A Year of Living Greener

We Will Remember

2010-11-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'd gotten to thinking about this day we call Remembrance Day, for which we wear a red poppy to symbolize the occasion. There will be services at the cenotaphs this morning and, depending on how they are feeling, I want to take the boys. Even if we only stay for a short time and stand at the back so we can leave with them. If we can't go (it might rain and they are sick still) then we'll watch a little bit on tv and I'll tell my sons why this day is important. It's a tough thing to explain to a small child, wanting to keep them innocent yet start that glimmer of understanding.

It suddenly occured to me while driving home last night, that it's a very different kind of day from what I'd thought. For me, it's always been about the end of Great War, the war to end all wars (WWI) and it then embraced those who fell in WWII and then onward. But in my mind, it was always about the veterans - the old men I saw at the cenotaphs while I watched on TV. As the years pass, their ranks become smaller and I wondered what will happen when they are gone.

Last night I realized that no matter what our opinions on the world today - this day is about young men and women, too. That families with babies and small children will be there to remember their loved ones. That young men and women will be there to remember their comrades in arms, their best friends, their brothers and sisters. It's not just about old men, is it? It's about so much more. I am sad whenever I see the name of another who has become a casualty of war, and it was more real when I saw the young man from my town in our paper. I didn't know him, but I know a family here grieves again today and I ache for them.

So today, I have a new appreciation of what this day means. So to all that serve their country - no matter where you're needed - you are there and I am thankful. And I will remember. And I'll be sure that my small children will remember, too.

Books books books! Sharing the love of reading

2010-09-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

It's September and that means books! While I was investigating something else, I came across a program in my school district called the Little Readers Preschool Book Club. It's a fantastic idea! In a nutshell, they take donated books for preschoolers, and then send them to every preschool age child in the district that is registered with them. I'm sure it's a very time consuming job for the volunteers who sort, clean, package and send out the books. They can be sent in the mail, brought home by older siblings, shared at a local preschool or at the Strong Start (another great program) locations in the district.

I encourage you to take a look and see what this program has to offer!

AND... if you live in the district and have preschool appropriate books in good condition, consider sharing them. I know that at the swapmeets you can get a wee bit of money for them, but for the sake of a few dollars, you could really make the difference in a child's life as some kids just don't have books of their own.

If your children are young, think about joining the club for them - what a wonderful surprise it is when they get a new book!

For those of you in other places - check with your school board to see what they have to offer. Maybe this is something you might consider starting where you live? Books are for everyone, and a love of reading starts young. And sharing, well that's a lesson we can all learn.

Sunshine on a stick

2010-09-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

As you can see by my new picture, the sunflowers are out! I had 4 giant sunflowers - the kind that give you seeds, but one tipped over and broke, one withered and I'm left with 2. I have to try to get a picture of them when the sky clears. They are my only sunshine in this rainy time. Of course, just as I'm typing this - the sun is coming out! The perfect time to go gather some veggies!

Our veggie garden was a hit and miss proposition this year. The berries weren't so great and I have to go still and dig up the old strawberry plants and ensure the shoots take, and cut the old raspberry canes out.

We got lots of peas but someone, a slug I think, got more of them. I'd be waiting for them to pop full and go out and all of the ones I wanted were eaten overnight.. hmmmm

We got lots and lots of beans. Apparently we grow good beans here! Carrots and radishes? not so much. The parsnips are small but look good. I'm leaving those for a while as I read a light frost sweetens them. we have some cabbages to bring in, and of all the kohlrabi plants, i think we actually have one that grew to the right size.

Our tomatoes look good, but are not ripening. We need a week of sun! The early ones, a lovely orange whose name escapes me, are good, though. And peppers. We have chilis, jalapenos, hungarian wax and something that was labelled the same but is a different pepper and I have no idea what kind. Much much bigger, that's all I know. I'll let my husband taste test. (It's ok - he loves the hot ones!)

We ended up with - are you ready? 3 ears of corn! Not quite done, but that's it. The kids are thrilled, so that's ok. And potatoes - hmm.. as they are underground I have no idea. I'll go dig up some this weekend and see what we have. It's going to be potatoes this fall if they grew.

Next will be the clearing of the veggie patch, and we'll be digging in some compost and I plan to mulch over top with the leaves when they fall. We don't have a mulcher, so I'll just run the lawnmower over them a bunch of times to cut them into bits. It's a great way to stop the weeds. i might do a layer of newspaper with this over top. That will save me a ton of cleanup in the spring.

That's my update today! Stay tuned for a quick product review...

Missed it by One!!

2010-09-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

Ack! I knew I would be close, but I just didn't squeak over the line. I'd been working on the BC Hydro Team Powersmart challenge to reduce my usage by 10% over the last year. My year ended on August 31st, and even with a 47.3% reduction in power usage in August, I came in at 9%. I do have to say, though, that my bills haven't gone down any. Usage went down, rates went up. I really do think Murphy's Law might be in effect here.

However, 9% over the course of a year, and one where we did spend a fair amount of time at home, isn't anything to sneeze over. We can continue to do this, and each time we go a little lower, it's definately something to be proud of. Hopefully it will save us money as well as save energy this time around.

Packing Kudos!

2010-09-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

I think it's a first. A kid's toy that came with acceptable packaging. I didn't gouge myself on the wires, grit my teeth over the plastic overlays I can't recycle, or groan about all the tape. My son was given a set of Cars (the movie) bowling pins and ball. While the set itself is plastic, I think with good care it will last. The packaging - a box, cardboard only with a small plastic handle on the top that pops off. I pulled the box apart, the pins and ball came out and voila, instant play. The box went into the recycling bin.

In fact, I'm so impressed, I'm going to write the company (at http://www.whatkidswant.net/) to tell them I'm happy. Now that's a pleasant change, isn't it?

Rain, Rain, come again...

2010-08-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's raining outside which, surprisingly, is a good thing.   It's been hot and dry here for weeks and weeks with the only rain being the odd extremely light shower. I can hear the grass and trees sighing in relief. I've watered my veggies, flowers and pots as they need it, but unless the grass was near the paddling pool, or got some overspray, it was on it's own. I'm actually fortunate - the only grass we have is in the back yard, and even though we face south, we don't the hot sun on it all day due to the mature trees at the back of the yard. Our deck stays sunny, but the yard gets filtered light at the hottest points of the day,which is lovely.

I just received my hydro bill. I've been working to reach a 10% reduction in usage to receive a rebate. Let's just say I was shocked to see that I'm 75% over last year's month and now only at 6% for the year. Sigh. Not sure I'm going to get that rebate now as I only have until September 1st. I think I'll have to turn it all off and live somewhere else to do it!   I can't figure out why so much more, other than I've put less on the line to dry this summer than last. But surely that's not the only reason. Now to figure it out. Even if I don't reach the rebate, it's good to find out where I'm 'leaking' out the energy as that's money in my pocket either way if I stop it.

I've recently redone my bedroom and a few other spots. When I have time, I'll share what I did. I've reused a few things by redoing them and they look marvelous!   Since I'd had the old bedroom suite for somewhere close to 20 years, I didn't feel bad about getting a new one.   I'd say I'd gotten my use out of it, and then sold it to someone else so it will continue to be used. I plan on hanging onto this one for some time as I really like it.   Being pine, and from IKEA, it's not an endangered wood, and it comes flat packed, which means it saves energy in shipping since they can pack more into a container. Granted, it used WAY more of my personal energy to put it together, but I suppose we can say that's a good thing. :-)

Does being green mean itchy rough towels?

2010-07-11T23:52:00.000-07:00

Ah, now that's a question for the masses! I've been trying to take advantage of the summer weather and my clothesline all at the same time. Washing everything in cold water and hanging it to dry is sure to help me in my pursuit of 'greenness', right?

But this leaves me with one question. If I'm not using fabric softener (can't as my son's eczema is too bad) then how do I get nice soft towels? Am I doomed to itchy scratchiness every morning? Will my houseguests be rubbed raw? Enquiring minds want to know!

I have heard adding vinegar as a softener works, but I've not tried it yet. I'm hoping to remember with the next load of towels.

Here's where you come in... If you have an idea of something to help, let me know. I'm game to try it if i can.

Green Canada Day

2010-07-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

This year I decided to host a Canada Day Barbecue. Yep, one of those dress in red and white and show your colours, come eat the food kind of events.  Usually this sends me into a tizzy of consumption - you know, all the plates, cutlery, napkins, decorations, stuff we don't really need but would like to have.    But not this time - or at least no so much. I wanted to do it differently.

I recently replaced my dishes, and wouldn't you know it, they are red and white. How perfect is that for Canada Day? So I dug out my dishes and mugs for the event. Last year I invested in a bunch of kid friendly stuff for the boy's birthdays. So I have a plethora of unbreakable cups and plates and cutlery for the kiddles. So far, so good. I also sewed up some red napkins earlier this year and had a stash of odd/ends of paper napkins that I pulled out. Christmas in July works, right?    My tablecloth - the unfinished length of fabric I bought in red/white checks - no one noticed the rough edge.

Everyone brought stuff, and lo and behold - it all came in casserole dishes and the like. Other than the chip bags (we used bowls to put them out), there were no disposable containers. I wonder - is this rubbing off on my friends?

We had a good time - kids played, adults chatted, the barbecue bbq'd and we all ate, then chatted and played some more. I did wash a lot of dishes, but since a dishwasher is the best option for that, and it meant not throwing things in the garbage, I'm good with it.

We were happily surprised by a local realtor, Jeremy Sutton with Remax, putting little flags at the end of all the driveways on my street. It was just so cool to see that when we got up. So, if you ever read this - Thanks Jeremy! It really made the day.   I saved all the decorations for next year, a few flags, pinwheels and even the paper ones we got from the city's celebration, which we attended earlier in the day. So once again, no garbage.

It wasn't perfect, but I think we did better than we've done before.    Baby steps, that's what its all about!

Kreative Blogger Award! Come see!

2010-06-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Back in April one of my readers, Christi (website, "living green in a colourful world") at this link below
http://fatbottombags.blogspot.com/2010/04/marvelous-monday.html
nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award. I kept trying to remember to fulfill the requirements and have now finally gotten to it. Sorry for such a delay Christi! And thank you for the honour.

