard

Are you a walking, breathing Kodak ad? I seem to go through my HP ink too fast for comfort – and it costs a bundle. But it is very tempting to print out images that connect us to memories, photographs and scanned artwork. Digital photography and Microsoft technology has made all of us little Annie Liebovitzes. Download off Facebook or your camera, crop, re-size, print and frame. Oh, and don’t forget the holiday cards you customize.

5. Gas in the Tank

Commuters are on bikes, everywhere, risking life and limb to save on gas and stay in shape, while others hop on public transit. Even so, we can’t stop filling the tank in our own machines for those times when it is simply too complicated to ride: Carpooling to school, late night parties, camping or other sporting trips, and places where we shouldn’t drive but are just too tired or lazy to opt for the alternative.

6. Buying Books

No pulp is just too cold for many of us. This, despite the fact Kindle ereaders are a mega hit with users who enjoy being able to download dozens of reads for that commute to work or time off on the beach. Authors and publishers make money, either way, but we cannot let go of that romantic attachment to the hard cover or paperback in its classic form.

7.  Flying

Yes, the commercial airline industry has taken a hit but we continue to fly business and first class as write-offs when just about any meetings and conferences can be done via telecommuting in the year 2010. No one wants to see jets grounded for good, but there was a time when flying was a privilege, a luxury. But now, with the frequency of boarding a Greyhound bus, we round-trip it on Southwest, figuring the fuel cost outweighs a six hour drive, any day. Meanwhile, we await that cost-effective jet biofuel the Pentagon announced it is developing.

8. Non Organic Meat

Restaurants, markets and diners cite every excuse in the book for preferring Midwestern prime over free-range, grass fed beef. And surprisingly, America’s top-notch steak houses are still serving up factory cow to their discerning customers, saying it’s a matter of taste and access over health and humane conditions. Sorry, Temple Grandin and Michael Pollan – but humanely raised local organic is not what’s for dinner in a majority of kitchens.

9. Replacing Worn Running Shoes

The sports shoe industry is designed like the cell phone trade; the product becomes unattractive, unhealthy and useless to us over time, so we do the all-American thing and replace it. I moan each time my tread gets worn down while the canvas and leather and rubber or whatever else makes a running shoe seems to be in great shape. Until we can just replace the treads, we keep getting new ones.

10. Using Conventional Beauty Products

It’s the other green thumb, the one that has icky smelly trendy polish glossing it. It’s not like we don’t know the dangers of nail polish exposure and other beauty products we use religiously, but we do get lazy about picking stuff up when and where we can, such as buying mascara at the drugstore and undergoing a quick and dirty mani-pedi at the hood’s micro spa. I feel pretty but my health could be worse for the wear from all the chemicals. Guess we all could use a cleaner foundation!

Images: ibjorn; Katie@!, theimpulsivebuy, Thai Chu, 365mayhem, riza, Ben+Sam, Binder.donedat, Don Hankins, Mindsay Mohan

The post 10 Things We Just Can’t Give Up for Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

As it turns out, throwing certain items into the recycling that you are utterly convinced can be recycled is actually worse for the environment. Oftentimes, bad items can taint an entire bin, resulting in the whole load going into a landfill. This largely depends on how well a city’s recycling facilities can sort. But it’s enough to throw a person into high anxiety with every trip to the waste bin.

Not to worry. Here’s a quick list of 10 surprising things on the “Do we or don’t we?” list. And always, if you’re in doubt about an item, check Earth911.com for a facility near you that may take your questionable trash bit.

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Pizza Boxes I know, I KNOW. It seems like these cardboard boxes are made for the recycling bins. But pizza boxes are often tainted with food and grease. Many items are recycled using a heat and water process, which is not problem for plastic and glass. But throw some cardboard soaked in oil into the process, and you’ve got a messy muck. Terry Gellenbeck is a solid waste administrative analyst for the City of Phoenix. As he told Earth911, “The oil causes great problems for the quality of the paper, especially the binding of the fibers. It puts in contaminants, so when they do squeeze the water out, it has spots and holes.”

