I invited a lot of inspiring people that I've met the past year to come, share and talk about their experiences, projects etc... And I will as well of course :-)

You can check the program out here: http://www.abetterplace.io/16-maart/ (in dutch)

So now what? Well, this website I build for myself, to enable me to live this year like this. But now I want to build a website not only for me, but which makes it possible for everybody to set their goals (for instance: live without garbage), let other people join, and show everything what you find out along the way. Because what are some of the things I learned which help create a movement around a topic?

1. Communicate your goal (the more idealistic it is, the more people will feel connected to it)
2. Enable people to join you (and welcome them as equals, nice TED talk about that)
3. Show what you actually do and make it easy to share and/or for people to do the same.
4. Give and receive positive feedback, loooveeee....

How are we building the platform?

Last month Emile Bosch contacted me asking if I needed a developer, so after a nice meeting all of a sudden we were a team of two! I think it would be great if there are even more people joining, so if you're a developer, graphic designer, user experiencer etc who is looking for a nice project making the world a better place. Let me know! We'll be meeting every now and then to work together (currently in Rotterdam or Amsterdam) so join in for a day!

I'm currently busy making wireframes and Emile started setting up the backend. 

We're developing it with node.js, bootstrap, less, jquery and more. Some of these techniques are also new to us, but it's fun to learn something new :-)

I created a little project website to communicate what the plan is, and connected a blog to it where all the updates specific to abetterplace.io will be posted. And that's the new name. abetterplace.io (io stands for input/output)

Anything else?

I'm organising an event to finish of this beautiful year somewhere in February/March... You can read more about it on the abetterplace.io website. It will be fun! Slacklining while free hugging a dancing tree :-)

UPDATE

Fixed it!! On the ideas page you now see all the ideas that were added in 2012... Funny to see everything together on one page because some ideas that won in one month, had less votes then ideas that didn't win in other months... 

This guy explains it so much better then I ever could:

In the beginning I didn't get a clear vision of what it was, I think they assumed that I knew what their ideas were about education and how it's supossed to be. But when I asked them to explain it to me, slowly a wave of knowledge and experience came flowing towards me and all I could think was 'wow, I wish I had a camera now, because this is worth sharing'.

So I will! Hopefully the camera doesn't make them nervous (nee toch vader? :-)

Then I thought, maybe that's what I can do this month, share visions from all different kind of people here in the Netherlands. Teachers, strategists, students etc. And see if there is a common goal or dream, a clear idea of where we should go to and how. In a sense documenting my own travel, because since this is such a broad topic, I noticed I myself need to learn more before I can perform any practical action. The problem, dream and how we can get there needs to become clear first. 

As a start I contacted Karim Amrani, Yoram Mekking, Toine Andernach and Jeroen Boschma. They are all very different with very different backgrounds. I'm curious.

So I've been thinking what my added value can be within changing the education system, because since I'm not a teacher and neither a specific expert on the topic, I feel it's not my task to lead. But that doesn't mean I cannot be of value, quite the opposite as Derek nicely explains above.

So what can I do? Maybe my quality in this case lies in connecting people. I've been thinking that it would be great to connect some of the most inspiring people in NL (like Claire Boonstra) to some of the most invluencial people (like the minister of Education). But I haven't managed to get in contact with the minister yet, probably she's busy. The good thing is that Claire would be happy to have a cup of coffee with her.

Want to be connected?

I can also connect people who want to do something with eduction, but don't know what yet. Or people who do have ideas, but would like to meet with more people about it. This saterday I met two people full of enthousiasme to make a difference in education, but they were in need for people to brainstorm with.

So do you feel like sharing ideas your about eduction and learning from others? Let me know in the comments or write me a mail and I'll organise something nice.

Many people posted inspiring ideas in the comments. I didn't check it all out yet, so I think the first step is to educate myself :-)

I'm starting with this:

Ingredients

• olive oil
• garlic (around 3/4 cloves)
• spicy red pepper (I put half, but it depends on the pepper and your preferences, I like spicy :-)
• an onion
• 1 can of coconutmilk
• two spoons of curry paste
• a couple of potatoes
• a pumkin :-)

Instructions

Cut the garlic, onion and red pepper, put olive oil in the pan and add everything while keeping it on a low fire. Peel and cut the potatoes and add them with a little water just before the carlic is starting to get brown. After a while (potatoes need more time to get soft then the pumkin) add the peeled and cut pumkin. Add a little bit more water, but not to much because you'll add the coconut milk later...

