Green listed

The other day I blogged about my brief vacation into minimalism and suggested that before you make a purchase, list what you have and carefully consider if you really need to buy the item. To buy less is to green more, usually. Every time you don't purchase something you are saving resources.

After publishing that post, a friend of mine sent me a link to another kind of list, this time to see what people really need to be packing around on a daily basis, and what is superfluous stuff.

So now I'm thinking...all this awareness list-making, where can I take it next?

As a dovetail to My Plastic Free Life's "Show Us Your Plastic Trash" challenge on awareness raising, I have a new kind of list to try:

Keep a piece of paper in your kitchen. Every time you throw away, or even compost food waste, jot it down. I'm thinking the ends and stems of things probably don't count for this challenge. But if it's something you could have eaten, but didn't, something that wilted, molded, rotted, soured, or just got tossed, write it down. Take a picture even, if it moves you. But make a list of all the food you wasted in a week, things you scraped off plates, forgot in the back of the fridge, whatever.

Image credit: Word of Mouth Blog

Don't cheat this week either. Don't leave nasty things lurking in the fridge or pantry just so you don't have to list them. Clean out all that waste. Got leftovers in the fridge that are no longer fit for human consumption? Are you sprouting a mold farm in your Tupperware? Clean it out. Write it down. Take a long, honest look at the food you're wasting.

Do this for a week, share it if you want. I'll link to any of you bloggers next week if you blog about it, just let me know. After looking at my food waste for a week, I'm going to take a good hard look at our eating habits, and our grocery shopping. Because if we aren't using it, why on earth would I buy it?



For more green blogs: 

A not so minimal blog about minimalism.

This weekend we drove to Seattle. We left our suitcase lying lonely by the side of the bed. We had all the things we were hauling up their for our friends, but not our stuff.

I always over-pack. For a Friday-Sunday stay I'd packed (not including what I was wearing Friday in the car):

• 3 shirts
• 2 sweaters (one short sleeved, one long)
• 2 pairs of pants
• undies
• bra
• 7 socks (I only own mismatched socks & wasn't sure which to bring)
• hair dryer
• hair straightener 
• hair brush
• big ol' thing of eyeshadow
• mascara
• foundation
• toothpaste
• toothbrush
• lotion
• deodorant
• and probably a bunch of other things I've forgotten to list

And that's not counting all the stuff The Man packed. 

Instead, we showed up with the clothes on our backs. We walked over to a drugstore to pick up the essentials, two toothbrushes, a small tube of toothpaste, a deodorant to share, and a tube of mascara. The hotel gave us a small comb.  I winced at all the unnecessary plastic that this slip-up generated.  Our friends loaned us t-shirts (extras they had packed), and we wore the same pants all weekend. 

It was great. I felt pretty loved by the number of people willing to lend us clothes. Since we just borrowed a couple of t-shirts, I didn't have to think about what I was going to wear. I didn't have to get up early to put on my make-up. Best of all, there was very little laundry to wash when we came back. 

Between this (small) forced exercise in minimalism, and the No Impact Experiment, I've begun to contemplate what we actually need.

For example, Chucks are on sale right now. I really want a pair. I only have a pair of running shoes, a pair of slip on casual shoes, a pair of crocs, several pairs of high heels, a pair of ladybug rain boots, various assorted flip flops... They're all beat up, of course, because I haven't bought myself a new pair of shoes in over a year... but see, that's why I need these, right?

Wrong. 

I want them (a lot) but I don't need them. Will they make me happy? Maybe a little bit for a little while, and then they're just another pair of shoes. 

And something I'm noticing now, as I type this? What an eye-opener it is to list your stuff. It's disgusting. I don't own those adorable boots that everyone is wearing right now, and I don't own my beloved Chucks, and if you were to ask me last week about my shoes, I would have told you that I really don't have any. I could have told you in all honesty and seriousness that I don't own any shoes worth wearing. Because I don't wear them. And I feel frumpy half the time because I haven't bought new shoes in so long. And then I made the above list and it's shorter than what you'd actually find in my closet, because I became so embarrassed halfway through. There are so many people out there with so little, and I'm bummed because I don't have a particular style of shoes. Ugh.

