A New Year’s Resolution

Happy New Year!
I normally don’t make resolutions on New Years –  I figure if I’m going to make a change, I might as well start right away, whether it’s the beginning of the year or the middle.  But this year, a few things have been nagging me, and I plan on paying attention to them!

So my New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Find out how this county recycles.  My husband is a reluctant recycler, to say the least.  When he signed up for garbage service when he moved in, he asked about recycling.  But we live in the county outside city limits, so there is no curbside pickup.  For my husband, that was the end of that.  I’ve let it go for a while, but I feel like I need to get back on track.

2. For the past month since I moved into the new house, I’ve been slow to unpack and declutter.  We moved from a 2100 square foot house with ample storage spaces (and a basement) to an 1800 square foot house with 2 small closets, a kitchen laid out more for looks than functionality, and an unfinished upstair.  I don’t want to store a bunch of junk upstairs (especially since it will become three more bedrooms and a bath soon) so as I unpack I’ve had to really think about what I want to keep.  Hello, Freecycle!

Those are my current goals.  I don’t want to get them done by the end of 2010.  I’d like to complete them as quickly as possible! 🙂

What are some of your New Year’s Goals?

You know it’s going to be a long day when…

You know it’s going to be a long day when…

The buyer who put a verbal offer in on your house comes back for a second showing and finds your brand new roof is leaking…on your sewing machine.

Thankfully, it was a spare, it was in the box, and the box is waterproofed.  And it could have been a lot worse if he hadn’t found it.  And the roof is under warranty.

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So we have a verbal offer, probably in writing later today!  If we accept this offer, we’ll be closing at the end of September, which isn’t much time considering we have out-of-town family coming in a week from today for E’s first birthday party, his dedication at church on the 13th, and somewhere in there we need to get ourselves to Nashville and find a new house to live in.   Whew!

And the best part is that tomorrow we have another second showing, as well as a first showing tonight.  We’re going to have a bidding war! LOL

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I admit, lately being green has flown out the window for the most part.  We are still recycling, though I went to throw some paper away and found that my husband has absconded with the paper recycling bag, and he’s professed a dislike for it (we have to haul it to the township bins) and announced he will now be lazy.  He did keep the metal bins; we’re giving the metal to a friend trying to raise some money by selling scrap.

In addition to that, it seems that buyers like to look at houses during the dinner hours, the lunch hours, and nap times.  So we’ve been eating out.  A lot.  Both B, my husband, and I agree – our stomachs are not used to eating out anymore, and our diet is sorely lacking in vegetables right now.  I’ve tried to cook more vegetables and fewer breads and meats when we are home to make up for it.  (And it probably doesn’t help that the local pizza chain is selling $4 large pizzas – they told my husband that they are trying to put all the local Dominos out of business!)  $4 to feed my family a meal is a great deal!

Not only that, but cleaning constantly, trying to keep the laundry from piling up on the basement floor, and always having to leave has made it hard to get much done.  So I apologize to anyone who has been to my shop and not found what they were looking for! 🙂

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So help me out, please!  Give me some motivation!  Tips for greener moving?

The Dangers of Plastic Water Bottles?

It seems I’ve been reading a lot lately about the dangers of plastic, and more often, the problems associated with disposable water bottles. In fact, many Blogher bloggers joined together to encourage Pepsi Co. to forgo bringing Aquafina to the BlogHer conference earlier this month. Pepsi Co. complied, but frustrated the women’s efforts when they brought Sobe Life Water instead.

But what’s the big deal? The bottles can be recycled, right? The water is healthier than tap, right? And it brings in jobs to the areas producing bottled water…right?

Well, no, not entirely. There are several misconceptions of bottled water I’d like to share:

1. Plastic bottles can be recycled.

Yes, this is true.  But during processing, those bottles can leach hazardous chemicals into groundwater.  They are washed and heated, which releases toxins.  Not all of the bottle can be recycled, either – the plastic bottle caps can not be recycled in my area.

Not only that, but while it’s more efficient to recycle plastic than to drill for more petroleum, it’s not as efficient as reusing the same container over and over.  But don’t do this with plastic bottles!  Reusing water bottles creates a petri dish for bacteria, and washing and heating them can break down the plastic and leach chemicals into your cool drink.  You are better off with a reusable high-quality bottle, like the one made by Sigg.

2. Bottled Water is healthier than tap water.

Bottled water companies have been trying to get consumers to believe this for years.  Yet, it’s simply not true.  In October of last year, The Environmental Working Group released results of a study of contaminants in bottled water.  I’ll let you read everything, but Sam’s Choice and Acadia tested at the same levels of contaminants as standard tap water.  Which it was – from Las Vegas.  Other brands far exceeded the voluntary standards set for the bottled water industry, some containing pharmaceuticals and fertilizers!

Why is this allowed?  Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has standards in place for contaminant limits in water.  On the other hand, bottled water falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, which appears to not have legislation to support regulation of the bottled water and contaminant levels.  The rules under the EPA are much more stringent than under the FDA, or so this Government Accountability Office study says.  So while bottled water companies portray snow-capped mountains and bubbly springs, what you are getting is questionable tap water from some of the largest cities in the country.

