Urban Blog

Not everybody likes shopping in December, but some of us are more averse than others. Some of us are extremely introverted, and some of us are highly sensitive to commercial and social stimulation. Doña Bumgarner is visiting SortaCrunchy to post her methods for getting holiday shopping done while coping with high sensitivity.
 
These tips can reduce stress for everyone, though.
 

These kitchen tidiness methods from Clean Mama are holiday-specific. With guests eating more and more elaborate food, you have extra preparation and clean up to do for each holiday event. Becky’s tips range from reminders of good habits to ingenious methods of temporary organizing.
 
If you’re throwing the party, make time to enjoy it!
 

You don’t have to decorate for the holidays, you know. Or you don’t have to cover your entire home in sparkles and pine needles all winter. If decorating is nothing more than another stressor this season, perhaps try what the Nester is doing this year and undecorate.
 
View her mildly decorated home at Nesting Place
 

The holidays are notorious for bringing on stress. As if your life wasn’t stressful enough, the holidays pack on extra commitments. On Keeper of the Home, Jessica Smartt suggests healthy ways to deal with stress that are tailored for extra stressful seasons. Some of her methods are deep enough to inspire soul searching.
 
Find them here.
 

There is nothing like the fresh scent of a live pine tree in your holiday living room. To be sure, harvesting a tree each year is better for the environment than buying one that was made in China. However, the Living Christmas Company takes it one step further, and rents you a tree that has not been cut, so you don’t even have to kill a farmed tree. Each tree will eventually need to be planted and someday reach its growing potential.
 
TreeHugger has more information.
 

Plastex is turning used plastic bags into textiles. Now, Plastex is more sophisticated than plarn, plastic “yarn” which you make for knitting or crochet by cutting bags into broad strips. Plastex is hand-woven in Cairo, Egypt by Reform Studio to create a durable, washable fabric with delightful variegations.
 
Learn more about Plastex at StartUp Fashion
 

For those of you who are curious about how your appliances work, About.com Laundry has an article about how top load washing machines work. The author also tells us some pros and cons of using a top loader, adding a few comparisons to front load washing machines.
 
About.com Laundry is updated by Mary Marlowe Leverette
 

This homemade paintbrush idea for kids is fun and versatile. Best of all, it teaches kids that they can be as creative with their tools as they can with their canvas. Katie Femia suggests making your own paintbrushes by decorating clothespins, and then using those clothespins to hold unusual, but brush-like, household objects. Try an artificial leaf or a pipe cleaner bent to any shape. Experiment with the way each brush head lends itself to different techniques. You can literally try anything, and you can even re-use the handles.
 
See the full tutorial at Premeditated Leftovers.
 

Antibacterial soap is overrated compared to a thorough, frictional hand-wash with regular soap. Yet, antibacterial products seem as popular as ever. Triclosan, antibacterial soap’s most infamous ingredient, is linked to bizarre changes in human and animal biology by ruining our hormones. Maybe the previous warnings are too weird to convince people to stop buying triclosan? Maybe linking to triclosan to liver fibrosis will hit home?
 
Christine Lepisto elaborates on TreeHugger.
 

At Premeditated Leftovers, Jody has a recipe for DIY fire starters using toilet paper rolls and holiday spices for scent. It’s a great way to reuse those abundant rolls. I have just one concern about using dryer lint to start fires. If your dryer load contains synthetic or petroleum-based fabrics, even your lint can release ugly chemicals in the smoke.
 
I would use this recipe in a fireplace or campfire; some of you would not. But those of us who use wood stoves tend to be purists. It may take a long time to gunk up that venting system but we like our wood stoves to last for decades. Plus, it’s fire we’re dealing with here. Fire and synthetics don’t mix well, while gradual buildup can catch you off guard. Am I being picky, here? Sure.
 
If your laundry doesn’t contain synthetics in the first place, you don’t have much to worry about. I still like the recipe and would use a version of it in the right places.
 
Pick up the spices.