Here are 7 things you probably don't know about me:

I collect old paragon porcelain tea cups and accessories - in the fancy patterns with lots of gilding and those lovely dish style cups.
I have been following Flylady for a while and it appears to be working (most days, lol) - google her to see what that's all about - hint, it helps me stay sane in a chaotic home.
Houseplants stand no chance against my black thumb of death - outside ones do fare better
I used to have pet rats
I work in conflict resolution
I like soft boiled eggs with buttered toast 'soldiers' when I'm sad. It's a comfort food that reminds me of my grandmother
I used to volunteer for the SPCA and spent a couple of years as a volunteer coordinator since I loved it so much. (that's where all our fur-babies came from)

Now it's my turn to nominate some pretty awesome blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Definately worth a peek - and you may just have to follow them so you don't miss out! Here they are:

Rhondi over at Rhondis Rose Covered Glasses http://rhondisrosecoloredglasses.blogspot.com/ has a beautiful blog and she just had a porch party. A must go see - I loved it!
Alicia of Posie Gets Cozy http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/ also has a wonderful and creative blog. She's got her first book coming out! And I have to say, her little baby book on the blog is just so sweet. Go take a look
Tracy at The Enchanted Cottage http://seasideenchantment.blogspot.com/ inspires me. In her new home, she is having fun making it her own - and she's writing a story A Change of Heart. Go and take a look (the story beginnings are on the left in the side bar under 'my writings')
Heidi at All My Scattering Moments
http://allmyscatteringmoments.blogspot.com/ will inspire you with her talent - she's an amazing quilter and I think she has a way with displaying things to look so pretty.
Rhonda over at If You Do Stuff - Stuff Gets Done http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/ (don't you just love that name?) shows you that's exactly true! I love her blog - and can't figure out how she gets it all done. Yep, she's got talent!
Robin - Life with Robin http://lifewithrobin.blogspot.com/ shows off her nest. And Robin has been developing quite the photographic talent (get it?) I love looking at all her pictures.
Lesley has a new blog Country Roses and Roots http://countryrootsandroses.blogspot.com/ that I think you will love. Beautiful pictures and some great thoughts there.

For you 7 Kreative Bloggers, here are the guidelines for accepting this award:

You'll want to post the award on your blog.
Be sure to thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their blog
Share your own list of 7 things that you probably don't know about me ... (or were afraid to ask

Nominate and link to 7 other creative bloggers who you follow and pass the award on. Be sure to leave a comment on their blogs so they know they've received the award

What's A Girl To Do?

2010-06-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Why Shop of course... OK. that really does sound cliche, but it is a nice segue into my topic. If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you'll know I used to have a dirty little secret called a diaper genie (long gone). Well, now I have a new secret... are you ready for this? I love to shop!!!

Ordinarily I reserve that for second hand shopping - it allows me to splurge, but I'm not really contributing to the using up of fresh resources (this is how I justify it to myself) but lately I've noticed myself slipping. While I work hard to declutter - heck I even participated in a neighbourhood garage sale a couple of weeks ago! - I keep buying stuff at.. gasp... the dollar store. Now I know, I know, this is a big bad 'no no'. It's cheap stuff, made with cheap labour and it comes with an environmental, and. likely, human cost. It gets worse. I've also been shopping at... double gasp... that big box store that sells more things than there are people on the planet. You know the one. And its for things I don't need - but suddenly discover in my basket (OK cart)at the checkout!

Granted, a few things were on the list. I needed some balls for a training thing at work; I needed sheets and they had the exact ones I wanted... but the rest? Yeah... not so much.

I will be off for five weeks this summer and I will endeavor to cut that shopping habit in half, if not more. It's going to be tough! We also will be at two weddings and I plan on having 'fun packs' set up for my kids so they stay busy and not naughty. While they have some stuff already from the first of my bad choices, I promise to look through what we already have to finish them up. And if I don't have what I need, to look for it second hand.

The shopping bug has crept up on me. I know I love it, and I used to be pretty aware of what I was doing, but lately I'm out of control. If I want to teach my kids the lesson that less is more, I've got a LONG way to go. And if I want to walk the walk, I need to lace up my shoes and get on with it.

I'll let you know how I do!

Little Garden Growing

2010-06-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick update to share about our little garden. We've got strawberries on the vine, waiting to ripen, raspberries, too, and we've cut the rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb came from that and we've shared with friends and family and frozen some for pies. (waiting for those strawberries!)

A few things didn't go so well - and I blame it on the lack of sunlight and endless rain we've had. Nothing sprouted for a long time and of those that did, the spinach barely came up, same with the carrots. We have lots of leaves on the radishes, not so much the radish part, though! and our lettuce started out ok, then bit it. I saved 4 little ones and moved them into a shadier spot. I'll plant some more over there soon.

So there are lots of things in the garden - the biggest are the sunflowers, cabbage, cauliflower and a few of the corn. Of course, the corn that's growing well is in the wrong spot, tucked in with a sunflower. Hopefully it'll move ok. I put all the tomatoes and most of the peppers in pots. This is a sunny spot (when we see that yellow ball in the sky) and gets hot here for then. As you can see, I ran out of pots, so I drilled holes in the old kitty litter containers and used those! (now how's that for re-using!)

I've put up some pictures for you to see. The rest of the garden, well, that's another story! One I might blog about here as I fight the weed battle. (with a shovel and plenty of recycling bags for curbside pickup!!) Speaking of weeds, yep, there are some in the veggie patch, only problem is they are little and i'm not sure which is the veggie and which is the weed!

Cleaning out the Medicine Cabinet

2010-05-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone has stuff in the back of the medicine cabinet that they probably should get rid of. (It can't just be me, right?) There are expired medications, unused prescriptions, leftover vitamins, and allergy pills that time forgot. Or at least there could be, as I'm sure everyone has something a little different in there.

It's a good idea to periodically go through the place you keep medications and vitamins and get rid of the things that are no longer any good. It's not safe to keep expired medication - especially if it's life saving stuff like an epi-pen or heart meds.

If you live in Canada - consult the link below to find out more about how you can safely dispose of your old vitamins/medications. If you live outside of Canada, you can start by asking your local pharmacy if they have a collection program for this stuff. If they say know - try asking why not and see if you can work with them to find a way to start a safe disposal program.

http://www.medicationsreturn.ca/

Planting my Zero-Mile Diet

2010-05-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

*-9-+It feels like summer is here. It's over 20 degrees outside with a great breeze that's keeping it perfect outside today. We've finally got dirt in my new veggie patch - a nice long strip along the fence that's about 3 feet (ish) wide. I have my seeds at the ready and over the course of this afternoon I intend to start planting my kitchen garden.

I already have strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries, onions and potatoes in our original patch. I want this one to be a little more fun, if possible.   So while the peas will be in rows, I think I'll try to sow the other stuff a little prettier.   I have peas, carrots, lettuce, beans (which will actually go along the trellis in another part of the yard where my climbing rose is)*-

I'm hoping to get out this week and pick up some red leaf lettuce seeds, radishes, and a few other things I've not thought of yet. (one always has to leave room for impulse when choosing seeds!)

We have a few sunflowers that have started in the yard, courtesy of our neighbours giant sunflowers that dropped seeds last year. I also have a few saved that we'll plant. I'd like those up along the fence, their pretty yellow heads watching us play will put a smile on everyone's face. (especially after we cut them and get to eat them!)

I almost forgot, I have have a packet of pumpkin seeds.   Since my dog loves to eat the leaves, I'm going to attempt to grow them in the old veggie patch - it's a bit shadier there, but I'm hopeful a seed or two will bear fruit in the end. Just in time for Halloween would be nice!

I've spent the last two days setting up the garden to plant, with the help of my husband who nicely dug and moved dirt for me (thank you!!) I still have lots left in the big pile for my tomato and pepper pots that we'll do next weekend.   And while digging, we've found out just what's hiding under that dirt. But more on that in my 'what not to compost' spot coming soon!

PS... I added a picture to show you my little veggie garden - there is a spot along the fence that is about 3 feet deep and then a little fenced in spot. It's now all planted and providing I take care of it properly, it should be very plentiful!

Earth Day... how we did

2010-04-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well, Earth Day has come and gone - and I didn't even blog on it! Bad green blogger, me! Even though I wasn't writing, I thought I'd share what we did - and what we are still doing.

If you go back to Earth Hour last month we did turn off all the lights, lit some candles and just sat back and relaxed. Friends came over and they joined us. (and they never even gave me 'the look' when they arrived to the lights all off)

Then leading up to Earth Day, I sadly missed the City of Surrey's fantastic shindig. They put on a great celebration, with a fish release, story time, music, demonstrations and more. But I missed it because I was doing something green. I was at the kidswap! I've blogged about these before, but really, a kids only swapmeet is an amazing thing. It's a whole economy in itself. I arrived with my bins of stuff, set up my table and since the doors hadn't opened to the public, proceeded to check out everyone else's stuff. My kids are now the proud owners of a tool bench and a hungry hungry hippo game that cost me a fraction of retail.  Nanna bought a table and chair set for her place (among other things, lol).

I think this is a fantastic way to reuse stuff. I sold a lot, people got great deals, things stayed out of the landfill, and lots and lots of stuff is getting reused - sometimes over and over as people continue to do this as their children outgrow things. With all the recalls, thrift stores are very hesitant to take toys and kids items, but armed with knowledge (gleaned from the Health Canada website - you can go to http://cpsr-rspc.hc-sc.gc.ca/PR-RP/home-accueil-eng.jsp to search recalls and most countries have their own information posted by their respective agencies) about recalls and what is safe, what needs new parts, etc. a buyer at these swapmeets can do very well for themselves.   For example - if you know that a crib has a recall but you know that the company has a fix to order - you can buy the item second hand for much much less than retail and then order the parts before you use it. You end up with great savings and a safe item.    And many recalls are to alert consumers to the 'fix' you need to get so the item is safe. By the same token, you can search what cannot be fixed and know to avoid it - and even educate the seller so they can return it.

I just love second hand shopping - it gives everything a second chance!

