What in the winter?

I realised after having a dream that I found a whole other part of my house to renovate, that I really miss renovating! I love taking something ugly apart and turning it into something useful. But unfortunately, I don't have another house to renovate.
I set my sights instead on my basement. Practicing minimalism hasn't quite prevented me from collecting some treasures down there. The trouble with treasure is, if you aren't able to use it, it has no value. 
Two years ago I bought this old gun box. I have a thing for boxes. I especially love big chests (get your mind out of the gutter).

This old gun box had been turned into a shelving unit by the person who had it before me, and painted a dark brown.

Also in the basement: table legs and two perfectly good, but out of fashion, stools that I picked up from the curb.

A bit of sanding to remove the paint and suddenly the hand carved celtic cross stood out beautifully.

The cross being on the door meant that when the door was open I wouldn't be able to see the cross. I took the door off, and flipped it.

After adding the legs and a bracket for stability, I had a pretty cool bar! I moved onto painting the bar stools and five hours later, voila!

A breakfast nook from salvaged materials.

Anti-consumerist weekend

As regular readers of the blog (and friends who have heard my unprovoked rants) may have guessed, I am opposed to consumerism for the sake of consumerism.

My house does not look like the houses that pop up when you search "minimalism", though. I painted my walls bright colours which repulse people with dark souls, and every wall is covered with a generous amount of rescued or self-made art. All my frames are rescued from bins or relative's basements and it turns out, you can put anything in a frame and it looks like art. 

Being anti-consumerist doesn't mean you can't own stuff. Fighting consumerism is a conscious choice; everything in your house has been reflected upon. Every picture, plant pot, bowl, cat, and computer has been invited into my home after much deliberation. I don't go shopping and buy something unless I have a need for it and have already researched alternatives to that thing, or that thing second hand. This probably sounds like a lot of work to people who love going shopping and coming home with an empty bank account but lots of pretty new things to store in the closet and never look at again.

It is easier to buy without thinking than it is to walk through rows of cheap goods and only buy the one thing you need. It's harder to go to the hardware store and find the part to fix whatever is broken than it is just to buy a new thing. Just remember, every time you spend $80 on stuff you didn't need, that's another day you have to keep working that job you hate (if you don't hate your job, awesome!). 

I live happy in the knowledge that my actions are in line with my world view. We make too much stuff, throw out too much stuff, and if we could all take one day off work per week we would be less stressed and make more conscientious choices. If life isn't so hectic, you can take time to pause and ask yourself "do I really want this?"  (This applies not only to stuff, but relationships and lifestyles!)

If you really want to unwind next weekend after your stressful week at work, instead of shopping, try to turn something you already have but kind of hate into something that is brilliant. Pinterest is full of awesome ideas to turn junk that's sitting in your basement into something artistic and fun. And if you still hate it, no problem! You were going to get rid of it anyway. If you love it, you can feel good that you got a cool new thing without spending any money and without consuming more precious resources and destroying the planet for future generations. Bonus points if you learned a new skill and increased your confidence in your own abilities!

Well done you!

Paradise or Junkyard- the fine line

I don’t know if there’s a word for people like me. People who hate to see things wasted. People who recycle, upcycle, shop in charity shops, garage sales, flea markets, and who start and participate in clothing exchanges. People who unashamedly stop to pick up stuff from a stranger’s garbage that’s been put out to the curb.

Cheap?

Environmentally conscious?

Thrifty?

The word hoarder definitely does not apply to me as I love giving things away as much as I love collecting them. It is the knowledge that something that was destined for the trash has been rescued and given another life with someone who can appreciate the item’s worth that makes me happy.

What people who aren’t addicted to re-using don’t realise, is that it is actually quite a lot of hard work. You may call me ‘cheap’ because I was not willing to go out and spend $200 on a new computer chair, but you could also call me ‘patient’ for instead making do until one in my neighbourhood was put out for the trash. You may call me a ‘garbage picker’ for rescuing the shitty chair covered in chalk and paint, but you could also call me a ‘hard worker’ for spending over two hours cleaning it until it was a beautiful black computer chair. And you could call me ‘clever’ for then selling that chair many months later when I had to move.

Old tyres aren't widely recycled, but at Eden's Rise
they can live a second life as flower containers.

The problem with using the word cheap is that I am willing to spend large chunks of money on things I love. But when it comes to material goods, I know how much stuff is circulating in my rich country and how likely it is that what I want is sitting in someone’s basement somewhere waiting to be given a second life. Re-painting an old beige dresser, rescuing picture frames, getting a whole new wardrobe from the unloved clothes of a friend, these bring me so much joy and pride.

Eden’s Rise is an extension of this drive inside me. Raised beds made from old pallets, a flower bed made from old tyres, a rain barrel purchased second hand online, trellises made from the sides of an old crib found on the side of the road, mulch that was once a growing medium in a local greenhouse, and plastic mulch made from the growing bags. None of this is easier than just purchasing things new. Most worryingly, it is a fine line between a successful re-use and having the orchard look like a trash pile.

Old pallets used to make raised
beds for strawberries

Even the dead grass on Eden's Rise
gets a second life as 'straw'

The field itself is a prime example. Unused and vacant, now I am trying to give this little acre new life. Among my own trees and gardens are tall grasses, self-seeded trees, and weeds weeds weeds. Why don’t I just chop them all down? Good question. Partly because native wildlife depends on the little environment in the field, partly because I think if I removed all those distractions the wildlife would target my trees (which are still little more than twigs), and partly because I don’t think it’s necessary yet. I am looking for a second hand mower to keep the middle path trimmed down, but otherwise I keep a large enough circle of mulch around my trees and weed this diligently so that at least there is not competition for the water and nutrients at the base of my trees. I’ve also cut back the self-seeded tress that were shading my plants.

Asparagus hates competition-
here old grow bags are being
used as plastic mulch.

To come: the whole asparagus
patch will be framed with
recycled pallets. 

Ugly, or original beauty? Again comes the patience aspect of being a person like me. You don’t expect what you want to fall in your lap the second you conceive it. You wait. Now it looks like a disaster zone, but little by little I will transform it into a gem.

I want my orchard to be a beautiful paradise, fruit trees and bushes with an under story of wildflowers. 

Though for now it does look a bit like a hoarder’s back garden.

 Have a lovely week!

Eden's Rise- weedy mess or young paradise? Here are the edges of the crib I found in front of a neighbour's house, now painted white and added to the top of Eden's Rise to give the illusion of open gates welcoming you in. Hopefully we'll have some Nasturtiums climbing up these someday soon. Also in the picture is the second hand rain barrel that's often used for emergency watering needs.