Tip Shop

As our gorgeous girl approached her 7th birthday we decided her present would be a bigger bike.

Friends had mentioned that these were often available at the tip shop, so we set off to find a suitable machine to hide in the birthday wrapping (cloth, of course - which is much easier to wrap a bike in than paper would have been!)

We found a treasure-trove of bikes and much, much more.

The inside section was much like any op-shop, only with more electrical goods and hardly any clothes. A whole rack of vacuum cleaner cords, and a multi-level shelf of cordless drills. But the yard outside had everything you could possibly imagine.

Bathroom hardware? Check.

Law mowers? Check.

Screen doors? Check.

Internal workings of a life-size dinosaur model? Check.

Initial Time: Road trip to the tip shop: half an hour each way to reach the City of Armadale's Canning Vale tip shop. Time taken walking about resisting all the other good stuff: at least an hour. 

Initial Cost: One kids' bike in good condition cost us $10. Those in poorer condition were only $5. We stored the bike at Tyson's parents for a few weeks so it would be a birthday surprise and I believe Grandad quietly did some renovation works while it was there, which likely included a small cost for materials and some time but I don't know how much.

Ongoing time or cost commitment: Zero. However, we will be considering donating items to the tip shop in future if they are not picked up before the truck comes on chuck-out day. I would like to have someone take them off our lawn for free, but once that truck comes they are crushed into landfill refuse, so better to reclaim them and take them somewhere they could be reused.

Impact: Australians, as I have noted before, each generate around one tonne of rubbish every year. Our rate of waste generation is increasing more than six times faster than our population growth. We desperately need to turn this around. The good news is that since 2005, in most parts of Australia, the total tonnage being sent to landfill has reduced, as rates of recycling have increased over the last ten years. (April 2016 article). However, these statistics should be held cautiously as firm figures on waste are very difficult to obtain and nothing solid on the matter has come out of the ABS for over six years.

I have known people for years who pick up 'treasures' at the tip and have always privately thought this a little kooky. My mental image has been something about rummaging through dirty piles to bring home broken things. Our visit to the tip ship was enlightening: it was clean, things were sorted neatly and although some things needed repairs on the whole items were in fair to good condition.

Basically we all need to both consume less and waste less. Supporting tip shops does both.

Where to find a tip shop:

Find where your local government sends rubbish to (it may not be near to you) and check if there is a tip shop associated with it. In Perth, your options are:

Canning Vale/ Armadale Lot 600 Hopkinson Rd Hilbert, Thurs-Sun, hours vary.
Cockburn/ Henderson 920 Rockingham Rd, Fri-Sun and public holidays, 8-4pm
Tamala Park/ Mindarie 100 Marmion Ave Tamala Park, Fri-Mon, 8-4:45pm
Balcatta/ Stirling (includes a cafe) 238 Balcatta Rd Balcatta, Mon-Sun 7:30-4pm

East Metropolitan Regional Council reports they are three years into a project to expand their facility at 77 Lakes Rd Hazelmere to include a re-use store, but this does not appear to be operating as yet.

Pelmets and Pantry doors

I'm writing about passive cooling again. Its still summer here and so we continue working on ways to keep the house cool without using electricity. The latest commitments: a make-shift pelmet, and a commitment to close the doors of built-in cupboards.

Pelmets are those ugly wooden box-covers that go around the top of a curtained window, gathering dust and trinkets. I always considered them a bit of interior decorating vanity, but thanks to Tyson's training in home sustainability I was made aware of their insulating value. Pelmets prevent convection currents pouring hot air into the room. The air in the gap between curtains and glass heats up and rises. If there is a gap at the top of the curtains, this hot air escapes into the room even though the curtains are shut.

Real pelmets are not a feasible addition for renters, but a rolled up blanket works nearly as well. I was inspired by my Mum, who has bath towels along the top of her curtains, and she in turn was inspired by her sister, who uses pool noodles.

And the cupboard doors... two wardrobes have back walls that are external, baked with morning sun. Closing the doors helps keep that heat in the cupboard and out of the bedrooms. The other built-in cupboards heat up less dramatically, but they don't need to be cooled (or heated, in winter) so keeping doors closed reduces the quantity of air we are trying to temperature-manage. The pantry is directly opposite the airconditioner. When we do run the aircon, it is a complete waste of energy to leave the pantry door open and cool all our tins and packets!

Apparently some homes do not have roof insulation above their built in cupboards. If you have insulating bats it might be worth checking your roof space. We have blow-in insulation and that is less discriminate about what it covers.

Initial Time: Blanket pelment: about three minutes. Cupboard doors: a few seconds each morning as part of the roughly five-minute circle round the house to close up for a hot day.

Initial Cost: Zero.

Ongoing time or cost commitment: Zero cost. The blanket doesn't need to be removed to open or close curtains but it does start to sag and needs a minute or two every few days to pull it back up into position.

Impact: The one room that has curtains (everywhere else has blinds) is keeping cooler - and darker! - since we installed the blanket 'pelmet'. Its the master bedroom, and I have had cool afternoon sleeps in there recently on some very hot days.

I don't have a way to measure the impact of closing cupboard doors, but I know at the end of a heat wave, I leave the cupboards open through the night to cool down. Otherwise when I next open them a wave of hot air comes out, saved carefully behind the closed doors, which suggests closing the doors does have some impact on overall air temperature.

May 2010 - Weather sealing the front door

The less drafts in a room the easier and more efficient it is to heat. Winter is approaching here and the cold air coming in around the front door was making it hard to keep the living area warm, so this month we added weather sealing tape to the front door to stop the drafts.

Initial Time: Ten minutes to cut and attach tape (Tyson adds: it would have been quicker if he wasn't carrying Eva on his back at the same time)


Initial Cost: Five metres of self-adhesive weather sealing tape cost $10.98, and was almost exactly the amount needed for one standard size door.


Ongoing time or cost commitment: zero.

Impact: It is noticeably less drafty - and also much quieter! Other external windows and doors to the living space were already weather sealed. I still prefer to wear warm clothes and have a window open as long as I can bear it, though - which is usually longer than everyone else around me. (One former housemate's boyfriend dubbed me 'the ice queen' because of this tendency...)