In this business it is critical to continue to keep learning and adapting.
Here is a recent story where an interaction with a customer turned into a win-win situation, always the best kind. The customer was happy with a great deal and I got not only a solid sale but exceptional insight on the specifics of what they were looking for.
Translation, items that will sell.
It started with a pair of blue denim jeans with the label 26 Red. I picked these up one day at a Good Sammy for the decent sum of $5. There were no comps I could find but I knew of this brand as growing up a young nineties kid myself, my best friend loved this brand and wore them all the time. So I picked them up and later listed them for $100 with a vintage 90s title. It did not take long before I had a few watchers on these jeans and then some interesting eBay message exchanges began.
The guy who initially contacted me (and would later become the buyer) hit me straight up with a low ball offer via eBay message to circumvent my auto decline which I had set at $50. His offer came with a story, however, that my pair of jeans had a sort of providence (originally being made in Australia in the 90s) and later being sold out to a chain store which decimated the brand by outsourcing the manufacturing, reducing the quality and simultaneously cheapening the price. There was quite a story for this pair of jeans. Anyway, it turned out that my pair of jeans was from the chain store days, obvious from the made in China tag, (and not even from the 90s – they were from early 2000s) but still had some value, just not as much as I was hoping for.
I had a figure in mind that I wanted to get for these jeans, and was fairly sure they would not take long to sell gauging by the interest the listing was receiving. Unfortunately, his offer was about $20 under what I really wanted to get for these and so I was left with a conundrum. Here was a buyer who obviously wanted these and had put in a large amount of time to communicate what these were, what he would pay (and had paid previously) for these vs ones that were made in Australia.
I had an idea.
Here was a guy who loved these old nineties styles, so much so that his friends continually gave him shit for it – his words. It is funny that the 90s look seems to be making a rebound, as all eras seem to as the youth of these eras enter their 30s and 40s and seek nostalgia. That concept is for another post later.
I made an offer of a different kind. I realised was that this guy was a loot crate of niche information about obscure vintage brands from the nineties. So in exchange for the additional $20 off the listing I asked for a list of brands that he (himself) would buy. That way I knew I was looking for things which I knew would sell (and even had an avenue of a potential buyer) should the right size appear.
The list as follows:
Brands I Wear From The 90′ Would Be –
26Red,
Cross Colours,
Klue,
Blank,
Independent,
Element,
Ecko (Another Brand That Sold Out To Kmart In the Early 2000’S)
Mambo (Sold Out To Kmart Around 2005, Early T Shirts Can Be Worth 50 – 250 Due To Artwork By Reg Mombassa)
Some Select Baggy Quicksilver Jeans,
Alien Workshop,
Pelle Pelle
And A Few Other Random Brands Like:
Rocawear,
Blunt,
Alphanumerics,
Kuta Lines.
I chose to view this exchange as a form of delayed payment and potentially an immensely valuable interaction should I come across some of these brands later in the wild. Indeed since this interaction I have found a few items from this list at decent prices mainly due to their obscurity I think.
I also did actually make $25 total profit on the sale anyway so it really was a Win-Win-Win
• Win (buyer)
• Win (seller-present)
• Win (seller-future)
There are multiple types of value.
Money, information and the application of information.
February was a little bit of a wasted month for productivity. I spent too much again on new inventory and not enough time on actually getting items listed! Thanks, Marie Kondo, I blame you for my over expenditure, which ultimately resulted in having negative cashflow for the month of -$52.75. This is only the second time this has happened since I started recording numbers. Not a massive issue considering I also built $548.30 worth of resale inventory, this is an investment into business growth after all and will translate into many times this number in time. What it does mean however is that I did not meet my goal for additional contributions to the investment property for the month of February.
The Death Pile
So by the end of January I had successfully photographed almost all of my death pile. In February I managed to make an entirely new death pile of clothes to get listed. I couldn’t help it, it seemed like everywhere I went I was finding bargains.
The Stats
You can see the difference in this months listing stats down below.
This month was mixed. Total sales numbers were the same yet overall profit was down, the number listings were up slightly though this figure is actually a bit deceiving as the majority of listings added were in a 3 day period towards the end of the month. The total value listed grew by another $2000 which is pleasing on the whole as this figure continues to grow month to month.
Sourcing Strategy
I hit Op shops almost daily in the afternoon after work for most of the month. Recently I have had some good successes with a couple of particular items which are also new to my knowledge base. I can’t reveal these just yet as they are a BOLO of sorts still at this point in time, and lately, I have been finding quite a few. Get while the gettings are good.
What I realised during February, however, is that I need to begin to automate some of my sourcing to begin to scale. Op shops are great and I found some really nice items this month with some great ROI’s, but, I am one person with a finite amount of time. I have not even been using Gumtree and Facebook marketplace to source items (which I used to some time ago) and so in March, I will be setting up saved searches for specific items on Gumtree and Facebook marketplace to attempt to find bulk lots of higher-value items that I can easily list and turnover for decent money. This will still involve some time initially obviously with research and search string creation but once set up properly should deliver great deals straight to my inbox with regularity. I have my first test of this concept coming up early next week.
