Oh dear. My goal was to be posting twice a week! Gah!
Well, if my blogging habits aren't quite up to snuff, at least I haven't lapsed in trying to reduce my rubbish!
Remember when I set a goal to go 3 weeks without having to take out the trash? I went 4! TWICE!
To be fair, it was a little overfull by then...I had meant to take it out at 3, but was once again ill. (I'm a Nanny, and there was an episode of Preschool Goo: Return of the Ick!) Anyway, going out into the winter early in the morning was just not a thing that I was willing to do. Soooooo 4 Weeks!
Then I went ANOTHER 4 weeks! (Full Disclosure: 3 weeks and 6 days. Because I lapsed in my vigilance and didn't bother to hover whilst Gentleman cleaned up after dinner - so a meat bone (instead of going into the grocery bag in the freezer) and meat juice covered styrofoam (instead of being washed for recycling) went into the bin and started to SMELL.
Most recently it's been 3 weeks. Which is a bit of a setback and I blame the large, not bin shaped, not recyclable foamy padding that came in one of Gentleman's Amazon packages. I don't understand how Amazon does it. Sometimes there's lovely brown paper packaging that I can shred up and send to my Earthy Crunchy Mama's compost bin. Sometimes there's a box within a box within a box. Sometimes there's recyclable plastic bubble padding. Sometimes there's foam...
I'm a little disappointed in 3 weeks after having accidentally having only taken the trash out once a month for two months. But there are worse things in this world. And now I have a new goal to keep working toward: Reducing my rubbish to one curbside trip a month! Aaaaaand Go!
But what about the recycling bin????
The recycling bin (Same size as the kitchen trash - about 13 gallons) goes out usually every week- sometimes two weeks, depending on how much juice we buy. (Lot's of orange juice - we're very scurvy conscious around here...) (And I may use V8 as insurance that I am, in fact, getting enough veggies to eat even if I don't make them every night (like pizza night. The point of delivery is that I don't have to cook!)
Now that summer is approaching my goal is to eat more solid fruit, rather than juiced, and drink more water (even I draw the line on hot tea in 90* weather). My goal with the recycling bin is to get it out every other week, rather than maybe every week and maybe not.
Ok! You've been quickly updated with a quick update! And for my next trick - to post this and immediately type out another post so that I have one ready to go on Monday!!!
Cheers!
Friday 3 April 2015
Thursday 22 January 2015
Trash Talk
How much time do you spend thinking about trash? The few minutes it takes to get the bag from the kitchen to the curb? Those few seconds of smelling something happily rotting away before you slam the lid and retreat to another room?
I think about trash All The Time!
Which is new.
And kind of exciting!
I have to admit that I've always given a few casual thoughts to trash throughout my day to day - thanks to my Earthy Crunchy Mama (backstory and guess blogs to come!) I have always recycled and composted whenever possible. But since I was introduced to the idea of Zero Waste and dove head first into reading up on it I spend So Much More time thinking about trash than I ever thought I would! Instead of just Throwing Things Away I both stop to consider if there are alternative fates for it - and if I should even be using such an item in the first place!
I always took for granted one use only items (being a middle class, suburban child of the '90s, they were a fact of life). I never got frustrated that the lid of my disposable cup at the pizza parlor (rather than a washable cup, as we were dining in) had a recyclable lid and the pizza parlor had no recycling bin!
I have already announced that Zero Waste, should it ever become a realistic goal for me, is too far down the line of even making it a goal at the moment. I'm working on doing the Small Doable Thing. Which means taking a cue from Mrs. Almost Average over at The Rubbish Diet, and "slimming my bin." To that effect I have started to keep track of how frequently I take our 13 gallon trash bag (the heavy duty black ones are just too ridiculous - and much bigger than my trash can!) out to the curb. I was noticing (before the new year, when I got a new calendar and officially started watching my habits) a 1 to 1.5 week bag life.
