Aibu to think everything is such a waste?

[AlpineButterfly]

I went into a home type shop this morning. There were fluffy blankets, ugly mirrors, elephant pictures,.dancing Santa's, colourful rugs, word signs. So much stuff. So much tat.

I'm right now babysitting a friend's boy. The telly is on. My god, the rubbish. Adverts, trashy tv. What a waste of time.

How much of life is a waste of time and materials? I'm right now on MN, also a.waste of time.

I wouldn't even know what to do to stop the waste of time and materials. We do buy mostly second hand but... I don't know. I'm not even able to articulate myself properly right that second

Have bookmarked to read the whole thread later but I agree OP. I work for a big blue supermarket, we've been putting Christmas stuff out since the schools went back in August. Last night I looked at a pallet full of Christmas crackers and wrapping paper and thought "This is just pretty landfill", it all is.

As a volunteer I don't mind textiles coming in which aren't fit for sale as we can recycle them

Good to know. I’ve always hoped that’s the case as there’s no rag man to sell/ give them to direct now.

Dd will be getting a new bike for Xmas (because her kneees are by her ears on the old one). And a stocking with a recipe book for sweets, a satsuma and a new colouring book.

I’m still going to have to clear out the toy drawers to try and then store the gifts from the extended family though.

That's good to know about textiles - I've never known whether you'd want my holy () pants and socks or joy.

I'm stuck wrt Xmas presents. I only need to buy for 2 kids. Eldest I can think of three experiences they'd love. Youngest is underage for experience stuff. Best friend will get bottle of gin and I assure you - not one drop will be wasted.

My husband runs a scout group. They collect old clothes. When they have enough they sell them and get money for the scout group. Maybe ask around and see if that happens in ur area

The amount of plastic tat produced makes me feel ill. Toy crazes like Shopkins etc....those things are going to sit in landfill for...ever? I have succumbed to such fads in the past but in recent years have been interests in Minimalism and the whole family have made a big effort to reduce plastic usage. But we are a tiny drop in the ocean. I have reduced Christmas gifts, chosen a few high quality presents for the DC and managed plastic and tat-free stockings too. Also managed to do tat-free party bags the last few years.

As for time, I too squander too many evenings (like this one) on my phone! I could be reading, crafting, learning etc but I get so fecking knackered. Have set screen limits on my phone but they are too easy to override!

I completely agree with this post. And this thread. I am currently panicking at the thought of having to buy nonsense and tat for so many people when I know that I don't want anything and that none of us need anything at all.

I e just moved and have had a load of trips to the municipal dump.

Monday morning I'm shoving cardboard and metal and non recyclables into their correct and almost empty skip. Monday evening those skips are full to bursting (not with my stuff, honest). And I thought how every politician in the world should be made to spend 2 days at a dump and just witness how fast the skips fill up. And that's happening all over the UK every single day.

My takeaway from the experience is to stop buying from amazon (sob) because of the horrendous amount of cardboard they pack with. Also stop buying flat pack furniture - packaging is crazy.

I already buy all fruit and veg loose.

Toy crazes like Shopkins etc

What we're still seeing a lot of is Loom Bands. Remember them? Impossible to recycle, impossible to sell. We use them for securing knitting needles in pairs to sell, but the amount we have it'd take until 2218 to use them all up.

I've deleted my credit card details off Amazon. Less temptation to waste time browsing for stuff that I think I need but really don't. I haven't bought anything off there since.

This thread seems to have struck a chord with so many people. I'm actually really amazed.

I had a lengthy conversation with my therapist about my thoughts and she said it's moving away from the 'should'. I guess simple.examples such as I should do party bags, I should make sure my kids have full stockings, I should find a novelty item for the office Christmas santa. I should watch the apprentice so I can keep up with the gossip. These are all made up examples but all of the above consumes time, money and resources.

OK so now I'm going to sound ungrateful but I am locked in an eternal battle with DH and DILs who believe in buying all this plastic shit for DCs as a way of expressing love. Where my family would wait for bdays or Xmas to buy high value things (and only one or two even then), DILs buy something worth £20-£30 for each DC every time we see them (about every 6 weeks). It's always plastic, it's always a branded toy from a TV show, DCs play with it a few times then it gets shelved. They obviously haven't seen the memo about the damage plastic does to the environment, but also the waste of money - put it in a bank account or something! I am judging big time, as my DPs try to engage DCs brains with presents: books, activities etc rather than plastic crap, and this is how I was brought up so it's what I want to do with my DCs. But I'll never manage it as I get railroaded by the other half of the DCs' family. I often weep when I think of the waste.

DSis was telling me about an xmas theme crockery set recently.