After the swapmeet, I posted some stuff on craigslist, gave away a few things on fullcircles and donated a big box of clothing and accessories for baby to a local pregnancy crisis centre. (Pregnancy Options in Surrey, BC)   I like that they give things to the people who need them. If you are interested in something like this, contact your local Pregnancy Options place and see what they can use. Often space is very limited so it's good to see what they can use, or let them find someone who can use what you have if it's bigger. And remember, it's nice for babies to have nice things - I've always given a mix of play clothes and dressier clothes, and never things that are too worn. I like to think that donations would be what I'd want, too.

I have also been working on my kitchen. I really wanted a new set of canisters and breadbox, but have decided to paint the ones I have. After all, they are the size and style I want, just not the colour anymore. I'll take pictures and share the result. (assuming I do a good job!) This keeps me from buying more stuff - reusing is definitely a better option.

We started to put a little 'green' into our lives this past Sunday. My preschooler and I planted potatoes and onions, fixed up our pots outside (where I transplanted a few things from the garden I'm going to move) and are contemplating the completion of the new veggie bed. He's getting his own little plot in there. I thought he'd love a place to grow his Bean and maybe a few friends for Bean.

Next on the list is to move a what feels like a ton of dirt into our new veggie bed, and to clean out the pots for planting tomatoes and peppers in.    (and dig up the weeds in the front and put in rock - no more weeding! and hey, isn't rock xeriscaping at it's best? low to no maintenance? and even better if I can get it for free if someone else local is pulling it from their landscaping!)

I'm looking to see how to reuse things. I still have a pile of bricks at the side of my house. I picked up large ceramic pot saucers on clearance (they were seconds) and I think I'll put the bricks together to make a stand to use them as birdbaths. Functional and reusing something I had no use for.

So far that's what we've been up to. I'm still clearing the garage and giving away stuff like crazy. I'm thinking that this week we'll be done in there and we can finally organize what we are keeping. It's spring and I'm in the mood to let go - a popular thing for many. It's the season for lightening up.

What are you doing around your home?

Sew Wonderful - Re-usable Napkins!

2010-04-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

I got busy tonight and sewed up a window topper for my kitchen. Since I had extra fabric, and had some other red fabric to use up, I also made napkins. If you can sew a straight line (or a sorta straight line) and wield an iron, you can make these pretty easily. Just cut your squares, iron over the seams (twice for a clean look) and stitch in place. Voila! Re-Usable Napkins! Almost like magic!

It's a great idea - if you sew, go through your stash and use up bits and pieces. Napkins don't have to match, after all, they're for cleaning up, right? Or pop on down the fabric store and pick up something fun and make a batch. A basket of these will mean you don't have to buy paper napkins. And if you just toss them into the wash with your towels, they don't take any extra energy to keep clean.

If you can't sew, consider investing in some cloth napkins - or ask a friend who sews to help you out.

Spring has Sprung!

2010-04-08T19:34:00.001-07:00

Do you ever wish there were more hours in the day? I sure do – it’s SPRING and I long to be outside up to my elbows in dirt! For my birthday this year, my husband has promised me a raised veggie bed along our fence. Our current veggie patch doesn’t get as much sun as the fence area, so this way I can mix around what I plant depending on what it needs! I see lettuce (pretty ones!) and sunflowers (lovely and tall with BIG seed heads) peas, beans, more raspberries and strawberries, carrots, radishes and more in there. I plan to make it pretty.

In my old veggie patch, I’ll leave the rhubarb and the raspberries currently there, as well as my strawberries. I want to add in potatoes, onions and squash – maybe a pumpkin, too.

My dog loves squash/pumpkin plants so in order to get them to grow, they need to be behind the fence I have around that garden.

It was pretty cool here today, but I know it’s warming – the daffodils are nearly done, the tulips are getting ready for me and so much is greening out! I plan on getting out there this weekend as the weather is supposed to be somewhat nice for part of it. Lots of cleanup to do, a compost to feed (and turn!) and planning of how we’ll arrange things over this coming year.

Gardening is about as green as I can get. I use organic fertilizer and try to plant smart. Weeds go the old fashioned way – we dig ‘em out! (not the funnest part, unless you are in a bad mood – then ripping out weeds can be therapeutic!)

Do you have a vision for your garden? Pots on the patio? Herbs on the windowsill?

Tiffin Tales Part Two!

2010-02-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have been reading this blog for some time, you may remember me mentioning the tiffin - that lovely little Indian food carry-all. It's essentially a set of stacking metal bowls that are locked together with a carrying handle. I bought one to use when I go to the cafeteria at work so that I could avoid styrofoam containers.

Well, if you don't live in an area that has a larger Indian community, you may have difficulty finding one of these.   Until now... I just saw that the Avon catalogue - campaign 7, page 114 (or at least that's where it is in my catalogue) has a tiffin in it! They call it a Triple Decker Food Container... but it's a tiffin and a rather pretty one, too. It has a yellow plastic outer on the bowls, stainless steel inside, and a pretty yellow carry handle.   So if you can find an Avon lady, you too can have a tiffin!

I will vouch for the fact a tiffin is a cool little thing. It does keep things warm for quite some time (far longer than styrofoam!), and I've even taken mine to a mall food court and they've put my food inside it. This way it was still nice and hot when I got back to the office.

Take a look, and if you think it's something you'd love, too - consider getting one.   Either from Avon or, if you have an Indian store nearby like I do, you can get an all stainless steel one for less.

Enjoy!!!

Spring Dreaming!

2010-01-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

Spring is in the air - or at least it is in South Western British Columbia! Today I noticed there are four little crocus flowers in my garden.   That's a sign if you ask me.   This got me to thinking about the garden and how I plan to approach it this year.

I want to expand my vegetable garden to run it along the fence - like a side bed in the yard.   I will put in veggies and maybe some flowers to make it pretty. Although things like scarlett runner beans, peas, strawberries and more are all pretty in their own right - and their flowers look great.   I've also noticed that some salad greens are pretty, too, so I would like to plant them all together so they look nice as they get big enough for me to eat them.

I didn't cut down and dig over the beds this past fall. I kept seeing the birds landing in the tall stalks, so I left them all. It turns out this was a good thing, as I know where all the plants I like are. I'm going to move some things around, and this makes it easy.   It also provided a haven for little birds and bugs over the winter. I'm hoping this will prove to be a benefit for my garden this year.

I want a garden that's low maintenance, so I'll be laying the drip hoses early. This way my plants will grow up over them. This is a good way to water, keeping it low on the ground where it's needed.   And I've let go of some plants that didn't suit the spots, which should make care easier, too. And our front yard now has very little planting. We have very large trees under which we will put rock, and in the open area we have river rock and a few dwarf trees and a couple peonies. All of the rest we pulled as it was full of weeds and so on. Now it looks nice, has some beautiful plants and the extra visuals will come in a few large pots of flowers. Simple, pretty and low maintenance. Most of it requires watering only if it's dry for a very long period as it's well established- that's a good thing.

Do you have spring planting dreams? Ideas for great veggie gardens (the zero mile diet!) or fantastic flowers?

Get Organized!

2010-01-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to the Blog "Rubbermaid Aventures in Organization" and over the past few months I've come to one conclusion... getting organized is a good way to be green. The theory that everything has it's place, and that everything should be in it's place is pretty self-explanatory - or at least it should be. Somehow, though, my brain has continually resisted this idea and it keeps making my hands drop things where they don't belong. Consequently I spend valuable time searching for things, money on replacing things and energy on stressing out over it all.

Then it occured to me if I just got on with it and put things away, I might have greater peace of mind. Now where to start? I've read all the books, seen all the shows and I'm still flopping around in 'stuff' and clutter so this is a HUGE question to ask myself. With two small children, stuff is really like an entity in this home - it lives here.

I'm determined to keep decluttering, but while I do this, I have to find ways to stop the influx. Inevitably I purge like crazy and a few months later drown in stuff. But now I have a plan. I'm not going to do the crazy woman thing anymore. Instead I'm going to focus on one thing at a time - one small area. Purge, tidy and organize. I'm going to invest in the things that are needed to contain the things I want to keep. And all the things I keep will have been looked at upside down and sideways before they get to stay.

I'm beginning slowly. Just as being green is a journey, so is letting go and organizing. By doing this, I give myself a better chance at living a sustainable lifestyle. I'm not wasting things, moving around doubles (or triples) and I'm able to access what is needed at the moment it's needed.

Being 'Green' isn't just about less chemicals and going organic - it's about finding ways to use what you have responsibly and organizing after decluttering is a good way to do this. So jump on the bandwagon here and go find yourself one small space to clear out. Let go of the junk, keep the jewels and then organize it so you can find what you need later. Enjoy!!

Seventh Generation Give-Away

2010-01-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

After I posted my blog for today, I went to visit Canadian Natural Mama - Product Reviews. It's a great blog for getting info on green stuff for your family. Well, lo and behold, right after I mentioned Seventh Generation in my blog (my all time favourite eco friendly company) she has a great giveaway there, with some really great reviews of the items she has tried.

So... go check it out!!!

http://canadian-natural-mama.blogspot.com/

And read on, as there is some really great info in this blog. I highly recommend it (and have her listed in my green blog roll!)

Back to the Basics

2010-01-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it may not seem like it, but I'm still here!   With going back to work in November, it's become a major juggling act just to keep our sanity. With the new year well upon us, I think it's time to take stock of where we are and what's important. Back to the Basics, as it were.

I'm not sure if I posted about our insane gas and electric bills in this house. Lets just say we pay double what most people we know do. While I realize a hot tub takes a lot to heat, that still doesn't explain the crazy gas bill.   So, with that in mind, we replaced our furnace this past December.   We didn't end up springing for the high efficiency model, since it was a bit pricey even with both our provincial and federal grants. Instead we bought a two step mid-efficient model and installed a new programmable thermostat. Already we are reaping the rewards. Not only did we replace the original furnace (nearly 35 years old) but we discovered why we had no heat in our bedrooms and fixed that, too. Now we have no need to use the electric heaters (other than the odd time we need only one room warmer). Both things are saving us money already.