Looks like the most recent bag will be lasting a FULL TWO WEEKS!!!
So there goes my goal... which was to keep curb trips down to once every week and a half. If we can go for two weeks once, we can do it again!!!
But how did I manage it? Well, as started, I recycle like a madwoman. I also compost. Obsessively. But what about the smell? (Composters don't enjoy meat products. Or things that have been close personal friends with meat products. I know there are options out there for the composting of such items, but as the property I am living on is not presently my own - my options are a bit limited) To start it helps that our trash can has a fancy shmancy odor blocker in the lid. I also stole someone's idea (I forget whose blog I yoinked it from) and have started using the freezer! Gross chicken saturated styrofoam and shrink wrap? Bits of chicken fat that you trimmed off before cooking? Shrimp tails? Grab one of those lingering plastic grocery bags (because they WILL find their way into the house when you're not looking), throw it in, tie the bag, and shove it in the corner of the freezer. (Obviously you don't need to use a new bag every time. Just untie the old one and add to it until you are ready to make a trip to the curb!) Now I don't have any more horrid smells coercing me to remove the trash bag before it is full!
I just saved plastic, money, time, and have a more accurate idea of just how much trash we generate! Yay me! ^_^
I also have only 2 bins in my house. The aforementioned kitchen trash and a tiny bin in the bathroom. Nothing in the bedroom. Not one in the spare room. If I want to throw something away, I have to get up and walk to the kitchen.
How many times a week/month/year do you take your trash out? How many bins do you have tucked around your home? What would happen if you took one out of play for a little while? Would you notice? Do you have any bin slimming tips to share???
Goal: Consistently go 2 full weeks between emptying kitchen trash! (Future goal: 3!)
To do list: Visit the city's waste disposal site and make sure that I am recycling everything appropriately/find out if I can recycle more! Maybe send some email for clarification...?
Make bags for buying produce! (To be fair, this will be on the to do list for a while as the fabric that I need, which I already own, is in the far back corner of my storage unit...) (Yes, my pack rattery will eventually be addressed)
Mend clothes! (Yes, sewing machine, I can here you snickering at me over there from your corner!)
I think about trash All The Time!
Which is new.
And kind of exciting!
I have to admit that I've always given a few casual thoughts to trash throughout my day to day - thanks to my Earthy Crunchy Mama (backstory and guess blogs to come!) I have always recycled and composted whenever possible. But since I was introduced to the idea of Zero Waste and dove head first into reading up on it I spend So Much More time thinking about trash than I ever thought I would! Instead of just Throwing Things Away I both stop to consider if there are alternative fates for it - and if I should even be using such an item in the first place!
I always took for granted one use only items (being a middle class, suburban child of the '90s, they were a fact of life). I never got frustrated that the lid of my disposable cup at the pizza parlor (rather than a washable cup, as we were dining in) had a recyclable lid and the pizza parlor had no recycling bin!
I have already announced that Zero Waste, should it ever become a realistic goal for me, is too far down the line of even making it a goal at the moment. I'm working on doing the Small Doable Thing. Which means taking a cue from Mrs. Almost Average over at The Rubbish Diet, and "slimming my bin." To that effect I have started to keep track of how frequently I take our 13 gallon trash bag (the heavy duty black ones are just too ridiculous - and much bigger than my trash can!) out to the curb. I was noticing (before the new year, when I got a new calendar and officially started watching my habits) a 1 to 1.5 week bag life.
Looks like the most recent bag will be lasting a FULL TWO WEEKS!!!
So there goes my goal... which was to keep curb trips down to once every week and a half. If we can go for two weeks once, we can do it again!!!
