Extend the Life of Your Footwear

I have a perfect pair of black heeled booties. They are the right height (a medium heel) for wearing with pants or dresses, have a classic black leather look, with stylish gold zipper and buckles. 

But the most important thing? They are comfortable. The arch is just the right height, to not put pressure on my feet after a a full day's wear, and the toe box is wide enough. 

Needless to say, they've gotten a ton of wear and were starting to show it. And I fell into a super common trap: "They weren't super expensive. I don't think they're worth the cost of repair." Fortunately, my friend Julie changed my mind. Not only is repair cheaper than buying new, and the sustainable choice, but her argument? "How often do you find a pair dress shoes that is actually comfortable?"

So I found myself a shoe repair shop, a small one-man shop named Vic's in Burien, and requested a few areas be improved. First, the toes, which were both scuffed and a little stained from the rain. Here is the after - he did a pretty nice job with polishing!

I neglected to take "before" pictures, but this is a pretty good representation of the level of discoloring. 

Next, the heels had two big issues. The leather on the heel was pushed up, exposing the white core, and the heel tip was unevenly worn. Vic fully replaced the tip and smoothed and glued down the heel wrap.

Again, not my "before" photo, but this shows a similar type of heel wrap peeling I was facing.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the repairs. I paid $22, and probably could have invested a little more to fully replace the heel wrap. These Sam Edelman booties cost around $60 originally, meaning I can repair them 3 times before it would financially make sense to replace them, and more if they continue to be comfortable and supportive to my feet.

Thanks to Julie for reminding me about my priorities and saving my favorite booties!

In this era of fast fashion, what are some items that you've forgotten you can repair yourself or get repaired at a low cost?

Seed Starters, Part 2

Last month, I tested out 4 simple seed starters for my edible garden. I wanted to see for myself if all those videos showing crafty reuses of materials around your home were legit. 

Today, I bring you my findings:

Option 1: the reused glass jar with marbles in the bottom. I'll give this a C. I have a couple thin sad little sprouts starting to show, but they took longer to sprout than other options and just don't look as healthy. When I checked the soil after a few days, it was still very wet, despite having more room for drainage. I think it's just that glass can't "breathe". 

Option 2: the plastic container with vented lid. Rating: A! I have multiple sprouts after about 1 week. They are a healthy green and now have grown to the point I need to open the lid of the container. 

Option 3: the plastic tub with drainage holes. Rating: A-. This one also produced several healthy looking sprouts. There are a few less than with the lidded container and I did have to water this one slightly more, without the greenhouse effect of a lid.

Option 4: the folded TP roll. Rating: F. This one produced 0 sprouts. Honestly, this one was just hard to keep the soil moist. The cardboard kept drying out, and leaking out the folded base. It would require watering a couple times a day just for basic moisture, compared to 2-3 days with the plastic containers. 

In all, this was a fun experiment. I will be able to use the tomato plants resulting from the plastic tubs, and will likely use this method again in the future. 

Pro tip, though: I'm not a professor gardener. :-) I highly recommend checking out gardening classes from your local gardening organization or community college. I recently attended a webinar from @bellevuedemonstrationgarden for a $5 recommended donation that shared fantastic tips on temperature, soil conditions, when to transplant, disease prevention, and more. Support your local professionals while optimizing your fruit and veggie production!

A Different Type of Donation

Are you starting to think about spring cleaning? Have you been doing "spring cleaning" this whole time during quarantine and there are just bags piling up because you don't want to visit a thrift store with crowds and reduced hours? 

Or, are you avoiding thrift stores because I've already told you they're only able to sell a small portion of their overall donations? Or you have some items that aren't great condition?

There's a new service, for clothing and textile donation specifically, that will solve all of this: Retold Recycling. It works through prepaid mailers (convenience). Those prepaid mailers are made from compostable cornstarch (you won't add more plastic to the waste stream). They then sort through your items to find the best path to divert them into: thrift shop, charity shop, recycler, upcycler.

Because they do the sorting, you don't have to figure out: Is this thrift shop already over-saturated in jeans? How do I find a textile recycler for my hole-y socks? You can feel good knowing that Retold is making these informed decisions for you, preventing your items from ending up in the landfill. 

This service is "ish" cost neutral. You will pay up front for the pre-paid mailers. And if you do one of their recurring subscriptions, they give you rewards to spend with their feel-good brand partners (aka companies with like-minded good-for-the-planet goods). The bags average $15 up front and you receive $15 approximate value to spend with the partners. 

I'm curious what you think: Is this a recycling model you would be interested in trying?