I think, too, having installed the new windows this past year has positively affected our bills, as both of them have dropped - about $60 on the monthly gas and about $15 on the electric. Next step - turn off those darned lights when we aren't using them!   I'm really bad for it. I spend a lot of time running around the house turning them all off. Time, I think, better used. I really have to make it a habit to turn them off as I go.

We also bought a new washer and dryer (and I will NOT get started on my issues with the dryer and the place I bought it from - let it suffice to say I'm not happy and am working to a resolution).   I hope that the front load washer will help with the bills, too. I don't do many hot water washes, but those I do should use lots less water. And I'm using less water overall and that's a good thing - same on the detergent (which is, of course, my favourite Seventh Generation)

Oh, there is so much to do around here still. We have six months left (roughly) to get it done and reaudit the place for our rebates. I'm hoping we can do some of it before then (add some insulation, sealing the leaks, etc) I'm also trying to do the cut your usage by 10% with BC Hydro for their team powersmart. Yeah.. so far I'm up about 11%. But that's going down.   The first months we compared had us working the first year, and me at home the second so we do use more energy that way. Now that I'm back to work, we'll see. Yet another reason to turn off those lights and replace a few energy sucking fixtures around here.

My resolution for this year is to work hard at the small stuff. We've made a few big changes with the windows, furnace and appliances (new dishwasher, washing machine/dryer) this past year. This year it's all about little things.. Oh, and my garden. If I can ever get motivated (as in have time to do it, without wee babies pulling me in other directions, LOL) I will be planning my veggie garden and some expansions there to make it better and easier to care for than last year. Ahhh.. dreaming... but that's for another post!

Have you made any 'green' resolutions this year?

Being mindful - staying focused

2009-11-23T00:35:00.000-08:00

It's funny to think that being mindful of what you are doing and focusing on the task at hand could be a green thing but it truly is. You see, I've discovered something about myself - I have the attention span of a flea. Now, if I actually was a flea, that would be ok, but in a full size human being that's a recipe for disaster, and for waste. I have noticed that, because I tend to get sidetracked, I forget things like putting leftovers in the freezer for future meals, making sure not to burn the rice (which I do everytime!) and planning to use up all the perishable food. I am great at saving stuff to take to the recycling spots, but not so hot at getting it there as I never seem to be organized enough to get out the door. If you saw the big batch of batteries I have to take in, you'd understand. It's been well over a year and I keep forgetting them, even when they are in my car.

If I was mindful of one task at a time, that wouldn't happen. None of it would happen - except maybe the rice. I just can't get that right. I want to be more focused; to finish one task at a time so that each idea or line on my to do list is completed, instead of having a big list of half done stuff. When you live like this, you leave little things undone and that's just not good stewardship of your resources.

We are taught to multi-task and evidence is now showing that the human brain isn't wired to do thaty. I think women do this more than men. We try to get just one more thing done on top of the ones we've already started. It's very zen to be mindful, and I can sure see how it could save me some money when I stop wasting stuff or buying duplicates because I've forgotten I already have certain things.

As for the rice, I think I might get a rice cooker and save those stovetop pans from permanent black burns.

Birthdays and Being Green

2009-11-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

When you are talking about kid's birthdays and being green, it's usually not in the same sentence. Let's face it, birthday parties are about games, presents, cake and goodie bags - that's it. Yes, I know that it's supposed to be a celebration and gifts aren't important, but try telling that to a preschooler!

This year we tried to do it a little bit differently for my son's birthday party. I invited 5 kids (4 families) and each came with a parent. Before I knew what I'd done, I'd gotten caught up in the birthday decor - the plates, the tablecloth... none of it reusable. But before it went to far, I stopped myself.

I went hunting to see what leftovers we had and began to plan what we needed for parties. To that end, I went to IKEA and bought a six piece set of kid's plastic bowls, plates, cups and cutlery. Now the kiddies had fun stuff to use and I can reuse it here daily as well as for my next kiddie birthday party (coming up quick). I used the paper stuff for the adults, but only opened one package of plates, figuring we'd switch to my dinnerware if needed.

I knew I wanted to hand out goodie bags - last year I did books and a toy car - things that would last. This year I sewed up a tote bag, a crayon roll (with crayons) and a matching bean bag. I added a colouring book and viola. A goodie bag that has things in it designed to last a long time and spark the imagination. I'm pretty proud of them, that's for sure and will post a picture here asap.

As for cake - the only kind my son can have is either homemade (and I didn't have time to make one) or an icecream cake. We chose an icecream cake big enough for the party and the family gathering coming later. (after all - it goes in the freezer, right?) The only part of that we didn't recycle or eat was the base under the cake.

Prior to his party, I cleaned out the kid's toys and packed up a large box of stuff to take to the swapmeet. Kid 'stuff' swapmeets are very popular here, and I've been building up a big collection of stuff to take to one.

Many of his gifts didn't have much for packaging - a big plus, but for those that did, I pulled it all apart until I had everything recyclable out of there and in the blue bin. There wasn't very much waste, which was a really good thing.

The party was a great success - 6 preschoolers and two babies playing, yelling, screaming! 3 hours, plenty of help. This allowed us to enjoy the kids and the day. I think that having planned a little better this year, and having considered the impact of most of what we did, helped to make it a little Greener than it would have been without the legwork.

We've got lots of room for improvement, but this was a fabulous start!

Sharing - the greenest way of all

2009-11-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Wow, time sure flies when you are having fun! I'm on the countdown to return to work and have been making the most of it with my family. Today I wanted to share just how wonderful sharing can be.

I've been clearing out stuff like crazy around here - boxing up for a kid's stuff swapmeet, donating things and putting stuff on fullcircles and craigslist. Normally when I post free stuff, people come by and pick it up from outdoors. I never see or hear from them and the stuff is gone. But this past week something different happened. I had a lady leave a thankyou card with a lotto scratch ticket in it at my door - just to say thankyou. Another person left a little note with a handknitted dishcloth at my door - again to say thankyou. A man stopped to knock and say thank you for something else and another lady sent me a thank you email. Wow!

I never expected anything in return for what I was sharing. It's all stuff I didn't need and I thought someone else could use. It didn't need to go to the landfill - it just needed to be connected to the right person. That's all I was thinking. But something else happened last week - I noticed that it felt really good to share. I've been trying to follow the Flylady program (http://www.flylady.net/) to help me get on track with routines and clearing out stuff before I head back to work and she says to bless others with things we no longer need. Instead of saving it all for a garage sale, I decided to do just that. I don't have to store it and they get to enjoy it. It's a very 'green' principle.

So - if you don't love it, it doesn't have deep meaning to you and you don't use it - why is it in your house? Share it and watch how good things flow back to you just when you need them!

Good Times in the Garden

2009-10-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's Fall. Enough said. Days are getting shorter, Nights longer, Air cooler - winter is approaching. I love fall and now with a garden it has new meaning. Leaves will need to be rakes - and bagged and saved. Yep, I said saved. Leaves are great for the compost - so if you have one, save those leaves so you can layer them in there in the spring. I plan on keeping a bag or two of dried leaves and I'm going to run over piles of them with the mower and dig them into the veggie garden, too.

Laying the garden to rest is surprisingly rewarding. I thought I'd be sad about it, but as I'm tidying up I'm able to move things around a bit and begin to make plans for spring. I'm saving seeds from the things I liked and pulling those I didn't. This will give me a chance to share with others if I have plants I no longer like.

I've filled a few bags for the garden waste pickup - this fabulous thing allows me to send off my weeds where they are composted, rather than tossed in the garbage. Apparently the high heat attained there kills the seeds, something that doesn't happen in my small compost.

Speaking of which, I do need to add more brown stuff to it and turn it. That's something I've been slow in doing. Already I'm planning on how to make it better next year so I can harvest some of that rich stuff for my garden.

Fall is a good time to map out where your plants are, what you want to move in the spring (and where it is, as it will probably die back over the winter and you'll have no clue where to look) and what you want to add. You might even find a friend that has what you want and vice - versa. Hmmm. I think this would be 'green' gardening at it's best. You can recycle old pots to move things to each other and you are using something that already exists. Gotta love it! If you have items you don't need anymore (extra rakes, garden ornaments, pots for plants and so on) be sure to share them on freecycle, fullcircles or craiglist - or a reuse website run by your community. Even broken stuff can be artistic in the garden so keep an open mind on what you can re-use or pass on to another.

Magic Wands and the Wonder of the Recycling Bin

2009-09-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

The other day my son needed a magic wand. He chose a long stick. Um...dangerous when a two year old waves it around! You do remember the saying that it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye? That's what was running through my head when I saw it!

The solution - run to the recycling bin (faster than pulling out our 'maker' box) and see what in there could work to make a wand. We settled on a cheerios box, cut up into two big stars and then we stapled them together over the top of a wooden spoon. Instant magic wand! And days later it's still working - albiet with a little added tape to hold it together.

This got me to thinking about what ends up in that bin. I've been trying to think of how I could reuse some of the stuff in there before it heads to the recycling depot.   So far I've kept baby food jars so I can make baby meals in them and freeze them. These are great as you can reuse over and over and still recycle them. I'm also saving stuff like paper towel rolls, cardboard, little containers and so one for our 'maker' box (see my toddler blog for more info on this idea) And I do save my baby formula containers (not recyclable), lids and scoops for my Mom to take their local kindergarten class to use in crafts. I think I might start saving smartie boxes and little ones like that for her, too, as the kids use them to make stuff.

Can you think of anything in your recycling box that could have another life?

(ps. Kiva has a ton of loans open at the moment and it looks like lots of them will not be funded before they expire - if you wish to loan as little as $25, check it out using the link to the left of this post. We've funded lots of loans and so far our intitial $100 investment has been fully repaid over and over by everyone we've given too. It's a great feeling to look and see we've helped 9 people so far, and we can just keep giving the same money to help another as it gets repaid.  While they cannot guarantee repayment, we've noticed that these entreprenuers work hard to pay back their loans and you will likely see it all come back to you to regift or use for something else as you wish.)

Pack it In! Reusable lunch boxes are cool!

2009-09-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that there are lots of lunch boxes out there now. Metal ones (cool, like we had as kids!), insulated bags, cloth bags, bento box style - you can find just about anything.

