Living Simply (Live Circular #4)
This week: a look at how a Circular Philosophy can help us live simply
Welcome to the fourth edition of Live Circular, a weekly(ish) look at how a Circular Philosophy can make us better consumers, save us money, and save the planet.
This week: how a Circular Philosophy can help us live simply
Photo: Dave Hoefler on Unsplash
Living Simply
This week, I came across this article by Barry Fralick regarding 75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life. Though the article is a couple of years old, I was struck by how much of an overlap there is between a decluttered life and responsible consumption. Boiled down, Barry recommends thinking more carefully about the things we do and the things we own, and that’s really what the Circular Philosophy is about: intentional thinking about how our actions and purchases affect us, our communities, and our environment.
Anyway, here are some of my favourites and how they overlap with a Circular Philosophy:
Use for longer
28) Rent — Consider renting things instead of owning. Things like tools only needed for one project. Perhaps even your home could be rented instead of owned. Renting allows flexibility and in some cases is considerably cheaper than owning.
29) Borrow — Items that aren’t needed or are a *one-time use thing* can be borrowed. Borrow books from the library or from friends instead of buying. Borrow movies, tools, or anything else you won’t need long-term. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
These two are related so I’ll consider them together. The flip side of the principle to “use for longer” is that we shouldn’t own things that we’re not using. With a pool of fewer things that get used more - instead of many things that spend 99 % of their time in cupboards and garages gathering dust - then overall we need fewer things and the resource demand is less.
Ironically, a pool item (by which I mean an item that is available to be rented or borrowed) that is used more often is more likely to last for longer, as it’s more likely to be properly looked after and maintained by its owners.
I see this as a large part of our future: many of the things that we own will move to a rental or borrowing model if we simply can’t justify the financial outlay for occasional use. Widespread adoption and availability of this concept is a way off, but we can already make a start. Tool rental is long-established, and tool libraries are popping up everywhere, for example.
34) Re-Purpose — One of the legs on our oven recently broke. The poor thing sat there in the kitchen all crooked and wobbly like it had 6 too many cocktails. I quickly found a book that I was getting ready to donate and made a makeshift leg for the oven. Cheesy? Yea, but it works, and besides, it’s in the back corner where no one can see it so who cares. The book got re-purposed. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
Finding a new or alternative use for something is another way that we can use things for longer. I remember my student days for multiple examples of this, borne of financial necessity: books repurposed as shelves were a mainstay, I always had more than enough. But, even now we still do this to varying degrees: jars as pen cups, egg boxes as seedling trays, notebooks made from old bills and boxes.
35) Fix Things — When something breaks, our instant reaction is to throw the item away and purchase new. However, many items can be fixed or repaired to live a longer life. Get creative and fix some things instead of going out to buy new. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
And this is the final aspect of using things for longer. For a long time we were in a wilderness of planned obsolescence but we do finally appear to be coming out of it. Thanks to the internet and local initiatives like repair cafes we can finally learn how to repair the things that we might have otherwise given up for dead. Also, legislation is coming into force that requires manufacturers to make their products repairable.
But it isn't just limited to consumer electronics. There is a growing movement of people repairing clothing, toys, books, you name it. Our grandparents and great-grandparents knew all about repairing things to extend their usability, but in the affluent years in between, we’ve lost our way.
Related reading: Why the Circular Economy is Important to Everyone (Climate Conscious on Medium) and HRH The Prince Of Wales Speaks To Edward Enninful About His Lifelong Commitment To Sustainable Fashion (Vogue)
Waste less
15) Reduce Paper Clutter — Use email and the print to PDF feature on your computer. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
The next few highlights concern wasting less. This first one is a good example of how a simple change in our default behaviours can result in a reduction in waste. How much of what we print do we actually end up keeping, and how much is used once and then thrown away?
I wonder if a move towards mobile devices has made this recommendation less effective because we’re not on laptops/desktops as much? But the overarching principle is valid: think about how much we intend to use something (once or multiple times) before we can create something (in this case,a print out)
46) Be Frugal — Want less, consume less, and spend less. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
This is pretty simple: if you consume less you will waste less. So, if you redefine your need to acquire possesions a secondary benefit is that materials are used more sparingly.
75) Eliminate — I saved this one for last as it’s the most important. Eliminate waste. Wasted time, wasted words, wasted tasks. Continuously eliminate anything considered waste and be mindful of what is essential and what is not. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
And though Barry is talking more broadly here, capturing intangible waste as well as more physical items, you couldn’t ask for a better strapline for a circular economy: Eliminate waste.
Keep it local
67) Walk — We don’t need to drive everywhere we’re going. Simply walk to the store. (75 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, Barry Fralick)
I’m a firm believer in shopping in the nearest place that is practical. Both for simplicity’s sake, but also to keep money in the local economy. If you’re fortunate enough to live near enough to walk to the nearest store then you’ll also pick up the mental and physical health benefits.
Finally, there’s one that resonates with me, not because of the Circular Economy, but because I’m a father of a small human:
42) Have Fewer Children — Kids are great and I am a fortunate parent. However, there is nothing simple about being one. Like, it’s hard as shit. Figure out what you want out of life before deciding to have children. If you decide you want to have children, plan on them complicating your life. Just saying.
It’s that penultimate sentence really. I don’t think I truly appreciated just how much my life would get un-simplified by the presence of a baby. I get it now, oh yes. Everything changes.
Circular principles
The six circular principles are:
Use for longer
Waste less
Support nature
Keep it local
Support responsible production
Support your community
Thank you for reading. I look forward to sharing this journey with you. Please consider subscribing; all subscriptions are free and I will only use this list to give you practical ways to be better consumers, save money, and save the planet.
This week I’ve also published the following blog posts:
For more of my writing, visit Medium or my website notepaths.com
Until next time, live circular x