My First Defect On My Account
So my inventory system is up and running as I wrote about last month. This month I sold a book for a grand total of $7, a Pokemon MewTwo Golden Book, and I just couldn’t find it. It didn’t have an SKU, it was from the pre-inventory management era.
I spent about an hour going through my whole storage room looking for it. I knew I had seen it but it wasn’t where I thought it should have been. In the end, I gave up and cancelled the order, refunded the buyer and received my first defect… Lesson learned on multiple fronts right there, wasted my time for $0 and simultaneously damaged my business standing with eBay. Not good for a $3 profit.
Everything going forward will have its location entered in the SKU. I can’t have this happen again.
Business Improvement Ideas to Explore in March
March has 3 main objectives.
• Find a schedule to get those listings up! To increase sales I need to post more listings on a regular basis, simple. I will shoot for a minimum of 5 per day.
• Explore more sourcing ideas. Recently I came across an extremely cool looking hat on eBay. Intrigued I clicked on the seller to see what other items he had listed. This seller was obviously another reseller from Australia and had some really great listings, I managed to glean a few ideas by simply perusing this seller’s active listings. An easy way to find ideas.
Setup search queries for Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace (if this is possible still?)
• Add some additional text expanders to my eBay Auto Hot Key script And explore how to automate the use of Sizely better. I already have the measurements to enter in (recorded while taking photos), maybe I can add some GUI buttons for specifics such as Tshirts and Jeans (my most common items). That could actually work well particularly whilst waiting for the photos to upload.
In comparison to the December 2018 summary report, January went fairly well with increases to all metrics currently being tracked. The pipeline continues to be built out slowly with the total dollar amount listed now standing at $15,889 on 421 active listings.
I achieved sorting out the dreaded death pile of clothes that I had been putting off. I sorted out my lighting and learned some more lessons about that being:
• Use the same sorts of lights, my cat knocked over one of the bulbs I had for the lighting setup which I replaced with another bulb. Unfortunately, I used a warmer light source which meant several of my listing photos had a yellowish to orange hue often around the item. Most of the time I was able to edit this out by use of eBay light filters but still, painful. Needless to say, once I noticed this I immediately changed out this bulb with a nice bright one to match.
• The second was that the way in which I actually take the photos with my phone can cause me delays when adding them to the listing. It is really annoying having to go into most photos and spin them around to the correct orientation. This has occurred from taking the photos in a vertical phone position. By changing the phone orientation of the way I take photos this will reduce this time sink significantly.
• Lastly I switched to using the square lens for all photos where possible. These photos will look better on thumbnails and mobile devices where 80% plus of eBay traffic comes from. A side benefit of this is that I can reuse these photos to cross promote or as content later on social platforms such as Instagram.
The Death Pile
This month I successfully managed to smash my death pile to then create an entirely new one with new purchases, curtesy of my Marie Kondo shopping binge.
The new pile is full of January’s inventory purchases and now becomes February’s mission to get up and listed and turn all these great finds into actual usable cash.
My upcoming scheduled annual leave day will be spent attempting to take all photos and then begin the task of listing, which will be spread over the rest of February.
The Stats
You can see the difference in this months listing stats down below.
This month was a huge improvement on the prior month, which, wasn’t really much of a struggle, to be honest. That said, however, sales were only just up (by 2) but net profit was up vs the prior period meaning the margins are getting better. Sales dollar amounts were also up on less number of items sold (which is good), this is a direct result of listing more clothes. This is definitely the direction that I want to be trending.
Sales over the month were again sporadic but most days had at least one sale come through and one day even pushed $300+ in sales on a couple of items which was nice.
Listing Strategy
I thought it might be useful to document how I am getting these listings up. I am thinking about upgrading the store which will allow up to 1500 listings a month. 1500 listings still seem like an age away but I have a simple goal to help get me there. Plus I will quickly be at my max 600 listings within the next 2 months.
If I list a minimum of 5 items per day over the course of the entire year this will amount to 1825 items which will give a buffer to offset all the items I will have course be selling during the year. It’s a rough guide but will get me most of the way to my goal.
Anyway, the way I chose to end up tackling the death pile was to batch process the whole lot. I spent my annual leave day for the month simply taking photos and recording measurements on A4 sheets of paper, wrapping each item in a freezer bag and placing into a labelled bin until each was full whereby logically I would move onto the next piece of paper and bin number. Although on the surface the could seem extremely boring I timed this to occur during the course of a few NBA games and transitioned between watching the games and then taking photos and completing measurements during timeouts and half time breaks. I found this to actually be quite a pleasant way to spend the day.
At the end of the day I was left with 4 full containers/bins totally full with pictures taken and ready to list. This meant that the following days after work I could simply come home and get listing and slowly work through the photos until they were all done. It was surprising how this simple step removed a lot of the barriers to actually getting listing to start with. Often I would find that getting 5 done was a breeze and I had multiple days where I went between 8 – 20 listings whilst still getting to the gym and getting some cleaning done around the house. I definitely feel like this is sustainable for me longer term.