When the potatoes are soft. Blend it all!! While blending it add the coconut milk and curry paste. Now it will start to smell and taste great!! Add some salt if you think it needs it and water if it's to solid (or more coconut milk of course, I love coconut milk :-)

Put the soup in the bowls and add some chive or other herbs on top to make it look as delicious as it will smell and taste. You can now serve your soup.

Enjoy!!!

ps. you can use the seeds of the pumkin to grow new ones. It's quite easy. We (me and my mom) did it this year and we got 4 pumkins from one plant! Made me happy.

Which leaves me without any material to show after this month.

Can you help me with that?

If you remember I gave you something last month, could you make a picture of it? And if it wasn't something physical - a smile, hug, talk, helping hand, visit etc - a picture of yourself? A short description (4 words or something) will help clearify what the gift was :-)

For instance:

-----------------

What did I receive this month?

The possibility to give :-)

------------

You can send them to my email, if you want to make a super short video, send if over WeTransfer.

Gratefully forever...

M

Still, we were in the mood for pancakes. So we found a recipe with bananas and we just tried. They were amazing! Nothing less then any pancake with eggs and milk. Actually better since afterwards I didn't feel stuffed. Normally I always need to lay down for a siesta after dinner, but now I was fine. Weird...

Check this out!

If you wanna try it yourself, the recipe is here... (also good for non vegans, I promise!)

Any tips what to do and why?

I haven't yet researched the subject thoroughly, which means I actually don't know all the advantages or disadvantages of being vegan. I guess that's what this month is for. So if you have any links, tips, advice, experience which you could share about the subject and give me a headstart, please do in the comments! This can be from either standpoint of course :-) Thanks!

Wanna cook?

Then... One of the ideas I had of things to do this month is to invite people to cook with me. And they don't necesarily need to be vegan, they simply need to have an interest in trying and experimenting with new recepies. Because it would be great to have a tasteful and delicious month of course! So who feels like cooking with me?

Kinda curious what I'll eat tomorrow...

It'll start around 18:00, bring some food!

You can check out the facebook event, or just email me and let me know you're coming. I'll send you the address (it's in Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

FOOD!!!

ps. as it looks like now. It will be the last chance for me to eat cheese... :-)

When I started this month I had the idea of doing something similar as in April, to give in many different creative ways. Every day something else and to someone else, preferably to people I don't know. And that it had to be relatively noticeable things, nothing huge, but relatively big, something you could tell somebody else about and it would be a story. Facebookable, likable, retweetable.

But then I realized two things.

First, this felt like the wrong intention. I shouldn't give in order to get the followers of the project to like it, I want to give to people who need it and can use it! It being liked has no function there.

Second thing I realized: I am tired (yes, I have to admit it!) and didn't have the energy to do this month like I wanted to. And when I tried I didn't give without wanting something back, because what I wanted back was the relief of having done my 'duty' of the day. I wasn't actually experiencing giving, I was experiencing tiredness, stress and a feeling of discontent with myself. Because I felt that what I was giving wasn't enough and I didn't know when it would be.

Change!!!!

Isn't it all about the little things? Didn't I discover that many times before this year? Why would it be any different now? If I want to experience giving, maybe I have to do every action with the idea of giving in my head. Not trying to get anything out of anything, just letting it be and giving it attention. So then all of a sudden I ended up talking with the cashier about her pain in her eye and she seems to enjoy talking about it, I gave compliments to the the cook for the great food, I gave lots of smiles to everybody on the street, I gave advise to someone who asked for it. And it all felt great!

And then I realized what I want to do. This month I want to be the most generous person I can possibly be. I want to be Ghandi, Mandela and Jesus combined (you're probably laughing, I know, maybe a little ambitious, but hey, gotta have goals! :-). What I mean is, I want to be giving, and with that I'll give.

