All of the Christmas gifts we purchased from Amazon.ca, for the Grandbabies, arrived yesterday. The shipping boxes were unpacked, so that we could see the results of our shopping adventure. And we were pleased.
The gifts are low-key, interactive, reasonably priced items, and to our relief, are of reasonable quality. The gifts live up the the promise of the pictures online.
This morning I looked at the pile of shipping materials in the corner, and noticed for the first time that there was something different about it.
No plastic!
The boxes were cardboard, the loose fill was… crumpled brown paper!
The boxes were broken down and stored, for future use, behind the hutch on the north wall of the house, where they will add extra insulation. The paper was folded neatly for future use. The paper can be used for drawing, making notes, future loose fill in packaging, the list goes on. It takes up very little room and can be easily stored under the hutch.
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Worldly Distractions
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Date: 4:42 PM EST Thursday 6 November 2014
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Quote
“Any ordinary favor we do for someone or any compassionate reaching out may seem to be going nowhere at first, but may be planting a seed we can’t see right now. Sometimes we need to just do the best we can and then trust in an unfolding we can’t design or ordain.”
Sharon Salzberg
Glad your items were as good or better than depicted. 🙂
I expect my items from Amazon to be arriving tomorrow. We also store and reuse our boxes and packing materials.
Thanks Teri, we were impressed, by the items and the packaging. Hope your items meet with your satisfaction as well! 🙂
As I scurry around with preparations for Thanksgiving, it’s quite exciting. Because I plan to drive to Northern Virginia for Christmas, there will be faint hints of Christmas when my family is with me later this month.
Regarding Amazon, their boxes and packaging are excellent for recycling!
Your family get together for Thanksgiving sounds like lots of fun Reenei! You have posted pictures of your table all decked out, lovely! And then a trip for Christmas, you are going to be very busy! We drive all over the place to celebrate Christmas, and our last Christmas celebration was in April, with my family, who waited that long for us to make it out of the bush, lol!
Does amazon.com use paper loose fill too, I hope so, it seems to work very well. Unprinted paper has a lot of uses at our house, if nothing else, it can be crumpled as a fire starter, to get the kindling going in the masonry heater.
Glad that the toys measured up. A good feeling. Now to see their little joyful faces upon opening.
I recycle as well. Hubby gets things I can use for packing/shipping from his job. Every little thing helps out. Packing materials are pricey. I like the brown packing paper too.
Recycling had become a duty! The apt. complex we live in does not recycle. In fact you have to be a home owner to get that service in this area. It hurts to think about all the garbage generated and disposed of at a dump when so much of it could be recycled.
Nora, we are hoping we get to see the Grandbabies around Christmas time, it doesn’t always work out. Fingers crossed!
You would have to be very ingenious to recycle, in spite of living in a complex that does not recycle! That is great that you can recycle packaging materials, they are costly to purchase new.
I know what you mean about all the garbage that ends up in the dump. We visit the dump near the camp frequently, and it has mountains of old appliances and mattresses etc., and none of it is being recycled in any way. Anything that is intact though, and that works, is placed in the “dump store” where people can pick up items for the cost of a small donation to the firefighters in the area. We get a lot of stuff from the dump, it is our favourite place to shop, and seems to have a steady stream of “customers”.
When last I stayed there for almost two weeks on my own, I generated less than one small bag of garbage, because I ate our garden vegetables and composted the scraps, and fate ood that I had canned, and the jars were washed and stored for the next round of canning. Very little plastic at all. Plastic is hard to get away from, our milk in Ontario is sold in plastic bags. There is “artisanal milk” in glass milk bottles, which costs more than twice as much, so it is beyond our financial reach, as it is for most people living in Ontario.
Maggie, I hope you get to see the Grandchildren around Christmas. Fingers crossed.
We take our recycling to the recycling center in town. I just noticed they also put things aside for people to look at. I was so tempted to take an old wooden sled today but knew better. It was just that it was wood and I don’t even think they make them from wood anymore. A relic.
I really like the idea of the dump store and the donation to the fire dept. I am a genuine thriftier. I can remember when I was ‘growing up’ in NY there would be special days that one could put out anything they wanted to be picked up. I took full advantage of those days by getting up early and heading out. I used to put everything on the back porch at my parent’s and now and again my father made things ‘disappear’. 🙂 But I loved the collecting. I still will happily take something curbside if we can use it. Our last apt. was furnished almost all curbside. It is surprising what people throw away. I don’t understand why they do not donate it.
We have milk here as well sold in glass bottles that is at a much higher price.
Nora, it is interesting to hear how other communities are treating recycling. The sled sounds like fun, I would have paused over it too! I hope I would know better, but wouldn’t know for sure unless I was actually confronted with the choice, lol.
One city I lived in had one day a year where people could put things curbside, and other people could pick it up if they wanted it. It was incredible, lovely items put out for recycling. It was such a success that there were a lot of people touring the streets with trucks to pick stuff up. It worked for everyone, I am not sure why, but they discontinued it.
Terra was just observing that Attila and I have a lot of stuff. Very little of it is new, but some of it is. Right now I am not on the trail of a 1940s/50s formica table and chairs, it would really take me back in time!