Last shift I worked in my charity shop we had Christmas plates donated. The difference is that they were by a quality maker (Wedgewood or Minton possibly?) and there was one per year from about 1976. Idea was obviously that you bought one plate each year and made a wee collection. No issue with that at all - nice memento and the fact they've lasted 40 years shows they were decent quality to start with.

Mass produced stuff is a completely different ball game. Made from the cheapest possible materials in a Chinese factory, intended to be used once and thrown away.

Great thread. When my parents ask what we want for birthdays and Christmas we're going to ask for a contribution towards National Trust membership. We both mostly sit down for work and then spend evenings and parts of the weekend sitting down (with telly on etc). This needs to change.

I've just been into Poundland (for sellotape) and could have cried. It's full of STUFF. Nasty, cheaply produced landfill STUFF.

I didn't even buy the sellotape, I decided that a few recycled elastic bands from the postman would do the job just as well.

I'm on a few Fb groups which are full of lovely people and all are doing Xmas card exchanges or Secret Santa (the more UK based ones with some exceptions) but I'm not doing any of them. I did a couple last year and the Secret Santa one stupidly caused me lots of anxiety, agonising about the "perfect" present when a normal box or chocs would have done fine. So that's out for this year and will save some more tat being passed around.

"conversation with my therapist about my thoughts and she said it's moving away from the 'should'." I also did some counselling last year and this was a very important message for me. It really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Quite difficult to act on sometimes but very good to remind oneself about it.

There's a thread in the Christmas section called low crap Christmas....

Following.

And agree, none of us in our family need anything at all. DH and I don't want anything. In fact I'd like to get rid of most of what we do have.

Completely agree and I love Christmas but hate the present side. It makes me completely cringe when family buy me pointless / unnecessary gifts for the sake of giving. I don't mind a nice bottle of wine or food that can be shared, but anything else makes me really think why are they wasting their money. I sound ungrateful but I would rather they saved money and we saved to go and do things as a family like day trips, etc.
I'm really of opinion that if I really need it I will buy it myself!

Sparkling I buy what I need but I leave luxuries for gifts. There are lots of things I would like but to which I don't treat myself.

E.g. A few months ago I was given a back pack/musical instrument case. It's sooo much easier than putting my 'suitcase' style instrument case inside a ruck sack.

Bumping this excellent, thought-provoking thread. I too am becoming increadingly horrified at our growing consumerism and the impact on the planet. There are times i feel overwhelmed by it all and utter hopelessness.

I watched a documentary recently called Drowning in Plastic (BBC 4 i think). I physically recoiled when they made birds vomit up the contents of their stomach to show how much plastic was in there.

I was in a shop yesterday, one of the big supermarkets. There were boxes and boxes of huge, fluff unicorns, soft toys if you will. They serve absolutely no purpose other than to sit on a child's bed gathering dust and to fleece parents of twenty quid. What a giant, fluffy unicorn has to do with Christmas I don't know but I'm envisaging lots of these grotesque looking things in charity shops up and down the country in a few months

I've just been for a walk with the dc in a local country park and to get there you drive near the city centre. There were loads of cars queuing in one lane and I hoped they were going to the country park - but they were all queuing to go to the city, presumably to shop. On a beautiful autumn Sunday. We need to rejig our priorities as a society

Thanks for this thread. I was thinking about mugs, when looking at a huge display of about 100 of them in TKMaxx today. I now have 8 myself, 6 of which were gifts. I live alone and can fit a maximum three guests in my flat. So I think, really, that I actually have enough mugs to last me a lifetime now. I will probably have to donate one to make room for the new one I'll inevitably get for Christmas.

I think we as a species can just stop and hold off making mugs for...oh, I don't know, five years at least. I really don't think anyone will be unable to get a drink into their mouths for want of a mug in all that time.

I've rtft and am another one who feels at home here :)
I have been like this since I worked in retail, and seeing the sheer volume of stuff, the packaging, the boxes and boxes of plastic carrier bags that were used every day ....
I have such a long way to go but am trying to do little changes where I can. I've never been particularly materialistic, and being a single-parent I haven't had the spare money to fritter on stuff anyway, but as others have said, it's just the senseless packaging and plastic that infiltrates everything. Even to the points of my dustbin; it's plastic, the bin liners are plastic ...
I have a 'No Junk Mail' sign on the door to minimise the amount of flyers etc that land on the mat and go straight in the bin, I'm getting better at always having a fold-up bag on me in case I need one, and finally this Christmas I've persuaded the relatives to cut out presents (only the under 18s will still get them, luckily all are 15+ so minimal plastic tat).

I’m trying to be zero waste and plastic free, it’s difficult because literally everything is wrapped in plastic or designed to break it seems