Raiders of the Lost Junk: Crbnly's Spring Clean Quest

🌱 Spring into Sustainability with Chad and Shane! 🌼 In this episode, we dive into the joys of spring cleaning, the art of thrifting, and the eco-friendly shifts in shopping habits. Discover how to make your cleaning routine more manageable, the economic and environmental perks of secondhand goods, and a clever Crbnly tip for your garden. Tune in for a refreshing take on embracing sustainability this spring! 

#Sustainability #SpringCleaning #Thrifting #EcoFriendly #CrbnlyTips #CrbnlyConversations #SustainableLiving #BuyUsed #ReduceReuseRecycle #EcoFriendly #ClimateCoach

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Transcript

Chadwick (00:00.59)
Well, welcome back everyone. Shane and Chad's been, I mean, we've been a lot of things. One of the things we've been is a little bit more inconsistent this year, which is part of the natural flow or the natural carbonly calm of it all. I'm a little riffing here, but like, we're probably going to move to not weekly, but bi -weekly, but we're also trying to be sustainable human beings in the rest part of our lives. So we're back.

another recording. We also want to acknowledge that we might not have been in your feed every Wednesday like we promised we were for I think 75 episodes in a row which is a pretty good streak. So Shane I know we just were just chatting about life catching up on some of the things going on in Columbus and some fun shows or dumb fun shows but I was thinking maybe when I look out my window it's

Shane (00:30.868)
Yep.

Shane (00:41.484)
Yeah.

Chadwick (00:59.534)
Looks warm and sunny up until the trees are blooming and flowering.

There's not quite tulips, but there's definitely daffodils and crocuses blooming across the city. But what I'm getting to is it's spring. Feels like spring, looks like spring. It actually is spring. It's crispy still, so it's not hot yet. So I'm just thinking like we're in, I'm in the mood for a rant. It's springtime, so maybe there's some springtime cleaning rants, but let's just turn it over to see what we got and then ask our listeners to chime in.

Shane (01:12.446)
Yep.

Chadwick (01:34.4)
in on the IGs and everything else that we have places to chime in on.

Shane (01:40.8)
Definitely. I mean, I'm looking forward to spring the same here today's a it's been raining all morning, but it'll actually be 70 degrees by four o 'clock so the Sun is Yeah, not our high is 60. No, it's cool. cool. It's probably like 50 at least right now

Chadwick (01:50.158)
Damn. What? Is it hot raining right now?

Chadwick (02:01.322)
Okay, we're at 52, but it was 40 this morning at.

Shane (02:04.364)
We're at 52, but it's gonna be 6, 69 is the high. And I think it'll be around four o 'clock is when it'll be 69 degrees. So that's great weather. Everyone knows my gardening journey. And this is like a gardener's like heaven right now for that to have these temperatures this early on in the year.

Chadwick (02:21.932)
not spring.

Shane (02:33.1)
Like I can already see a lot of, there's already a lot of little sprouts growing up. I moved my raspberry bushes from out front to out back a couple of weeks ago. And now the space, the place where I moved them from out front, you see a lot of little sprouts growing up where the raspberry bush went underground. And then there were.

Chadwick (02:39.34)
Mm -hmm.

Chadwick (02:57.742)
Oh yeah, the little runners that are coming out of ground.

Shane (02:59.404)
The little runners, I mean, so there's like six runners already off of one, off of one bush that I planted last year. So once those get a little bit bigger, I'll move those out back to where I kind of want to have my whole berry section this year. So.

Chadwick (03:15.886)
I love that. Well, when Lauren comes and visits, we'll have to like hide them because she is a raspberry fiend. So.

Shane (03:24.492)
I hope hopefully they'll be prosperous because yeah nothing like a fresh raspberry or strawberry. You know.

Chadwick (03:32.472)
Dynamite, definitely.

Yeah, spring, spring, spring. It's funny, I was reading, I think today in the New York Times, the morning.

newsletter, they were talking about spring cleaning and giving people hints about don't feel so overwhelmed about all the spring cleaning that you could or should or would do. And instead, I think their their tip of the day was break it into little things. And this is what I'm going to do now. So I'm gonna do later and so feeling the over instead of getting overwhelmed with it. Like I think that's a good tip. But at the same time, like this.

Shane (03:53.548)
Mm -hmm.

Shane (04:09.804)
Yeah.

Chadwick (04:14.338)
nothing more gratifying right than like it made me actually think about my windows like i want to clean the shit out of those windows because it's spring and it's clear and it's you know maybe that's what i'll actually do this afternoon um after we watch dune one because we're gonna go see dune two tomorrow have you seen it yet

Shane (04:20.972)
Yeah.