3. Water brings health to the local economy.

This may be true to a certain extent, but it’s just another way the complete truth has been twisted into a partial truth.  With mechanization, water bottling plants will not require many jobs, and manufacturing traditionally ends up being the job of low-paid, under skilled workers, often illegal immigrants who will send their salaries across the border.  Even if the workers are legal, a bottled water plant will add very little to the economy while draining local resources.

Not only that, but by buying water, concern over the local water supply goes down.  Ruchira Shah over at Just Means recently told a story about her trip to Istanbul. The rich can and do afford the bottled water, including the influential members of the government.  Regulation of local water supplies are compromised when those with a voice don’t use it, and the poor and voiceless are the ones that suffer from that lack of regulation.

As for us, we’re requesting Sigg water bottles for the kids for birthdays and Christmas.  We’ll afford our own when we can, but until then, we drink the filtered water from our refrigerator door!  Lately I’ve been buying flavored sparkling water to avoid drinking pop, but I think it is coming time to get used to drinking plain water again!

If You Do One Thing Today…

If you do one thing today…

Collect your old magazines and books and recycle them by donating them to your local library.  I realize not all libraries do this, but our local library gladly accepts any media to be sold at their monthly book sales.  Your magazines may not make it to the library shelves, but someone else will be able to buy them cheaply and your library will make some money for the new bestsellers!

It’s All or Nothing…

I want to get something off my chest.  I have to tell you my big dirty secret…

I cheat.

Yes, I cheat at being green, and I admit it.

I take long, hot showers.  I still use chemically mainstream cleaners (even bleach!)  I eat out at places that are definitely not fair trade certified or even organic!  I throw away plastic instead of recycling it.

I could go on and on, but I’m trying to make a point.  Living sustainablely, living in an eco-friendly way is not an all or nothing proposition.  It’s a journey.

So to those of you who want to be more thoughtful in how you live, but feel completely and totally overwhelmed by the vast number of considerations and things to avoid and the sheer expense of haut coutre enviro-friendly items, I challenge you to look smaller.
Instead of using body wash in a plastic container, filled with harsh detergents, try buying cold-press soap made from oils from a local vendor or etsy seller (two of my personal favorites)

Wipe up simple messes in the kitchen (like spilt milk, water, or wet hands) with a kitchen towel instead of paper towels. Advanced version: wipe up food messes, too.  Extra advanced: pick up cat vomit or child vomit.

Use cloth diapers, cloth menstrual pads, or cloth nursing pads instead of the disposable versions.  The cost initially is more expensive, but when you start to think about how a Huggies diaper or an Always menstrual pad costs you $0.25 each, the initial outlay for cloth pays off fast!

Compost your food instead of throwing it in the trash.

Take a shower that is 5 minutes shorter.

Use a broom instead of a blower, an old-fashioned push mower instead of a gas or electric mower.

Open your windows and let a breeze in (unless it’s prohibitively hot!)

You get the idea.  I don’t remember the book (help me out!) but I once read something that struck me quite a bit.  The story goes on to tell of a woman who would not turn on the heat in her apartment – if she could bear the cold one more hour, she could save a small amount of money.  That money went in a can to be saved.  Just one more hour, one more hour, she’d tell herself, and if she could stand it, she’d have saved money toward her goal.

While I don’t remember the particulars, I do remember thinking that our attitudes should be similar.  Not of self-deprivation – no, but of thriftiness in everything we consume.  But she didn’t say, “If I can just do without heat…” She said, “If I can just wait one more hour…”

When we can bear waiting, denying ourselves something small and reasonably unimportant, we save for bigger causes, whether it’s a large purchase or a cleaner, healthier world for ourselves and our children.

So it doesn’t have to be all or nothing – just little by little, we can change the way we live!

More Than Meets the Eye – Kitchen Renovation, Part 1

My husband B and I have been talking quite a bit about what we want to do with the kitchen. Until very recently, it could be considered many things – “vintage,” “retro,” “original.” We’ve put off doing it while focusing on moving bedrooms and offices around to accommodate the new baby and to fix other things around the house. So it remained a bit of an eyesore, and you know how it is with eyesore rooms – they become a catch-all room, too. After all, what is a little more clutter when the room already looks so bad?

About two weeks ago, I noticed that not only was the vintage-garden-themed wallpaper falling down, it was very easy to take off. It was as if the paper was hanging only by a residual bit of dried up glue. I pulled the corner of a sheet down about a foot-and-a-half, until it hit the curtain rod. And I left it, much to the chagrin of B.

So this past Friday I heard the sound of wallpaper separating from wall, and when I went to investigate, my husband had, in the space of a few minutes, completely removed the paper from one wall. He suggested he would stop after that one wall, but I insinuated that I may not find that to be such a pleasing idea and that he’d better finish what he started. (LOL) About 20 minutes later, the room was done. I believe this was the house’s way of creating a truce between it and us – after all, it owes us for the two layers of 1940s paper in the hallway and the 3 layers in the downstairs bedroom (not to mention the burlap wallpaper in the living room we have yet to remove!)

