I have been trialling some simplehuman products for a while now. I have to say that I really like them. Rather a lot in fact. They are front loader recycling bins so I think they fill the green living category pretty well too. It may seem funny that the whole product category is called ‘recycling solutions’ but if you live where I do, you’ll know it’s not much of a joke and also understand how much you need them.

Last year our local council delivered us colour coded packaging for our rubbish which is collected on different weeks. So we have to sort food, gardening, plastic, paper (not boxes, you get a tag on your rubbish if you put boxes in the paper bag), bottles and then leave the rest in the old fashioned bin.

It’s been really stressful.

In an effort to make my recycling shabby chic if not chic, I had three white rattan baskets for paper, bottles and plastic. They got nicked by the rubbish collectors. So I went to Ikea and bought aluminium boxes and annoyingly, one of those got stolen too. The thing about sorting your rubbish when you have so many things to put it in is that it leads you a merry dance around the place. So if you don’t have the equipment in place to help, it can put you off the whole thing.

This has been quite lengthy product try out – I wanted to make sure these products were worthy of a review and I had time to try them out properly. Well, now I most definitely have. Here they are in situ. Rubbish supplied by me, artwork on the blackboard by Miniminx.

Pros
Style – very utilitiarian and ergonomic, goes well with both town and country kitchen and I’ve even had a few compliments on them
Ease of use – excellent. I love the dial on the lid of the box unit which you can flip round to display Paper or Plastic or Glass for example. This graphic has made life extremely easy for me and Miniminx has no excuses for missing out boxes, in fact she thoroughly enjoys recycling, it’s second nature.

Substance – They look good, and they’re pretty bulky with a large capacity so they don’t save space exactly but I only empty my recycycle bins once a fortnight now which is great. Our local council collects plastics every other week so it means my bin is not overflowing.

The lids also work really well. There’s a round hole you can shove stuff through, or lift that up as a flap, or for larger items, you can lift the whole lid up. However, to do that you can’t stack them, they need to be in a row.

Cons
The good news, there aren’t really any. It’s up to you how many of these you think you need. I plumped for four, just like the marketing photo. I didn’t expect them to be so big and thought that four would fit in my shelving unit but it could only fit three.

Out of 10
I am going to give them a 9/10.

They’re around £24.99 from simplehuman and retailers like Argos and John Lewis.

Just check these fab Vivienne Westwood shoes – a seat on the tube has never looked so good has it?

Ahem, sorry, let me get back on track…I’m actually writing this story about green and recycle-conscious Christmas presents for the Rubbish Diet Recycled Christmas Carnival – so any of my friends reading, please look away now.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Pop Art and especially Peter Blake and it pains me to have to share this discovery I’ve made, but since it’s in a good cause ie. saving the planet, I’ll let you in on it.

But first, here’s the bit where I recycle an old story. He (gasp!) actually popped along to a couple of events I ran in Notting Hill back, in the day. They were possibly the most hysterical nights ever – the premise of a free night in a club with an open stage led to all sorts of shenanigans from the exuberant W10ers, including performance art, rappers, oh and hippies setting the hair on fire. I had my own paintings on show too – but I doubt he noticed them among all the chaos. Alas, I digress….

I’ve found a great place to buy cool things which are going to make the planet happy, so here’s my new discovery; Above+Below is a really cool company, it’s a very creative and very green partnership which sells some amazing stuff.

Check these great Peter Blake prints – they’re limited edition too so you’d better get in quick, I did!

Thanks to the Royal Mail strike, my review samples from Simple Human are still sitting in a depot somewhere but the company has kindly sent me an extra 2 of their stackable recycling units. From the photos on their web site which I’ve used above, they looked like they would fit nicely in my Ikea shelves – so I’m a little peeved to only have two.

So, on first impression, they arrived in a massive box and were packaged on what we called as kids ‘pop buds’ and giant plastic blisters – we’re very easily distracted in my house so Miniminx and I happily popped for ages – before remembering that we had a purpose in the packaging – recycling units.

I was quite in awe of the size of these things…but I like them. I’m not going to post a full review until I’ve used them for two weeks – I’ve chosen to go for the paper and plastic options to see if the boxes can handle our output.