Shane (04:31.34)
And I haven't seen either. I've heard good things. I've heard some people have watched Dune One and still didn't know what it was about. But there's a lot of advertisements for them going on TV right now.

Chadwick (04:40.014)
Yeah, we... Yeah, apparently everyone loves Dune 2 no matter what you think about Dune 1 or even understood it or even watched it. Like it's a rare movie that seems to hit its stride that people enjoy. Yeah, we got tickets to go... Yeah, it's still in theaters. We got tickets to go to the Alamo tomorrow. But...

Shane (04:50.86)
Okay.

Shane (04:54.668)
Are you going to the theater? Is it still in theaters?

Shane (05:02.378)
Okay.

Chadwick (05:03.406)
That means some basketball today and Dune One today. But I think I can watch Dune One and clean the windows. And that's like kind of like my tip or hack is like, don't feel like, oh, you could make a list, but just do some of it while you're doing something else and enjoy the day while you're doing it. It'll reinvigorate you. I think is a good way, good word.

Shane (05:11.916)
Yeah. Yeah.

Shane (05:27.948)
Yeah.

Chadwick (05:29.102)
But I don't know, do you have like a laundry list of spring clean items that you like to do or need to do outside of the gardening?

Shane (05:35.148)
The gardening's one, I have a little project going on out front again, but when it comes to indoors, I don't know if I have windows, I definitely need to clean some windows. So I'll add that to the list. But one tip that I guess inspires me or gives me more motivation to clean is like, like you said, like,

I knock it off in small pieces. So like one of my tips is start with one room, like start in one room, get everything that you want to get done. If it can be, if it's something that can be done, you know, within an hour or so, get that over with. I always feel better when I like start with my living room, cause that's the main room. That's the first room that you see when you walk in the house. So whenever that's clean and tidy, it kind of.

Chadwick (06:09.262)
Hmm.

Chadwick (06:17.262)
Yep. Yep.

Chadwick (06:27.925)
Yeah.

Shane (06:31.868)
inspires you to to clean up the rest of the house, you know

Chadwick (06:36.332)
Yeah, it like spreads like the the the also like you probably do this maybe purposely but also like unintentionally because it's the first room you see like greeted by the cleanness or the orderly it feels good. Yeah.

Shane (06:38.796)
Yeah.

Shane (06:52.62)
So if you walk into a mess, it kind of like makes you just wanna do nothing because you just feel defeated and you're like, oh man. But if you walk into a clean room, like I said, it inspires like, oh, well, let me go upstairs to the bedroom and spend an hour on the bedroom, you know? And that's another thing is sometimes I'll actually set a timer. I'll just be like, all right, I'm gonna work on this room for an hour.

Chadwick (07:12.204)
Yeah.

Shane (07:19.436)
get done whatever I can get done within this hour. So I'll set a timer, put on some music, put on a podcast, whatever, and work for an hour straight on that room, whatever it may be, you know? And once that hour's over with, if I feel like continuing, fine. Like if there's just a little bit more time I need, I'll do that, or I'll take a break or move on to another room.

Chadwick (07:32.238)
that.

Chadwick (07:45.678)
That's solid advice. Yeah, I think spring has sprung like.

Shane (07:46.878)
Yeah.

Chadwick (07:49.74)
And there's, I mean, we've talked about thrifting a thousand times. Everyone knows about thrifting. It's a good time to like go through your stuff, downsize what you don't need. I mean, this is the kind of the time of the year where you kind of want your winter clothes out yet, just in case, but eventually you're going to put them away and pull out your spring summer clothes. So that is there stuff that doesn't fit or you didn't actually wear the whole time during the winter, like start, start consolidating. And then whether it's goodwill,

Shane (08:05.452)
Yeah. Yep.

Chadwick (08:19.664)
or you know there's this shop in Brooklyn a thrift shop that just would pop it up today because apparently there's a a bushwick style have you've heard this

Shane (08:31.498)
No.

Chadwick (08:32.622)
So apparently there's a way of styling and being like how you dress that's pretty unique currently. Unique is the wrong word because it's why I heard about it. It's already beyond Bushwick and now it's kind of like in Hollywood and on the runway and other places. But on the New York news this morning there are on Friday or Thursday morning.

Shane (08:43.436)
Yeah.

Shane (08:47.98)
looking at.

Chadwick (08:53.262)
One of the guys that like, he, I think he has a thrift shop that's constantly like being picked over for the Bushwick style. And he's like, yeah, Bushwick style is kind of over. Like this stuff is like, it starts, it goes, it ends, and then something else comes. Like that's just the name of the game. But, so they were talking. Someone actually used the word mullet as part of the Bushwick style. And I think big.