Is this all a little bit to vague? Well, practically I figured I could offer my services to anybody who needs them. So what are the things I'm good at and who can I help with that? I made a little google docs document, with all I have to offer and people can contact me if they have requests. For instance, today I helped someone install wordpress on their server and tomorrow I'll meet someone to give advice about building a website as well. (Nobody requested a 'Dancing for people who normally need to be drunk to dance' workshop yet :-() But later this week I'll do some physical work, building a wooden floor. Fun!

The moral of this story? Small is good and give what you have. Don't try to be impressive, just try to be.

For the people who want to share this month what they give, I rebuild the website a little bit. On the progress you can now add posts (there a probably still a couple of bugs I have to fix, but that will come along the way). Next to that you can of course tweet what you give and if you use the hashtag #31daysofgiving we can all get inspired by it.

You can also find more information about the concept of giving on 29gifts.org

Enjoy giving!!

1 full bag of trash, 12 tired legs and a lot of happy faces... We didn't make it all the way to the south of Rotterdam, because there picking up trash took more time then expected, but that didn't matter! We are very content!

Edit: you can watch more pictures here #trashwalk

Now let's eat something...

So change of plans!!!

Thierry had a great idea, which I then executed! To put weels under a pallet!

Look!

The promotion of The Trashwalk is all in Dutch, since I'm trying to get people in Rotterdam to join. So here is a little video and of course I made a little cute website again! :-) (sometimes I wonder if I don't spend to much time building websites... :-)

For now a small teaser :-)

Last month a very good and successful workshop day happened (#metzonderwerk). In total 35 people came, 5 people gave workshops and lot's of enthousiastic reactions. Even so much that there are requests to organise another day and keep the flow going! That would be great of course!

The group itself is currently mostly alive on facebook. So if you're with/without work, you can join, help, inspire etc... If you want to help organise another day, let me know! You can help with providing a location, giving workshops, sponsering, being nice, giving advice :-)

What about this month? It's gonna be trashy!! :-)

Just did another short skype interview to find out what people experienced during the #metzonderwerk workshop day. And it helped them in any way!!

Thanks Ingetje and Juliette!

This is xkcd's approach to finding a job. It's different!! If you also want to find new ways to find work you can come to the workshop day on the 16th of August in Rotterdam. Even though it's almost full, so you have to be quick :-)

And now for something completely different: a project from someone who will live one year using only Open Source. What??

More on his website.

She will give a workshop herself, there will be a #daretoask session from Jan Peter Bogers and probably there will even be more.

Wanna help? You can :-)

1. If you know people who are looking for work, let them know about the day. Because it will be fun and probably help them!

2. If you want to give a workshop or know how to inspire people in a different way, let me know! Would be great to add it!

And share this or join! www.metzonderwerk.nl

Pictures were taken by Rick Jordens and Zarinda.

Many many thanks to Richard for helping out with slacklining, driving, advising, etc... The true slackline master.

Date and time?

July 31st, at 20:00 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Email me (maartenhunink@gmail.com) if you’re coming and I’ll send you my details. You can also sign up on the facebook event!

So I build a little website: www.slacklining4kids.nl

Then I contacted the Big Brother Big Sister project, they will send out the information to all their brothers and sisters. Also Thuis op Straat (at home on the street) is helping out in Kralingen. But I'm still looking for more ways to get kids to come and join. Suggestions and help are very welcome!!

These are the dates:

Monday 23 July
Kralingseplas, Rotterdam from 12:00 till 16:00

Wednesday 25 July
Charlois, Karel de Stouteplein, Rotterdam from 12:00 till 16:00

Friday 27 July
Blijdorp, Vroesenpark, Rotterdam from 12:00 till 16:00

Come, join, try, help, enjoy, etc!!!!

For more information check the site or contact me: maartenhunink@gmail.com or +31611266392

Edit: I made a little poster for people to share, print etc..

This morning I gave a short dance workshop to about 40 kids in Rotterdam Zuid. Was really fun! It was made possible thanks to Bernadette and the rest of the crew from Ieder Kind een Instrument (every child an instrument).

Next to this I contacted several organizations to see if I could help them, for instance a refugee organization which organizes holiday weeks for refugee kids. But I got a little bit stuck there, because to do this kind of work (with children) you need a statement of good behavior (which I think is very understandable) but getting one takes a couple of weeks. In other words, since I don't have that much time, I need to change my plan!!