Feedback On The Inventory Storage System
The listing of my death pile in January became the testing ground for how well my inventory system was going to function as I found that I was selling some items only a couple of days of getting them listed (a real motivation to get them up!). Anyway finding these items was a breeze, the SKU was filled in while completing the actual listing itself so once an item sold the SKU told me exactly what storage container/bin the item was in. No more guessing. I have an excellent memory but I am so glad I have got this implemented now as it will allow me to scale whilst minimising time wasted looking for items when the time comes to get them shipped.
As a back up I also kept the A4 sheet of paper that I was using for recording the item details such as measurements and taped this to the front of the bin. This way if I happened to be looking for something in particular and the computer wasn’t on I could still identify what was inside each container/bin.
Auto Hot Key
Nothing to report for auto hot key improvements this month other than what I have currently running is working well for the most part. I still find myself waiting on eBays servers from time to time which can affect the script running totally by itself through the whole process but I have added a pause button which when pressed at the correct time eliminates this almost entirely. I suppose I could just increase the times in between clicks but I don’t want the script taking extra needless time. Using the pause feature allows me to be as efficient as possible.
Business Improvement Ideas to Explore in February
February has 2 main objectives.
• Attempt to spend a little more than normal to take full advantage of the Marie Kondo effect. (See future blog post)
• Attempt to win a DYMO 4XL Label Printer on an eBay auction currently running. I have been having issued with my WiFi printer for a while now.
Using a phone or other mobile device to input large amounts of text can be very frustrating and time-consuming. Small screen, even smaller letters that fat thumbs seem to miss constantly resulting in auto correct madness and constant clicking back to correct mistakes.
There is, however, a handy feature that you can use to massively speed up writing on mobile devices which can augment your productivity.
It is called dictation.
Applied in the right way and with a couple of other ideas (which I will get to in a moment) can increase your productive output tremendously.
The Art Of Dictation
I began experimenting with the dictation feature on my iPhone a couple of years ago after listening to a podcast by Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.
A quick google search (listing multiple sources) implies that the average person speaks at somewhere between 125 and 150 words per minute. Contrast this with average rates of keyboard typing between 38 and 40 words per minute. Qwerty keyboard phone typing is even slower though this itself could be improved by using text replacement combined with GBoard (a future post to come on this).
So this data shows that it is in the realm of more than 4x faster using talking vs typing or texting. That’s a massive time-saving.
From a writers perspective, it’s also often easier to talk about the information that you are trying to convey. It is much harder to get those exact same words onto a paper page or onto the screen. The flow of your own voice is just, well, natural as you have to pre-arrange your thoughts before the words come out. This results in (usually) coherent ideas and information.
Faster content generation (with time saved) combined with effective ideas equals a foundation for success across many uses.
Using Dictation On Mobile Devices
The concept is simple, open your relevant note-taking app, hit the microphone icon on the keyboard and begin to speak at your phone in a clear, steady controlled voice and your speech will be converted to text.
The accuracy is still a work in progress (in my opinion) but it is getting much better over time. It is a form of machine learning software after all. I’m not even sure if the AI for the dictation gets better with me using it or people, in general, are using it.
What I do know is that it’s far quicker for me to dictate the bulk of an entire blog post then is to sit down to type it, far more natural too. I have dictated 90+ per cent of this entire blog post while walking around my living room simply talking to my phone.
Welcome to the future.
Augmenting The Effectiveness Of Dictation
Creating content at a rate of greater than 4x typing writing is brilliant, but there will be errors along the way which will need fixing.
Consistently having to go back and fix errors though can quickly ruin your creative flow.
By combining a couple of other techniques it is possible to skip some of the error checking (initially at least) and thereby increase one’s productivity output while using the mobile device.
An Example Of Creating This Blog Post
I use my phone primarily for notetaking and writing have been using an app called Bear Notes for this purpose.
I will use dictation for my blog post ideas to create outlines and the bulk of a draft blog post content within this app. Obviously being mobile I can do this whenever a great idea or concept pops into my head.
While using dictation, I will not bother to fix any errors as afterwards I will switch to my PC to finish the post (which is my preference).
I copy all dictation text from Bear Notes and send this to my email.
Switching to my PC at some time later, whenever convenient, I then copy and paste the draft into a new blog post in WordPress. I have the Grammarly Chrome Plugin installed so as soon as I do this all of the errors are immediately highlighted to fix. What I love about Grammarly is that it picks up sections of text which don’t make sense, not just simple spelling mistakes. Sometimes the dictation translation gets it quite wrong so this is important! Microsoft Word is also a good alternative to this.
This might initially seem counter-intuitive after all I am adding additional processing steps and using a PC, however, the additional time required is minimal and the end output overall is much much faster than trying to type the whole post on my PC from scratch.
So Many Applications For Dictation
How to get the most out of dictation will be your choice, anywhere you can type something on your mobile device dictation can likely be used, text messages, emails, comments on social platforms.
If you have never tried doing this before I suggest giving it a go. I am sure you will be amazed at the potential ways it can help you become more productive.
Since the investment property mortgage changed over from interest only to principal and interest in late September I am happy to report that so far the house is being paid off at a rate of 1% per month! Up to 4% paid off already which is a satisfying feeling.
