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This is Rubbish

@thisis.rubbish

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Lovely interiors minus the waste: how to stop throwing stuff away, spend less and be happier! See my Substack of the same name, by @ms_kate_burt

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Some questions:

👉 What's the thing in Leeds?

👉 Is Norwich replacing less furniture because it still has a heavily ex-student, lightly hippy demographic? (I studied there, I have no idea now but that was definitely a thing back then.)

👉 And where are 16-24 year olds getting the money to buy so much furniture?

Waste I Furniture I Discarded Furniture I Low-waste Home

Source: https://www.hippowaste.co.uk/blog/furniture-waste-statistics-uk by @thisis.rubbish

The problem is the system. It's more of a habit than a system. Waste removal, not waste management.

How would you solve this flytip and the hundreds around London that have this exact issue. How is it outside London - do you live on an estate? Do you live with this flawed system? How does it work for you?

I love the approach @kind.cycle.uk in east London took: community events to inform, spark ideas and connect.

What @sparkingcommunity does in Leeds is also based on this model, though more guerilla.

I'm inspired by both.

When people have knowledge, behaviour change isn't forced - I firmly believe most people want to do the right thing. It's just not at all obvious what that is in this context.

Over the years I've pulled countless things from this relentless pile, cleaned them up and rehomed them. But ultimately I'm a writer, not a community leader. Confrontation is uncomfortable. But this has to change. I have ideas...

But give me yours! Do you have a similar situation - shall we work together?

And any encouragement to just do it would also be great 😘 by @thisis.rubbish

Saturday 17th October is International Repair Day!

It was a good prod to finally get this learning toy looked at - also my son is just learning to read and write and it’ll really help him to practise. .
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And it was SUCH a simple fix in the end! A leaky battery. Which just needed a clean in the battery compartment. Could have done it myself if I’d realised. Our local repair shop refused to take any money for it but we needed some new rechargeable batteries so I was able to buy those from him.
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What would you love to get fixed?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not sure who can fix your thing? Try the directory at @wearerepairs ♥️ or check out your local Men’s Shed (my dad is a member of one and they’re always happy to fix things people bring in) or try the @repaircafefoundation

#repairday2026 #internationalrepairday2026 #repair #reuse by @thisis.rubbish

To celebrate International Repair - on Saturday, October 17 - I interviewed British activists and campaigners, Ally Booker, a wood furniture restorer, and Gemma Broad, an upholsterer, also the founders of @wearerepairs a directory of independent UK repair businesses.

United by rage at the millions of repairable household items discarded each year in the UK (including 22m pieces of repairable small furniture); by corporate greenwashing; by ‘“sustainable”’ consumerism’; by fast furniture (in fact, fast everything); and a late capitalist economy dependent on throwing things away in order to make us buy more stuff, the pair took action and set up the platform to promote circularity through repair, making it easier for people to find the perfect person to fix that thing, while also raising up small independent repair businesses all over the country through a strength-in-numbers approach that, both figuratively and literally, aims to ‘fix what’s broken’.

Read the interview “This Much We Know About Repair” in the link in bio and hear what they wish people knew about renovating before they started..
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#repair #reuse #lowwaste #internationalrepairday2026 by @thisis.rubbish

Heartbreaking sight earlier today 😢

I bet they replaced them with something new and pricey too - which is madness when you can save a packet sourcing doors secondhand- internal, external, sliding, bifolding… the lot.
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It’s not just trad salvage yards selling them. Want to know where to find materials and furniture for your home that doesn’t add to landfill?

👉🏻👉🏻👉🏻 @thisis.rubbish by @thisis.rubbish

Solid advice from the sustainably-minded interior designer @leokinderdesign whose beautiful pink kitchen #reuse project I wrote about a few months ago.

But back to that clear-out: fair point?

And if so, you'll enjoy a piece coming soon over on Substack sharing advice from a sustainable declutterer on how to tackle that clear-out without filling your local landfill or feeding the furnace. by @thisis.rubbish

You CAN have a beautiful house without adding to landfill!

I’ve been an interiors journalist for more than 15 years and I have all the insight, inspiration and latest developments all in one place.

👉🏻 Doing up your home? Follow me and subscribe to the Substack of the same name.

#reuse #secondhandfirst #lowwaste #lowwasteliving #loveyourhomeloveyourlife by @thisis.rubbish

When someone dies and you’re left with a house full of their belongings to deal with it can be overwhelming.

I know because I’ve been there, when my granny died. I remember pulling down the shutter on the storage unit we where temporarily put her things; it was stuffed floor to ceiling, with - the hard part - utter miscellany.

There were: letters; photos and books as well as kitchen implements; artwork, furniture; rugs; bedding. Each one needing different thinking and logistics in order for it to be salvaged and passed on/sold etc.

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The local auction house took some things - which involved multiple emails and the taking and sending many photos; several loads were taken to different charity shops with different remits (and one emergency trip back to rescue some paintings that shouldn’t have gone 🫣); there was loads of texting photos to friends and family members; posting items to Australia; finding a specialist secondhand clothes retailer; locating a guy on eBay who made things from iron and agreed to take heavy, Victorian base of a broken garden table; glasses, both types; sewing boxes; button boxes; the placemats I remembered putting plates on as a child and, finally, taking what really couldn’t be moved on to the tip.

Then I didn’t have small children. And it was still incredibly hard and exhausting and massively time consuming. So I get why you’d be tempted just to dump it all in a skip.

But once these pieces of history are gone - this lot will have been incinerated - they’re never coming back.

If you're faced with a lot of home items to move on, there are better ways. See comments for tips. And subscribe to my Substack, which is all about how to avoid this situation and many others!

👉🏻👉🏻👉🏻 See link in bio for more about this skip (wait until you see the vintage jazz record collection 😩).

🤩 The beautifully restored chest of drawers pictured is from @yellowhousestore 🔗 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4549737208/mid-century-oak-chest-of-drawers-c1950 by @thisis.rubbish

22 millions pieces of small furniture that could have been reused are discarded annually in the UK. #reuse #circularfurniture #sustainableinteriors #lowwasteinteriors #thelowwasterenovation by @thisis.rubbish

New series. Link in bio!

🔗...or copy and paste this: https://substack.com/home/post/p-207383284

#reuse #circularinteriors #renovation #terrazzo #recycledleather #repairfirst

@kartafloors @solusceramics @salvoweb @dualit_ltd by @thisis.rubbish