Worried about the proliferation of plastic trash in the environment and her own body, a journalist tried to shop plastic-free for 7 days. She found plastic in a lot of sneaky and surprising places.

When it comes to financing options, consumers now have alternatives to credit cards in the form of “Buy Now, Pay Later” services. These services such as Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna and PayPal Credit allow consumers to make interest-free installment payments on a purchase over the course of several weeks. According to respondents, 60% say they have used a Buy Now, Pay Later service. Of those, nearly half (46%) are currently making a payment or payments through one of those services.

This may sound strange, but it’s good to make mistakes. In fact, there are certain mistakes you should make in life to become stronger.

New data show politicians have a considerable survival advantage over general populations, based on information from 11 countries and over 57,500 politicians. In some countries this survival advantage is at the highest level for 150 years, and life expectancy at age 45 was found to be around seven years higher for politicians compared to general populations in certain countries.

As Americans, we take comfort in the idea that we have the right to plan our own lives. We are unique in our confidence that it is within our power to move to a better life, as so many of our ancestors did. Where other countries talk about managing stagnation and even decline, we stand undaunted in our assurance that the limits of our wealth and the frontier of innovation lay well into the future.

Frances Day’s husband died during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, so there was no funeral. “It was a horrid, horrid time. I was on my own. It took a long time for me to get fairly steady,” she says. Her 82nd birthday passed, and as the summer wore on, she thought: “I’ve got to do something. I don’t want my life to end now. I want to have a few adventures. Let’s start with veganism.”

This post is part two of a two-part series on how we may be unintentionally sabotaging our joy. You can read Part 1 here, where I discuss stifling joy to fit cultural norms. We may find ourselves withholding positive emotions when we feel like our enthusiasm would be judged harshly. For example, I recently got more enjoyment out of attending a local political debate than I did watching the Super Bowl. At first, I was embarrassed to be fascinated by something many people see as boring. Then, I realized I’m worthy of joy at every opportunity, and I embraced it.

Angela Maria Ortiz Roa loves almost everything about her single-wide manufactured home in Boulder's Mapleton Mobile Home Park. The community offers a rare option for affordable homeownership in the heart of the city. After moving in months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz Roa now has space for bongos and keyboards she plays with her son. A dog named Poma has joined the family. A corner in the living room is packed with potted house plants, which she fertilizes with compost from a bin full of worms in her kitchen.

@IAmTimDowling writes about the end of ambition, involuntary grunts and a mistrust of bathroom fittings.

A Smiths Falls, Ont., couple say they're pleased the town has rescinded an order to uproot their "naturalized" lawn, but fear the battle isn't over yet. Instead of a manicured lawn and garden, Beth and Craig Sinclair planted 150 trees and other native plant species in front of their bungalow. The couple, who moved to Smiths Falls from Seattle about a decade ago, said natural lawns like theirs are common in their former city.

In 2012, feminist activist Silvia Federici wrote to dismantle much of what we know and hold dear: “Nothing so effectively stifles our lives as the transformation into work of the activities and relations that satisfy our desires.”

For $800 a month you could live in a tiny bunk bed-style pod with 13 other roommates in the Bay Area. Eight-month-old startup Brownstone Shared Housing has come under the spotlight this week after an Insider profile on the company revealed what it looks like inside the Palo Alto home with 14 tenants each living in a "pod."

LeighAnn Ferrara is transforming her small suburban yard from grass bordered by a few shrubs into an anti-lawn — a patchwork of flower beds, vegetables and fruit trees. It didn’t happen all at once, says the mother of two young kids. “We started smothering small sections of the lawn each year with cardboard and mulch and planting them, and by now the front yard is probably three-quarters planting beds,” she says. “Every year we do more.”

When landlords hit the headlines it tends to be for the worst of reasons – what we don’t tend to hear are the stories of tenants who live in properties in good condition, where the owner quickly replaces the fridge when it breaks or organises for an electrician to fix the flickering light fitting.

Prior to 2020, I rarely attended the part of the wedding where speeches are given. However, this has changed as couple’s have started opting for the idea of giving speeches right after the ceremony while guests are already seated where the ceremony has taken place. In fact, the only words of wisdom I would give to couples prior to this shift (and even now!) would be that they consider what goes into the ceremony and their vows, so the same messages are not overlapping with speeches that would be

In September of 2017, as a barn in Watertown was being cleared to be sold, the contractor found large canvases with car parts painted on them. The space and its contents had been deemed "abandoned," so he called his friend Jared Whipple, a car mechanic from Waterbury, because he thought he might like them.

We’re tipping past the point of no return. Paying via tablet is now the convenient norm at pizzerias, coffee shops, fast food joints and other quick-service spots across the city, but the gadgets are quick to ask if you want to add a healthy gratuity to your order. Touchscreens typically prompt patrons to leave a tip ranging from 18 to 30% — and sometimes even higher — when they grab and go.

Most people learn life’s most valuable lessons too late in life. Here are 31 lessons that they fail to teach you in school.

Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city - or should I say, "our city." I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

How do you improve your life? Many of us assume that flourishing in the face of adversity requires a certain kind of mindset. Believing in your power, staying focused on future goals, being proactive, and leveraging social relationships are four outlooks that can help, many of us suspect, in overcoming life’s obstacles.