Shane (09:01.004)
Hmm.

Shane (09:09.42)
Yeah, I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it now. There's yeah, there's.

Chadwick (09:19.598)
big pieces like a coat that looks angular or just something that looks fashionable and actually comfortable but also maybe a little obtrusive is the way I interpreted it but doesn't mean I'm right. Anyways so who knows.

Shane (09:21.044)
Logic.

Shane (09:28.428)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Shane (09:35.5)
It's interesting. I've started to, well, on style, and please don't come to our podcast with style tips, but, for style tips, but I've started, I kind of did what you're saying. I've went through my closet. I've made like a, made a pile of things that I want to get rid of, but some of it is nicer brands that I feel like I can get a few dollars for. So I've started.

Chadwick (10:03.566)
sure.

Shane (10:04.268)
made a profile on Mercari. And then there's another app called Depop. I don't know if you've heard of that. It's like a younger people stuff where you can buy like old trucker hats and just stuff that young people are buying. And so I've started to post things on there. And one of the styles now that's really big is Y2K. So like anything from like the early 2000s.

Chadwick (10:33.344)
Yeah.

Shane (10:33.388)
that's like glittery or like, you know, was made in the early 2000s are like really popular right now too.

Chadwick (10:43.982)
Do they use the robots to make it really easy to just take a picture and it creates a listing and all the fit categorizes it for you really quickly?

Shane (10:50.988)
Um...

That, I think Markari, you can have AI make the description for you, but I'm not sure if Depop does. It's kind of just, you add your photos, you add your description, you add the brand, the size, things like that, and post it. But it's pretty cool. And you can find some things on there. Like I ordered a hat from a guy who all he sells is,

hats, you know what I mean? And he's got like 1400 hats on his profile.

Chadwick (11:30.862)
It sounds like remember in Louisville is it Florida Florida Florida flea You know like just online version of that, right?

Shane (11:35.66)
Florida flea. Yeah.

Yep, yep, yep. So that's big. I mean, and I mean, just this morning I sold an old mirror that I've had for, I don't know, three or four years that I bought for maybe $60 at the most at Target. I don't need it anymore. I sold it for $35 this morning on Facebook marketplace. Girl came and picked it up, you know.

Chadwick (12:02.112)
Yeah. So in some ways, I'm going to go on an economic rant of like, so there's thrifting, there's like donating to thrift stores, right, which

feels easier to do, you can just lump it all in and get rid of it. So for maybe large families, suburban homes, you know, just groups that have collected stuff for many different reasons over time, that might be an easy solution. But we also know a lot of those clothes and all those things don't get repurposed or get sold because it's manually got tracked. And, and yes, we talked about Goodwill has now got an online store and like a product line. And that's where I think referencing the robots like,

Shane (12:28.714)
Mm -hmm.

Shane (12:40.17)
Mm -hmm.

Chadwick (12:43.824)
I think they can post like, I don't know, we'll have to go back and find the data, but like a large amount of things a minute because of robots, you know, as long as they get a picture of the shirt or whatever it is. So like, I get there's a, there's an avenue for that, but we've been kind of on this lane of like, how do you sell this second hand, third hand, you know, you know, meaning you got it from someone else, you used it and sold it. Cause there's almost something that intristic in that value. If someone's going to pay some money for it, they're going to

Shane (13:11.628)
Mm -hmm.

Chadwick (13:13.744)
come and use it, take care of it. And the carbonly way is the sense like it's not going to the landfill. Their demand has been diverted from Target because it did originally start at Target, but then to you and then it'll be in their house. Maybe because they bought it that way, they also enter on that channel, they'll sell it two or three years down for the world themselves. And that mirror can just turn into an ongoing reusable product and like that reduced

reuse, recycle. So it's really hitting two things. It's reducing the demand for new and reusing all because you're selling it, you know, in that interest, a value of like, it's worth something to me, I'm going to go get it. And it's cheaper than getting into that target.

Shane (13:56.172)
Yeah.

Chadwick (13:59.982)
And I wonder if there's a renaissance of that with the general, like economically speaking, that's as good business to the point of like, we talked about that two or three episodes ago, like there's other businesses trying to like Nike does this and even all birds has a repurpose store, right? I think Supreme probably doesn't, but I Supreme was referenced in there.

Shane (14:00.396)
Yeah, that.

Shane (14:13.514)
Yeah.