But how did I manage it? Well, as started, I recycle like a madwoman. I also compost. Obsessively. But what about the smell? (Composters don't enjoy meat products. Or things that have been close personal friends with meat products. I know there are options out there for the composting of such items, but as the property I am living on is not presently my own - my options are a bit limited) To start it helps that our trash can has a fancy shmancy odor blocker in the lid. I also stole someone's idea (I forget whose blog I yoinked it from) and have started using the freezer! Gross chicken saturated styrofoam and shrink wrap? Bits of chicken fat that you trimmed off before cooking? Shrimp tails? Grab one of those lingering plastic grocery bags (because they WILL find their way into the house when you're not looking), throw it in, tie the bag, and shove it in the corner of the freezer. (Obviously you don't need to use a new bag every time. Just untie the old one and add to it until you are ready to make a trip to the curb!) Now I don't have any more horrid smells coercing me to remove the trash bag before it is full!
I just saved plastic, money, time, and have a more accurate idea of just how much trash we generate! Yay me! ^_^
I also have only 2 bins in my house. The aforementioned kitchen trash and a tiny bin in the bathroom. Nothing in the bedroom. Not one in the spare room. If I want to throw something away, I have to get up and walk to the kitchen.
How many times a week/month/year do you take your trash out? How many bins do you have tucked around your home? What would happen if you took one out of play for a little while? Would you notice? Do you have any bin slimming tips to share???
Goal: Consistently go 2 full weeks between emptying kitchen trash! (Future goal: 3!)
To do list: Visit the city's waste disposal site and make sure that I am recycling everything appropriately/find out if I can recycle more! Maybe send some email for clarification...?
Make bags for buying produce! (To be fair, this will be on the to do list for a while as the fabric that I need, which I already own, is in the far back corner of my storage unit...) (Yes, my pack rattery will eventually be addressed)
Mend clothes! (Yes, sewing machine, I can here you snickering at me over there from your corner!)
Monday 19 January 2015
Thrifty Business
Over the past 2 weekend I and a few of the girls have been hitting up the thrift stores. I need more sweaters (I do NOT want to build a snowman, thank you. I want SUMMER), and pants that fit (always a challenge due to my apparently constant weight fluctuations).
Did you know? According to the EPA Office of Solid Waste, Americans chuck an average of 68lbs of textiles in the garbage every year! And yes, that is PER PERSON! O_o
There are plenty of statistics out there - do a quick Google search for clothing waste. And don't get me started on top designer brands destroying leftover stock to avoid it falling into the hands of certain less desirable demographics!
Confession: I don't shop at thrift stores out of a devotion to Zero Waste, reducing the demand for stylish new clothes every few months. Mostly I'm just poor. More importantly though, I'm terrible at enjoying Current Fashions! I like colors and patterns and the more at once the better! (It helps that I work as a nanny) I was positively Devastated when neon jeans suddenly became the In thing- all in Skinny and Tapered!!! Anything less than Boot Cut and I look like a triangle walking on its head!
So thrift stores it is! Where embroidered Bell Bottoms and obnoxiously pink sweaters abound!
It does HELP, of course, that I'm not creating a fresh demand. I also have a One-In-One-Out mandate on my closet- to prevent a stockpile of clothes I no longer wear.
So where do these unwanted clothes go??
1- Friends!!! This is actually the smallest option as a lot of my clothes originated with friends in the first place. Nobody wants their even more worn out castoffs back...
2- Donation! I usually try to donate everything (not just clothes) to the Purple Heart. But if I've been driving around with a box of things to go for a while it'll usually end up at whatever thrift store I'm passing.
3- Rags! I'll take a pair of scissors to your best shirt to clean my bathroom just as easily as inviting you in for tea! (My Earthy Crunchy Mama used our cloth diapers to clean her house for the better part of 30 years!!!)
Moral of the story:
4 Thrift stores
5 sweaters
1 dress
1 camisole
3 pairs of trousers
$50!
What did you get for the last $50 you spent on clothes?
What do you do with your old clothes??
To do- actually get to my mending pile!!!