First impressions are good – my piddly Ikea aluminium boxes I was using to store paper, bottles and plastic for recycling will be used as planters…

This surely is frugaletarianism at it’s absolute best, happy reading.

Bin there…
First I bring you The Rubbish Diet , better than a bogof (‘buy one get one free’ for the uninitiated), it has a great round up of eight or so ways to keep your bin empty, your belly full and change in your purse.

Charity Begins at Home

Shoestring Alley is a great take on living for less and putting aside money for the future. So the lucky girl will be having a great holiday and a cushy Christmas in 2009.

I really like Potty Mummy’s new frugal ways – I’ve been taking a few notes, especially on the meal planning side…and you can save yourself a thousand quid or so, not bad eh?

Violet Posy shares her shabby chic style and tells us about her chair make over.

London for Free

The lovely Susanna at A Modern Mother sent me this post which makes me proud to be a Londoner. Our melting pot metropolis is possibly the most expensive city in the world, yet we still manage throw open the doors of our great institutions for free. Find out how you can have a free workshop at The National Gallery.

For Frugal Fashionistas

Bargain hunters will be delighted to discover Recessionista Sister who is up on all the latest high street deals so check out her posts, and keep yourself plush and lush for less.

Buying Designer Clothes has tips on customising your wardrobe and keeping on trend for just a few quid.

Sharon Rose has a fabulous Fashion Thrifting blog and waxes lyrical about her designer bargains.

Effing Had Enough of this Crunchy thang

Writeonmum bucks the trend of hiding behind the sofa when the bailiffs arrive and shares her peace love and crunchiness to solve our financial woes.

From Across the Pond

Mom Most Travelled gives a tutorial on how to make colourful play silks for the kids – just swap food colouring for Kool Aid and it’s a winner.

Almost Frugal has some reading tips – The Tightwad Gazette and Your Money or Your Life for a start – and asks what unlikely reads are helping to shape your journey towards frugality as she shares her own – and there are a few surpises.

Tighten Your Belt is happy to share advice with regular tweets on making every cent count. Sign up to the updates and check out the first top 20 tips here.

Nixdminx

My top tip? It’s a state of mind.   ! I’m getting on a cheap flight and heading to the sunshine for a few days to stay with some very good friends and spend time rather than cash…who knows, I may have a job soon and my lady of leisure lifestyle will be over.

Thanks everyone, please send us your top tips too, I hope you all enjoy new and interesting ways to live more for less!

And let’s not forget

“Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.”

- Dorothy Parker

So how come I caught myself looking in a charity shop window the other day?

I was drawn to a natty pair of high heeled hardly worn shoe boots on display, and then I did a double take as I caught my reflection in the rain streaked window.

There was I carrying a huge Argos bag with a new sewing machine so I can ‘make do and mend’.  I just feel transported back to another time and one small step away from buying Butterwick and Vogue dress patterns to make ‘new work suits’.

When I got home, I unpacked my new gadget – sleek, shiny and black to go with my iPod.  I set it up and started sewing and realised with a pang what a dying art this is.  Filling a bobbin, threading the machine, pinning fabric, the chalk markings, the tape measure – it’s complicated but it’s something I want to pass on to Miniminx – what if she never got to do any of this? It scares me…

She was fascinated to watch me perform this alien craft and produce a finished item out of it.

I used to make my own clothes and even tried selling them down Camden Market yonks ago and I was trying to work out when I got the fashion brand bug and dumped my nimble needlework for a credit card.  I can’t quite remember to be honest.

That said,  I walked home from Portobello and spied many a more-fash-than-cash rebranded charity shop.  Oxfam being one of them (see above – shame about the typo huh?).  I’ve tried to get into this whole thing but the shops still smell really musty – and the clothes are very home made looking.

These are such lovely brands – just look at Traid – they’re even doing workshops to help you customise your clothes.  And Fara Notting Hill is totally far out when it comes to vintage designer gear,  I applaud them all – they’re modernising worthiness and bringing a new edge to thrift and frugality.

And there you have it, I’m going to teach my child to sew.