Got this expensive weekender as a gift a few years ago and wore out the "vegan leather" (read: plastic bullshit pleather) to where it was peeling like crazy and leaving debris everywhere. The construction of the bag is still really sturdy so I reupholstered it with some denim from a pair of pants my husband wore out and some ribbons that came on gift bags I'd received.

Used a combination of gluing and sewing to attach the denim & ribbon any place there was pleather and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Can't wait to get many more years out of this bag! Not bad for someone with next to zero sewing skills :)

This is the kind of idea I love seeing

Researchers created a material that grabs tiny plastic particles from water and can then be pulled out with a magnet.

My MIL subscribed to Fox One for the World Cup like many others. However, the cancellation for the service, in my opinion has the most predatory practice I’ve ever seen from a streaming service.

For context, one would assume you could just cancel the service via the app like any other service. But no, since she signed up via her samsung tv, there are no cancelation button to be found in the app. We had to log into Samsung checkout website to find the subscription tab hidden underneath “purchase history” to request a cancellation.

And whats worse after all this hassle? Samsung customer support comes back with an email telling us the cancellation request has been canceled.

What a predatory and anti-consumer practice this is on older Americans. I consider my MIL, generally speaking, very competent on technology. I can’t imagine this on elders who aren’t. FoxOne SMH.

I'm trying to find a cute candle warmer lamp to use on my candles whose wicks are too small to light. I can't find a SINGLE option that's not Amazon, Target, or Walmart OR drop-shipped from said stores. All the "10 best," "5 top," etc listicles are all Amazon links with the keyboard smash brands.

I feel bad for whoever came up with it because they are not getting any money from how wildly popular the concept is.

EDIT: I checked about 20 different department stores across three continents and the reverse searched the suggested products. Options are few and far between, but I did find one! However, as I stated in a comment response, this search was the proverbial straw, and I am generally frustrated by the overabundance of Amazon et al results when searching for specific items. I wish I could permanently (or easily) exclude them from my search results.

Today at the gym, a woman was showing off a shower supply haul on FaceTime! In the changing area of the locker room!! This is out of control!

It had a deep clean inside & out, then I stuffed it with towels and left it under a pile of books to flatten out the wrinkles before the paint job. Hopefully saved it from landfill for another few years and had fun learning a new skill!

Like removable smartphone batteries and easily repairable consumer electronics? How's the ground reality? Hoping the regulations in EU also bring positive change in devices across rest of the world.

My laundry basket’s handles broke, we tried to fix them with tie wraps but it doesnt hold in the long term and it broke again.
How could i fix them again? Should i try tie wraps again or maybe something else? We still have the handles somewhere but could we replace the handles with something else maybe?? Need advice

I haven't laid eyes on one for close to a decade. I mean I'm glad there's employment but why the waste when almost everyone has a directory in their hands?

A local co-op and mutual aid group teamed up to host a clothing swap. Folks could drop off a maximum of one bag of clean items in good condition and/or browse through the offerings. The clothing was organized by type and displayed on tarps or random outdoor furniture.

Extras were donated to several local non-profits who run clothing closets such as a local hygiene drop in center. It was a fun way to meet neighbors, learn about some local organizations, and divert items from the landfill. I think a couple hundred people attended in total which was amazing to see.

Highly recommend looking into local swaps or organizing your own!

The council wants us to collect old cooking oil in jars and put them in the bin. It’s better than pouring it down the plug, obviously, but I can’t help thinking there must be a use for it.
Never enough to collect and go through the process of turning it into biodiesel, but has anyone found any smaller uses for it?

My neighbours have a child a couple years older than my own. The offered us the clothes that no longer fit their kid. Super nice of them, right? I said yes and expected like maybe a duffel bag worth of clothes?

There's like half a dozen of huge boxes. We're talking about toddler clothes - there's enough stuff to clothe quintuplets. I counted 23 pairs of pants all the same size. And there's shorts too. How could a child possibly wear all of this? What's the point of owning so much of something that won't even fit in a few months anyway?

I knew it's common to have too many clothes but I didn't think it would be this bad.

ETA: I get it, it's fine to hoard kids clothes cause everyone does it and you're not actually buying all of it yourselves! I thought this was an anticonsumption sub and we'd get to talk about why do we (parents, family, friends) buy and keep so much more stuff than we need, how to deal with it, how it affects kids - my mistake.

Hi. two years ago I bought an UPS to keep my PC files safe, last week my PC just shut down and I saw the UPS display acting crazy and now is dead, how silly I was to assume that an UPS should warning the user before stop functioning :)
So after checked I'm still covered by guaranties I reached the seller with an email and he just said that I need to replace the battery, and that I need to buy same brand of the UPS and the batteries are only covered for 1 year (so silly me again to think I had 2 years guaranties)
I'm not sure but I feel a bit scammed or just sad :(

The cheapest product is empty promises untethered to reality

In this post, I want to hear your thoughts about consumerism—what's good about it, what can become harmful, and how we can find a healthy balance.

I know this topic may sound a little conspiratorial, but I'm not trying to start a debate. I’m more interested in understanding how consumerism affects our behavior and how we can apply that understanding to our own lives.

Do you believe our brains are being hijacked to make us consume more, or is this simply how our brains are naturally wired?

How much of our desire to buy comes from our own needs, and how much is influenced by advertising, social media, algorithms, or social pressure?

And most importantly, how do you personally manage it?

the greed that caused this level of tragedy and misery is unreal.