This month I have made an additional $400 of payments which have been generated from reselling activities. Next month should be the same or better with my strategy of lowering higher priced items to get more items sold (and therefore more income). I covered this strategy in a previous post here. The first of eBay’s automated price cuts should be kicking in any day now and I am looking forward to that!
This repayment pace would see this investment paid completely off in approximately 10 years 9 months (the first 2 years have passed already as interest only) and also saving a massive $64,720.91 in interest payable.
Although I am pleased with the progress my goal is to get that time-frame down to 4 years. Ambitious? Hell yes. Impossible? No, but I am also not 100% sure how I will achieve this just yet other than working my butt off, which, funnily enough, will not be the answer to get this done as I will need to 10x my extra repayments. There is some excellent motivation however with an additional $45,000 able to be saved. By pulling this off I would save the total equivalent to another small house!
December by all accounts did not go well. I was slack on getting listings up which I think the mythical eBay algorithm punished me for. Sales were up in November but not by much.
I also broke my own self imposed rule to not buy anything for the whole month. This would have been less of a disappointment had I found some big score but alas I ended up punishing myself further by buying several items that I will struggle to make any real profit on after accounting for my time an effort. Not good business there. The other spending was on clothes on Boxing Day as the local Good Sammy was not only open but had 50% off all clothes and Linen. I found this too good to pass up and did indeed manage to spend $50 total (saving $50 as well) to score some really nice clothes that will be easy resells.
Decembers Improvement Focus – Inventory Storage System
So I finally got to fixing up my inventory finding a half-price special on clear storage containers at the local department store and stocking up.
I labelled and catalogued all of the clothes that had been stored haphazardly (the death pile) and assigned them a specific bin. Once I get to actually listing these I plan to add the bin number to the listing itself (Either SKU or in the actual description itself) so I can easily find this later. As mentioned previously this will benefit massively as I scale up to power through 500 listings.
The Stats
You can see the difference in this months listing stats down below.
This month I was very slack and the results reflect this.
Sales dollar amounts were up on less number of items sold (which is good). This means I sold higher value items over the course of the month.
Sales over the month were sporadic and seemed to come in waves. I was actually expecting a bit more, to be honest with Xmas but the rush never really came. I suppose many peoples money goes on other items like electrical during this time (which I currently don’t really sell).
Listing Strategy
I thought I took advantage of eBay’s feature which drops the price over time on several of my higher value items. I revised listings on my phone and made the changes. These were supposed to take effect 10 days after but nothing happened. I have manually amended some of my higher value listings to reduce prices but perhaps I need to cancel current listings and simply relist these again to actually get this feature to work…
Auto Hot Key
This month I added 2 things which help directly with eBay listing.
As previously mentioned I download all of the listing photos through Google photos. All of the new listing photos go into a single folder which I use as a type of holding bay or queue. After I create an eBay listing I was cutting and then pasting the listing photos into a separate folder and then switching back to the listing holding bay folder. For some reason that I can’t remember, at the time, this process was annoying me and I wanted to be able to finish with one listing and bounce straight into the next without leaving the holding bay folder. Surely there’s a way to automate that?
Well, yes there was and it was pretty easy automating the right clicking of the folder with the mouse and then key inputs to paste the photos. Now I can select the photos just used, hit the hot key (in my case ctrl+ctrl+F) and magically the photos are gone. This might seem trivial but when trying to list as many items as possible in 1 hour blocks I want to streamline the whole process as much as possible.
The second was automating searching for the listing title to quickly bring up similar results so I can see what other current listings are selling for. I do this to gauge where to set my starting listing price.
Business Improvement Ideas to Explore in January
January will be the month of the “Death Pile”. I had a humungous pile of clothes that I have brought over the last few months that I have been putting off getting listed. I’m not really sure why either as there is some really nice stuff in there which will sell for decent money. Maybe it’s the taking the photos and measurements. Maybe its because the last few clothes I listed didn’t look professional enough without a white background.
I have a nice new white background now (a procured white linen sheet from the Good Sammy Sale) so there are no excuses not to get all of these clothes photographed and listed.
This is literally how stupid this is, I had over 80 items of clothing ready to go. The resale value of this total is into the thousands with potential profit into the thousands, why wouldn’t I get these up as quickly as possible!!
Microsoft Word is still a staple platform for many businesses. In fact, I have yet to be in the employ of a business who has transitioned away from it to solely another platform (Google Docs for example).
It is fairly stable, reliable, familiar and also sometimes downright frustrating!
The time spent lining up objects and arranging text in WORD so that objects look neat and uniform. Different font types, sizes, miss-alignments of bullet points, tables, pictures throughout a document just doesn’t convey a professional feel and personally, drives me nuts…
Unfortunately, this can be a very common occurrence when importing information into a document from multiple sources but the good news is that you can fix more than 80% of these issues with only a couple of concepts.
I’ve spent a lot of time using WORD and EXCEL over the last several years and have self-taught a bunch of handy speed and productivity habits to assist in quickly creating slick professional looking documents and sheets.
