accumulation_stasis
@tcleescrib.bsky.social
Educator, mom, crafter, walker traveler, writer… posting here about a 2025 experiment in buying no non-consumable items for a year. Let’s see how it goes.
Pinned
I’m not buying any more new stuff. Not this year anyway.
Is it possible? I’m not sure, but it feels urgent.
What triggered this late “resolution”? It’s a combination of things, but I think the urgency came from the Los Ángeles wildfires.
(1/10)
Is it possible? I’m not sure, but it feels urgent.
What triggered this late “resolution”? It’s a combination of things, but I think the urgency came from the Los Ángeles wildfires.
(1/10)
The zucchinis are coming in full force. I’ve already made and distributed four loaves of zucchini bread. It’s a hit, so I’ll make more. But what are your go-tos for zukes? (And I tend to be cursed when it comes to deep frying anything!). TIA!
May 24, 2025 at 5:35 PM
The zucchinis are coming in full force. I’ve already made and distributed four loaves of zucchini bread. It’s a hit, so I’ll make more. But what are your go-tos for zukes? (And I tend to be cursed when it comes to deep frying anything!). TIA!
Everything seems to come in a lovely zip lock plastic bag now. But what to do with them when they’re empty? My family is not keen on reusing them for food(and remembering my father’s kitchen counter awash with drying out baggies gives me icks). How do you up-cycle all these bags?
May 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Everything seems to come in a lovely zip lock plastic bag now. But what to do with them when they’re empty? My family is not keen on reusing them for food(and remembering my father’s kitchen counter awash with drying out baggies gives me icks). How do you up-cycle all these bags?
Went to Watts Towers and took a tour with a group from Detroit in for a jazz festival. Imagine you’re in LA and your one stop is Watts Towers? So cool. Also: go to Watts Towers! Go between Wed/Sat so you can take the tour. It’s $7 (30 min). Totally worth it to get inside and hear the stories.
May 22, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Went to Watts Towers and took a tour with a group from Detroit in for a jazz festival. Imagine you’re in LA and your one stop is Watts Towers? So cool. Also: go to Watts Towers! Go between Wed/Sat so you can take the tour. It’s $7 (30 min). Totally worth it to get inside and hear the stories.
So taken with what folks can make out of trash. Watts Towers: found rebar, cement, bottles, broken pottery, and other found materials. Built by a tiny man who could not read, write, or do math and somehow just knew how to build beautiful structures that would endure for over 100 years.
May 19, 2025 at 6:26 PM
So taken with what folks can make out of trash. Watts Towers: found rebar, cement, bottles, broken pottery, and other found materials. Built by a tiny man who could not read, write, or do math and somehow just knew how to build beautiful structures that would endure for over 100 years.
Best Buy-nothing insight: I was boredom shopping! I’m never actually bored, but when I found myself with a free hour, I’d “run up to Cost Plus just to see what they have.” Of course they always had something I wanted (but did NOT need). Free day yesterday! I got so much done and bought NOTHING.
May 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Best Buy-nothing insight: I was boredom shopping! I’m never actually bored, but when I found myself with a free hour, I’d “run up to Cost Plus just to see what they have.” Of course they always had something I wanted (but did NOT need). Free day yesterday! I got so much done and bought NOTHING.
Spent the weekend ripping stitches out of my husband’s discarded button-downs. Pull out the sleeves and the collar and viola: sleeveless tops for me. I may be kidding myself but I think they may actually be pretty cute!
May 15, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Spent the weekend ripping stitches out of my husband’s discarded button-downs. Pull out the sleeves and the collar and viola: sleeveless tops for me. I may be kidding myself but I think they may actually be pretty cute!
I now see what’s going to derail my no-buy year: tiny holes in my t-shirts. Black t-shirts are my uniform. I buy new ones regularly and then rotate the ratty ones into PJs/workout clothes/rags. But pinholes are appearing rapidly and I have 7 months left. Mended some but can’t tell if they look bad.
May 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I now see what’s going to derail my no-buy year: tiny holes in my t-shirts. Black t-shirts are my uniform. I buy new ones regularly and then rotate the ratty ones into PJs/workout clothes/rags. But pinholes are appearing rapidly and I have 7 months left. Mended some but can’t tell if they look bad.
Ok, phone in the back pocket girls: How do prevent holes where the pockets meet the pants? I admit, I wear my pants until they shred, but not cool to have my underwear peeking out on my rear-side. Mended a bunch this weekend, but am I missing something. Prophylactic iron-on patches? What do you do?
