@Simon, Hey thanks for stopping by. “Don’t do all the change at once”, that’s sensible advice and we all need to make sure we don’t take on too much at once. The ToDo list situation is the same as mine! Not enough hours in the day. As for trading, most places have a LETs scheme in place. Not sure in Montreal if they have one, but it’s a system where people trade services for other things. So someone may need a self portrait from you and you get credits (agreed by you and the person who needs your service) and you can spend these credits with other people in the LETs scheme. Like money but not quite

@Joan, Thanks for the comment. The domino effect of boycotting is definitely a large issue at hand here too. As you say entire economies rely on certain products and if we stop buying many locals could be worse off than they already are. As for a list, that is something I will try and get together. In the meantime Knowmore.org is a great resource.

As for making things, for a start Food. Almost any dish purchased frozen can be made better homemade. Then there are things around the home and garden. DIY shows were all the fad for a few years and in general people are a lot more handy than they used to be…. Or at least think they are. Me, I am pretty useless at certain things but always willing to have a try .

@Sue, Joan said the same thing about boycotting and it’s a hard subject. If we didn’t need the crap they produce in the first place then these people would still have farmland on the sites of the factories and such! However they are there now and there does need to be a way to simply improve conditions. However for the long term survival of the planet we need to look at how this over consumption is affecting everything!

Here in Egypt I am shocked at the level of comsumption and overuse. I assumed it was very much an American thing (Ok and the UK too ) but the Egyptian’s could go toe to toe with any American in a useless shopping competition!

One thing that is good about Egypt though is the grass roots recycling system. There is a place called Garbage City where all the trash ends up. The residents sort through all non-organic waste and work out what can be re-purposed, sold on, used for something else and whats not. Much less actually ends up in the landfill than you might expect.

@Plastic Sleeves, Yes yard sales are an excellent way to make sure items get their use. Too many people throw things straight in the bin when done with them!

I suppose that I can continue to do more, but it is a start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Best regards,
Neil

Build your stuff..I say yes but don’t get crazy. This years so many times
I said that I could built it my self and end up with a giant to do list.
I think its relative of your time.

But I do agree that these are the way of the future and conter act the major corp corruption abuse and aggressive capitalism.

The main thing is to Don’t do all the change at once. But like you said one
step at a time take a good habit and after a while accumulate those habit so it become casual.

and slowly others will do the same and so generation that fallow us.