Less Waste, More Thought

Since I'm tired of taking all this stuff with me every time I move and it's kind of gross to give makeup away, I'm using it. Husband is kind of excited about this new change, i.e. pretty wife. I've decided that if it's almost gone, that should be the extra weight I get rid of first, especially if I have extras.

Part of the experiment should be to see how long it actually takes to go through a bottle of such and such to avoid accumulating so much and to estimate how much money you save by finding alternatives. I haven't bought shampoo in over a year because the volunteers at our Katrina camp kept leaving their sample size shampoos in the showers. I wonder how much money I saved on shampoo last year.

This also got me thinking...there's got to be some use for all the little bottles and containers that beauty products are packaged in. I know an outdoor leadership school that uses small bottles to pack spices in their cooking kits.

So here are 3 questions...does anybody else feel inundated by "stuff"? How can we avoid so much waste? (Obviously recycle, if available, but are there any reuse ideas?) How can we encourage friends and family to get us less wasteful gifts (it seems like everyone's fall-back gift for ladies is bath items or candles, which congregate in the cupboards or never get used...my mother in-law has 4 in her guest bedroom alone.)

Thanks!