So I will organize three slackline days on different spots in Rotterdam. Soon I'll post more about it...

Let's start with the kids

When researching I found that there is an organization that offers children in Rotterdam activities for in the summer. It's called the Yough Holliday Passport, I'm thinking to contact them first to see if I could provide them with some extra activities and in this way get in contact with the children.

Another option is to contact the Weekend School, they organize classes, trainings and activities for motivated youngsters between 10 and 14. This could be the perfect place to work together with.

If you think of other possibilities, let me know!

What kind of activities?

Dance: First of all I thought of a danceworkshop, I could do one myself and I know that Adi would also love to give one. And then finish off with a little dance performance.

(this happy dance movie I found the other day, the workshop would be a little different but hopefully with the same energy :-)

Slacklining: I practise slacklining quite often in the park and there are always people coming to join and try it out. Kids also love it and most of the time I don't get to practise myself anymore :-)

(I'm sure by now you've seen this video, in that case you can watch this advanced one :-)

Music: A workshop and concert from Carrot Nine, this is an upcoming jazz band which play covers of old children songs.

Painting swings: You could paint you own swing and then hang them up where ever you like with Swings Holland.

Computer: I could learn youth how to build a website within a day.

---------------

That are the options for now! Do you have any other ideas or you want to help, join, etc. Let me know.

Ps. address: Statenweg 119c, 3039HK, Rotterdam.

Later I'll post more, now I really need to pack my bag to go to France (for work). Busy days, because when I come back I probably won't be using electricity anymore and that while I need to go to Nijmegen, which I'll do by bike because the train isn't an option (electricity)! Puff, that will be a workout alright... :-)

Thanks to the people at Sonneburgh, het Ouderenfonds and of course Sharon for making it possible!

She was in a good mood, since she recently moved to a new facility she enjoys being taken care of. She doesn't have to cook for herself anymore and there are always people around to help her. She seemed to enjoy our visit and talked a lot about the past (some real personal war stories).

See you next time Tante Stijnie!!

And then together with Diana we went to visit Aad van Driel, who is 89 and is a very modern grandmother!

The new month

The idea for this month is: Visit old people's homes and offer to take them outside so they too can enjoy the onset of spring. (I changed it a tiny little bit, hope you don't mind Kim?)

I'm going to find an elderly home (preferably somewhere close to Rotterdam) which welcomes me with this idea. So if any of you have a suggestion, let me know, since I haven't been inside of one for a long time.

And then I'll try to help out any way I can, bring them to the park, read, listen, make tea, etc... Depending on what is needed. Maybe even dance a little bit!?! :-)

The dancing starts at 1:37

Pictures by Davide.

This action was inspired by 'A dramatic surprise on a quiet square', but then with a little less drama and more fun, music and dance! :-) It was great! Most people didn't press the button, but the people that did, responded happy and enthousiastic!! It was exciting to wait for people that dared to push it and see what would happen...

The beautiful filming etc was of course done by Davide!

I would like to do something similar, maybe with a little less drama :-) But with more fun!! The idea is to put a button on Schouwburgplein and to let things happen when somebody presses it! I don't know yet exactly what. It will depend on who will join and what they feel like doing. Can be as simple as giving flowers or doing a little dance!

So do you feel like having some fun with us? This sunday, we meet around 13:00 in front of the Schouwburg. We take some time to figure out what to do, and then we do it! It's easy... :-)

Afterwards I realised I forgot two things. Why didn't I just tell him to pay the favor forward? I like those favor chains and I could have started one here! And I should have gotten a picture with him :-)

And they turn your organic waste into soil! And yes, there are worms living inside :-)

A video maybe later...

If you wanna join, do!! I will start around 11:00... (depending if I wake up on time :-)

YEAHHH!!!!!!!!

Uit je eigen stad is a very nice initiative and I think they could use some support. So check them out!

Thanks Bart and G for joining!!

Of course Davide made some beautiful pictures again, watch them here and here.

And here some nice images, also taken by Davide Bellotta

Thanks everybody for hugging and being hugged!!