B removing wallpaper from the first wall

Beautiful vintage wallpaper

Please don’t mind the mess – we have two kids!  And yes, that’s some of my handdyed sock yarn hanging there. I didn’t have the chance to take it down before he started, and now I’ll have to wash it…

I actually liked this wallpaper quite a bit.  Just not so rampant and all-inclusive!   It clashed with the cabinets, and really only looked good in the breakfast area I showed above, which was where it started falling down.

(Again, ignore the mess.  Remember what I said about “catch-all” rooms?  This one has been really bad in the past few weeks…)

The kitchen bar, covered with stuff!

Everything - including the kitchen sink

So it’s been a busy weekend!  We’ve got the wallpaper down, but we’ve always thought the top cabinets were rather low – so once we got the wallpaper off, and our suspicions were confirmed, we decided to move them up the wall. Not only were the lower cabinets on a 4 inch base, making them higher (which we knew before) but the upper cabinets had been moved down 4 inches from their original spot!  The original installers had drawn lines on the plaster that was still visible. So we’ve been moving the cabinets back up.  The room feels bigger and lighter already, and our efforts have cost us nothing but a box of screws to replace the old stripped ones.  Three more cabinets to go!  (I hear my husband working again, so I’d better go help!)

I’ll post pictures of our “new,” unpainted, still cluttered kitchen soon.

The lesson?  Does there have to be one?  Okay – here it is – I’m rather obsessed with home decorating magazines.  Though I know the rooms in those homes are about as real as the models in Vogue, I want my home to look pretty!  But I also don’t need to spend extravagant amounts of money or buy all new things to make my home look something like those magazines (with a child-driven tornado included, of course!)  Sometimes, recreating a home is just that – take something you already have and move it, change it, or even get rid of it.  It creates a brand new feel.

So, anyone want some vintage wallpaper?  Otherwise, I’m freecycling it along with all the things we don’t use anymore.

“Are You Green?”

That’s the question ModernMotive is asking Etsy sellers (and others) on her blog in the next couple weeks.  From people like me, who look for ways to skip disposable products to people who use only recycled materials to handcraft their wares, it should be interesting to see what creative ways people are helping conserve resources and lessen their impact on the earth.  Be sure to check it out and subscribe to her blog!
Speaking of being green, I thought I’d mention some things my household does that lessens our environmental impact.  And the wonderful thing is, not only are they “green” things to do, but they are financially friendly!  (We’re all feeling the squeeze right now!)  Of course, there are many common and obvious things we do, but I’d like to touch on some that may be new to some people:

~ we use cloth towels instead of paper towels.  More and more you hear the phrase “unpaper towels,” which is basically what we are using.  It does make you think, however, as to where we’ve gotten as a society when towels have become either “paper” or “unpaper,” doesn’t it?  However, paper towels are, to me, so passe, when I realized that it would cost me almost $16 at Sam’s Club for 12 rolls.  Ugh.

I’ve linked to the cloth towels I sell (they also make great burp rags – I’ve used them since day 1 for that) but you can make your own – scour garage sales, clearance after holidays, and thrift stores for any little kitchen towels on the cheap.  I get a lot of mine from my Mother-in-Law, who teaches third grade and can only use so many Santa-embellished dish towels.

~ I use cloth nursing pads, cloth pantyliners, and cloth menstrual pads. Sounds gross?  Well, it is.  But no grosser than using the paper pads.  Since when is our cycle a pretty thing?

Just throw them in the washer and you are done.  Benefits include not paying $8 or more for disposables every month, lighter, less painful periods, fewer infections, and being more comfortable in general.  Another great thing is that they can be made to fit your body.  Every pad designer makes them slightly different, and you can find the brand that’s best for you.  And they are often completely customizable!  So you can buy them or make your own – patterns abound on the internet.

~ And then, since this post is getting long, one more thing: We reuse, reuse, reuse, and then recycle.  (Or the other way around.)  Much of what we own is not new.  Our dining room table is not the one I would have picked out, but it is beautiful and an heirloom.  Contrary to the impression I get from many home decorating magazines (even “green” ones), my house doesn’t have to match perfectly.  There is something about being surrounded by things that you love – things that have a history.  The dining room table belonged originally to my great-aunt’s in-laws and was brought from California to North Carolina and now to Ohio.  The side table in the living room was something I picked out (and haggled for) at an antique shop in Stillwater, Minnesota shortly after I was married.  The memories are precious.  My mom’s Good Housekeeping cookbook sits on the shelf in the kitchen, and it’s rare for me to pick up any other book (not to mention it tells you how to cook things from scratch – another good “green” tip.)

When we are done with something, I try to think if it can serve any other useful purpose for us.  If not, and it’s still good, or if I won’t get around to doing anything with it soon, we give it away.  We get a lot of our things from other people who have gotten their use out of the item.  It’s a great way to reduce packaging, money flow, and trash!