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Like I have done countless times over the past 30 years, I just had a conversation with a friend about why 311 is my favorite band. I simply told her, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for their music and positivity. If you want to take a deep dive into that and how that all relates to my work with reuse, here's my hour long podcast all about it . As last week was the band's official holiday, 311 Day, I've been listening to a lot of their music. And one song stuck out, just as it has since it was released a couple of years ago. As a deep thinker, the song "Friend" has always made me think about the fight for peace and a unified planet through positivity; missions the band has always band about. I know that I'm certainly "not ready to let go of this beautiful dream." But the song surely has a more direct message about close friends in our life. They are truly "worth more than gold." And so when I found out that a lifelong friend of mine (and fellow fan of the band) lost his father, this song came to mind. Enjoy. 🤝

Sometimes progress isn't literally moving forward. Sometimes progress is pausing, looking backwards, and realizing that we are making a mistake. Making mistakes and owning them is OK. And that's part of real progress. Sometimes progress is actually going backwards, so we can move forward.

Every day, we're faced with hundreds of choices to make: big and small. From how we eat to how we dress to how we shop to who we support to the coffee we drink to what we drink that coffee in, etc. And when we make a choice, we have the opportunity to ask, "What will benefit me the most?" or "What will benefit the most people?" The fact of the matter is that when we leave this planet, nobody is going to remember the choices that we made to benefit ourselves. But they'll surely remember the choices that we made to benefit others.

I am constantly reminded that there is more than enough of almost anything that we could need or want. It just may be in another form. I think about it when I go into a thrift store, when I pass by a brand new housing development near empty office buildings, and when I see a giant stack of nearly brand new cardboard boxes in the recycling bin. We always hear that we need more manufacturing jobs to sustain a good economy. I disagree. We need more remanufacturing jobs to sustain a good economy... and a good planet. We don't need to use up more of our non-renewable natural resources to create raw materials. There are plenty of renewable materials right here in front of us. If you don't have a good planet to live on, you can't have any kind of economy.

This morning, I got my daily email from the ever-inspiring Seth Godin . It was about heroes that have come before us and it ended with, "Today is a fine day to consider who’s on our wall." I couldn't agree more with that statement. Today, we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a real leader with real ideas for real positive change; a man who truly wanted to UNITE people for the common good. One of the main inspirations behind the creation of my brand STAY VOCAL in 2003 was this handmade upcycled artwork of MLK on the bottom of one of my broken skateboards. And after having my second skateboard related surgery, I wanted to do something different with skateboarding that would be less impactful on my body and more impactful on the world. So, this artwork became my first skateboard design. Things have obviously changed over the years with my brand (now being a reuse clothing brand), but one thing that has not changed is the other main inspiration behind its creation. Too many of us sit idly by and let things happen, when we could be using our most powerful weapon that we're born with: our voice. So on this day when we celebrate one of the strongest voices in our country's history, we must remember that. We must remember that it is our right as citizens of this country, as citizens of the world, as humans, to make ourselves heard. And right now, our voices need to be heard more than ever. Our country needs us. MLK's legacy needs us. WE need us. Because as MLK said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Unity over division. Because no matter how you slice it, we're all in this together.