And tomorrow I'll be hanging up Swings in Rotterdam. This we'll start around 16:00 at my place. You can of course join and swing with us so if you wanna know where my house lives? Let me know by mail.

The same evening we received a thank you note, also without saying from who it is. This is fun!

And then something that makes me shy everytime I watch it :-) During the process of not being able to get through to Hema, I decided to try to make a viral video asking for their attention. I asked Davide if he could help me and he did! But before we managed to finish it, Hema contacted me and I could hold an interview... So curious about the unfinished result? Watch it here, I'll be blushing while you're watching :-) Lot's of credits to Davide for editing, filming, after effecting, etc...

This idea was from Gerline who also joined, together with Janine and Jeroen. It was a lot of fun!! Making others laugh and happy also made us laugh and happy...

Every day I'll do something to improve Rotterdam, to make Rotterdam greener and the people more positive, connected and happier. These are the ideas and suggestions we gathered until now to make that happen...

• Guarilla Gardening
• Free assistence, have a sign with 'Can I help you?' at the station and help people with anything they need. Carrying bags, directions, etc...
• Leave positive messages everywhere, this can be done with chalk on the street, letter in the mailbox, on mirrors, etc..
• Give free dance classes outside on a square.
• Free Hugs
• Pick up trash, alone or organize a trash event so people will join cleaning up the street/park
• Run around in a funny costume to make people laugh, for instance in a bunny costume on Easter
• Public dinner in the city. The idea is to put a table in the city, with two plates and people can join me for dinner.
• Free listening
• Help the elderly for one day
• Blow bubbles
• Decorate the city, city knitting, hang swings.
• Combine a couple of the ebove ideas and do them all together during Queensday (Dutch national holiday event)
• Play cupido, spread love in the city
• Switch bike lights off when somebody forgot
• Try to change the city slogan from 'Stronger through battle' to 'Stronger through effort'
• Public meditation/picnic for World Port, World City, World Peace
• Get to know you neighbours and organize a dinner with them
• Have a third eye, which means to stay aware of the surroundings and respond when you see something or somebody could use help or improvement.
• NEW: Welcome in Rotterdam, suprise people entering Rotterdam with cheers, confetti, etc....
• NEW: Create a game that people can play on the street or park

If you have any other suggestions or want to join, let me know!

Tomorrow I'll post more about all the things we thought about... And if you have suggestions of course, bring it on! Everything is possible!

Edit

Was fun again guys! Thanks a lot for being there, helping out, talking, eating, drinking, hanging, watching etc... See you around!

Thanks a lot to Davide again for making the livestream happen!

At the Hangout I'll share a bit about what I found out about my clothes, and we'll talk about next months idea of course (which is still undecided...) Next to that we'll chat, drink, laugh and maybe we'll do some dancing?? I feel like dancing...

Email me if you're coming and I'll send you my details. You can also signup on the facebook event.

On the left Rolf Traxler (owner of Traxler) and on the right Walter Reinhard (manager of Erfolg)

It was a very informative and inspiring. It's great to see people who are so connected the production of their product. They know how, where and by whom it's made. And they are proud of each part of that process!

More soon...

On a side note. I had some difficulties making good video material, first of all, my beloved Davide (who doubles as cameraman) got sick last night, so he couldn't help out. And my own little camera was miscommunicating with it's sd-card. But no worries! I did get some of it on tape, so you'll get to see the factory from inside as well!

I'm tomorrow visiting the factory of Erfolg, probably it will be the complete opposite… I'm curious.

(new ideas will automatically go to next month...)

(the system isn't perfected yet, still searching :-)

Before we managed to finish it completely Hema agreed to do an interview!! It will be a phone interview since the contact person is sick and I guess not in the office? But it's better then nothing!! Do you have any tips for questions next to 'Where and by who'm is it made'?

I guess the video will go in the closet for now... Sorry guys, you'll have to wait!!!

In other (exciting) news

Next week I will visit the factory of Erfolg in Switzerland! I'm very happy with this and curious to meet the people and see how it's produced. I will thank as many people as I can find and tell you all about the experience! Swiss, here we come!!

Coming soon!!!

