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F/U Living Sustainably
The poll that 715inNC posted last week got me thinking about how much I run out to buy a new item when I could fix/alter a current one to work.
Last night I bought this really cute flower pot to put in my office, however the pot didn't make it home in one piece. Somehow it shattered into 5 big pieces with tons of chips. I was contemplating if I would be able to bring it back to the store to get a new one. Then I had this weird vision of this poor broken pot being thrown in the trash and sitting lonely in a landfill. It was a really cute and quite humorous commericial-like scenario, so it inspired me. I glued my pot back together and am hoping it will be like new tonight.
What simple things have you done/do to be live sustainably? I'm hoping to get some good ideas of other simple things I can give a try!
Re: F/U Living Sustainably
The yogurt that I brought to work in today came from one of the bigger containers of Stoneyfield Farms (that uses co-oped, organic milk). I brought today's portion in an old glass jelly jar that we washed out.
Is that the type of thing you are looking for?
Yep, that type of thing exactly! I also have read that some people don't use paper towels. I'm not sure that I'd be able to cut them completely out, or at least at this point can't imagine it. But I have been trying to use a plate instead of a paper towel for toast or a sandwich, so that is a start. But I feel like I'd be washing a ton of towels if I used those instead of paper towels for cleaning up messes/wiping off the counters/etc.
I recently saw a commercial for a reusable kitchen scrubbie (like the green ones) that you wash in the dishwasher. Has anyone seen these or used them?
Exactly. We usually buy these at Costco in a big pack, but I liked the idea of being able to wash them and reuse them. I'll have to keep my eye out in the grocery store for them. I must be a bad google-er since I couldn't find a website with them. :-(
Dh and I have almost eliminated our paper towel use. We're down to one roll about every 3 months or so. Whenever someone comes for a visit, it always skews that result though--it's almost funny. I hadn't bought paper towels since Christmas, yet, with my parents in town and a friend also in town, I have to buy some today--we still had 1/2 a roll left before they got here!
Honestly, for wiping up spills and stuff--we just reuse a few times. Most of the spills I incur are from water or brothy things, so it's not really a potential hazard to just let the cloth towel hang dry between uses. I do wash them with the rest of our laundry and I'd say we use 2-3 cloth towels per week. But since I have a stash of them I never run out of them before I start to run out of clean undies. We are lucky in that we have enough cabinet space where I have a kitchen towel cabinet just full of them. It's conveniently located so it's a no-brainer for us.
Oh, and you can really put any sponge in the dishwasher. My mom taught me that growing up. If your sponge is looking nasty, throw it in the top section of the washer the next time you run a load--it'll come out a much cleaner version of its prior self.
HTHs!
We hardly use paper towels at all. We use dish towels. Also, we put our sponges and things like that in the dishwasher all the time. We just reuse them over and over.
I also buy things like laundry detergent and dish soap in bulk. This way there's fewer containers to be thrown away. Hand soap and kitchen cleaner we buy the big bottles and refill/reuse little bottles instead of buying a bunch of new little bottles all the time. I also try to buy stuff like this in concentrate form, so there's more per bottle.
We use our own bags for groceries and wine. If we forget them, we get paper bags & reuse them at home. If we ever get plastic bags, we save them until we have a bundle, then bring them back to the store for recycling.
We use trashcans for our recycling stuff, instead of bags.
When I need hot water in the kitchen, I fill a pitcher w/ the cold water that comes out while I'm waiting. Then I use that to water the plants, fill the cats bowls, rinse veggies, etc. We also rinse w/ a cup of water when brushing our teeth, so the faucet isn't running. I hate wasting water.
I read that if your car is idling for 30 seconds or more, it's better to just turn it off & back on when you're ready to move. We pretty much never let the car idle, which means we never go through the drive thru. I can't justify just sitting there w/ my car running, esp. when going in takes the same amount of time, or less!
That's all I can think of right this second.
This is a great one! I was complaining last night about how long it took for the water to get warm. And this could be a great reminder to water the plants since I always forget. Thanks for sharing!
That IS a good one--I'm going to try it! Thanks Alethea. (We're spoiled in that our bathroom water gets hot almost instantly, but never thought about the kitchen, where it does take at least a minute to get hot.)
Oh, and another idea--we've been filling our empty bottles (milk, soda, juice--really anything that easily holds liquid) with our rainwater. We already have a rain barrel, but it's full, so we sort of have a (small) stock pile going on right now. Who knows if the summer will be a wet one or a dry one, but I'm sure at some point we'll have to water the garden and I'm trying to use what we've got instead of dipping into the regular water supply.
Before we moved in with the in-laws, we were almost totally off paper towels. I bought two big packs of microfiber towels at Sam's Club - they were in the automotive/hardware section. I got two different colors. I use one color for food-related tasks, like drying off veggies. I use the other color for cleanup - wiping the counters, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. The ones I use for wiping the counters I tend to re-use for a few days, unless there's a really gross spill. If I cleaned the bathroom or something, I don't re-use it. I keep a bucket (a re-used dog treat bucket) under the sink with all the dirty towels. When it gets full, I wash them with our regular towels.
I bought fabric to make cloth napkins, but never got around to doing that. When we're back in our own place, I really want to do it!
Microfiber! Buy the microfiber sponges and cloths...like pp mentioned, wash once or twice a week or when it begins to get too dingy (depending on use)
Before we had our "official" rain barrel, when I knew it was going to rain I would set out this huge bucket/tub thing and collect water in it for our plants, I could hardly use it all before the next rain
DH and I very rarely "run out" to the store, most likely we do 3 or more errands at once, i'll stop by the grocery store that's on my way home (instead of the one that's out of the way)
I keep all the cards that are given to me and repurpose them, I love handmade cards and these work perfect for little saying's, quotes, or even pictures...it beats spending $4.00+ on a card
We bill pay online.
I often turn the oven off when there's only about 5 or so minutes left to cook and when it was colder, I'd leave the oven open after I was done cooking to heat the house
I purchased curtains (on sale!) at JCPenny that have a solar blocking layer, keeps the warm air in during the winter and hot air out in the summer
We open our blinds during the day for daylight and almost never use light fixtures, when we do, we turn them off everytime we leave a room