May 13, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Ok, phone in the back pocket girls: How do prevent holes where the pockets meet the pants? I admit, I wear my pants until they shred, but not cool to have my underwear peeking out on my rear-side. Mended a bunch this weekend, but am I missing something. Prophylactic iron-on patches? What do you do?
GIANT zucchini harvested as the first product of my garden. Four cups grated => 4 loaves of zucchini bread eaten at home and distributed to neighbors. (I love it toasted with just a tiny crisp at the edges). Feeling proud though the zukes are the only part of the garden thriving at the moment.
May 12, 2025 at 3:42 PM
GIANT zucchini harvested as the first product of my garden. Four cups grated => 4 loaves of zucchini bread eaten at home and distributed to neighbors. (I love it toasted with just a tiny crisp at the edges). Feeling proud though the zukes are the only part of the garden thriving at the moment.
Finger Lime experts? I have a small finger lime tree. (Fell in love with idea of one; told my father, who bought one for himself. He kept it potted and it bore fruit.) When he passed, I inherited it and put it in the ground (full sun Los Angeles yard) and it has struggled and born nothing. Thoughts?
May 4, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Finger Lime experts? I have a small finger lime tree. (Fell in love with idea of one; told my father, who bought one for himself. He kept it potted and it bore fruit.) When he passed, I inherited it and put it in the ground (full sun Los Angeles yard) and it has struggled and born nothing. Thoughts?
Have bottoms of limoncello in the making. When you guys make this for gifts — what’s the right size bottle? I can’t find the line between “That’s stingy” and “Whoa — who is ever going to drink that much limoncello”?
May 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Have bottoms of limoncello in the making. When you guys make this for gifts — what’s the right size bottle? I can’t find the line between “That’s stingy” and “Whoa — who is ever going to drink that much limoncello”?
Update: crows left me peanuts in the bird bath yesterday. Honestly, I think I can live with just about anything but rat bodies (or, actually any bodies).
May 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Update: crows left me peanuts in the bird bath yesterday. Honestly, I think I can live with just about anything but rat bodies (or, actually any bodies).
Don’t miss shopping, but have wanted to buy 2 items: USB-C cord and seam ripper. Now sharing partner’s cord (more irritating to him than me!) and found the ripper. Are these no-buys good for the world (grumpy partner, delayed projects, but no real pain)? Or too rigid? Sorting plans beyond this year…
May 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Don’t miss shopping, but have wanted to buy 2 items: USB-C cord and seam ripper. Now sharing partner’s cord (more irritating to him than me!) and found the ripper. Are these no-buys good for the world (grumpy partner, delayed projects, but no real pain)? Or too rigid? Sorting plans beyond this year…
I thought I’d stopped being lured by Quince ads, but the one about the “perfect summer shirt,” with the pleats down the front is really getting me. Rather than being tempted to buy it, I’m wondering if I can cut and pleat a button down a rescued from my husband’s donate bag. Anyone tried this?
April 30, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I thought I’d stopped being lured by Quince ads, but the one about the “perfect summer shirt,” with the pleats down the front is really getting me. Rather than being tempted to buy it, I’m wondering if I can cut and pleat a button down a rescued from my husband’s donate bag. Anyone tried this?
Thanks to everyone’s suggestions, I candied lots of lemon peels! It really is delicious on vanilla ice cream! (Maybe too delicious). Here’s the question: what’s the best way to get the rinds and the juice? Once I juiced them, it was really hard to get pulp off the rinds. But I wanted the juice!
April 29, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Thanks to everyone’s suggestions, I candied lots of lemon peels! It really is delicious on vanilla ice cream! (Maybe too delicious). Here’s the question: what’s the best way to get the rinds and the juice? Once I juiced them, it was really hard to get pulp off the rinds. But I wanted the juice!
For reasons beyond my control, I’m swimming in monitors (both at home and at work). They function, so I’m not ready to go full art installation with them. But these two displays (Bombay Beach/East Jesus) inspired me to get creative (starting to imagine an animation cave at our school’s art walk….).
April 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
For reasons beyond my control, I’m swimming in monitors (both at home and at work). They function, so I’m not ready to go full art installation with them. But these two displays (Bombay Beach/East Jesus) inspired me to get creative (starting to imagine an animation cave at our school’s art walk….).
East Jesus and Bombay Beach are true inspirations in re-using, upcycling, and using what we have. Beautiful toilets? Appliances? Rusty cans? I am not an artist by any means, but am inspired to get full use out of everything I consume.