Here we are in 2026. Happy New Year! In some ways though, I feel like a reset button was hit for me. When 2025 started off, I had the intention to begin my next big reuse project sometime that year. I wanted to create a fixed, larger version of The REUSE! Box Truck tiny house to live, work, and host events. And I was hoping to team up with Cheap Old Houses in some way to find an old structure. At that point, the truck had been on the road for over 7 years and not only was the truck ready to settle down, but I was ready to settle down a bit more myself. Over the past few years, I've had a variety of ideas for what kind of place I was looking for and what I wanted to do with it. I finally felt good about the decision and was ready to start the process. But the universe had its way of telling me that I wasn't ready. There were some things that I needed to deal with first. At the start of the year, I was spending a lot of time at Song of the Robin . This is the 85-acre vegan bed & breakfast and animal sanctuary just over the Massachusetts border in New York that I've been visiting for years. And it was during that early January visit that I found out that the apartment at the house would be opening up in a few months. This wasn't my next plan at all, but after thinking a lot about it and talking it over with some people, I realized that it would be a great next temporary step. The affordable rent and serene location certainly helped too. As I had been doing a lot of consulting with Lisa Robinson, Song of the Robin's founder, this would be a great way to get more experience managing a property, hosting events, building a community, etc. These are all things that I have plans for with my own space. It was also a great opportunity to continue my work with Lisa to update various aspects of her property. "The Cat Cabin" - a large storage shed at Song of the Robin that we converted into a small sleep and work space. By the spring, I had started to really settle in and had a lot of plans for updates around the property, but the universe again had a plan of its own. In early May, my dad unexpectedly passed away. As a result, I was back in Massachusetts more often; spending time with family and friends and helping to get my dad's things in order. While most of my dad's posessions and collectibles were dealt with when he went into long term care during the pandemic, we had saved a good amount of things to decorate if he had ever come home for Hospice care. Plus, after spending almost 3 years straight purging things, I set aside a lot of his smaller collections to deal with later. Well, this past summer was "later" and we decided that it was time to empty out the family storage unit. After emptying the storage unit, my mom's living room became the sorting area for my dad's "smaller" collections of things. With my unexpected extra trips back and forth to Massachusetts, I realized that if I had been invested in a structure of my own, I wouldn't have been able to spend the quality time that I did with my family. And I certainly wouldn't have been able to spend the time that I did purging the items. I needed to honor my father by at least going through his items to see what he held on to. In the end, I'm really glad that I was able to give the extra care to his items, as I learned a lot about him and other family members as well. While it's not how I expected my 2025 to go, I know now that it was all supposed to happen that way. But I was also reminded how frustrating it is to deal with someone else's possessions. We can't be held responsible for other people's things. And we have to take responsibility for our own things when we can. We can't simply leave these things for others to deal with. It's more than just stuff. It's time, energy, resources, and frustration. This is why I was inspired this fall to do some further purging of my own things. Consolidating and purging my things was a physical and mental relief. Especially over the past 5 years, stuff has literally and figuratively gotten in my way. Some of it was mine and some of it was others that I took as my responsibility. But I don't need to be the one purging other people's things. I need to be the one encouraging others to escape their own excess and waste and connect them with the right people and the right solutions. And I need to move forward with my other project ideas. So here we are a year later and I'm ready to move forward with my house idea from last year. But now I have unexpected good experience from living at Song of the Robin and I'm free of so much of the physical, mental, and digital stuff that was holding me back. And after unfortunately losing another person close to me at the end of 2025, I am reminded that life is simply too short to keep putting your ideas off. The perfect time might never come. I'm looking forward to taking the next steps for myself and for my work with others to help people create less waste and positively impact the planet. Stay tuned...