The unclear

• My pants (knowledge cotton apparel) are made in Turkey, but they aren't sure yet if they want to let me visit their factory. I've send them an email with more information about the project and they will get back to me.
• My socks (Hema) are made 'somewhere in the east', the girl from the customer service wasn't completely sure. Since they don't release any information about where their products come from, I didn't get very far yet. I've just send an email to one of the spokespersons from Hema, I hope she can help me a little further.
• I contacted Mexx by phone and email. On the phone they seemed a little baffled by my question and the lady didn't really know what to do with me, so she finished the conversation. I hope someone will respond to my email.

I haven't contacted American Apparel yet, was planning to do it tonight, but it looks like it will happen another evening.

Now the good!

• I can visit the production site of my pullover (Erfolg, switzerland), the only question they asked was 'when'. That made me happy.
• Veja send me a very nice email, don't know if I can visit their factory in Brazil yet, but I also hadn't asked yet. :-)

How was?

Well, calling customer services with a very simple but maybe slightly unusual question can be a challenge. Those questions seem to cause stress to the person they are asked to, and stress has all kind of side-effects. But hey, I just try to stay friendly and nice. And then when I hang up and feel my heart rate has doubled and my face is red, I walk around a little :-) Respect to those people from Keuringsdienst van Waarde (dutch research program) who do this every day and don't seem to have heart problems. I still have a lot to learn...

I started doing some research to all the different items and gathered all the contact information I could find. Sadly enough I couldn't find phone numbers from each company, I prefer to call, since people tend to avoid emails with not very easy questions :-) So I emailed the ones I could, hoping for a response soon.  Tomorrow is my phone day, let's do some friendly talking!

I did notice already that Veja and American Apparel are very open about how and where they produce their products. Veja even has a page with what they call 'Limitations' where they admit the things they don't succeed in. American Apparel has a page where you can view the factory with video's of their employees. I checked out the 5th floor - Sewing, cute!

Erfolg (which means success in english) also seems clear where and how they produce (as much as they can in Switzerland) but it's all in German, so I'm sometimes confused :-)

If you have any tips about my outfit, bring it on!! (do you like the color combination?) but seriously, tips... :-)

Does this mean I'm going to stop with 'no garbage' and start flushing plastic down the toilet? Of course not silly!!! Making trash feels very strange, so I'm in a transition phase in which I'm figuring out which things I keep and which not. I'll keep you posted, but first I'm going to enjoy some midnight cruesli...

The concept of starting with an outfit and not just a shirt arose yesterday during the Hangout. Somehow it was difficult to choose for one specific item above others, since each item is interesting in it's own way (and I don't really have favourits :-). About some of clothes I know a lot already, and about some not. So we figured to start with a couple of items, find out where they are produced, by adults or kids, fair or unfair, see if the brand is helpful or not, and then to refine the search to maybe one item which is most intriguing.

So phase one is research, what phase two will be we'll decide after phase one is finished. :-)

This is my outfit!

A pullover from Erfolg, pants from Knowledge Cotton Apparel, t-shirt from Mexx, underwear from American Apparel, socks from Hema and shoes from Veja.

So if you know how these brands produce their clothing or have interesting information and links where I could find more about it, feel free to share. Help and additional research is always appriciated of course...

I will keep you up to date with everything I find.

Let's have some fun again!

ps. wondering about the cha cha cha changes to the site? Check out the previous post.

Ten days

One thing that bothered me with how it functioned until now is that an idea that was posted in the beginning of the month had more chance of becoming number 1 then an idea posted in the end of the month. Because that idea simply had more time to gather votes. Let's change that.

In the new system (called 'very fairy') each idea gets 10 days. After those 10 days voting is closed until the last day of the month. Because the last day of the month is now 'Open Day'! On Open Day all ideas open again and you can vote on everything.

So what happens to an idea posted on the 25th of March? It will go to April automatically...

It's somewhat easy and fair no? It might be a little bit more complex then how it was now, but I think it's a good solutions, at least for March :-)

Strategic Voting

Another thing that I thought a lot about was strategic voting. I noticed that ideas that become number one all of a sudden get a lot of negative votes. Often not because people disagree with the idea (even though sometimes they do), but because they prefer a different idea. But therefor you get people dissing you, while they actually don't mean to diss you! So as a tryout this month I removed the down vote, because actually with only being positive you already have a lot of influence, maybe there is no need to be negative as well...