Litterless lunches are in. And this is a great thing. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it's also cheaper to eat this way. Hmmm.. I think I'm beginning to see a trend - green often equals money savings. But I digress. Here's what you need for a litterless lunch

A container - a large rubbermaid, insulated bag, metal lunch box, cloth drawstring bag - you choose your container.
cloth napkin (buy them or make your own as they are simple to sew up)
set of utensils - I like to have a set of metal ones, but you can buy bamboo or just keep re-using your plastic ones that you'd bought to throw away.
smaller containers - these are for snacks, sandwiches, salads, etc.
baggies - I love the baggies I mentioned in an earlier post - they are re-usable and my little guy loves his crackers in them. I do still use some ziplocs, but these are brought home to be re-used.
re-usable juice/water bottle
re-usable coffee/hot drink mug

When you shop, don't buy the individual size items. Instead, buy a larger container and split it up into your little containers. I have a big bucket that is filled with snacks. There are mini rice cakes, crackers and so on, all repackaged into smaller containers. You can also your own puddings/jello into small tupperware containers. I do use ziploc baggies, but I reuse them until they fall apart. This makes it easy to grab and go. I also keep large tupperware containers of things like goldfish crackers and just scoop those into a re-usable container when I'm packing lunches.

You can go bento box style, where all your little boxes fit tightly into a bigger one - or you can toss them all in a bag, it's up to you. When you have a reusable lunch box and containers, you don't have garbage to throw away. Bring home your egg shells and scraps for the compost. If you do put in a soda or a juice container, then bring it home to recycle.

It's easy to go green with your lunch - so pack both school and work lunches like this and tally up your savings while you're at it!

Hang 10! or a whole load...

2009-09-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Of laundry that is!

Today's tip is to hang your laundry. If you have room, put up a clothesline. There are so many out there to choose from - umbrella style, some that hang off the wall, free-standing and more. They also come in many sizes and price ranges so you can fit any budget and any space. I use an umbrella style one that is out in the lawn, as well as a small free-standing rack. In my laundry room I have a rod that I hang things from, too.

This simple thing can save a lot of energy and money, as dryers are one of the big energy hogs in your home. If you are a laundramat user, think of all the rolls of quarters you can bank!

If you are intrigued by the idea of using a clothesline - check out Sundog clotheslines. This is a local company that specializes in them and their catalogue is awesome!

http://www.sundogclotheslines.com/catalogue.html

Who turned out the lights?

2009-09-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Turn off the lights? 'How obvious', you say! Yet, the reality is that while we know this is the easiest thing to do, many of us still just can't get into the habit.

Make this a game. While you are learning to turn off the lights when you leave the room, begin a game that has you run about the house, every hour on the hour, turning off the ones you missed. I'll bet you'll be surprised at how many you've left on. After a few days of this, I can pretty much guarantee that you will have made turning off the lights a bit of a habit. Teaching kids to turn them off each hour can be fun - it's a race to see who can finish their area of the house first! If they are wiley - they'll figure out they can win by remembering to turn them all off in the first place.

Turning off the lights can make a noticeable difference in your hydro bill - so this is not only an energy saver - it's a guaranteed money saver, too!

Put A Little Green In Your Home

2009-09-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

It's simple - buy a plant. Plants in your home help to give you clean air, naturally. Not only that, but caring for a plant can help to make you feel better. The act of caring for something is good for your mental health and for your physical health. Puttering around with it can help you relax. While a plant can't play with you like a pet can, it does need you to keep it healthy, and being needed is a good thing!

Now, I definately do not have an indoor plant green thumb, but there are a few plants out there that people like me can succeed with. Ivy type plants are usually easy - I love one called Pothos - I've had many in my life and they've lived long and well. I still have some of them. My sister, who frequently forgets to water the ones on top of her cupboards, still has the same ones, too. Once she tried to kill mine when I moved away (OK, not on purpose, but still) and I managed to save it from near death. You can take cuttings and put them in water to root and them plant them, thus expanding your collection at no cost. This particular plant is amazing as lives just about anywhere and comes in pretty varieties, too.The website below shows the varieties.

http://www.pothos.com/

You can pot your chosen plant in organic soil, feed it regulary with organic fertilizer and you'll have a healthy green addition to your home, that gives you the benefit of clean air at the same time.

Green tip of the day! Salt stain remover

2009-09-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've decided to try and add some quick tips when I have time - a tip of the day kinda idea.

A long time ago, I tipped over a glass of red wine on my friend's grandmother's white rug. Yes, red wine on a white rug - the kiss of death. However, she just jumped up, grabbed a box of salt and poured it on. Immediately you could see the wine seeping into the salt. She swept up a little, poured on more and left it to dry.

Amazingly the next day, when dry, it all just vacuumed out. The salt was red, the rug was white.

So if you spill something like that - try it. It's much better for the rug, the environment and for your health to try it before you grab the chemical cleaners.

PC Product Review

2009-09-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to pop in and say that I've had a chance to try out the Presidents Choice 'green' options. I have used their phosphate free cold water laundry detergent (liquid) and I'm quite happy with it. It's gotten my towels and sheets clean and doesn't make me itchy when I've used it on our clothes (a biggie, since some detergents really bother me)

I've also been using their automatic dishwasher tablets and I'm happy to report that they are working well, also! These are the Green 4 in 1 phosphate free tablets. Along with my new dishwasher that features a no heat dry option, I am finding they work great. I wash the dishes, open the door when it's done and everything is clean and it dries fast if you get the door open just after the cycle is done, before the steam settles and turns into water on it all. (that's the key, I think - use the heat inside there to help dry it off as the steam vents out when you open the door)

The dishwasher is a Maytag quiet series 300 in case you are interested. I'm very happy with it so far. Beats the pants of the Danby junky one we had in here when we bought the house. It's also much larger inside - which means I use it less often. Another big green plus!

OH.. and I recieved a big box of Presidents Choice baking soda. I used it the other day to help scrub out a pot that I'd burned rice in. (yes, you can ruin it by boiling it dry and then it blackens the bottom of the pan) No amount of scrubbing was getting it off, then I remembered the baking soda. By Golly, if it didn't just take it all of first try! Since I had so much on the cloth and in the pan, I turned to my sink and tried it there. Yep, got it nice and silver! Seriously - it did what the bleach did when I cleaned it out a few weeks back. I don't use bleach very often, but needed to remove the brown stains and nothing worked. Now I know to just use baking soda. My first experience with it (yes, I knew about it, I just never had a box around since I don't bake)

I would say I'd buy these products again - so if you want to try them out yourself, I give them a thumbs up.

Re-usable snack and sandwich bags!!

2009-08-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm quite excited. I just happened to be poking around Craigslist and I came across a lady who is local to me, that sells some pretty cool stuff.

What caught my eye were her reuseable snack and sandwich bags. They are really neat - with fabulous patterns on the outside and a nylon inside. I'm going to cut and paste her ad for you to read. I am so impressed with her idea that I'm ordering some for my kids and some for gifts. The price is reasonable - especially when you consider how much it costs to buy zip top and flip top sandwich and snack bags. And don't forget the forever cost of those, too. Right below her information you'll find her etsy site - I encourage you to go check it out. If you buy from her, you can have it shipped pretty much anywhere at a very reasonable cost. There is more than bags there, all of it is pretty cool! Drop me a line if you get one.

Here's what she had to say:

"Get your kids ready for back to school!!!! I got tired of wasting money on sandwich bags and came up with an idea to make reusable ones one day after watching my mother wash and hang her plastic sandwich bags at home. I thought there has to be a better way. The bags that I came up with are convenient to use and are very easily maintained. They are made with 100% cotton exterior and are lined with water- and stain-resistant nylon. Nylon has has no lead, phthalates, or BPA in it. There are no exposed seams and they close with a strip of high quality hook and loop tape across the top. After using,simply shake out the crumbs, turn the bag inside-out and wipe the liner down, or if you have a messy snack one day just toss it in the washing machine and line dry.

My kids love them and use them daily for sandwiches, grapes, cheerio's, trail mix, carrot and celery slices, you name it, it goes in these bags! My 2 year old daughter especially loves them for car rides, not sure what entertains her more, the snacks inside or the fun of opening and closing the Velcro!!!! These reusable sandwich bags have the potential to take the place of hundreds of plastic sandwich bags in their lifetime. Help do your part one bag at a time!

The gusseted sandwich bag measures approx. 6 1/2 x 7 1/2". $7 each The snack bag measures approx. 5" by 6". $5 each A Sandwich bag and Snack bag set- $11 per set Discounts given for orders over 5 bags. Tons of different prints available, including boy and girl children prints! Just in time for back to school!!! Or get your order in time for the holidays, makes great stocking stuffers!!!! "

www.liladi.etsy.com

What a great way to use less disposable plastic. I'm impressed. Do check it out.

Dishwashing Blues

2009-08-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Our dishwasher broke. Sigh... You know, washing dishes has to be one of the least exciting things one can do. And let me tell you, we do a lot of it around here!

I read that washing by hand uses much more water than washing dishes in the dishwasher. With that in mind, I began to search for a new one. After much deliberation, I chose one of the Maytag Quiet Series 300 dishwashers. This one has the ability to do a short cycle, which I really like, as well as several longer ones. It also has a macerator, which means that it can chop up little bits of food and dispose of them. (which in turn means scraping is good enough to put things into it!) It also came into the mid-range in price, which is good. There are some very very efficient ones out there - but they cost a bit more than I can afford at the moment. I think we made a good choice with this one.

I can hardly wait to get it installed - Wednesday cannot come soon enough. It will be great to have a quiet, efficient unit to wash our dishes. I like to do ours on a short cycle and air dry - something this can do. Is this something you do, too?

Once it's in and we've used it a bit, I'll let you know how it's doing.

Next up - the hunt for a large size, high efficiency washer and dryer set. Ours is very old and I think they are on their last legs, judging by the interesting sounds they make. We have managed to keep them going, but I need to be prepared to replace them, so I think now is a good time to start looking.

Does anyone out there have a set they think is exceptional for doing a load a day (and sometimes two on diaper days)?

Rainy Days and Toddlers....

2009-08-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Always get me down... or they did - but not anymore! I think I've discovered a secret. They like to be busy. So I got to thinking about how to channel the energy of a little person and direct it into something fun that's indoors and doesn't make them scream at their baby sibling.