Are you tired of people not taking the planet seriously? Are you tired of profit being valued more than a healthy planet? Are you tired of the planet being a political issue? Are you tired of all the talk, the plans, the arguing, but not enough action? Are you tired of Us vs Them? Are you just tired of DIVISION in general? I really am tired of all those things. And it really doesn't have to be that way. And if we want to survive, it really CAN'T be that way. Over my 20+ years working in the reuse field, I can't tell you how many times that I've heard things like, "You're doing such great work" or "That's awesome that you don't use disposable cups." While the affirmations are nice to hear, that's not what I've been hoping to hear. And it's not what WE need to hear. A few years ago, I started thinking that "I really need more handshakes and less pats on the back." Instead of people just congratulating me on my work, I need people to join in the reuse movement. Because like I always say, the more we work together, the more positive change we can create. Unfortunately, we live in selfish times. There are a lot of people focused on showing off, when they really need to be showing up. Because seriously, ask yourself these questions: Do I care more about making more money than I do about other people's survival? Would I not like it if everyone had a place to live a healthy life? Do I want the planet to be an unhealthier place to live for future generations? If the answer was no to even one of those questions, you understand the undeniable fact that we're all in this together. We are truly connected citizens of a shared planet. The planet has to be a part of every conversation. Because... take a moment and think about your favorite thing to do. Got it? Now imagine doing that without a planet. Seriously. We can't just think this is being over dramatic. No matter what you like, it relies on the health of our planet. And it's sadly getting unhealthier by the day for us, for our children, and our grandchildren. Do we want that for them? For years, we've been led to believe that we could recycle our way out of the planet's problems . But it simply hasn't even come close to working. On the other hand, reuse was THE solution before the waste explosion and it continues to prove that it is a much more viable solution than recycling. For those who question this, we just can't be selfish. No matter how much people try to divide us, we can't deny that we share resources, we share public spaces, we share communities, we share the one planet we can live on. And for those understand it, we can't do the work alone. There are a lot of individuals and organizations doing a lot of great work when it comes to reuse and sustainability. But more than ever, we need to come together. I was a math nerd growing up, but my favorite math equation as an adult is 1+1=3. The more we communicate, the more we work together, the more change we can ACTUALLY create. This is why I've been doing STAY VOCAL shirt collaborations for over 20 years. This is why I filmed other reusers in all 48 contiguous states for The REUSE! Documentary . This is why my collaborator Deek and I worked with many local people to build The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House. This is why I do consulting work. This is why I interview people who reuse in different ways for this blog. Over recent years, I've been using the handshake emoji for a lot of things like commenting on people's posts online, texting with collaborators, etc. And during that time, I came up with (and have seen) so many slogans that are a perfect fit for the handshake. I've been wanting to create patches with these sentiments so people can show their support of working together, but I wanted to make the handshake more custom. So, I had my in-house artist collaborator Deek create his version of the handshake. I added the arrows on the sleeves to represent reuse. I added the lines above it to emphasize shaking. And the different colored hands represent equality. Because again, as long as we're ALL sharing this same planet, we're ALL in this together. Handshake patch sheets printed on a variety of pre-owned garments and linens Last week, I started offering these patches at events and I plan on sharing them with people who are working together for the same common good: reuse organizations, reuse-related shops, passionate reusers, etc . I also made them available in the STAY VOCAL shop for anyone around the world that I don't see in person. And lastly, if this post has you thinking that you'd like to work together with me to fight for this planet, please reach out to me . We can talk about simply connecting you with other reusers or how WE can work together to bring more reuse solutions, sustainability, and positive change into your business or life. If we truly want this planet to survive, we have to put our ego aside. We have to recognize that WE. ARE. ALL. IN. THIS. TOGETHER. Without a planet, there can be no me and there can be no you.   COMMENT SECTION BELOW

👖 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new pair of pants. 👕 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new shirt. 👟 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new pair of sneakers. 📞 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new cell phone. 📺 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new television. 💻 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new computer. 🚚 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new vehicle. ☕ It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new coffee mug. 📘 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new book. 🎅 It's been over 17 years since I bought a brand new holiday decoration. I could keep going here with this list, but I hope the message obvious. Almost anything that we need or want, we can find used, pre-owned, upcycled, repaired, refurbished, etc. It might take a little bit longer, but... 👍 We can still get the things we want. 🤝 We can still gift the things others want. 🌎 We can save resources. 💰 We can save money.