So here's a challenge: 

Think of something you want. A pair of jeans, a new gadget, a watch, a phone, whatever. Now make a list of what you have that falls into the same general category. If you want jeans, list all the pants you own, and I mean all, sweats, khakis, jeans, dress pants, whatever.  

Think about how much satisfaction the purchase is really going to bring you. 

Would my family be better served with me in new shoes, or money being saved for a vacation? Duh.

Think about the homeless. 

Is there someone who needs shoes more than I do? Absolutely. 

Think about the carbon footprint of manufacture and transportation. 

Is the waste created by that purchase worth the good it is going to do? 

Do you still need it? Do you still want it? Or is there some better way to use or save that money?

I'm not saying don't buy anything, but the challenge is to put what you are buying in context, and make sure it's what you really want to spend your money on.

For more green goodness:

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

I've never been one of those people with a niche. I haven't fit into a category, dressed in a particular style, listened to a distinctive type of music, or had a job that somehow gave me identity. Almost all of my identity has been bound up in being a mom, first being a very young mother, and now being the mother to a lot of kids. Still, the distinction of being a parent isn't particularly distinct. I've always been kind of like cottage cheese, the neutral accent to the peaches or berries I hang out with.

That may make no sense outside of my head...

So when I really started cracking down on our impact, blogging about it, and sharing those posts with my Facebook friends, suddenly I began to have an identity in a new way. I'm the green one, the eco-mom. It's not something I consciously created, but it's more true every day.

I am not trying to actively convert people. I get so angry when someone questions the way I parent, cook, clean, whatever. People who say things like, "Oh you shouldn't do that." or "I would never do it that way." or "Here's what's wrong with your way." are much less effective and far more off-putting than those who just live the lifestyle. Part of the reason I clung so long to disposable diapers was the way many cloth diaperers lectured me about my parenting. Same thing with breastfeeding. I've always been a "You can't tell me what to do" kind of girl.

 If I bombard you with judgments, are you going to change the way you live? No. You're just going to avoid talking to me. But if I just live my life in a way that says, "I am trying to change. And it's hard." I'm not pushing you away, I'm drawing you in. The changes I make don't work for everyone, and I would never force my way of life on others. We all have our own journey.

What I am finding is, being gently open about my personal lifestyle choices impacts those around me to be more conscious. When talking to me, people think about their waste. Someone said to me "You would be so proud of me, I got four uses out of that paper before recycling it." or "I put sheets of paper on the floor...recyclable paper of course...". And I am excited by it, and amazed that they care what I think.

 Just being in conversation with someone trying to live a green life plants the seed (oh look, an eco-metaphor...) in their mind about the choices they make. This is what awareness raising is. It doesn't mean blasting people with articles, or preaching about the dangers of processed foods, or shouting from your soap box whenever you see someone drinking bottled water. That's not raising awareness, that's raising hackles, and it often forces people to dig in and resist.

I really hope to continue to live the life openly, and be the change humbly.

Miss Scarlett and a little foot-stamping.

In response to my frustration at not knowing how to eat local and organic, my sister-in-law told me about a little store called Brown Box Organics. Yesterday while Boy 3 was at his gymnastics class, Girl 1 and I did a little local market reconnaissance. It is a beautiful shop and the staff is really friendly and helpful. They have local, organic, non-GMO foods, and I learned a lot just roaming the aisles. I ended up buying a leek and a bag of Chippery BBQ chips. 

What I'm learning is, I picked the wrong time of year to try and go local and organic. It's funny how what a late-onset realization this is. It's winter, and I'm out looking for fresh, local, organic produce. I am so detached from the growing cycle, and from where my food comes from. I have no idea what grows well in Idaho. I have no clue what is in season and what isn't. I think that's probably true of a lot of people. So now I have some catching up to do. I keep having flashbacks to the days when I used to read Jean M. Auel and her Ayla adventures. I thought that longing for greens was a cave person only problem. Turns out there's like, this whole natural cycle. Duh.

Looking back over my No Impact Week posts, I realize that I spend a lot of time being frustrated. I want to live this perfect green lifestyle NOW. I get so frustrated by what I don't know, what doesn't work, or what we can't afford. And the more I research the more I realize just how very expensive the food part of the green lifestyle can get. I am not saying it isn't worth it, I'm just saying there's no way we can go whole hog right off the bat. We just can't afford it.