April 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
East Jesus and Bombay Beach are true inspirations in re-using, upcycling, and using what we have. Beautiful toilets? Appliances? Rusty cans? I am not an artist by any means, but am inspired to get full use out of everything I consume.
I have a bin full of plastic eggs and fake grass and baskets. My kid is 14 and I’ve been using these items since Easter baskets were a big deal. We still use it all for our neighborhood egg hunts (milking the kids’ youth for all its worth). It’s annoying to pack it all away every year, but worth it.
April 20, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I have a bin full of plastic eggs and fake grass and baskets. My kid is 14 and I’ve been using these items since Easter baskets were a big deal. We still use it all for our neighborhood egg hunts (milking the kids’ youth for all its worth). It’s annoying to pack it all away every year, but worth it.
When winds derailed my hike, I visited the amazing Cabot’s Museum in Desert Hot Springs. He recycled a lot of building material (telephone pole rafters!). This quote really got me: “It was common practice to bathe the face in a teacup of water, then add soap to wash hands; after this the water…
April 19, 2025 at 2:06 AM
When winds derailed my hike, I visited the amazing Cabot’s Museum in Desert Hot Springs. He recycled a lot of building material (telephone pole rafters!). This quote really got me: “It was common practice to bathe the face in a teacup of water, then add soap to wash hands; after this the water…
As I exist on this “no buying” journey, I realize it relies on saving (as I dig out plastic eggs that I’ve reused for a decade). But I worry, does my “saving” border on hoarding? A trip to Bombay Beach to see the sustainable art inspired me to keep on. (Credit to @chromeseanart for the fab art).
April 19, 2025 at 1:33 AM
As I exist on this “no buying” journey, I realize it relies on saving (as I dig out plastic eggs that I’ve reused for a decade). But I worry, does my “saving” border on hoarding? A trip to Bombay Beach to see the sustainable art inspired me to keep on. (Credit to @chromeseanart for the fab art).
Lemon tree is bending under the weight of the fruit on the branches and blooming too, so I think I need to get the lemons off. What’s the best way to preserve these guys? Lemon curd? Lemon jam/marmalade? What do you all do with excess lemons?
April 17, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Lemon tree is bending under the weight of the fruit on the branches and blooming too, so I think I need to get the lemons off. What’s the best way to preserve these guys? Lemon curd? Lemon jam/marmalade? What do you all do with excess lemons?
At the mall shopping for trip supplies for the child. It’s been 4 months since I bought any clothing and it’s surreal walking through stores and not looking at price tags or wanting to try things on. Felt nice to be fully focused on the kid’s mission and not sneaking peek at stuff for me.
April 16, 2025 at 8:39 PM
At the mall shopping for trip supplies for the child. It’s been 4 months since I bought any clothing and it’s surreal walking through stores and not looking at price tags or wanting to try things on. Felt nice to be fully focused on the kid’s mission and not sneaking peek at stuff for me.
I’m frustrated. I went to the refill grocery shop today, glad that the small amounts of shampoo and conditioner I got there seem to work well. I brought my containers to get a proper refill. When I checked out, each container cost about $20 (for about 15 ounces. It felt wild to pay $40 for …
March 27, 2025 at 8:39 PM
I’m frustrated. I went to the refill grocery shop today, glad that the small amounts of shampoo and conditioner I got there seem to work well. I brought my containers to get a proper refill. When I checked out, each container cost about $20 (for about 15 ounces. It felt wild to pay $40 for …
I finished the pouch! Denim from an old a pair of jeans worn through the crotch. Floss left over from friendship bracelet shenanigans and a zipper and liner fabric (a decade old at least) from my stash. Proud: I think it’s a proper (though not perfect) 50th b-day gift, with no parts purchased.
March 26, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I finished the pouch! Denim from an old a pair of jeans worn through the crotch. Floss left over from friendship bracelet shenanigans and a zipper and liner fabric (a decade old at least) from my stash. Proud: I think it’s a proper (though not perfect) 50th b-day gift, with no parts purchased.
Went to a Bar Mitzvah and realized that not one of the 4 grandmas had gray hair. Looked around: no one (here in LA) has gray hair anymore. Teachers at school? Just one (kids think she’s ancient!). Older moms? Maybe roots, but that’s it. Kids growing up not knowing that going gray is a real thing.
March 25, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Went to a Bar Mitzvah and realized that not one of the 4 grandmas had gray hair. Looked around: no one (here in LA) has gray hair anymore. Teachers at school? Just one (kids think she’s ancient!). Older moms? Maybe roots, but that’s it. Kids growing up not knowing that going gray is a real thing.