TEN OLD BOOKS

Always something for everyone

Great Selection of Used & New Books • Bestsellers & Award Winners • Classic Novels & Timeless Favourites • BC & Canadian Authors

Plus Local Cards • Crafts • Children’s Books • Jewelry • Unique Gift Ideas and More!

102-330 Duncan St 250 -715-1383

Find us inside the historic Duncan Garage

A Gift for Everyone! Happy 30th

Birthday

The organic heart of our community, join staff, friends and neighbours at the Community Farm Store on March 30th for a fun day to celebrate 30 years of service! They’ll have demos, samples, draws, and more! Plus, all shoppers will receive a complimentary 30th

Anniversary notepad! The Community Farm Store 2-5380 Trans Canada Highway, Duncan

Agood spring cleaning for most of us means deeply scrubbing out our homes, after spending so much time indoors throughout the winter. As we prepare for spring, it just feels right to scour the house from top to bottom. For many of us though, clutter build up gets in the way of doing a good thorough cleanse, leaving us feeling overwhelmed and defeated before we’ve even started. Often, clutter needs to be addressed before we can clean properly. Luckily, so many unused and outdated items can be donated and recycled nowadays, and the Island Return It Centres are here to help.

Let’s break it down by room:

The Bedroom. Washing the curtains and wiping down all surfaces feels great in a bedroom ready to embrace spring. Sifting through our clothing and putting away papers and random items that have built up, are all good starting steps. While sorting, make sure to fill a box with those items that don’t feel right in the space anymore, such as old table lamps, dysfunctional alarm clocks and electric blankets, and drop them off at Island Return It (or IRI for short). Putting everything else away will feel amazing as your surfaces become clean again. Leave all the objects d’art you enjoy

What Ever Happened to a Good Spring Cleaning?

recycled, including toasters, food processors and coffee makers to name a few? Refer to the IRI website for full and comprehensive list. These they take back at no fee to you.

gazing at such as photos, plants and mementos.

The Kitchen is a workhorse and can become disorganized easily. Taking the time to tidy the cupboards and put everything away, as well as letting go of kitchen gadgets that are broken or no longer useful, will be essential before we start wiping down cupboards and washing the floor. Gather up all your empty cans and bottles, and bring them down to IRI to collect your returnables refund. Did you know they also take a wide variety of small kitchen appliances to be

Since the pandemic, more of us than ever have Home Offices. These rooms are a magnet for piles of paper, and those often need to be sorted and filed before we can start cleaning our desks properly. Broken and outdated electronics also build up on surfaces and in drawers. Taking the time to cull those no longer useful can be such a relief, and many items such as calculators, ink cartridges, used batteries and even desk lamps, are just a few of those items recycled at IRI.

The Bathroom’s expired and unused toiletries, as well as forgotten grooming and medical devices, can make the bathroom hard to navigate let alone deep clean. Take some time to assess each item and recycle (or donate) everything no longer actively used. Did you know you can now recycle electric toothbrushes, hair dryers and towel warmers?

The Basement, the dreaded drop zone for all things disorganized and without a proper home. Ugh. Tackling the basement can be daunting to say the least. Gather up your old and broken power tools, irons, sewing machines, vacuums, smoke alarms and light bulbs to recycle. Then put everything back where it belongs before dusting out the cobwebs. Note: The Duncan IRI Centre takes back old paint that meets certain guidelines.

Lessening the amount of our personal belongings can release us from the stress and overwhelm from having too much to manage. The good news is, once you’ve clutter cleared, spring cleaning will be become much easier. Rally the troops and set aside a day or two, and tackle the excess stuff you may have lurking inside your home. Happy spring cleaning everyone.

Nowadaysclimate change is on our minds more than ever. While Indigenous communities and other marginalized and vulnerable populations have been experiencing direct impacts for decades, many in BC have become aware more recently through extreme weather events such atmospheric rivers, floods, wildfires, drought and heat domes. Pollinators have been dwindling, trees dying, and growing seasons have become unpredictable.

A 2021 study of 10,000 youth across ten countries found 84% of young people to be moderately worried about the climate crisis, and 45% reporting that climate anxiety negatively affects their daily lives and functioning (Marks et al.). Existential worry about climate change has become so prevalent that researchers have coined several terms for it: eco-distress, climate anxiety, solastalgia, and environmental grief.

Those of us who are worried about climate change react in a variety of ways: with anxiety or fear, anger or pessimism, despair or guilt. Some nervous systems go to fight-flight and others go to numbness or dissociation. Many of us worry privately: we don’t bring climate change up with friends, and few of us want to deflate a cheerful