Doing things in baby steps means not every aspect of our lives are green all the time. I worry about hypocrisy a lot, the need to be consistent is part of my identity, and I don't want to be accused of lying, cheating, or not living up to my values. I want to do things right, and I'm tempted to give up when I can't do it perfectly. There was a good article about this today on TreeHugger: In Defense of Hypocrisy- In Search of the Sustainable Double Standard

So, here are some truths and then I'm just going to move on and stop judging myself so harshly:

• We have a ton of plastic bags in the basement. The things are like herpes, easy to get, impossible to get rid of. I can't throw them out, but I often fail to remember to bring my reusables. 
• I bought Kraft Macaroni & Cheese this week, along with a slew of other non-organic processed foods. When one lunch of mac & cheese requires 4 boxes to feed the fam, I can't afford Annie's all the time. I buy what I can, when I can, but I can't do it all at once.
• We use disposable baby wipes. Not going to quit that, it's too cumbersome and gross. Sometimes we use disposable diapers. 
• The laundry room is disgusting again. 
• My compost heap is frozen. I am failing on that one.
• I love my gadgets, my iPod and laptop and such. I use them a lot.

I'm sure there are a million more failures, but the thing is, every day I try to improve something. I'm not giving up, and I'm probably going to crap out more often than I succeed, but every day I try. If I'm inconsistent? Oh. Well. Tomorrow is another day. Fiddle dee dee? Maybe. But at least I give a damn enough to try. 

All Hail the Red Knight!

Okay. I really want to shoot off a snarky post about this, but I'm going to try and be productive.

I tend to focus on the home front with my politics. I make changes in our home, I try to teach the kids to make good choices and to question the world around them. I write about simple, personal changes people can make to change the world. When something in my sphere of day to day experience is out of whack, I look for ways to change it. I rarely focus on politicians. I vote in every election, and I research who and what I'm voting for (or against) but day to day neither the state nor federal government is often on my radar. I'm not oblivious, but my limited time and resources force me to choose my foci.

My g-Reader has been full of articles on the Cornwall Alliance and their campaign against the "Green Dragon". I've scanned these, and I dismissed them, because every cause has a mission and a end-times documentary to back it up, and I assumed these people were just the flip side of my coin. Not much I can do about it, I figured. Here's a promo video, in case you haven't seen:

I'd love to watch it, to see what the arguments and talking points are, but the cost is $50 and 12 weeks that I don't have. There is a book coming out soon, and when that hits Half.com or the library, I might pick it up. If I am going to be grounded in my beliefs, I should research all sides both to "know my enemy" (a phrase that does more harm than good, IMO) and to make sure I've explored all the nooks and crannies of my own world view.

And not exactly related, but it certainly smells similar is this: Congressman Simpson lands Chairman of Interior Appropriations

This is my congressman. I should be excited, right?

Except I'm not. Because as the above mentions, Congressman Simpson is a proponent of nuclear energy (which is economically good for Idaho, I get that. I also understand that what is economically good for Idaho isn't always what is best for Idaho.) as well as an opponent of the EPA (at least, as it stands now).

Quote:

 The EPA is the scariest agency in the federal government, an agency run amok....Its bloated budget has allowed it to drastically expand its regulatory authority in a way that is hurting our economy and pushing an unwelcomed government further into the lives of Idahoans. As Chairman of this subcommittee, I look forward to bringing some common sense to the EPA and some certainty for our nation’s job creators.

So I'm not excited for my congressman to be this particular chairman. I've written Congressman Simpson letters and emails in the past, when a particular issue seemed to merit writing. He has very polite "Thank you but no thank you" notes. I'll give him that much.

So, here's the question of the day: When your representative espouses many convictions directly opposed to your own, and when all past attempts to educate/inform/change that representative's mind have hit a steel wall, and when that representative has been your rep since 1999 and probably will remain so for all perpetuity...how do you not get discouraged?

RRR Room by Room- Playroom Deep Clean, or "Off With Their Heads"

I'm jumping to the playroom today because it is in desperate need of a cleaning. I'm only about halfway finished cleaning it up, but I plan on getting the kids involved with the rest, so blog break time.