Here are 3 of my most used (on a daily basis) techniques in WORD which deal with formatting and alignment problems, quickly fixing them.
Format Painter
This is my absolute favourite function in all of WORD. The concept is super basic: Copy what you want something to look like from existing text (example: this is some existing some text) and paste the format onto something else (example other text) so that this then becomes other text.
The format painter can be found under the home section on the menu and looks like a paintbrush. (See picture below)
However, I prefer the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy the format you want on what you want it to look like and then CTRL+SHIFT+V to paste it.
Copying and pasting formats to get the desired look you want will work 90+ % of the time and quickly formats fonts, size and even works on bulleted lists (including fixing alignments of the bullets at the same time). Once you get the hang of using this it is possible to reformat a whole document precisely how you want it to look in a matter of seconds.
Remove Stubborn Formatting Outside Of Word
Although rare, there are times when the format painter won’t work to change something (even when you think 100% it should).
Rather than get frustrated the best technique I have found to fix any other issue is to:
Cut out the offending text from WORD and paste into notepad (opened by simply typing ‘notepad’ into the program search and hitting enter). As notepad is a true basic text editor it removes ALL formatting hangups. After pasting into notepad you simply immediately recopy from notepad the same text and paste straight back into WORD where now there will be no more preformatting issues. The text will be pasted as plain text that you can then apply whatever format you like to.
This can also be done using an Auto Hot Key script to complete this step and is even quicker than using notepad. I have this exact function mapped to CNTRL + WIN + C / V.
Or…
As a last resort sometimes, it is easier to simply delete the offending object altogether and then try again. This is particularly true when working on tables or bulleted lists which are giving you grief. Delete the offending table row/bullet point and then start again from a table row or bullet point that is already working correctly as you want it to.
Easy Alignments
Formatting things quickly will become second nature, however, the preamble is getting objects to line up properly, to begin with.
This is easily achieved by making use of the ruler to be able to make adjustments to your document. This includes setting and moving tab stops, moving table borders, columns and lining up objects.
After you have selected the ruler you will be able to see the document guide and the stops. Now you can move the sliders around to manipulate the document margins, text starting points, and hanging indents.
The sliders and stops will change depending on what object is selected.
It will only take a few moments to get the hang of how to use the sliders. Experiment with it. Remember they can also be used on tables to get those columns and rows to look how you want them to, the same with bullet points.
There you have it.
3 simple techniques that can drastically speed up visual formatting and alignment control within documents. May they serve you well.
If you have any other great ones please leave a comment! I’m always on the hunt for time-saving techniques.
“I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. There is not a “fragment” in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself. – John Muir.
As luck would have it, I stumbled across a research report known as the NASA Clean Air Study and realised I had found something insanely valuable. A study outlining plants that were easy to grow, hard to kill, thrived in low light conditions and the kicker, improved health by removing toxins and cleaning the air. Jackpot. (Wikipedia: NASA Clean Air Study).
The TLDR summary of the study is that NASA, at the conclusion, created a list of air-filtering plants that not only absorbed carbon dioxide (CO2) and produced oxygen (O2) (which all plants do anyway) but that also removed significant amounts of toxic chemicals such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene from the surrounding environment. As an added bonus, the plants on NASA’s list also flourished in reduced light environments so were perfect for indoors. Initially I was confused why NASA would even bother to research plants, but it turned out that the focus of the study was really all about researching methods of creating clean air inside space stations, which of course made perfect sense. I had no idea that plants, natures natural filters apparently, could filter things like toxic chemicals from the air before I read this clean air study.
Your Home Contains Toxic Chemicals
Benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene are all proven toxic compounds that can have serious potential health effects over the long term according to various studies (refer google for the chemical and technical information). Disconcertingly, I learned that these chemicals are contained in some everyday items which can be found around my home (and place of work) such as paint, lacquer, furnishings, furniture wax, upholstery, synthetic building materials, cleaning products and some detergents to name just a few things. They are everywhere…
The NASA researchers suggested that efficient air cleaning (and reduction of toxins) is accomplished with at least one plant per 100 square feet of home or office space. I have overestimated the square footage of my house at 2000 sq ft meaning I will need at least 20 plants inside in various locations to be truly maximising the benefits these plants offer.
Clean Air Is Life
Air quality is super important, it is obvious, but something we really take for granted. There has been well documented research which links poor air quality to a decrease in life expectancy or premature death. According to the World Health Organisation 7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution. “The new data reveal a stronger link between both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and ischaemic heart disease, as well as between air pollution and cancer.” (Source)
In a Kamal Meattle TED talk, Kamal himself, an advocate for these unique group of plants, mentions how Delhi’s (India) air was literally killing him. (TED Talk Kamal Meattle)
Logically then (to myself anyway), it stands to reason that by hyper improving air quality environments that the reverse effect of actually living longer might also be possible. It is just a theory but if plants can both remove toxins and improve air quality in a place where I usually spend a minimum of 10 hours a day (my house) I don’t think I have anything to lose and huge (potential) upside from the process.