So what do you think, wanna try it out? Feedback always very welcome.

But right now, i'm somewhere in between.

Which I thought would be the perfect time to launch the 'fair and positive' changes to the website! I will explain them later tomorrow, because now my bed is calling...

Have a good night guys.

Edit

It was great guys!! Thanks for watching!! I hope you all enjoyed it, we for sure did. It was nicely chaotic! :-)

Thanks to Davide's enthousiasm... This guy loves everything :-)

Here is the newspaper article, written by Linda Vermeulen. Click on it for a pdf.

And here you can watch back the tv interview. Btw. in the end of the interview I say something about not feeling clean, but that was only about my hair. I actually feel very clean, but my hair doesn't always... :-)

Ps. the people from the RTV were very nice. Thanks!

So it all starts again on February 29 at 20:00 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Email me (maartenhunink@gmail.com) if you’re coming and I’ll send you my details. You can of course also signup on the Facebook event.

Happy times!

Edit

I wrote this post, and ten minutes later it was really snowing outside… :-)

First thing I noticed when I started is that it's very easy to forget about it! It's easy to be lost in your own thoughts and then when you look at somebody, you don't actually see the person. You're preocupied with your thoughts and not busy with what is going on around you. So to focus myself on this assignment I made three t-shirts, each day I wear one of these t-shirts will be a smiling day, which means that on that day I will focus all my attention on what's gong on around me and feeling good with myself so I can have a nice, honest, cute, childisch, funcky smile. Of course on the other days I will try to do the same, but in a more 'lazy' way. :-)

The good thing about these t-shirts, it also makes it clear to other people what I'm doing. Even though not at the street at the moment, because it is -10 degrees Celcius and I don't enjoy freezing my nipples off... :-)

In the evening I did have a nice dinner with the whole group, I couldn't resist the tasty gnochi...

Wish me luck for the coming days!

With everything you use or consume, garbage has been produced in the production of the product. And most of the things you use will degrade and become unusable at some point. So isn't using these things not also producing garbage? Someones asked if bodily waste is also garbage, then isn't the air I exhale as well? This was my line of thought yesterday, which as you might understand made me feel a bit lost.

How will I survive this month?

I will take this challenge step by step because I can't be completely 'garbageless' from one day to another. The first step is to limit and hopefully stop any direct garbage I produce without increasing any indirect garbage. With direct garbage I mean all the things that I would personally put in the trash and throw away. Indirect garbage I understand as all the garbage that other people produce for me.

For instance, at this moment I want to cook with ingredients that I bought without me gathering any plastic, paper and glass. But currently I think I accept the fact that the carrot I buy, might have been packed in a box while it was traveling to the shop. 

Then step two would be to start limiting also the indirect garbage that is produced. To start buying carrots closer to the farmer, or grow my own carrots!

Right now I'm at step one. Which is fun, because today I managed to buy a lot of vegetables from a tiny little organic shop in rotterdam. I <3 An-dijvie!!

Is it garbage or not garbage, that's the question.

You know, if something you were about to throw away gets all of a sudden a different function (like a heineken bottle that becomes a brick), all of a sudden it's not garbage anymore! Some materials are better for that then others, that's why I don't think there is much wrong with producing organic waste if you create compost out of it, then a tree can grow out of it and the circle is complete.

I guess the motto from this idea is: Reduce, reuse, recycle…

Toilet paper, tissues, food, condoms?

One of the first things people ask is 'what about toilet paper'? And yeah, that's a difficult one. I'm happy to let you know I didn't use any in the last two days. But I was clean, amazing no? :-) The hangout of last Tuesday was great and it was good to discuss all these different topics. And this were the results.