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Wet Paper Paper fibers that have been soaked are shorter. This makes them less valuable to paper recyclers, who won’t collect and mill them.

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Plastic Bottle Caps Plastic bottle caps are considered less valuable on the market, so most recyclers won’t take them. Make sure you separate them from your plastic bottles. Also, you can check Earth911 to find a facility near you that does accept plastic bottle caps.

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Juice Boxes Check to see if your juice box is specially-processed for recycling. If it isn’t, you have to throw it in the trash. The plastic coating on much of the cardboard renders them unsuitable for recycling.

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Plastic Bags When recycling bins are sorted manually, workers cannot open plastic bags to see what is inside. It isn’t cost-effective and could be dangerous. So they get trashed. (Note: don’t put your plastic bottles and more in plastic bags.) You can often take your plastic bags back to the store for recycling – and consult Earth 911 again for places that will take them.

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Styrofoam Another one that kills me, because how many times do we get handed Styrofoam containers we don’t want? But Styrofoam is a petroleum product and, more importantly, highly flammable. It’s considered a danger to most recycling centers. Again, Earth 911 may provide locations that will take it from you.

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Wire Hangers Most recycling centers are not set up to handle wire. However, experts agree that your local dry cleaner may take them. Often, they reuse them or send them to a scrap metal dealer. Sure, they get the cash, but you get the knowledge you’re not sending wire hangers into the great abyss. Joan Crawford would be proud.

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Paper Napkins or Towels Again, food contamination often takes these paper products out of the running. Try to use wash clothes or handkerchiefs instead.

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Ceramics You would think that your old coffee mug would find a home in your recycling bin. Alas, they are not accepted at most recycling centers. Consider giving them a second life with a houseplant or in your garden.

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Heavily-Dyed Paper When paper is recycled, it is heat-treated. So if something is heavily dyed, it has the same outcome as a blue sock or red t-shirt thrown in with your whites in the washing machine. Consequently, a lot of paper mills won’t take the results. (Pastels are okay.) Life can still be colorful, just a bit toned down!

Images: mukluk, crabchick, kaz k, cogdogblog,stevendepolo,Urban Woodswalker,
eatatree, Michael_Lehet, noego, raphernalia_vintage, minor9th

The post 10 Surprising Things You Can’t Recycle appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you live with a greenie, dramatic scenes can play out over the blue recycling bin. Styrofoam can be recycled, right? Hangers for sure. Why are you putting that pizza box in the trash? For the love of Al Gore, won’t anyone think of the cardboard? (And cue silent scream.)

As it turns out, throwing certain items into the recycling that you are utterly convinced can be recycled is actually worse for the environment. Oftentimes, bad items can taint an entire bin, resulting in the whole load going into a landfill. This largely depends on how well a city’s recycling facilities can sort. But it’s enough to throw a person into high anxiety with every trip to the waste bin.

Not to worry. Here’s a quick list of 10 surprising things on the “Do we or don’t we?” list. And always, if you’re in doubt about an item, check Earth911.com for a facility near you that may take your questionable trash bit.

Pizza Boxes I know, I KNOW. It seems like these cardboard boxes are made for the recycling bins. But pizza boxes are often tainted with food and grease. Many items are recycled using a heat and water process, which is not problem for plastic and glass. But throw some cardboard soaked in oil into the process, and you’ve got a messy muck. Terry Gellenbeck is a solid waste administrative analyst for the City of Phoenix. As he told Earth911, “The oil causes great problems for the quality of the paper, especially the binding of the fibers. It puts in contaminants, so when they do squeeze the water out, it has spots and holes.”

Wet Paper Paper fibers that have been soaked are shorter. This makes them less valuable to paper recyclers, who won’t collect and mill them.

Plastic Bottle Caps Plastic bottle caps are considered less valuable on the market, so most recyclers won’t take them. Make sure you separate them from your plastic bottles. Also, you can check Earth911 to find a facility near you that does accept plastic bottle caps.