Meattle produced some fascinating statistics from his own study with significant percentage reductions in a number of ailments that could be closely compared against symptoms commonly associated with ‘Sick Building Syndrome’. A documented medical condition where people living or working in a building suffer symptoms of illness or just feel generally unwell, often for no apparent reason. The main identifying observation was an increased frequency of symptoms such as headache, eye, nose and throat irritation, fatigue, dizziness and nausea.
How Much Time Do You Spend Indoors?
I immediately thought of a previous job where I worked inside an air conditioned environment literally 10+ hours a day where I almost never went outside. I began experiencing dry and irritated eyes almost on a daily basis, I was even having symptoms that resembled hay fever previously never experienced before. The office air conditioning on reflection was close to the operations warehouse with hundreds of trucks and forklifts going about their daily tasks. Could some of these pollutants have gotten through into the air filtration system and be circulated around and around? Maybe the system itself was just poorly maintained and full of other causes of indoor air pollution namely; pollen, bacteria, and moulds? What I do know is that after I changed jobs I haven’t needed to take any hay fever medication since and now have only the rarest occurrences of dry eyes.
Given that people spend more and more of their time indoors, air quality inside these environments impacts us greatly. At one time I was spending almost 90% of my total sum time each day indoors either at home, work or in the car (on the way to work). I imagine this is a common theme to many. It was air quality that directly impacted me each day and yet it was invisible. Obviously, I cannot change the air quality at work solely by myself (I can lobby for change) however I decided that I could absolutely make some changes at home to drastically improve the air quality inside my house and lessen exposure to any toxins that might be present for my family.
Improved air quality should theoretically also lead to better sleep which will then lead to improvements in virtually every function of mind and body during daily life! You can read my previous post on Sleep Recovery here.
My Top 5 Choices from the NASA Clean Air Study List
The following are the plants I have chosen (at this time) to focus on primarily. Some of the summary information has been paraphrased from Wikipedia.
READ THIS: Some of the plants on the NASA list are classed as toxic to Cats and Dogs. Make sure you check!!! We have both cats and dogs at home, so it is certainly something that I need to be mindful of, particularly where plants are placed inside and around the house.
Snake Plant/Mother-in-Law’s Tongue (Sansevieria)
Most commonly known as the Snake plant, Mother-In-Law’s tongue, and Viper’s bowstring hemp. This plant has the distinction of being one of the only plants which can remove CO2 and create O2 at night.
They are easy to grow and can be propagated by either cutting the leaves and replanting them (upright) or by division of the root structure (Rhizomes) itself. I have managed to do both methods without any issues.
Commonly used as a houseplant it will tolerant both low levels of light and irregular watering. During winter it needs only one watering every couple of months and will rot easily if over watered.
I have several in the house already.
Note: This plant is also classified as mildly toxic to dogs and cats.
Spider Plant (Chlorophytum Comosum)
Commonly called Spider Plant but also known by other names such as Airplane plant, St. Bernard’s lily, Spider ivy, Ribbon plant.
A flowering perennial herb easy to grow as a houseplant with variegated forms being the most popular.
Classified as nontoxic to cats and dogs means I can place these anywhere in the house without worry.
Bamboo Palm or Golden Cane Palm (Dypsis Lutescens)
A larger plant with green and golden leaves that grow together in clumps.
These can grow up to 12m in height (but will be in large pots inside so won’t be getting anywhere near that!).
Once I have several of these in our open plan dining room they will help create that indoor jungle feeling I am searching for.
Classified as nontoxic to cats and dogs means I can place this anywhere in the house without worry.
Weeping Fig (Ficus Benjamina)
The leaves are very sensitive to small changes in light. When it is turned around or relocated it reacts by dropping many of its leaves and replacing them with new leaves adapted to the new light intensity. Ficus are also very pliable with shaping. I am thinking for the moment that a Ficus Bonsai would make a nice centrepiece on the dining room table.
Note: This plant is also classified as mildly toxic to dogs and cats.
Common Ivy, English Ivy, European Ivy (Hedera Helix) OR Devils Ivy (Epipremnum Aureum)
Native to most of Europe and western Asia. A rampant, clinging evergreen vine, it is a familiar sight in gardens, waste spaces, on house walls, tree trunks and in wild areas across its native habitat.
In some parts of the world it is labelled as an invasive species (or weed) where it has been introduced. Luckily for me there are no such prohibitions where I live.
Devil’s ivy gets its name from being almost impossible to kill. A handy trait for surviving consistent neglect.
These can be grown easily from cuttings. Simply place in water and wait for new roots to form and replant.
Note: This plant is also classified as mildly toxic to dogs and cats.
Home and Work
Recently we moved into a new office location. I had been speaking to some of the staff in passing about the NASA Clean Air Study and the benefits. As I said earlier I have no direct control over my office environment but can influence positive change wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself. I managed to rescue a rather tatty looking ‘Mother In Laws Tongue’ that was in need of some care from the old office. The replanted version is in the picture below.
While I was asking permission from the purchasing manager to adopt this plant I mentioned about the potential benefits of this and other air cleaning plants. We continued talking for a while and it turns out that ordering of plants was coming up for the new office in the very near future! Perfect timing! I wasted no time in forwarding a link to the NASA Clean Air Study and a list of plants I thought would be great for the office.
