And every week, I will get even more food. So I need to either, take only a little bit of food during my trips to PP, or use up the vegetables really quickly.
I tend to take too much, cos when we grab the food, we aren't supposed to choose, cos if everyone is going to choose, it's going to be a mess and the whole point of saving discarded produce is to take stuff that people don't want to buy. So usually, we just take whatever we can get our hands on, bring them home, then sort it out and cut off any parts that we aren't planning on eating.
For me, I don't know how much stuff I'll be cutting off, so I usually take 20%-30% more of every single item which I get my hands on... usually, that is still too much and I end up with excess food which will last me many more days than I expect.
As mentioned in my previous post.
I recently got a really really huge cabbage. I cut 30% of the cabbage off to prepare dinner. After washing and slicing, I found that it could last for 4 meals. I kept 2 servings for myself for 2 days of dinner. And messaged my neighbour and asked him to take my other 2 servings. He looked at it and commented that it's actually quite a lot and he will have to eat it for 2 days.
In the same post, I mentioned that I collected baby corn and broccolinis.
The day after I gave the cabbage to my neighbour, I messaged him again to give him some baby corn... and 4 sweet potatoes.
And the following day, I passed him some broccolinis...
I never told them where I got the food from... His wife mentioned... hey, maybe next time we don't need to do marketing and you can just provide us stuff... and I replied... that can be arranged... LOL she was totally stunned and said "joking only"... but actually I was serious.
I think I was starting to freak them out... I mean... think about it, we usually don't have much contact with our neighbours. I'm on quite friendly terms with my neighbour, but we don't really bump into each other very much, but we do talk. But imagine, a neighbour whom you're not really close to... contacts you every few days to give you food... most people would likely think... "What the hell???"
Since I'm going overseas again soon for quite a long period, I have to manage my inventory of food well for this week. So I passed the sweet potatoes, mentioned in my previous post, and 50% of the same cabbage to my mum... Based on my estimations, I should have finished my food just in time for my trip next week.
And hopefully, when I get back, I can get into a food collection session and stock up again when I'm back.
The feeling is really strange when food is relatively free... I use the term relatively, cos there is still effort involved, but I can go almost every week to collect vegetables so it's a constant flow of "free" vegetables. Cos previously even if I had over purchased food, I would never have offered to give my neighbour free vegetables. I'd just try my best to preserve the food or consume it quickly, or when I buy groceries, I buy less the next round so that I can finish up my excess food from my previous purchase.
But now, every collection session, I can just take whatever I want, so I just collect, and any excess, I don't need to consume it all, I can just pass it on to someone else.
And the strange thing is... I thank my neighbour for helping me to consume. Else I would have to consume it, and this would mean that I can't collect more in my next collection session.
How amazing this feeling is, when money is removed from the equation.
I've also made it known to my other neighbours that I'm open to collect stuff that they want to throw away. Especially, during this spring cleaning session, but I'll willing to accept it all year round. A couple of neighbours are part of a group chat so I just announced that I am willing to take in 2nd hand items and pass them on to others, cos many times, we are "sayang" to throw away our items, but we also don't really use these items and they end up just sitting in the storeroom for no good reason, just cluttering up space.
After I announced it, 3 of them messaged me to tell me that they will pass me stuff. They were quite hesitant to pass me stuff cos they were wondering if I could pass them on and that they didn't want to clutter my place or give me expired food. But I told them not to worry, I'll find someone else to give these items a 2nd life.
So I've been happily collecting stuff, and similar to the above, my neighbours thank me for taking the stuff out of their homes and giving them a 2nd life, cos they did not want to throw but neither do they want to use it.
Of course after collecting the stuff, I need to pass them on... the problem is, I had an issue with passing on stuff to people in the bigger freegan community. Cos there are many people who ask for stuff, but they don't come and collect them, and the giver will hold on to the item and have to follow up with the person to ask them to collect it... that's just a hassle for a person giving, and such terrible behaviour.
So I decided to only post in a small freegan Whatsapp group, which I feel should contain more responsible people. And true enough, the people are more reliable and many of my stuff has been taken or reserved to be taken within this week.
Of the stuff that I've collected from my neighbours over the weekend, I have cleared most of them. Even the items which I picked up in this post, has been given away or reserved.
I have only 3 items which I am still thinking what to do with them, cos I'm asking my closer friends first before I post in the freegan community.
Once again, it's a pleasure to receive and give away. It's a lot easier than dumpster diving which I find a bit too much effort for me. Cos I really don't need anything, so looking through dumpsters is really just for the thrill rather than the items. Whereas now, I feel that I'm providing a service to help my friends and family and neighbours to help declutter their home and pass on stuff to other people who might be able to re-use the items. So I find that this is more fun for me, and I don't need to really clean up the items very much. The items come to me instead of me having to hunt for it, and all I do is facilitate the collection of items for the people who want to take them.
Also, now that I post in a smaller Whatsapp community, I feel happier giving stuff away as well. It's not so much that I don't like giving stuff away, but rather, if the "taker" makes it difficult for the giver, then that just removes the fun of giving. Like if I have to ask the person multiple times if he/she really wants the item or not. So now, I just set a rule, if they ask for it, they have 7 days to collect it, else I will just give it to someone else without double confirming again. I'm thinking of changing this to 5 days... cos I really don't like to keep unnecessary clutter in my place. And sometimes, there are instances where someone reserves the item to be collected 5 days later, but someone else asks for the item slightly later, but is willing to collect it tomorrow. And it's instances like these that I think... I might as well just give it to the person who can clear my stuff tomorrow.
Oh well, I'll adjust my giving policy as things move along and I get more experienced in giving.
Since giving has been getting easier, I also have been thinking of giving away stuff which I was planning to sell on Carousell, cos it's much easier to just pass on the stuff instead of waiting for someone to buy it for a couple of bucks... Not all... but there's some stuff which I think isn't worth cluttering up my place just for a couple of bucks.
This got me thinking... are people cluttering up their houses cos they feel that throwing away stuff is such a waste? It may not be an insecurity issue. I always thought that people mildly hoarded stuff, cos they are unsure if they are able to find the same item again when they need it, so I thought it could just be a mild form of insecurity.
But maybe, there are a lot of people who don't want to throw things away cos... so "sayang" such a waste, it's still in good condition, but they don't know what to do with it, cos they don't know who else to pass it on to. So it just stays in the storeroom for years...
I think this COULD be another reason for why people end up cluttering up their place.
They know they won't use it, but also feel it's a waste to throw it, but they don't know who to pass it to.
Kk, that's it for today, there's a couple of stuff I need to do. I've been pretty busy these few days, helping my parents with some stuff before CNY and also meeting friends and such... that's why there was no post yesterday.
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