• Food -> Buy unpacked food, buy at the farmers, produce it yourself.
• Organic waste -> make compost out of it, bring it to an animal farm
• Toilet paper -> use less paper, add it to the compost, use a cloth and (rain)water to clean yourself. At the moment I'm actually trying to go to the toilet in the morning every day, so I can shower afterwards. It's working untill now :-)
• Tissues -> use an old t-shirt, cotton tissues
• Showering -> don't use showergel and shampoo. (it's also supposed to be better for the skin and hair, read more about this idea here)
• Condoms -> no penetration :-(Thierry was so kind to note that since I won't be using showergel and shampoo, nobody would want to have sex with me anyway, that solves the problem)
• Restaurants -> try to avoid them (this will be difficult because tomorrow I'm going on a weekend trip with the company I work for, and I don't have a camping-set or anything… Maybe this is still ok in 'step 1')
• Toothpaste -> try to produce your own, maybe with salt, chalk, aloevera etc, call a dentist and ask for advise. At the moment I didn't get to this yet, so I'm still brushing my teeth. But hopefully soon I can find a solution for this.
• Washing clothes -> soap nuts maybe?

Are you still reading this?? Nice!!! Did I miss anything? Do you have other ideas or solutions? Let me know in the comments. I'm happy to get more advice…

Love

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But now I need to find food first! Yesterday I was only partly successful because when I found a place where I could buy rice in bulk, and put it in my own little plastic bag, I still had to put a sticker with the weight on it! I only realized I had done it when I came out of the shop... Silly silly silly...

This is the sticker:

So today again I will search for food, and I will prepare myself for a three day trip with the company I work for. How am I going to be 'garbageless' while being on the road!!

Now a picture of a nail.

This is very exciting, I finally really started. Already now I'm thinking what to do with the leftover of the apple that I just ate. The hangout was very 'gezellig' (cozy) and helpful, we discussed all the different challenges that I will probably face this month and found hopefully some good solutions. About that more in a detailed post.

Thanks for everybody who came!! And of course also thanks to those who weren't there but were active in different ways this month (yes, that's also you Philipp). I learned a lot already from all the ideas, comments etc. A new month is open now, feel free to add new ideas. February is a fresh month, a great one!

It all starts at 20:00 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Email me (maartenhunink@gmail.com) if you’re coming and I’ll send you my details. If you feel like you can also signup on the facebook event page.

Let's have some fun!!

And since I felt the desire to build a little love inside of this beautiful website :-), I decided to add some. Sounds spectacular no? At the moment, you can love eachothers comments. Isn't that great!?

Next to that, you can get a weekly update with five recent and upcoming ideas, in that way you can stay up to date even when you're not a regular visitor. Great no? (ps. you can turn this off in your settings… one click)

So, do you likelove it?

Edit

After some feedback from Bart I created a page for all the recent activity. In this way you never need to miss out on anything! Check it out here.

The changes

Each idea now closes on the last day of the month (a discussion about that here).

Because of that I wanted to give more attention to new ideas, so I created a section at the side 'upcoming ideas', in that way giving them a better chance to become popular. I also added a section with recent activity, since I noticed I sometimes missed out on conversations and that's a pity!

Hope you like the changes, and the first week of the project. (I am :-)

Enjoy!

In the meantime I've been making some small changes to the site, more will probably follow. This all thanks to the great feedback I've been getting from everybody!

You can now undo you votes (even I made a mistake ones :-), links in the comments are clickable and there are lots of other visual changes. Soon you will also start receiving email updates when somebody commented on your idea, or on an idea you commented on (you can disable this on your profile).

The one issue

There is one issue I haven't solved yet and that's how and when it's clear which idea 'won'.

I figured it's best when each idea has the same amount of time to become popular (in January that's 31 days). It's fair towards each idea, because it doesn't matter when you post something, it will have - in January - 31 days. This means that somewhere in the beginning of March it will be clear which idea from January has won and then I'll start executing it.
This is all very logical (at least to me :-) and fair, but nobody understands it!! This could be because I need to explain it better, or simply because it's to complicated…

I thought of lot's of solutions, but in the end I realized it's probably best to go back to the basic and simplest idea.

The solution

- Each idea in January, will close on the 31th of January! -

Simple no?

I think this is how most people expect it to work, and unless I (or someone else) finds a different brilliant easy to understand sollution, maybe it's best if this is how it works. It's a little less fair, but if the community that's on the website is constant, a good idea which is posted later in the month will still pop out. And when it's clear that an idea is appreciated but didn't make it because it just didn't have enough time, you can repost it the month after.

So what do you guys think? Yeah or Nej?

Lot's of text in this post, next time I'll make a nice video or something :-)