Shane (14:19.884)
Probably not, yeah, but Supreme, I mean, yeah, their stuff, the resale value of certain of their items, because to add to that is like the advantage that apps like Depop and just regular people that wanna flip things have on Nike and things like that is like, you can literally sell, you can sell things for more expensive than what they even cost when they were brand new, certain items.

Chadwick (14:23.534)
It was definitely a, I mean.

Shane (14:48.972)
You know, which is just and yeah, and like the younger generation, they're they're very into buying secondhand things and they're willing to pay money for. I mean, you you look online, there's some Carhartt jackets that are 20 years old that are selling for $400 with rips and tears in them, you know, but it's like you can't find that character in a brand new jacket. So like people are willing to pay that money.

Chadwick (14:49.87)
Yeah, a little crazy.

Shane (15:18.86)
because of the character, of course, the brand name. But it's really cool.

Chadwick (15:25.262)
I have like 40, maybe 50 Led Zeppelin t -shirts from when I was a teenager to my early 20s. I wonder what the...

Shane (15:30.188)
Oh, some of them might be worth $300. Yep.

Chadwick (15:36.494)
Because I know you can't get them. I even got concert shirts from them when they retoured on the Unleaded tour.

Shane (15:38.988)
Yeah.

Shane (15:43.212)
Oh man, you're sitting on a chunk of money, Chad, seriously. You should find a reseller there in New York or Brooklyn and just see how much they would buy them from you in bulk. But there's people that'll, I mean, some of them might be worth, especially if they're made in, so there's two things that people really look for. Made in USA is big, which is kind of cool.

Chadwick (16:08.494)
Okay.

Yeah.

Shane (16:11.188)
If it's single stitch, that means it's that that's like a verification of it being older. T -shirts used to be made with just single stitches on the sleeves and around the collar. Now it's like double stitch. So if it's single stitch, that shows it's old. And then the band tees are if they're original band tees and not reprints that that adds to the value.

Chadwick (16:38.894)
Yeah, they're probably somewhere in the middle, because they're not like from the 70s, which is when Led Zeppelin was in its heyday. But it was definitely when I found out and bought everything I could, Led Zeppelin themed. So interesting. Yeah, so I think there's a lot of value in doing the spring cleaning shit and finding other people to value the things you no longer need. I wonder if that could just be like a carbonly cycle, like every quarter. It's the...

Shane (16:44.108)
Yeah.

Shane (16:56.428)
Yeah.

Chadwick (17:09.326)
Have you ever watched Monty Python? The quest for... No, no, no. Monty Python and the quest of the Holy Grail. It's like bad comedy from the 70s, 80s.

Shane (17:09.388)
There's...

Shane (17:13.164)
The male strippers.

Shane (17:19.5)
Heard of it, huh?

Shane (17:23.34)
Probably not then, if it's that old.

Chadwick (17:24.75)
Yeah, there's a but there's a bit there's a sketch in the movie where it's like the plague the dark ages plague when everyone's dying and they got these guys with a cart and they're like out with your dad, you know out with your dad and like all the people are dragging the dead people that died from the plague in their house and they're carting them away to wherever they're taking them and the whole stick is like that one guy throws the other guy in the cart and he's like, hey, I'm not dead yet. You know, it's like but you will be you know, like it's like, you know, like not yet. Oh, you're

Shane (17:37.548)
Hey

Shane (17:41.772)
Hehehe.

Shane (17:50.028)
Yeah

Chadwick (17:54.656)
So that's the joke but like maybe maybe on like a carbon late cycle or just like you know spring clean fall clean summer winter like reprieve like like how do you promote that make that a thing or

like that brings more attention to this secondary tertiary market of goods, which reduces and reuses and actually has economic value because of these way these platforms have been built to make it really easy. And because we all have one of not all, but the majority of people have one of these.

Shane (18:16.46)
Yeah.

Shane (18:20.884)
Yep.

Shane (18:31.084)
Yep. Yeah, I mean, it's it can be it's very, I mean, there's kids, there's younger people that are making a living off of this, especially if they become popular on on YouTube. I mean, there's YouTube pages that are getting millions of views of just watching people thrifting like you're literally it's literally someone with a camera at the thrift store buying stuff and showing you what they're buying.

Chadwick (18:43.278)
Yeah.

Chadwick (18:49.806)
It's crazy.

Chadwick (18:57.294)
Which really gets to the heart of like, I think back to the beginning, the origins of Carbon Light, right? We talked about this, our moms did this, we were with them. Growing up, we did this to like, that's what we could or thought was best. And it's also become a marketplace, it's a topic, it's a influence campaign.