As I mentioned in my recent post, I'm really looking for more handshakes and less pats on the back . When it comes to reuse, it's not just about support, it's about working together to make a bigger positive impact. And last week, I spent some time with a group of people that are truly living that mentality. Whenever I talk with people about examples of cities or states or organizations that are leading the reuse movement, the organization Reuse Minnesota always comes up. Based in Minneapolis, the organization focus on building partnerships through their vast network of reusers and their pillars of education, advocacy, and promotion. For the past 12 years, while not in the state, I've stayed connected to the people I've met through the organization. I've been able to see their work in person and see how it has impacted the growth of reuse in the state. So, when I was originally asked to be the keynote speaker at their annual Reuse Minnesota Conference last week, I was honored. Sharing my reuse journey at the Reuse Minnesota conference My first experience with Reuse Minnesota was when I visited the state during my filming of The REUSE! Documentary . My friend and longtime leader in the reuse movement, MaryEllen Etienne, encouraged me to see the work that the organization was doing and connect with key player, Madalyn Cioci. While visiting, Madalyn brought me around to various places in the area that were part of Reuse Minnesota. I was so impressed with the organization's ability to connect so many people and drive to "increase the visibility of reuse in Minnesota by highlighting the environmental, social, and economic benefits of reuse." It was a perfect fit since my goal of the documentary was to showcase the benefits of people, planet, and wallet. And it only made sense that Madalyn and I became fast friends and remained a cohort for years. After the film was originally released in 2015, I planned a nationwide tour of film screenings. And when choosing the locations, Minnesota was obviously a must. There was a lot more reuse to see in the city and big players to connect with. This time that included meeting Julie Kearnes , upon Madalyn's suggestion. Julie's tireless efforts with reuse and her store Junket have led her to develop a new definition of and paradigm for ethical consumption. She's also just a really down to earth, funny human, which you can surely see in this clip. In 2017, I returned to Minnesota. This time, Madalyn had recommended me as they keynote speaker for the Annual Workshop of the Minnesota Association of Recycling Managers. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about how reusing is more of a complete solution for our waste problem than recycling. Honored to see a sign quoting me at the University of Minnesota's Reuse Program warehouse. It was at this event that I met Emily Barker, who is now the Executive Director of Reuse Minnesota. And for this event, I decided this was a great time to launch a Minnesota themed T-REUSE! T-Shirt as a way members of the reuse community could promote their hard work. And as you can see by this photo and that the shirt has sold out of two printings, the response was great. A group at the Conference of the Minnesota Association of Recycling Managers. They get it. I definitely had to connect with Julie at Junket on this trip too. After 2017, there was an obvious change in traveling for my work between sticking around the Northeast for events with The Reuse Box Truck and the pandemic. But in 2021, I did team up with fellow T-Shirt upcycler, Ian Landberg. Our brands joined forces for a STAY VOCAL / Dye MN limited T-Shirt release. You know, I am now realizing that Dye MN is not a member of Reuse Minnesota. And well, that makes no sense. So, I hope both Emily and Ian are reading this and they connect. 