Juice Boxes Check to see if your juice box is specially-processed for recycling. If it isn’t, you have to throw it in the trash. The plastic coating on much of the cardboard renders them unsuitable for recycling.

Plastic Bags When recycling bins are sorted manually, workers cannot open plastic bags to see what is inside. It isn’t cost-effective and could be dangerous. So they get trashed. (Note: don’t put your plastic bottles and more in plastic bags.) You can often take your plastic bags back to the store for recycling – and consult Earth 911 again for places that will take them.

Styrofoam Another one that kills me, because how many times do we get handed Styrofoam containers we don’t want? But Styrofoam is a petroleum product and, more importantly, highly flammable. It’s considered a danger to most recycling centers. Again, Earth 911 may provide locations that will take it from you.

Wire Hangers Most recycling centers are not set up to handle wire. However, experts agree that your local dry cleaner may take them. Often, they reuse them or send them to a scrap metal dealer. Sure, they get the cash, but you get the knowledge you’re not sending wire hangers into the great abyss. Joan Crawford would be proud.

Paper Napkins or Towels Again, food contamination often takes these paper products out of the running. Try to use wash clothes or handkerchiefs instead.

Ceramics You would think that your old coffee mug would find a home in your recycling bin. Alas, they are not accepted at most recycling centers. Consider giving them a second life with a houseplant or in your garden.

Heavily-Dyed Paper When paper is recycled, it is heat-treated. So if something is heavily dyed, it has the same outcome as a blue sock or red t-shirt thrown in with your whites in the washing machine. Consequently, a lot of paper mills won’t take the results. (Pastels are okay.) Life can still be colorful, just a bit toned down!

ALSO CHECK OUT:

The 5 Step Program For Better Recycling

16 Ways to Trim Your Trash

The Top 20 Things That We Throw Away That We Shouldn’t

Images: mukluk, crabchick, kaz k, cogdogblog,stevendepolo,Urban Woodswalker,
eatatree, Michael_Lehet, noego, raphernalia_vintage, minor9th

The post 10 Surprising Things You Can’t Recycle appeared first on EcoSalon.

“Since childhood, I loved to draw and create things with my hands,” says the Vancouver artist, who first wowed us with her exotic PapelVivo recycled paper handmade card collection, inspired by eastern imagery. She uses the same process to embellish her stunning jewelry, adding that savvy, personal stamp.

It works because Szapiro knows her craft. She studied fashion and graphic design to master the art of paper making and engraving, and says she knew immediately that paper was her true call. Lucky for the planet, she answered it with a sense of repurpose – first with the elegant invitations and cards and now with her imprinted gems made with recycled paper clay.

“Although they’re made of paper paste, the pieces are completely sturdy, strong, durable and resistant,” she advises, adding that the craftsmanship guarantees you will never tire of the classic accessories – such as the multi -colored necklace of round beads with brocaded flourishes designed for a friend heading to Israel.

The thing that’s hard to believe is that these medallions are forged from paper destined for the heap. Goes to show what a great eye and gumption can do to keep the world a beautiful place.

Images: Palomaria

The post Paper Girl Has Jewelry News: Bead All About It! appeared first on EcoSalon.

The average American uses 650 pounds of paper a year. Over the course of a lifetime, that adds up to roughly 18 tons. And with business cards, brochures, receipts, expense reports, and takeout menus, it’s easy to see how all that paper adds up, threatening to overwhelm you and your desk.  

Enter the Neat Desk. This handy little gadget contains a high-speed desktop scanner and digital filing system to convert all that paper into organized, digital files.

With the Neat Desk, you can insert up to 50 pages at a time and its Automatic Document Feeder scanner does the rest – using patented “Intelligent Text Recognition” software to identify key information and transfer it automatically to the digital filing system. Then you can search your scanned documents by keyword or export the data to QuickBooks, TurboTax and Outlook.

Neat Desk helps you organize business cards, keep track of expenses for tax time, store all kinds of business or personal documents, and more, reducing the need for paper files. Pretty cool, huh?

