Out Of Chaos

If I were really smart, I could simplify my life tremendously in one fell swoop by drinking water. Then, my recycle bin wouldn’t be filled with soda cans.

That would definitely be good for the environment. According to The Container Recycling Institute, “3% of the world’s electricity goes into making aluminum cans.” The hydroelectric plants that produce those cans ruin habitats, and aluminum smelters release greenhouse gases and toxic emissions.

Heck, just cutting out the sodas we consume at our house might save the planet.
“I never
drink
water because
of the disgusting
things that
fish do in it.”
There are other reasons to make water a drink of choice:

• It would reduce my clutter. I don’t like to empty the recycle bin, and neither does my husband.
• It would be cheaper; those soft drinks are expensive AND I keep a second refrigerator for drinks. I don’t need to have two refrigerators! Think of the energy and space I could save!
• It would be healthy.

Unfortunately, none of those benefits will convince me to give up my sodas or my coffee.

First of all, I’ve tasted the water in Denton and it’s nasty! I’d have to buy bottled water (the plastic bottles would be as harmful to the environment as the aluminum) or have a water filter (which would be one more thing requiring my attention).

Second, I’m trying to simplify my life, but I have no intention of torturing myself. I like sodas and coffee! I’m also probably addicted to them.

Third, I’m with W.C. Fields on this one: “I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it. ”

So, I have an alternative plan. It’s something I should have been doing all along. I’ll buy sodas in liter bottles! That’s better than nothing, and it’s the best I can do.

Tags: Health/Beauty, simplified life by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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I know you are glad this isn’t a “scratch ‘n sniff” blog!

While sorting in the bathroom, I came across a box filled with lotions and potions. They were expensive beauty products I had bought (I probably enough on them to run a small country for a year), but they had gotten shoved to the back of the cabinet and I had forgetten I had them.

Some of them were creams that promised to smooth my wrinkles and make me look like a teenager again. I was dumb enough (or desperate enough) to believe those claims. Others were skin creams with such heavenly scents that I couldn’t leave them on the store shelves. All of them were more than two years old.

Everything I have read by the “experts of organization” in the last months has told me to grit my teeth and toss old beauty products in the trash can. But, I kept saying, “Not this one. NO, not THAT one!”

I put them back in the box and rationalized to myself, “I’m going to use them! What do those ‘experts’ know anyway? They are probably just making it up as they go along.”

To prove it, I opened my bottle of “Sandalwood Amber Milk.” Oh, it always was my favorite! It has such a lovely aroma. Now, it’s true that the lotion looked darker than I remembered, but it still smelled alright - sort of. So, I slathered it all over my arms and legs.

That lasted almost ten minutes before I had to hop in the shower to get that junk off of me! The smell of that aged lotion was atrocious! In the bottle, it was difficult to tell that the lotion had turned rancid, but when the lotion hit my skin - OOOOOEEEE! After a few minutes of breathing it, I wanted to gag! It smelled like a Witch’s Brew. It felt sticky and icky and just plain awful.

After my shower, I dumped all the lotions in the box into the garbage can without any regrets at all. They don’t call those organizers “experts” for nothing.

Tags: Health/Beauty by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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When I was in my twenties, I prided myself on the fact that I didn’t wear makeup. I guess that I was having my belated “Hippie” phase, and I thought I was totally cool because I eschewed such extravagances. When false eyelashes were “in style,” I sneered that they made women look like they had Daddy Longlegs on their eyes. Maybe, I was just jealous. But, I didn’t need makeup, and I didn’t look too bad without it. In those days, I didn’t have any varicose veins or wrinkles to hide.

Those days are loooong gone!

Recently, I gathered the nerve to sort through my makeup collection (this is just my travel kit!). Being a hoarder, I had various bottles of foundation that I couldn’t throw away. I wanted to get the last dab out of the bottles! Most of them didn’t even match my skin tone anymore. After a couple of years being cooped up blogging at my computer (instead of working in that garden that calls to me), my skin has faded to pasty white. “Ivory” would be the genteel way to say it. But, I’m as “genteel” as crawdaddies on a paper plate.

Nope, “pasty white” suits me, but none of the makeup I had did. It was all several shades too dark. What was left in the bottles and tubes was mostly thick and icky.

I sorted out my eye makeup, and found some that I would swear I bought before my husband and I met (that would be about 2001). I have many tubes of mascara, but I couldn’t tell you which one was the latest I bought. There was lipstick - some of which had melted when it was in my purse in the summer heat.

I figured out pretty quickly that it was way past time to do something about all this. I know full well that makeup “goes bad.” In fact, old makeup can harbor bacteria that can damage your skin. I need that like I need another hole in my head!

Digging around on-line, I found several sites that had recommendations for how long makeup lasts. The consensus seemed to be that liquid foundations, blush, lip liners and eyeliner should be pitched after six months (powder based foundations last a year). Toss lipstick after three months; mascara after six weeks; and you can keep that eyeshadow for fourteen months.

Dang!

When I got finished, I hardly had any makeup left! Replacing makeup every few months can be an expensive proposition, but it’s better than getting a skin rash or an eye infection. Perhaps I should find a way to simplify my beauty regime?

I guess it’s a good thing that as I get older my eyesight gets worse. That way, maybe I won’t see all the age spots, so I won’t mind if I don’t have much makeup. It ain’t easy being beautiful, is it?

Tags: Health/Beauty by Shelly Kneupper Tucker
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