A few weeks later and several Devils Ivy plants now adorn various nooks of the office space working silently in the background to protect and clean.
Clean Air At Work. These Plants Thrive Indoors.
Clean air at home, clean air at work.
Definitely a step in the right direction for a healthier life.
There’s nothing to lose by asking the question of your workplace as this principle would loosely fall into the realms of workplace health and safety and general mental wellbeing.
After all plants make people happy.
Simply sharing this information with someone at your work could really make a difference.
One day not long after returning from volunteering in Africa my wife came home with a new pillow for each of us. A memory foam based firm log for me to rest my head on. She was very proud that she had managed to find these “bargains” at half price. That’s pretty good I thought before I asked the price. $100 for each pillow… WTH?! I nearly had a heart attack… that was easily 5x what I would think to spend on a pillow.
Later I sufficiently calmed down and went to bed.
When I woke up the next morning I felt fantastic having slept the best I had in a long long time, that pillow was (and still is) worth every cent of that price tag.
Prior to this particular night, I hadn’t really given sleep too much thought. In my own mind, I slept reasonable most of the time. The next morning while thinking about how great my new pillow was (and the new found realization that I actually felt rejuvenated), somewhere deep within my brain synapses fired and a connection was made. Maybe I hadn’t been sleeping very well, all this time.
I recalled that I had previously seen that the Pat Flynn book club had recommended a sleep-related book and I thought maybe there was still more I could do to get even better sleep.
Thanks brain, that was a life changing moment right there.
The Gary V Effect On Sleep
Before I get to the book below.
I am a relative latecomer to the Gary V phenomenon only recently coming across his content from his book Crushing It. After listening to this book and watching some of his YouTube content there is no doubt of his passion and desire to create a legacy. His message resonates. It resonated with me that I could be doing more, every day.
You have to work to get shit done – period.
To get ahead you need to outwork – everyone.
However, I read the sleep book below before I discovered Gary V. If you are working all the way through the night after your day job till the early morning you are likely doing long-term damage to your health.
Please understand, you can hustle 18 hours a day, just like Gary V says but I want you to pay close attention to the sleep hours and suggestions from the book below to make sure that you get as many restorative benefits from sleep as you possibly can. Better still go and buy (or find or thrift) the book.
You can hustle hard AND sleep well.
You MUST sleep well to maintain the pace and combat burnout.
The below are the key concepts that resonated with me from my take away of the book, I highly recommend finding a copy of this in either digital, print or audio form to get all the information and tips.
Ways To Achieve Better Sleep
The benefits of proper sleep are, numerous. High quality sleep strengthens your immune system, regulates your hormone levels, boosts your metabolism, increases physical vitality, and improves the function of your brain.
Poor sleep leads to poor health. The challenges (and habits) of our modern technology infused lives are creating millions of chronically sleep-deprived living zombies suffering the effects of low or poor quality sleep.
Here are some possible symptoms of sleep deprivation*:
Daytime drowsiness or sleepiness.
Physical complaints, such as fatigue or pain.
Mood changes such as irritability, anxiety, and depression.
Difficulty with attention, concentrating and reduced performance.
Memory impairment when handling thinking problems involving planning or judgement.
Disorientation, hallucinations, and paranoia.
After finishing the book I realised I had been doing sleep all wrong, which to be honest is a bit of an issue if it’s something you spend 1/3rd of your life doing… I needed to make some immediate changes…
The following are some of the key concepts and points that immediately jumped out at me and my own implementation of these.
The Dark Room
Sleep in a dark room preferably pitch black where if you were to wave your hand in front of your face you couldn’t see it. Apparently, the skin itself is sensitive to light at night (even when you are asleep) and any light sources present can disturb your sleep patterns/rhythms even if you aren’t aware of the light source. This means no more night lights kids.
After listening to this section in the book I immediately realised that we (my wife and I) had a street light right outside our window which meant we had substantial light spill through the window blinds (even when drawn closed). It was like having the moonlight of a full moon in the room every night. Great for seeing if you needed to get up at all but not so good for great sleep.
The solution is obviously to cover the windows entirely. We have gone with some blackout blinds, a nifty product which can be cut to size and easily installed and removed at will. It stays in place on the window simply by stored static electricity, no need for any other velcro or tape!
Another more permanent option could be the installation of roller shutters but the cost make these a luxury purchase at the moment.
Sleep Planning: Sleep Between 10PM And 2AM
This is the sleep time you really want to have locked down and make sure you are asleep in this window of time. Research shows that being asleep between these hours produces the most rejuvenating sleep due to natural alignment with our own circadian rhythms. Anything else after this is a bonus but make sure to get as much sleep between these hours.
We had to modify our night time routine a lot here (as we are both night owls).
90 Minute Sleep Cycles
I found this point truly fascinating. The summation is that we have sleep cycles which last about 90 minutes and then repeat throughout the night and the best time to wake up is at the end of a sleep cycle and not half way through it. This means you wake up feeling refreshed and not groggy. Previously I used to think that 7 hours was where I needed to be each night (an inaccurate fact from years ago) so often I would go to bed around 10 for example and then my alarm would wake at me at 5 am the next morning. After I heard this point I realised that I had basically been waking up mid sleep cycle for years! Every day, I was waking up foggy and I had simply accepted this as normal!