Before I go any further - if you are Canadian you probably remember Mr. DressUp. He was my favourite guy on TV with Casey and Finnigan and Aunt Bird and Susan and.. yeah, you get the picture. But there was one thing that he did that really put him above all others. It was the way he made stuff and got those scissors of his to make that great sound when they cut the construction paper! I can still remember that from when I was really little. Now, he's not on TV anymore and I don't even know if there are videos - but he did leave a legacy that is much 'greener' than most. He made stuff out of junk.

I have been collecting boxes, tissue rolls, baby food jars, lids, bits and pieces of this and that and building a little box of creativity. Together we will make recycled art. A little bit of glue or tape or a staple here and there, some colouring, some ripping and tearing and, of course some scissors cutting paper (courtesy of Mommy) and we are set.

If you have kids - it doesn't really matter how old they are, making something out of nothing can be really fun. We've already done the milk carton birdfeeder, and made a lantern out of paper so this week we will explore other options - maybe a snow globe with some leftover glitter and confetti stuff I've saved, or binoculars from the toilet paper rolls, or maybe even melted broken crayons to make new fun big ones. The possibilities are endless and it gives a second life to something I would have recycled - and even better, to something that might not even be recyclable.

If you don't have kids - those birdfeeders made out of a milk carton never go out of style for the birds.

(p.s. I posted a picture to share what we made today. A mix of leftovers, reuses and stuff that he got in goodie bags and from a gift - all in all a wonderful, messy, creative afternoon!)

Shameless Plug!

2009-08-04T23:41:00.001-07:00

OK.. not green related, but I entered an Ikea contest for a room makeover. Should you feel so inclined - please pop over to the following link and vote for my entry. (we desperately need a makeover in this room - seriously - it's a hodge podge kinda space) I like a lot of ikea things, especially since many come from sustainable forests or are bpa etc. free. Not all, but a lot of things there are actually good for the environment.

http://www.anyspacecanbebeautiful.ca/index.php?spaceID=1767

THANKS!!!! :-)

The Urban Attic - My Favourite Consignment Store

2009-08-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

I went shopping for a little china cabinet. Oh, I looked all over as I knew just what I wanted. I stopped at the Urban Attic in Surrey and there it was. A lovely little black number - just the right size. But I kept searching because we all know you shouldn't buy the first thing you see. Two weeks later I ended up back there and thankfully, it hadn't sold.

The owner is wonderful and as we chatted, I lamented that it hadn't been distressed as most of the other refurbished pieces by the same person were. I agreed to buy it if she could help me distress it - and she did right then and there. It is now just perfect and is sitting in my eating area in my kitchen (we don't have a dining room). It holds all my favourite things from my great grandmothers dishes to my favourite teacups. And provides a lovely spot for my bears to sit on.

Buying new isn't all it's made up to be. I know, as I searched and still couldn't find what I wanted. But buying used - or refurbished - is perfect. You can find just the right thing and know that you've given an item a new life. Whether you choose to use it as is, refinish it yourself or buy it already done, it's a win/win situation for you and the environment.

If you are in Surrey, B.C. - stop by the Urban Attic. I think it will be worth your while. You can browse a little online at http://www.urbanattic.ca/ but there is so much to look at there, that the website really doesn't do it justice.

Cool at Last

2009-08-04T22:14:00.001-07:00

Well, we broke down and bought the A/C and fit it into our window. A piece of trivia for you all - if you have retrofitted windows, the brackets included do NOT fit into the track. Thankfully we had help and we made it work. And true to Murphy's Law - the weather has changed and it was only 20 degrees today! But it sure did help to cool our house while it was hot. I plan on keeping it on only when it's too hot - otherwise we will use fans on the cooler days to circulate the air.

I received my electric bill and since I am now only $30 away from being caught up to the current usage (we are on the equal payment plan, so it gets evened out at the end of the cycle which is September for us) I am going to ensure we keep our usage of all thing electrical down to acceptable levels. After last year's high bills due to the cold (and portable heaters) I think we'll do better this year anyway with our new windows.

I've been happily hanging my laundry to dry - and it's working well for me. I think that we've used about 3 dryer loads in as many weeks and that's basically been my husbands work clothes as it's easier to iron them when they've been in the dryer and taken out while warm.

I was lucky enough to win a set of President's Choice cleaning products and a lovely red fabric shopping cart on wheels - so I will be sharing about each of the products as I use them. The cart is great - perfect for a few bags worth of groceries - minus the bags. I can also see myself using it for when I'm out with the kids since I can pack it nicely with their stuff and pull it along with me. This is something I suggest you check out if you have Superstore (Real Canadian, Atlantic) or a Loblaws near you.

Beat the Heat

2009-07-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Baby it's hot outside! In Southwestern B.C. we are experiencing a heat wave. I don't know what the official temperatures are, but it's 90 degrees in the shade on my patio! I think my laundry will be dry in minutes, not hours.

So - here's the question. Just how do you keep cool when it's hot and humid? I thought about a portable a/c unit. Apparently they come energywise certified now. But you know what - a little planning would have gone a long way. They are sold out - everywhere. Then I thought - a big fan! Nope, also sold out. hmmm. We have three small fans for the bedroom and our room has a ceiling fan (which I reversed to pull the heat up) Our nursery is the coolest room in the house so the baby is good, but our toddler, not so much.

I have been shutting the blinds, opening windows after the sun is going down and shutting them in the day (opening them a bit now for the breeze, which is better than the still warm air inside the house now).

I'm thinking a cool bath for the kids, a cool shower for us big people would work. Lots of water for all the living things in our house. I've been watering the pots of tomatoes/peppers in the morning and evening. The veggie garden when it's shady, and I have drip hoses in the side beds I'll use tonight for a little while. I'll have to water the rest of it by hand and the grass can wait until the evening of our watering day. Dogs and kitties are lying all over the floor (too hot for their beds). I think ice-cubes might be good in their water.

I got to thinking about that a/c unit. Here we get heat only for a little while - is it worth the money and the energy behind it all (making, transport, use) to get one? I'll decide tonight if we get those two fans I'm hoping for.

What do you do to beat the heat?? Any ideas for us here since we aren't used to this in our neck of the woods? (trivia - there has been only 3 other heat waves that lasted as long as this one is supposed to since the early 1920's)

Much Ado about Laundry

2009-07-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's something we have to do - day in and day out the laundry just keeps on coming. And yes, no sooner do you finish the load, than someone puts something back in the basket. With all this laundry, just how do we do it so that we can save energy and even save some money?

First I suggest a cold wash cycle. I do pretty much everything on cold, except for diapers. Oh, and the odd time I don't get the towels done quickly and they sit damp - they get a warm wash. I try to make up for the hot wash for diapers by hanging them to dry. When they are done, I tumble them on air with some dryer balls to soften them up. I just can't bring myself to put stiff diapers on my baby's butt, lol.

It's summertime - and that means great opportunities to hang things to dry. I have a small laundry line - an umbrella style with three sides. (I covet one with four sides!) and I also have a portable drying rack that I can use. In my laundry room there is a pole over the washer/dryer that I can use to hang things on, too. I've been hanging about 80 % of the laundry these days. If you can't hang a line, there is always over the shower curtain rod or a small portable rack. In fact they even make ones that pull out from the wall now, and push back flat against it when you are done.

And then there is the detergent you use. I personally prefer Seventh Generation. I also use Nature Clean and have found both to be great - no itchies! We used Purex and I had to give it away as it made me itchy. I have Nellies dryer balls in the dryer and I never use dryer sheets or fabric softener. Both my sons have eczema, so I'm careful about what I use on things they will touch. I just received some President's choice cold water phosphate free laundry detergent so once I decide what I think about it, I'll share. So far it seems OK, although it has a wide open mouth and it spilled all over when I went to use it. Technical design wasn't so hot
there. I prefer liquid as I find I usually end up with a residue when I use powder.

Another thing to think about is your next machine. Mine came with the house and they are old - very old. But they work and I am careful to use the right water level to the amount of items and since I don't use the dryer much in the summer, they are keepers for now. But when they die, I will be getting Energywise appliances and preferably a high efficiency front loader for the washer. I'll definitely do my homework before we buy that, though, as the choices are mind boggling and I want the best item for the best price I can afford.

In a nutshell - since the laundry isn't going anywhere, I'm doing the best I can to be thoughtful about how I do it. Watching water levels in the washer, cold washes, hanging to dry and using laundry soap that is better for the environment helps to make this task a little more earthwise (and in the long run, energywise is also moneywise!)

What detergents do you use? And do you have a fabulous washer/dryer? If so, tell me more!!

Green Kids Contest

2009-06-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

I was reading the Canadian Living Magazine's Green Living Blog today and Daniela (blog owner) wrote about a contest for kids age 6-13 to become one of Canada's greenest kids. The details are at www.sunlightgreenkids.ca so if you are a green kid or you know one - go check it out! There is an honorarium involved, plus a great opportunity to make a difference. Worth writing a 150 word essay for I'm sure.

I just wanted to share this as I think it's a fantastic opportunity for a child to do something important, for themselves and for the world they live in. Pass it along!

Winning the War on Weeds

2009-06-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ok.. I'm not really, but I loved that title! I am now in a house, as you may know, and weeds seem to be something that come with houses. Who knew? It looked so well tended when we put the offer in. By the time we took possession (a mere 30 or so days later) the weeds were out of control. Yikes! And being very pregnant at the time, I just gave up. Now I'm paying for it as apparently they sowed themselves and are back with a vengeance. Sigh...

I'm adamantly against using pesticides. My husband wants to agent orange the front under the trees where the weeds are taking over. I want to dig it over, pull the weeds, lay down the landscaping fabric and cover with rocks. I'd like river rock I think. Ummm yeah.. I priced it - I need 10 yards and it's.. are you ready for this... over $800!!! And more to just put bark mulch. Goodness me!!!

We have rock in part of the yard, so I'm thinking of pulling all that and using it under the trees, then avidly watching freecycle/craigslist for free river rock nearby and building it that way. I just can't bring myself to pay that much money for rocks.