Shane (19:13.246)
Yep.

Chadwick (19:20.91)
But it just really starts from necessity. Some of us does. Did that woman bought it? And was it just because she got a really good mirror? I thought you said a woman, so I may be biasing, tracking here. Bought that mirror for $35 or was just like, this is what I can afford to get the mirror I need to add to my home.

Shane (19:24.234)
Yep.

Shane (19:40.972)
Yeah, I mean, in a lot of situations of the people that I sell to, it is that this particular young lady, she probably was in her mid -20s. I think she's probably a fan of buying secondhand. She definitely looked like she could have definitely afforded to go and buy the same mirror brand new, but yeah, yeah. But what do I truly know? So.

Chadwick (20:01.39)
Oh, more biases, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, we're not in their checkbooks, right? Thank God. But that just brings back to, you know, some of the other origin stories, like, I'll include myself, I'm a little bit older here. People our age and definitely younger, the millennial gen Z's, like,

when polled, when asked, when surveyed, they want to save their sustainability, reusability, like that's important to them and they'll spend money on it.

Shane (20:31.052)
Mm -hmm.

Chadwick (20:34.158)
And I think that's showing up in a lot of these ways that Gen X, Baby Boomers, maybe were, maybe weren't, or said they were, but they never spent a lot of money and time on this. Because it was just convenient, easier, just the habit we all had of going to Target and Walmart and filling our carts. Because to be honest, it's easier, especially if you have kids. Yeah, well, yeah. Oh my god.

Shane (20:44.948)
Yeah.

Shane (20:57.132)
Amazon just ordering everything you need.

Chadwick (21:02.158)
Well, that kind of brings us up. Maybe it's a good way to like land this ship. Remember, I sent you that screenshot where Amazon has climate pledge friendly sustainable product. In essence, you can filter what you're looking for through that lens of climate friendly pledges. I'm not sure what that means, but that wasn't there the last time it was Amazon shopping, which is fewer and far between. So.

Shane (21:11.926)
Yeah, yeah, yep.

Shane (21:27.116)
Maybe it, yeah, I guess it maybe it depends on what you're looking for. I know there there's an option. I don't know if it's for everything, but like sometimes when we order things off Amazon, there's an option for more eco -friendly packaging. So like if, if the package, the product already comes in is good enough to ship it in that, they'll maybe like just ship it in that instead of putting it in an extra box, but.

Chadwick (21:33.068)
Baby.

Chadwick (21:45.184)
Oh yeah.

Chadwick (21:51.662)
They don't extra box it, right?

Chadwick (21:57.102)
Yeah, or and I think you get that option on your Amazon day, like ship all in on the same day to reduce packaging. Yeah.

Shane (22:02.162)
Yeah, yeah, and the same thing. But me personally, and this is, I guess, another tip for a carbonly tip for people out there is if you do order a lot from Amazon, I like Amazon boxes because they're, you know, they have logos and things on there, but they're they're pretty much pure cardboard. There's not a bunch of added printing on it and things like that. And I mean, I just I take the tape off and I use it as.

Chadwick (22:26.178)
Yeah.

Shane (22:31.37)
Weed tarp. So when I'm laying down new mulch or something like that, lay down cardboard boxes, put your soil or mulch over it, and it's a natural weed tarp for you. It'll prevent weeds from growing up.

Chadwick (22:43.766)
BAM and it just will degrade and biodegrade over time.

Shane (22:47.55)
Yeah, I mean within a couple of months if you need to plant something you'll be able to poke right through it with your hand shovel or anything like that to plant something.

Chadwick (22:57.934)
Come here for the gems. Look at that. Amazon, reuse.

Shane (23:03.02)
Yeah, carbonly tips.

Chadwick (23:04.792)
What a rant. Carbon Lee Rants complete. I feel a little bit better, Shane. How do you feel?

Shane (23:11.212)
I feel good. I feel good. I like to share this, my little bit of knowledge I have with some people. So someone out there is listening.

Chadwick (23:19.598)
Yeah, at least someone is. Eventually, we'll do even better to get more people listening. But until that day, we appreciate every one of our listeners. And I appreciate you, Shane. Thanks for being a part of this.

Shane (23:27.468)
Yeah.

Shane (23:33.452)
Same here, same here. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend. If you're listening to this, yeah, spring is here. Looking forward to growing some food. That's for sure.

Chadwick (23:40.942)
Spring is here.

Chadwick (23:49.038)
Yeah, tis the season. Have a great Carbon Lee weekend and rest of your time, everyone. And you, Shane.

Shane (23:57.9)
adios.