🤝 Some of the DYE MN / STAY VOCAL creations. OK, back to where we are now. Well, back to last week at least. My trip to Minnesota was pretty dang fantastic. I saw many familiar faces, met a lot of online connections in real life for the first time and met a whole slew of passionate reusers for the first time. With a packed room of people focused on educating, advocating, and promoting reuse, Reuse Minnesota's Annual Conference was a perfect opportunity to premiere my new talk about Reuse & Responsibility. Wearing my Dad's Army shirt and sharing my hour-long journey of my reuse life at the Reuse Minnesota Annual Conference. My coffee was fortunately well within reach. In addition to speaking at the conference, I was also an exhibitor with an Escape The Waste Booth. We were promoting not only our educational reuse events, but also STAY VOCAL clothing and the numerous collaborations with artists, brands, and organizations. And very conveniently, the STAY VOCAL sewing mastermind who is Carly Carte lives in Minneapolis now. She was able to join me and not only run the booth, but she also made some unique 1 of a kind Minnesota themed pieces. Thank you Carly! The Escape The Waste Booth at the Reuse Minnesota Annual Conference and two happy Minnesota reusers. Now, going all the way to Minnesota, I wanted to make the most of the time that I spent there and make as many connections as possible. On my second day there, Reuse Minnesota hosted a screening of REUSE! Because You Can't Recycle The Planet.  at the ginormous Minneapolis Central Library. And it was a great reuse reunion as Madalyn showed up (who works in another field now), along with Julie and Emily. And when I had asked Emily if there was somewhere cool that I could do a casual pop up shop before the screening, she had the perfect place in the organization's network. Pilllar is a coffee shop that is also a skateboard shop and music venue with a very robust reuse cup program and they serve vegan hot dogs. I didn't know such a place could exist, with so many of passions and favorite things. Cory Bracken, the owner and founder of Pillar, and fellow coffee loving skateboarder and reuser. Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my great host & tour guide while I was in Minneapolis: Margo Ashmore. And she's not only the current president of the Reuse Minnesota Board, she's also a reuser. Margo is currently part of this amazing Mystery Trash Remix event and took me to the Flux Arts Building to see her work and numerous others. And after seeing photos of the building in it's former dilapidated life, it's no wonder they're showcasing an event focused on turning trash into art. And as you can see by a couple favorites below, it's amazing what different artists can do with very similar items. Two of the pieces in the Mystery Trash Remix Event Margo in front of her house: "The Owl House." See it? As I reflect on my trip last week and think about what I saw and what I heard, it was more evident than ever that reuse is so abundant in Minnesota as a direct result of Reuse Minnesota's work. The majority of people in Minnesota understand the benefits of reuse. Reuse is a part of policy-making in the state. And reuse is truly just a normal thing for people. These changes that are happening in Minnesota are a result of the reuse community working together and focusing on their education, advocacy and promotion. What's happening in Minnesota with reuse is an example of what can and needs to happen around the country and the world. This is why I always reference Reuse Minnesota when people are looking for examples of reuse in action. And that's why I've stayed connected with the organization and the people that I've met. I look forward to heading back to Minnesota sometime in the not too distant future. There is so much reuse work that I'd like to see and be a part of in the state. And I always look forward to bringing my own version of reuse edutainment into the mix. See you sometime soon, Minnesota. P.S. It just made complete sense that when I injured my foot while there and needed to find a pair of slippers, Margo knew the perfect thrift store. Sure enough, there was a pair in my size, even with the tags still on them. (Injury and slipper photos aren't needed, even for a Halloween post. Yikes!)