So now, nothing other than time management is required and my new time for any alarm is 7 and a half hours from when I go to bed or exactly 5 sleep cycles. It has been working great.
Magic Pills And Potions
Magnesium – Magic Pill
I had been taking Magnesium in giant white pill form. I had read a while ago that it helped with sleep and when I remembered to take it I feel like it did. Again this book enlightened me, what I didn’t realise is that the magnesium I was taking probably wasn’t getting absorbed very well by my body due to the pill form, meaning although I was getting some benefit, there was still room for much improvement. I learned that there are topical magnesium oils that can be applied directly to and absorbed through the skin resulting in a much greater absorption (and faster) of the magnesium. I purchased some of this oil and immediately noticed an improvement in sleep quality as well as feeling more relaxed in my muscles (a side benefit, particularly for gym goers).
Valerian – Magic Pill
The first time I took Valerian when I lay down on the bed I felt like I was floating on clouds in a vacuum totally relaxed, that’s the best way I can describe it as I fell straight asleep after! I have been taking this every night and probably the only thing I haven’t gotten used to is remembering to take it in the lead up to sleep and not right before bed.
Chamomile Tea – Magic Potion
I wanted to combine a whole lot of these strategies to give the best possible chance for relaxed sleep. Two items recommended that stuck out to me were Chamomile Tea and Kava Kava tea being two drinks which can aid relaxation.
Initially I thought Kava Kava was illegal where I lived but after some quick google research was pleasantly surprised that it had actually been legalised in small doses. Not easy to find a stockist however locally.
To get started immediately, I visited the local supermarket and settled on the Camomile Tea. I have to say it initially reminded me of drinking grass clippings. I persevered and I later remembered there was a Chamomile and Honey version also I had seen. So I added my own honey and much better.
Watch Caffeine Levels
I love coffee, drink it every day like a true believer. What I failed to learn earlier in life is that the caffeine from coffee has a rather long half-life of 5 hours. This means, basically if I had a cup of coffee at 3 pm (which I had been doing regularly) I would still have approximately half the amount of caffeine in my system at 8 pm at night. So what you might say, I can have a coffee and then go to bed. Yes, I can do that too, however, studies referenced in the book showed that people under the effects of caffeine while sleeping slept worse compared to those that didn’t.
No surprise there.
Armed with this new knowledge I set myself a new rule, no coffee (or other caffeinated drinks) after 2pm with midday preferred.
Remove Distractions
One of the things that had been a bone of contention in our home was the use of electronic devices in the bedroom. All those screens in the dark throw out blue wavelength light which helps confuse your body into thinking it’s still daytime.
We made the conscious decision to keep phones out of reach face down or in another totally different room.
One of the phrases I have heard lately is that millionaires have on average 7 different income streams. Would it surprise you that growing and selling Bonsai can be a lucrative side hustle? I loved the idea of growing and selling Bonsai so much that it became part of my 20 Year Business Plan.
How Much Can A Bonsai Sell For?
This answer varies greatly with the local department/garden store selling twigs as Bonsai for $30 through to hundreds of thousands of dollars for Japanese masterpieces. In between is the sweet spot for a side hustle with sales dollar amounts that will make a real difference to most peoples lives.
The below are real examples from my brother who has recently sold a couple of trees as his own side hustle, with the retail for both of these coming in at over $1200.
That’s right, $1200 for 2 Bonsai trees! Larger trees can easily sell into the high four figures.
Juniper Bonsai Tree
Maple Bonsai Tree
As you can see, my brother is both a gifted photographer (his actual profession and award-winning) and a creator of beautiful Bonsais. He is available for freelance photography and design work, visit http://www.williambooth.co.nz for more examples and contact details.
Lifestyle Design
Like most side hustles this is an endeavour which requires hard work and learning. It is also going to take some time before real returns are going to be seen. After all, trees literally take time to grow and develop. The Bonsai concept blew me away so much that it later became a staple element of my own 20 Year Business design. This is something that is cheap to start and can be continued with well into retirement and old age. I even made the Bonsai tree (the Maple from above) the cover of my book (see below) as it perfectly represents the journey of growth to beauty and value. Bonsai are covered in much more detail in the book.
The 20 Year Business Book
The Cost To Get Started
The thing I love about this concept is that the upfront cost to get started can incredibly low. Below is a recent experiment of my own to set a tree into a local rock to create a Bonsai. The total cost to do this I estimate at around $100, this includes the cost of the rock (free), the plant ($13) and my time to source the rock itself and then cut/chisel the rock ($87). After this plant has settled and I have shaped/styled I would hope to sell this creation for between $300 – $600. For now, however, there is not much to do other than provide water and nutrients and let time do its thing to let the plant become established.
Eventually, I aim to keep repeating the process several more times and create a recurring revenue stream having plants at various stages of growth cycles and selling these on a regular basis to provide valuable income for my family.
Thrifter.Me 