I've been using Elimaweed and Scott's ecosense weed killer. they are good for the stuff growing in sidewalk/driveway cracks and kind of along paths, but if you don't keep up at it, it all grows back. Grrr. And it cost a fortune. So the next step is to just get down there and dig it. You know.. when I have time. Which I have so much of with two wee ones, lol. I need to teach the toddler to pull weeds for fun.. Only problem is I envisage him pulling anything green. Hmmm. I thought about hiring a student for a few hours to help with the rocks - gotta pull them out of the bed they are in. Hmmm...

I do plan on trying this approach. I've done it here and there and it does work, but you have to maintain the approach, something I'm not good at. Just take 15 minutes and do it. Do all you can as quickly and well as you can, focus on nothing else, for 15 minutes. The kids do sleep, so I might try it consistently everyday. That's an hour and 45 minutes of weeding each week. More than I'm doing now.. Might just work - I'll let you know.

If anyone has any other ideas to tame the scourge that's invading my garden, just let me know. My mom says sometimes you just have to start over.. Ummm. no.. I dont' think so. I'm blessed with some really nice plants - it's just those other ones I dont' want. Please feel free to share. I need all the help I can get to do it and not have my desperate husband grab a bottle of Round-Up.

Sharing just feels good

2009-06-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

I've been holding on to some things leftover from the garage sale. I had good intentions of putting them up for sale, but haven't gotten around to it. The other day I decided that I would share them on the FullCircles network - so I have gifted a nice wall shelf and my grandfather's old slide projector and screen to people who will make great use of them. In fact, the projector went to someone who had a ton of slides, but an old projector whose bulb burnt out and can no longer be replaced - a real gift to them!

I've noticed that when you share with others, the things you need seem to come your way, too. For example - we have a shed at our new home that really needs siding put on it. We were chatting with a friend about it, and wouldn't you know it, they had a big lot of used vinyl siding that they didn't need. So with a visit to us for lunch, they brought it over and we now have siding!

It's quite interesting to see that when you just take the time to ask for something - or help - how people want to share or help you. This is the ultimate in recycling. You get something you really need and they get something they didn't need passed on for another use. You may not make a straight trade with someone, but in the end it all somehow works out. You get what you give, you reap what you sow... funny how that works.

So my advice to you all is to share - give things to a friend, share them on craigslist, or freecycle or fullcircles or your local website, bulletin board or by word or mouth. And when you need something - just ask for it. Tell your friends, post an ad, put it out there and you might be pleasantly surprised at what comes back to you.

Getting Greener

2009-05-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

My Goodness, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done any blogging! So much to say, so little space. :-)

I have been quite busy around here – both dealing with little boys and with our home. We’ve been doing our part for the economy, that’s for sure, as we had all new windows installed in our home. This was our big energy saving move for the year. Our house had many single pane windows and the double pane windows were from the 80’s and you could still feel a chill through them.

It’s amazing how new windows really change your home, both inside and out. Not only do they look nice, but the noise reduction is amazing. And we can feel the difference in the temperature in here as the drafts are not there anymore. It’s a good time to be doing things like this as there are so many incentives. Not only do we have the government rebates from our energy audit, but there was a rebate from the manufacturer and there is now also a tax rebate on home improvements between $1000 and $10,000 for people in British Columbia. This will give us an overall rebate of almost $2000 on the windows, which were discounted some from the manufacturer in the first place. So we will save both money and energy now!

I’ve been doing lots of little things around here. I’ll list a few that I can think of at the moment.

Bought a composter – still have to set it up, but now I’ve made a spot for it and it should go in this week.
On nice dry days I’ve been hanging out a load of laundry. Our line is a small umbrella style, but I load up as much as I can on it. Since I’ve been doing laundry one load a day as needed, it’s easier to hang it as there is only one load to do.
I wash just about everything in cold water – except diapers which get hot. But diapers never go in the dryer except for an air tumble to soften them once they are dry and that only takes a few minutes
I started a vegetable garden – so far the radishes have come up – only one lettuce started but I’ll just plant some more – same with the carrots that haven’t really come up either. I’ll just try again. We now have also got tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, as well as the strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries I had already. I will plant a row of peas this week, too. My little garden butts up to the side of a shed, which is getting siding put on it (recycled from a friend), so I can’t plant along the edge just yet. I think there will be some zucchini and some more peas as soon as I can plant them. We also have one bean – named Bean – which is my son’s pet plant.
We had a garage sale, which passes things to others, then I shared most of the leftovers by donating them, putting them out on Fullcircles and I sold a few things on Craigslist. Since everything was in good condition I only threw away a few things that were broken when we set up/packed up. That cleared a huge area of our garage.
I’ve been gifted things from FullCircles – an old bench seat that I put in our garden, my strawberry plants and raspberry plants and some irises, cloth diapers for my son and more.
All of my garden waste has been put into the yard waste bin or the paper bags for it and left out for pickup after which it is sent off to be turned into compost.
I recycle all our eggshells around the plants that slugs like - it seems to help keep them away.

That’s everything I can think of right now.

Most of our time is now spent in the garden. Having a big yard is a lot of work but I find I’m enjoying it. I’ve decided not to stress out over the weeds. I just pick a spot and work it a little at a time. Since I don’t know what’s a weed and what’s not in many cases, I’m sure I’m cultivating a few! But that’s ok. I’ll learn as I go. In the meantime, I’m having fun with it all. I did buy weed-killer – it’s finally available in Canada and is made from a highly acidic vinegar. It kills whatever it touches, but if you spray it where you need it, it’s great. And it works well, although the big established weeds take a few applications. We’ve got a whole side of the house covered in them and I sprayed right at their base with it. After a while it got to be tiring doing that – so instead I covered a huge section of them with a big tarp which I will leave on all summer to hopefully bake them off enough to deal with them. I’m using the spray for those that I can’t dig out – like the ones that think cracks in the sidewalk are good places to grow.

Hopefully our little veggie patch will grow, our composter will compost and my time in the garden will be rewarded with some yummy treats. With the good weather finally here, it’s so nice to be outside – and I figure what could be greener than growing?

Give My Regards To Rona

2009-04-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through flyers (a favourite pastime of mine!) and I noticed the current one from Rona (for those of you elsewhere - this is a home improvement centre here in Canada) and they have a great flyer this time around. They are quite heavily promoting their ECO choices.

From power tool accessories, to push mowers, low VOC paints and natural choices for your home cleaning and lawn care, this flyer is filled with them. It's very nice to see. The best notice of all in the flyer was that as of July 1, 2009 Rona will no longer be selling synthetic pesticides for cosmetic use in all it's stores across Canada. After all - as I see it - a lawn is a green space to enjoy, not to cover in chemicals. Same goes for the flower beds.

Now speaking of gardening - I have to choose how to spend my $50 that I got as a gift. I'm torn between so many things and how to get the most bang for my buck! Right now I'm looking at a composter which I can buy from the city for $35 and maybe some little solar lights for the yard (the ones on a stake) that Home Depot has for 1.99. I could get a half dozen of those to mark the walkway in the front yard, which would be nice. And I might even be able to sneak in a packet of seeds for my veggie garden while I'm at it! I still haven't decided and if I can scrounge a composter from someone, I'll be able to stretch my gift even further for something else for my garden or home to help 'green' it. Yippee! (and as for gifts - I asked on my FullCircles group - formerly freecycle - to try to find a patio table and we've been gifted one that I will pick up this weekend. I just love sharing this way. If you aren't on a FullCircle or a Freecycle list - what are you waiting for? It's a great way to gift others and find things useful to yourself as well)

Earth Hour report

2009-04-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

I am happy to say that even though we were away from home, we were still able to participate in Earth Hour this past Saturday. We were celebrating a special occasion and had dinner at the Cannery Sea Food Restaurant. They turned off all the lights they could and during that time we got to enjoy our dinner by candlelight. It did make menu reading interesting, but the staff had little flashlights to help out, lol.

We were in Vancouver, BC and from our table we could see (or should I say not see) the Lion's Gate Bridge as they turned off the lights there, too. It seems that Earth Hour is catching on. We didn't see a huge change in the light across the water in North Vancouver or downtown (we could see both from our table) but there was a difference. Maybe one day we'll see it all power down for a while.

Now something to consider - why not have your own Earth Hour every month - perhaps the last Saturday of each. It could be a romantic dinner, a fun time for the kids, a chance to sleep a little earlier (with a baby I really do have a one track mind)

In the summer you can sit outside and watch the sunset, use your solar lights or candles or just relax under the stars. In the winter, how about a fire to warm your toes, flashlight stories with the kids, or indoor 'camping' for them. The ways you can spend an hour without lights on are endless!

A little Green for St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

With today being the 'greenest' of days, I am taking some time to post here. It's just been a hectic few months with the new baby and a very active two year old. Rest assured, that even though I've not kept up the posting, I'm doing my best to keep up the effort. I thought I'd share a little about the energy audit we had done.

The advisor came to our home and did a blower test (to check for leaks) and inspected many areas of our home. We came up with a list of things to do, and how much each of these items should affect our energy usage (and consequently our savings in relation to this)

The biggies that came in were that we had the equivalent of a nice big hole in the wall - letting out the heat and letting in the cold. So we've made a plan to fix some of this by installing new windows in our home this year. That will be our big project. But we will also do some draft proofing around the house with caulking, lightswitch foam inserts (for behind the plates) putting in outlet plugs on all the sockets we aren't using, and adding a little insulation as our budget allows. Ideally we will insulate in the crawlspace as we are actually losing more heat through there than our attic (which has insulation, just not an ideal r-factor) This explains the cold floors!

We could replace our furnace, but until we seal up the house's envelope, it's just not going to make a huge difference.

The energy audit allows us to apply for government grants if we do a follow-up audit within 18 months. This is something we will do, as we will have replaced the windows and that alone is worth a little money to us. And as we may need to replace the washing machine and want to replace our awful dishwasher (with energy star models!) we can earn a little more back, too.