This rotted out boat in front of a house gets decorated for each holiday. Halloween is my favorite. I love this time of year in New England. The colors of trees are changing. It's a little cooler. Hot coffee seems to taste better. And I really like Halloween decorations. But what I don't like is the mass amount of new plastic and disposable decorations that I see. For example, those ginormous plastic skeletons look cool, but they also take a ginormous amount of resources to make, ship, etc. And at their end of life (pun intended), they'll be looking not cool in the landfill for years to come, as plastic recycling unfortunately doesn't work . I'm also amazed at how much money people spend on decorating their house for a few weeks at a time, especially with an economy like we have now. So, as I was going through various neighborhoods recently, I felt inspired to write about some ways to celebrate Halloween with reuse solutions. But I also wanted to hear what some of my creative reuse and Halloween-loving friends had to say. That said, here are 13 different ways to have a killer Halloween, save a lot of resources and save a lot of money. I hope you get inspired by one or two. And let me know in the comments if you have any ideas of your own. KEY FOR BELOW (👤) Benefits the People - can still fit your interests and tastes, custom, personalized, fun (🌎) Benfits the Planet - save resources, keep items out of the landfill (💰) Benefits the Wallet - save money 1. Pet Semetary  (👤 🌎 💰) from Jeff at Give Up Trash Bag Cycling Club  in Pittsburgh, PA "The Pet Sematary sign is an old saw horse that I let sit outside behind the house all year every year so it stays good and dirty looking. The big black coffin is made from leftover / unused / reclaimed wood. The Cujo headstone is a repainted plastic headstone I've had since I was like 6." Jeff's DIY Pet Semtary decorations 2. Bloody Sheets  (👤 🌎 💰) - Grab some old sheets from your house or a thrift store and use paint, ketchup, tomato sauce to make some bloody sheets. Here's a good tutorial that I found. 3. Bottle Decorations (👤 🌎 💰) - from Julia at Four Corners Supply Co.  in Marshfield, MA "A few years ago, we painted a bunch of bottles with leftover black chalk paint and then modge podged silly labels on them. Use for decorations or candles." Julia's son painting used glass bottles and one of the finished pieces at her shop. 4. Buckets of Blood   (👤 🌎 💰) - Collect rain water in buckets, add red food coloring and make "buckets of blood." This is something that I've thought about for a while, but never tried. I think this is the year. 5. Color ANYTHING Orange and Black  (👤 🌎 💰) - With a specific color scheme for Halloween, it's easy to create all sorts of decorations with cardboard, scrap paper, wood and any coloring utensils or paint. You can also just buy used orange or black sheets, T-Shirts, etc and make things. 6. Costume Creation  (👤 🌎 💰) - from Chris at The Capable Carpeneter  in Taylorsville, NC "A rocket and spaceman! The space man is an old snow suit that is spray painted, a broken bucket for a helmet, and a cardboard backpack with 2 liter jets! The rocket man is a leftover round concrete form from my house build. The rest is just cardboard." Chris' sons as a Spaceman and a Rocket 7. Costume Swap  (👤 🌎 💰) - from Yasemin at Reboot Eco  in Middletown, CT Clothing swaps are always a great idea and this time of year is perfect. Someone might have that perfect "1990s Mom" look that you're going for. An ad for Reboot Eco's Halloween Swap Party Here's an example of a temporary clothing swap that I did with my brother. A few years ago, we decided to mess with our family and dress up as each other for a Halloween party. Fortunately, we're roughly the same size and simply borrowed each other's clothes. My brother as me and me as my brother. 8. Custom T-Shirts (👤 🌎 💰) - I find a lot of Halloween shirts at thrift stores, because people buy them new for 1 day. You could save some money and make your own with pre-owned black or orange shirts. You can also find plenty of used Halloween shirts like I do at thrift stores , or online outlets . With my clothing brand STAY VOCAL, I offer an entire series of Halloween themed 1 of a Kind Reuse T-Shirts , so you can clearly celebrate Halloween and the planet. Plus, you'll have a shirt that nobody else in the world has. An ad for the STAY VOCAL Halloween themed 1 of a Kind T-Shirts 9. Eyeballs  (👤 🌎 💰) - Draw / paint eyeballs on golf balls and put them in random locations around the house. Here's an example of some. 10. Movies  (👤 🌎 💰) - Your favorite Halloween themed movies are not only fun to watch, but can make for fun decorations too. My minimal Halloween decoration in The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House 12.Pumpkins  (👤 🌎 💰) - from artist Derek Diedricksen  in Stoughton, MA Instead of spending money year after year on pumpkins, he makes completely unique pumpkins out of scrap wood. Deek's Halloween decorations made with pieces of scrap wood. 12. Tombstones (👤 🌎 💰) - Tombstones are an easy shape that can be cut out from wood, cardboard, paper, etc. They're easy to customize too. Here's a collection of tombstones that I made with broken skateboard decks. They're a perfect fit for The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House. The skateboard graveyard on the back of The REUSE! Box Truck 13. Trick or Treat Bag (👤 🌎 💰) - And lastly, one of the most classic reuse ideas at Halloween. Instead of buying a new Trick or Treat bag or container, just grab an old pillow case or any bag from around the house. We all know that it's what's IN the bag that's most important. If you want it more "on theme," you can decorate the bag or find something like an orange pillow case at a thrift store. My friend Gage in 1989 ready to fill up his duffle bag. COMMENT SECTION BELOW

I just got back from being in the woods of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont for Tiny House Summercamp . Over the past few days, I was reminded again and again how important it is for us to break free from our day to day and just hit pause. As a society, we're so distracted looking at our screens and racing to the future that we forget to pause and look at ourselves and our world around us. We need to unplug. We need to hit reset. We need to hit reflect. We need to let ourselves rest. We need to sit around a fire and talk WITH other people. We need to listen. We need to cook together. We need to remember what got us here. We need look at the amazing landscapes our planet offers. We need to think about how our present actions will affect the future. P.S. Stay tuned. Deek and I have some ideas in store for next summer. COMMENT SECTION BELOW

I made this image for the REUSE! Documentary because I really wanted to simplify the differences for the audience. As the film is shown to elementary school children and above, I wanted it to be quick and understandable for all. Because really, the difference between reusing and recycling AND why reusing is the better solution for our waste IS so incredibly simple.