Did you know? According to the EPA Office of Solid Waste, Americans chuck an average of 68lbs of textiles in the garbage every year! And yes, that is PER PERSON! O_o
There are plenty of statistics out there - do a quick Google search for clothing waste. And don't get me started on top designer brands destroying leftover stock to avoid it falling into the hands of certain less desirable demographics!
Confession: I don't shop at thrift stores out of a devotion to Zero Waste, reducing the demand for stylish new clothes every few months. Mostly I'm just poor. More importantly though, I'm terrible at enjoying Current Fashions! I like colors and patterns and the more at once the better! (It helps that I work as a nanny) I was positively Devastated when neon jeans suddenly became the In thing- all in Skinny and Tapered!!! Anything less than Boot Cut and I look like a triangle walking on its head!
So thrift stores it is! Where embroidered Bell Bottoms and obnoxiously pink sweaters abound!
It does HELP, of course, that I'm not creating a fresh demand. I also have a One-In-One-Out mandate on my closet- to prevent a stockpile of clothes I no longer wear.
So where do these unwanted clothes go??
1- Friends!!! This is actually the smallest option as a lot of my clothes originated with friends in the first place. Nobody wants their even more worn out castoffs back...
2- Donation! I usually try to donate everything (not just clothes) to the Purple Heart. But if I've been driving around with a box of things to go for a while it'll usually end up at whatever thrift store I'm passing.
3- Rags! I'll take a pair of scissors to your best shirt to clean my bathroom just as easily as inviting you in for tea! (My Earthy Crunchy Mama used our cloth diapers to clean her house for the better part of 30 years!!!)
Moral of the story:
4 Thrift stores
5 sweaters
1 dress
1 camisole
3 pairs of trousers
$50!
What did you get for the last $50 you spent on clothes?
What do you do with your old clothes??
To do- actually get to my mending pile!!!
Thursday 15 January 2015
I Took A Page Out Of Your Hippie Book
The Shaking His Head At My Descent Into Eco-Madness Gentleman has purchased Hemp Sneakers.
On purpose.
On purpose.
Tuesday 13 January 2015
Mini Maintenance Update!
So I'm trying to live up to my promise of trying to make this place more inviting to look at! There will be a few glitches here and there. You'll get over them and/or I'll figure out how to fix them.
Most importantly, I've added a list that I will be adding to of other Zero Waste, Low Waste, Yay Green blogs that I am in love with and have been binge reading and taking notes and inspiration from! It's true, some of them are no longer active, but that does not make the information tucked away in each and every post obsolete! Please give a read through! I have a whole list of my own to get through and will definitely sharing them over there to the right as I get to each one so do check back!
Have a Zero Waste blog (of your own or one that you love) that you don't see over there yet? PLEASE leave a comment with a link and if it is not already on my reading list I shall definitely add it! ^_^
To Do List check in: Grocery shopping tonight. Have not made more produce bags yet...
But I did convince my Gentleman to not let go of the milk bottle that was on its descent into the trash bin!! (which is new. and has a batter operated lid. and is named Oscar. because at that point what other option was there. yes, I put googly eyes on it.) He did not rinse it and add it to the recycling bin. (If I'm so determined I can do it) But I am determined. And so I will do it! (And someday he will too!
He just doesn't know it yet...!)
Most importantly, I've added a list that I will be adding to of other Zero Waste, Low Waste, Yay Green blogs that I am in love with and have been binge reading and taking notes and inspiration from! It's true, some of them are no longer active, but that does not make the information tucked away in each and every post obsolete! Please give a read through! I have a whole list of my own to get through and will definitely sharing them over there to the right as I get to each one so do check back!
Have a Zero Waste blog (of your own or one that you love) that you don't see over there yet? PLEASE leave a comment with a link and if it is not already on my reading list I shall definitely add it! ^_^
To Do List check in: Grocery shopping tonight. Have not made more produce bags yet...
