Use Less Stuff Day

What do you do the Thursday before Thanksgiving? Your answer could include shopping for ingredients for a Thanksgiving feast or preparing your home for guests or getting a start on gift shopping.

What if you did something different this year? You could pledge to use less, starting this Thursday.

The Use Less Stuff movement use-less-stuff.com , pioneered by Bob Lilienfeld, editor of The ULS Report and co-author of Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are, aims to get people to reduce the amount they consume. (There hasn't been any recent activity on the Web site, but the older content is still valid.)

While most of us would be better off spending less, the aim of Use Less Stuff actually is to have people make deliberate choices about the way their money is spent. Instead of thinking that you can just recycle packaging, for example, consider how much energy could be saved if you didn’t have the packaging at all.

A calculator www.calculess.net/AddEditScenario.aspx on the website allows you to compare the environmental impact of your buying habits.

Beginning with Thanksgiving, you could shop smarter. Prepare less food so you don’t end up with lots of waste. Avoid disposable plates and flatware; you don’t need to have everything match. Use cloth napkins and tablecloths to reduce the amount of paper you throw away. Use gift bags or fabric to wrap your presents.

You can have a festive holiday without creating lots of waste. What ideas do you have for reducing the amount of stuff you use this year?

Organized by Marcie TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
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