And the best part is”¦ all this can be yours. In celebration of Earth Day, we’ve teamed up with The Neat Company to give one lucky reader a NeatDesk (a $399 value)!

For complete giveaway rules go here, and you’ll find FTC guidelines here. Good luck! And don’t forget to check out our other giveaways running this week: The Aquaovo Therm-O and three sets of Lush’s most popular naked products!

The post The Neat Company’s NeatDesk Giveaway appeared first on EcoSalon.

E-readers are spineless compared with hardcover books, lacking the soulful carbon fingerprints of readers past. You cannot fold the pages of the wafer-thin gadgets, or make your mark with splotches of food or wine. And the idea of clutching the casing to your chest after reading the final line of a novel just leaves me cold. As one book club friend of mine waxes, “There’s just something about the smell of a book.”

Still, we all can smell and see the writing is on the screen when it comes to these devices outsourcing print media, sparing trees and saving money. According to ID TechEx, the total market size in 2010 is a whopping $131 million, and is expected to soar to $1.7 billion by 2014. Much of that growth is attributed to huge success of Kindles and other portable e-readers. “In 2020, the market value will reach $7.45 billion thanks to the availability of flexible, color displays and faster refresh rates,” the market analysts predict.

Why do users find them so friendly?

“I bought one for my wife for her birthday and enlarged the fonts so she can read the words on the screen without squinting or wearing reading glasses,” says Steve Montoya, a Bay Area IT consultant. “She’s an avid reader. Recently, she read a series she couldn’t get in e-print, and couldn’t wait to finish it and get back to her Kindle.”

While you can’t download all desirable titles now, the Amazon library and others are growing every day.

“You can get books, magazines, newspapers, even audio books to listen to with headphones,” Montoya says.

The graphite feature also is a huge power saver, he finds, noting you can get several days of reading on one charge. And since it works on a cellular network, it also makes it easy to instantaneously order books and have them appear on your library. Plus, the e-readers never seem to lose connection.

“My brother-in-law is in Afghanistan and his iPhone doesn’t work, but his Kindle does,” says Montoya.

If the prequel of our paperless future is the tragic death of magazines and newspapers, will the sequel be the disappearance of paperback and hardcover reads? Are there upsides to this plot? Here are some of the pros and cons of e-reading devices:

Cost

Pro: If you are a voracious reader without a library card, you probably will save money on an e-reader. If you are a voracious reader with a library card, you probably will save on late fees.

Con: You have to spend a lot for the cheapest iPad, which is wifi-only, holds 16GB of storage and sells for nearly $500. The Que is $649 and has a 4GB of data storage. The 3G wireless Amazon Kindle is more affordable at $250.

Storage

Pro: When the Kindle was introduced in 2007, travelers loved the benefits of of storing up to 1,500 books on a device the size of a small paperback read. And the library of available books to download keeps expanding (the first chapter of any book is free). Let’s face it, we are a storage-challenged human race with too much junk and not enough apartment and home space. This eliminates the need for shelving.

Con: Our private libraries are important for sharing with our friends and children and passing down treasured collections – classics and complementary fiction that rocked our world. Plus, it’s a lot easier to lose a gadget than an entire dusty collection.

Green

Pro: Many green publications, including Inhabitat, sing the praises of e-readers because they ultimately aid the environment by requiring no deforestation to manufacture, compared to the traditional paper publishing industry. This doesn’t even include the energy, materials, dyes and carbon from shipping that shames the print industry. According to a study by Cleantech, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of  a Kindle, for example, is fully offset after the first year. And more earth-friendly models are on the move, like LG’s Solar ebook introduced last year, boasting a thin photovoltaic cell which keeps the juice pumping so your novel won’t go kaput during the climax.