But I did convince my Gentleman to not let go of the milk bottle that was on its descent into the trash bin!! (which is new. and has a batter operated lid. and is named Oscar. because at that point what other option was there. yes, I put googly eyes on it.) He did not rinse it and add it to the recycling bin. (If I'm so determined I can do it) But I am determined. And so I will do it! (And someday he will too!
He just doesn't know it yet...!)
Thursday 8 January 2015
Going Green in 2015!!!!
I said I wasn't going to create another blog just to talk about this!!!
Lucky you I can be a lying liarface. But this blog will hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow!!!
So on with the show:
No, I'm NOT going to try for zero waste. It's just really not something I can get my life to right now. Maybe someday. MAYBE. (Probably not) Right now I'm just trying to be Better.
Week 1: BAGS!!! The obvious place to start! (or at least that seems to be the first tip everyone (including the Zero Waste blogs I've discovered and fallen in LOVE with!) hands out.
So.... Jan. 1 I went shopping! Context: I was ILL. I was on my way home from my Mum's and needed to pick up TWO things. Except I was near the good Giant...and I didn't want to go back out again... and I hadn't gone shopping because of the holidays and had no food in my house... So I did my full shopping. I figured I would just skip the plastic bags and shove it all creatively into my car! Except then the cashier told me she'd have to sticker everything...(reminder: ILL.) I could barely lean on my cart, so waiting for everything to get stickered was Not Going To Happen... So I asked for paper bags- I can put my paper recycling in them! And the cashier and bagger dutifully bagged everything in paper bags - which they then put into plastic bags... sigh.
First day fail.
But THIS week: I went to the grocery store WITH my bags (because I'm now making an effort to keep them in my car instead of the laundry room...) I also brought some old tupperware...just in case! and Salmon was on sale!!! I asked the gentleman at the seafood counter if he could just plop the salmon into my little tupperware - not only was he more than happy to do so, he walked me up to the checkout when I had finished my shopping just to make sure that I didn't have any problems at the register! :-D The cashier was totally fine with it AND took my broccoli out of my little canvas bag because he didn't want me to charge me for the extra weight that wouldn't have registered with the flimsy plastic produce bags!
So I call that a win!
Bags in car? Check. Fresh tupperware? Check. To do: Make more canvas produce bags. See you next week! (I promise to make the place look nice by then ^_^)
Lucky you I can be a lying liarface. But this blog will hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow!!!
So on with the show:
No, I'm NOT going to try for zero waste. It's just really not something I can get my life to right now. Maybe someday. MAYBE. (Probably not) Right now I'm just trying to be Better.
So.... Jan. 1 I went shopping! Context: I was ILL. I was on my way home from my Mum's and needed to pick up TWO things. Except I was near the good Giant...and I didn't want to go back out again... and I hadn't gone shopping because of the holidays and had no food in my house... So I did my full shopping. I figured I would just skip the plastic bags and shove it all creatively into my car! Except then the cashier told me she'd have to sticker everything...(reminder: ILL.) I could barely lean on my cart, so waiting for everything to get stickered was Not Going To Happen... So I asked for paper bags- I can put my paper recycling in them! And the cashier and bagger dutifully bagged everything in paper bags - which they then put into plastic bags... sigh.
First day fail.
But THIS week: I went to the grocery store WITH my bags (because I'm now making an effort to keep them in my car instead of the laundry room...) I also brought some old tupperware...just in case! and Salmon was on sale!!! I asked the gentleman at the seafood counter if he could just plop the salmon into my little tupperware - not only was he more than happy to do so, he walked me up to the checkout when I had finished my shopping just to make sure that I didn't have any problems at the register! :-D The cashier was totally fine with it AND took my broccoli out of my little canvas bag because he didn't want me to charge me for the extra weight that wouldn't have registered with the flimsy plastic produce bags!
So I call that a win!
Bags in car? Check. Fresh tupperware? Check. To do: Make more canvas produce bags. See you next week! (I promise to make the place look nice by then ^_^)
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