No Garage Sales in Tokyo

By contributing writer Laurie Neverman
August 4, 2008

Prices on just about everything from food to fuel have gone up this year, and the majority of us are taking a closer look at expenses. Buying used is a great way to stretch your budget and lower your environmental impact. It takes a lot less energy to shuffle things around our community that are already in existence than to create new goods and ship them in from around the world. Sometimes you don’t even have to look outside your home. Clean out those closets and drawers and see if you can put things to use that you already have – you might be surprised what you find when you shop at home first.

Northeast Wisconsin is loaded with thrift stores, resale shops, consignments stores and rummage sales. Now there are also online options such as Freecycle and craigslist.org that allow you to swap items with others in the area. The Friends of the Brown County Library host a semi-annual used book sale that features over 100,000 items including books, audiobooks, music and videos. It’s one of the largest sales of its kind in the country and a great money saver with everything selling at $2 or under.

Donating, swapping or selling items that your family has outgrown or no longer uses rather than throwing them away keeps them out of the landfill – and helps clear out your clutter. Our Japanese exchange student, Masako, couldn’t believe all the great stuff you could find used when she spent time with us in the late 90’s. There are no garage sales in Tokyo. She has since married, moved to Chicago and is expecting her first child. I have no doubt that she will be taking advantage of buying second-hand when stocking up for baby. Who knows, maybe she’ll be visiting your next garage sale.

Please contact me at laurieneverman@hotmail.com with your green questions and comments.

Related Links:

Green Bay Freecycle
The Green Bay Area Freecycle(TM) is the OFFICIAL Freecycle(TM) network for Green Bay, De Pere, Allouez, Ashwaubenon, Bellevue, Howard, Brown County, and surrounding areas to list items that would be put out to the curb and is open to all who want to "recycle" that special something rather than throw it away.

Appleton Freecycle
This is a network for folks in Appleton, Wisconsin to list items that would be put out to the curb. This will save our landfills and give new life to items that are no longer needed. You can list almost any thing but it MUST be free, legal and appropriate for all ages. We serve Appleton. Folks in nearby communities without their own group (Greenville, Grand Chute, Little Chute, Ellington, Center, Black Creek, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Darboy, New London, Seymour, ...) are welcome to join.

Craigslist.org Green Bay
The Green Bay page for craigslist.org - Local classifieds and forums for more than 500 cities in over 50 countries worldwide - community moderated, and largely free.

Click here for a listing of some area thrift and consignment stores.

Common Sense Home Recipe of the Week

Quick and Easy Vegetable Lo Mein
Courtesy of Jen Patryn, homeschooling mom and member of North East Wisconsin Home Learners.

Ingredients:

8 ounces soba noodles (may substitute spaghetti noodles)
Chopped seasonal vegetables of your choice
Oil, for cooking
Soy sauce
Dark sesame oil
Sweetened chili sauce, to taste

Cook soba noodles according to package directions; drain, rinse, and set aside. (If it's really hot, you can cook the noodles in the microwave.) Meanwhile, sauté seasonal vegetables in a small amount of oil with some soy sauce. Shredded cabbage/carrots and broccoli florets work really well together. You can use as much of the vegetables as you'd like.

When the veggies are cooked to crisp-tender, add the noodles and stir-fry everything together for a few more minutes. At the very end, add a tiny bit of dark sesame oil for flavor. At the table, the grownups usually add sweetened chili sauce for a bit of heat. For protein, you could either sautéed' tofu with the vegetables, or add peanuts to the finished product.

Serve with some melon and you have a complete meal.