Con: What is being offered is a new thing to buy, to keep you busy on the subway. High tech by nature is incompatible with green with exceptions such as solar panels, which also require an investment in energy to make. Green means a return to what your grandparents did, a return to simplicity: Walk a few blocks to school and work. Open a book on your front porch and snooze. That’s 18th Century technology. Also, the effectiveness of reducing emissions by popularizing these gadgets is dependent upon the publishing industry standardizing its adoption of the technology while committing to cutting down the production of physical books and other print media. Is this likely to happen anytime soon, other than by default?

Convenience

Pro: Toss the paper thin, lightweight, wireless device in your bag and you’re good to go. The new generation of Kindles is lighter than a paperback at 6″ and 10.2 oz. and you can hold it with one hand, which aids those carpal tunnel issues. This is why so many e-readers are the new companions of commuters. Hopefully, driving laws will keep users from biting into New Moon while behind the wheel. If you thought texting was was a dangerous distraction while driving…

Con: The tactile experience of gripping a book, magazine or Sunday paper can outweigh the fact it might be heavier to lug. It is this experience that is woven into our cultural wiring. No matter how hard technology tries, the tendency for consumers to prefer print over e-readers will endure for many years to come. With regard to our cultural connection to books, a graduate student at the University of Toronto wrote that his first experiences with a reader felt like “a courageous betrayal of every word written from the moment papyrus gave way to paper.”

Connection

Pro: We are a society that needs to stay connected now more than ever. In terms of signal range, e-readers never seem to drop out.

Con: Losing connection might be easier on the eyes. Having your head in a book just isn’t the same as having your peepers fixed on a screen for hours of pleasure reading. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) cases are rising in people looking for relief from fatigue, strain and irritation caused by focusing on worlds and images on a surface without well-defined edges contrasted against backgrounds. Eyes simply respond better to most printed text of bold black letters on a bright, white background.

Images: E-readers

The post E-Readers: Cute as a Button or a Real Page Burner? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Don’t be pining away for the disposable tree when you can conceive a brilliant alternative, like Tara and Thyme’s rendition carved of recycled wood and copper pipe. How lively are their branches! Even the star is close to the spirit of the nativity, made from the siding of an old barn. Other stamps of creativity are the gold leaf garland and laser cut ornaments.

The drying rack may not have that evergreen scent but it is something that endures long after New Year’s day. Just locate that collection of ornaments form the basement and have at it. Yes, this inspiration from Re-Nest grows on you.

Cozy up to felt this year with this soft and clean option from cb2. It’s the Coneheads’ fave.

The Cardboard Christmas Tree is a real seasonal cut-up, destined to have you playing workshop elf for hours, adding your own personal touch to the sustainable alternative. Another paper option is the modern and minimal Pop-Up Tabletop Holiday Tree from the MoMA Store.

Prune a yuletide tune, drying out your winter flowers and shaping like a tree. Follow the steps on Ehow with a hydrangea arrangement. Prop it in your entryway to set the seasonal tone.

The post Trimming an Alternative Tree appeared first on EcoSalon.

I’m always tempted by those clever hooks for purses to keep better track of our keys. They’re usually hidden in my bag under a bushel of important papers, hair ties, various wallets and glasses. Digging for keys is adding years to my life. It’s that stressful because disorder complicates my life.

There are people out there called professional organizers who charge hourly rates to box and label the accumulation in our homes. And everywhere you look, there are attractive storage boxes and baskets for sale to keep things in their proper places in our offices and homes. What I wouldn’t do to keep my family’s things in their proper places. I would glue them down if that worked.

The middle class is begging for these gadgets and services. We are not only being buried alive by constant connection and information, our accumulation, too, is taking over and greatly complicating our lives.

It doesn’t matter that I’m attempting to go paperless by saying no to receipts at the register or reading my news and paying  bills online. It doesn’t matter that I spent last weekend eliminating clothes from my daughters’ closets and retiring enough garments to fill five supersize garbage compactor bags. Today, my husband is hauling them to his mother’s so that her nurse can ship the items to her poor family in the Philippines.

As I strive to reduce excess and clutter to make my home the simplified, functional haven I envision, I continue to do battle with the nagging phenomenon of  losing shit. Shit! I’m sick of it.