Clean Side

When we were house shopping, we knew we wanted a basement with a playroom for the kids. We wanted a space where the kids could relax, be loud, and make a mess. The house we are in now has a great playroom, lots of space and light, away from the rest of the house so they can scream, wrestle, and just go crazy. My obstetrician told me when we had Boy 3 that we should pad the walls of one room, put a cage over the light, and  just let the boys go nuts in there. This playroom is about as close to that as we're going to get, and all of us love it.

The problem with the kids having their own space is that I am not around to supervise all the different things they get into. The kids "clean" the basement at least once a week, but really what they do is stuff and hide and scootch things around the room. Last week was even messier because I banned television and video games as part of No Impact Week. They were into everything. When I ventured into KidLand today to do a deep clean, I had to wade through Lego bits, random train tracks, and all sorts of board game shrapnel. Most girls with big brothers have decapitated Barbies, and our girls are no exception. They should make a series of dolls with the heads already off and save everyone the trouble. I can see it now, "Barbie Antoinette", "Barbie Queen of Scots"...ooh my repurpose wheels are turning...

Ahem.

What the crap does this have to do with RRR? Well, the lack of putting-away-ness of my children means that many board games, Lego sets, Nerf darts, Barbies, end up trashed. We have two new Lego board games the kids got for Christmas, and as I'm cleaning I'm finding bits of them all over the place. The chances of us being able to recreate what was originally in the box? Zilch, I betcha.

And the batteries...oh man.

So, I'm beginning by cleaning this room the way I clean everything:

• Starting in the far corner of the room from the door.
• Clean the room in rows from left to right, top to bottom
• Sort things into piles as I go. Example: a Lego pile, a train track pile, a book pile, a pile of things that don't go in this room. 
• Nothing stays where it doesn't belong. 
• Once the whole room is in piles, figure out the best storage and then put them away
• Dust
• Wipe
• Vaccuum
• Beat the children if they don't keep it this way (Kidding.)

Dirty side

Like I said, I still have the other side of the room to deal with, but what I need to research now is finding ways to make it simple for the kids to put pieces away when they're finished. I could watch them every time they play with anything, but that would just make everyone unhappy. I've been to homes where the toys are all sorted by type and the kids all put them back where they came from...maybe I'm a bad role model. I've never been good at keeping things clean or organized, and I don't know how to create a system or motivation for my kids. Ideas?

Here's the mail, it never fails...

Girl 1 looked out the window today, saw the outgoing mail sticking out of the box, and ran to the door with excitement. "Mom! Mom! Mail's here!" I had no idea she was so enthusiastic about mail. Her little face fell when I told her that the mail carrier hadn't arrived yet, and we needed to leave that mail in the mailbox.

Inspiration time!

I think I may have mentioned my hoarding...I have an ever-growing stash of boxes, canisters, bottles, and yes plastic bags, in my basement. I try to use them for all my bulk buying, and now that we're committing to less processed food it should be less of an issue, but still, I have a pile of empty junk lurking. Right now it all fits in a cabinet, but I need to be more proactive about reusing it all.

One of the things that was down there, oddly, was an empty fridge pack for Pepsi Max. Not sure why it didn't get recycled, maybe the craft-gods knew we'd need it. Another awesome coincidence was that we had opened it at the wrong end, so it didn't have the can dispenser hole. Instead, we had just opened the flaps at the wrong end. Score! We were going to make a mailbox for Girl 1.

Unflappin'

First we cut the two big flaps and the bottom small flap off the (incorrectly) opened end.

Mail goes in

Then we finished punching in the handle-hole bit on the top of the box, this would be our mail slot.

Mail comes out

Then I had Girl 1 pick out colors of construction paper and I taped it on to the box. Not so pretty, but she was in control and liked picking the colors herself. We cut a piece of construction paper to fit the open end of the box and taped it to the remaining top flap. This would be how Girl 1 would reach in and retrieve the mail.

Behold the evil grin. 

    Girl 1 colored while I taped.

Drawin'

After the box was covered in paper (leaving the slot in the top uncovered) Girl 1 decorated it with markers. If we'd had stickers that would have been so cute. Maybe the next time we get junk mail from Disney Movie Club we'll add 'em...

Here's the mail, it never fails!

We put it on our "catch all" so Girl 2 can't reach it. So far her Daddy, Boy 2, and I have all written little love notes and put them in the box. Today when she was sleeping, her cousins stopped by and while they were here I had them put a note in the mailbox.

She LOVES getting mail.