“Where’s the English paper I printed out?”

“Who moved my tax documents? They were on kitchen table!”

“Have you seen my new skinny jeans? I’ve looked in the hampers and in everyone’s rooms and I can’t find them.”

Yes, playing the surprisingly unrewarding game of lost and found remains the most aggravating symptom of the consumption syndrome known as affluenza, aptly defined by Wikipedia as “the portmanteau of the words affluence and influenza and a socially transmitted condition of overload resulting form the dogged pursuit of more. ”

First, allow me to point out that the mother is the sole proprietor of the house capable of locating lost articles. And once the lost treasure surfaces, I rarely see the results I would expect, i.e. a big hug and overwhelming expression of joy on their faces. “Goodness, Mother, how can I ever thank you?”

Take my husband, an intelligent eco man who acquires the least, loses the most, and can’t find objects that are literally under his nose. One daughter has inherited this same bizarre gene. The other daughter was once a registered bloodhound like her mama, but is now losing her shit, and has succumbed to the same bad habits as her influential sister such as getting undressed and leaving belongings strewn on the floor of various rooms. (They also both bite their fingers and devour chocolate like wild beasts, habits I link to the bizarre genes inherited from their mother.)

Every so often, like last weekend, I get on a roll and rifle through closets, sort my kitchen desk nook, organize the kids’ bins of art supplies, and perform the most dreaded and vapid chore of all – filing. Man oh man, does anyone loathe filing as much as I do?

I wish I could get that organizer lady back here to help me make new files and sort all the junk. She made professional labels on her label maker. She was great. I wanted to marry her. I want her to move in and take over and take me away. She’s Calgon to me, minus the harsh chemicals. But wouldn’t you know it, I don’t know where I put her number.

I try not to beat myself up about all of this – to follow the advice of modern clergy and therapists and be compassionate with myself. Sure, I’m a bonehead about keeping order, a little better than some of my most eccentric working friends, and not half as good as most stay-at-home moms.

It’s really a matter of overcoming the selfishness which leads to the over-consumption of material possessions, according to the author of the website My Super- Charged Life. As he sees it, the disease of deriving happiness from the next new toy “is a fruitless pursuit that will quickly leave a person depressed, disillusioned and broke.”

I feel depressed when I drop my girls off at their private school and pass the lost and found corner which is so generously stocked, it resembles a second hand store. Piles of forgotten lunch boxes with rotting contents, abandoned warm winter jackets, essential classroom binders and adorable stylish tee shirts: They all abound in the unsightly lost and found – glaring symbols of affluenza.

At the end of each month, a volunteer parent named Tila from Colombia ships the unclaimed items to the poor in her homeland. The children there are appreciative. Children who barely have enough food to eat don’t snub their cheese sandwiches and abandon lunch boxes on the black top. When you own just one winter jacket, you don’t leave it behind when you board the bus for home.

True, kids will always be forgetful. I was once a forgetful child. But unlike my daughters, I had less and kept track of it. My walk-in-closet contained about five pair of shoes and two toy boxes, one with Barbies, one with stuffed animals. It was easy to clean up after play. It was freeing.

Guess it all adds up to wanting to be free, again, free from the clutter and feeling that fleeting high from getting something new, a wired emotion we don’t feel by accident.

In the ’30s, Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays (known as the father of public relations) figured out how to mold public opinion via third party propaganda campaigns for selling everything from bacon and eggs promoted by the nation’s doctors to cigarettes, soap and books. This marketing strategy dictated to the receptive nation eventually became a familiar meme: Linking the accumulation of goods with feelings of happiness and success.

Ironically, I’m now finding happiness is attainable not by adding but subtracting. If anything should get lost, it is the brainwashing (and sometimes greenwashing) that the more we amass, the better we feel.

I strive to find the simplicity of less. Even more than ignorance, I suspect it is the route to bliss. In other words, it is time to bench Team Edward.

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Main Image: Evelyn is Here

Images: Jeffrey Beall, It’s a Purse Thing, Squidoo, Wikipedia

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