It's a good time to do this type of thing as there are great incentives through the audit program - both federal and provincial grants out there, plus there is a new tax incentive as well. Add to that the savings we can anticipate by changing out the old thin windows we have, along with a little insulation and over time it's well worth the effort financially. Immediately it's worth the comfort and the fact we use less energy. (it's not all about the money)

I received a printout for our home, with the list of things to do, what the grants would be and how these things impact the home. They also gave us a bunch of information on greening our home. I have to say that I've found the BC Hydro website a huge wealth of information as they have great ideas/tips on there. This is also where I've found some of the window contractors I'm talking to for quotes. I suggest you take a look for some good ideas. (www.bchydro.com) They have a team powersmart you can sign up for if you use BC Hydro, as well as lots of guides/tips/links etc.

One thing we did over the winter was replace our hot tub cover. Since you have to leave it warm, and our old one collapsed in the snow, we bought a five inch thick insulated cover. It's probably a bit of overkill for around here, but I'm not letting any more of that hot water heat the air than I have to.

While I know we can't afford to do it all within the 18 months you are allotted for the energy audit/reaudit, I can definately see us doing some of those things and reaping the comfort benefits of it, as well as the financial ones.

It's Sweater Day!

2009-01-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

Join us for warm sweater Wednesday! Even though we have the heat a little higher than usual with the baby, I still manage to turn it down just a little during the day. If you can, put on a sweater and slippers and turn that heat down for the day. If we all do, it adds up to a lot less energy used across the world. And if you do it regularly, you'll save a few cents on your bill, too!

New Beginnings

2009-01-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly working towards making a few new changes - primarily working on the 'stuff' that has accumulated in our lives, but also looking for some alternatives. We had our home energy audit done - but I'll discuss that in another posting. Lots to consider there.

I have been letting go of some more things - and had a few things break down. Both of which have left me trying to figure out what to do with the old stuff. I cleaned out our bed linens - and freecycled what I didn't need. I also managed to freecycle an IKEA lamp that we didn't want - it needed a little tlc as it didn`t screw together properly, and our vacuum that died on me. I bought a new vacuum, but didn`t want to send the old one to landfill. Happily someone took it to hopefully fix it. And it was a hand me down to us, so that`s pretty green, I think.

I also took back a couple of packages of disposable diapers I had been given and traded them in for a pack of cloth diapers. I`m actually still using disposables, though, as my cloth ones are too big for the baby, but very very soon he`ll fit them. It`s a bit more awkward to use them - especially since I can`t flush the liners (septic tank) but I`m going to use them as much as possible. I`m also using the larger size ones on my son at night. He is a super soaker and a disposable holds more liquid, but short of doubling them up with two different sizes, they can`t hold it all in. So now I put one on him over his disposable and it works. I`m hoping we can get him interested in the potty soon. So far he thinks its neat, but not for him. I just keep telling him how cool it is. That would be the greenest alternative, I think - getting him out of diapers! And as soon as I`ve got baby in the cloth, I`ll use the cloth on the toddler more, too as it's more economical to wash it all together. (and hang them to dry in the laundry room overnight which I think will work out ok for me until spring)

I`ve been doing my best to not throw things away - but after Christmas we had so much garbage. It all added up, as we didn`t get full pick up for a few weeks due to snow. But we still generate way too much garbage - and a big chunk of it is diapers. My recycling has taken 3 weeks to get rid of as I couldn`t get it all in the bags and bins. I'm trying, but still have a long way to go with the garbage. Kid's stuff is especially bad as it's all packaged in plastic and with my son's birthday, new baby and Christmas, we ended up with a lot of plastic. And people wonder why I prefer second hand toys.

I'm also donating clothes we don't need and will hopefully send some decorative stuff to the consignment shop.

Soon I'll be feeling well enough to walk further - which means I can walk down to our local neighbourhood centre and do some of our shopping there. That will keep me out of our car and healthier - both good things. I'm also weighing the idea of organic delivery vs. shopping at the local produce market for locally grown stuff ( and some organic).

It's been a slower start to my year - but I do have lots of ambition for making change. Much of it will revolve around my home and what I can do while I'm at home with the kids. We shall see!

A great link to share with you

2008-12-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

I was surfing, looking for some more info, and I came across this link. It's produced for the Greater Vancouver Region, but there is great information in there for everyone, no matter where you live. You can search your own home towns and area to see if you have places, like those listed for my area, that will help you to reduce/reuse/recycle in your own neck of the woods. I hope you enjoy this:

http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/101Things.pdf

Happy New Year to you all!!!

Getting ready for 2009!

2008-12-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

2009 is the year that we will begin making improvements on our new home. I'm sure there are lots of things we can do to be more energy efficient, and so I'm starting with a home energy audit. I just booked it - so on January 7th we'll get the audit done and we'll get the results that same day. That will set the blueprint for the things we'll be doing around here. It's a great start!

I'm also going to have someone come in and service the furnace - something I'm booking for after the audit as I want the audit to reflect the furnace in its current condition. This way we'll see the improvement in 18months based on how the house was when we bought it. The trick is to figure out who to call and what exactly to ask them about what they do. I have no clue about furnaces, so I'm looking through the ads and trying to figure out which one to choose.

I'm quite excited about the energy audit, though. With all the drafts in this place, it will be a great thing to have done to help direct us in making our home more comfortable as well as more efficient. Making the appointment is the first step in working our way to a greener home.

A New Baby - A New Start

2008-12-22T15:05:00.000-08:00

The baby is here! Yep, we are now the proud parents of two boys. Now we have lots and lots to do around here. Once I finally get over the surgery (this baby was a c-section) I have great plans to get moving on some home improvements to save energy around here. I was horrified by our gas and electric bill last month, and know it’s much more this month with the cold and snow we’ve had. Keeping it warm for the baby is a bit of a chore.

I've fallen off the wagon a bit lately. Being so tired at the end of my pregnancy made me a bit of a slacker. I kept up with the recycling, but I could have done so much more. I'm going to keep going this next year - working towards my goals of being lighter on the earth.

Our house is a leaky thing – lots of drafts – so we will be looking at ways to get this under control. We’ve already started by ordering blinds for all of our windows – this will give us another layer to trap the air in. And we will put film on the windows where we can to do the same thing. We also bought a space heater for our son’s room so that we can keep him warm without having the heat cranked up high. Another step will be to get some caulking and use that around some of the windows on the inside. We’ll check out the outside, too, but it’s snowy here right now and a bit awkward to do that. A little weather stripping under one of the doors is in order, too. And lastly, I discovered a couple of places to use some of that expanding foam stuff to block out drafts coming into the house.

I am going to get an energy audit done on the house in the new year. It’s supposed to be around $150 to do this through the LivesSmartBC program and it sounds like a great idea. Someone comes and tells you the best ways to improve the energy rating on your home and then you do the fixes over the next 18months (what you choose to do, anyway) and then you can pay them to come back and re-audit. I understand the first audit will be refunded in the rebates they help you to claim, if you go ahead and do some of the things they suggest. They also help you to apply for all of the government rebates you get for doing things like replacing furnaces, hot water heaters, insulation etc. We have a furnace that’s over 30 years old and a hot water heater that isn’t new, so it’s worth having them come as I think these may end up biting the bullet in the next year, anyway.

I am also having someone come to service the furnace asap. If we are going to use it, we might as well have it working as best it can.

Somehow we’ll get all this done, even though we are spending all our time loving our new little baby and our little boy. It’s time to make this a great place for them – without all the cold spots!

Warm Sweater Wednesdays

2008-11-19T14:22:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine, who lives in the Netherlands, mentioned on our yahoogroup that they have warm sweater days over there to help conserve energy. What a neat idea! As things are getting cooler, it's the perfect time to institute this around here, too, I think.

So I am declaring Wednesdays as Warm Sweater Days! All you have to do is turn down the heat a couple of degrees and put on a sweater - and I'm sure slippers would go nicely with the sweaters, as well.

Come and join me (and all the ladies in my yahoogroup) - turn down your heat by 2 degrees, put on a sweater, save a little energy and possibly save a little money, too, on your heating bill. Let's do this every Wednesday. Just think, if we all do it, we'll be making a difference that adds up to something significant.

Being Green - even when one is busy

2008-10-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Whatever happened to the time? I’ve been in my new home now for more than two months and have barely come up for air! Between sickness, work and friend/family commitments, there has been no time for writing. I have, however, tried to be green. I’m not always successful (as attested to by the fact some of my takeout containers are Styrofoam and they have ended up in the garbage – my bad for not using my hot pot or tiffin!)

As you know, I’m expecting. I am getting slower and slower, which is impacting my ability to do the things I want to do. Take gardening for instance – big plans, little headway! But my veggie garden is prepped for spring. And my bulbs will be planted this weekend no matter what! It will just take me 5X longer, that’s all. I think gardening is a green endeavour. Every growing thing is helping to clean the air!

We have been trying to clear out the garage – which is where we put all the ‘stuff’ that we don’t know what to do with, is for a garage sale or will be stored. It’s a disaster! So I’ve slowly been going through boxes of things – tagging stuff for a spring garage sale, sharing items like clothes on freecycle as they won’t store well in our shed in this damp winter climate, and selling things on craigslist.

I also have a big load of fall clothes that I’m taking to consignment and I will check out another consignment shop that is in my new neighbourhood to see if they will be a good place to take my nicnacs and collectibles. The clothes that don’t get taken will be donated or freecycled, helping to keep them used while they are still good. I’m happy that the things I don’t have a use for will be used by someone else.

I freecycled another batch of boxes we used for the move and then yesterday I cut up a few odd boxes I had and put them in the recycling bins for pick up today.

I’ve been trying to find a piece for our crib – we broke it when we moved, but I’ve had no luck locating a stationary rail for it. Our son then broke a wheel off the new crib – but since I bought it at auction I can’t return it. So I salvaged that by taking all the wheels off. Awkward for under bed storage (too low) but it’s still usable this way. Sadly I think the original crib will now be taken to the dump as I can’t fix it and I’m not comfortable freecycling it as it’s not safe the way it is and must have the rail replaced, not taped up or something. It’s not worth a baby’s safety to extend the life of a piece of furniture.

I’ve been trying really hard to recycle everything I can. I’ve even saved the milk cartons and taken them back to our condo as that city recycles them. And from now on, I’ll be taking them to the recycle depot when I have a batch or giving them to my sister to put in her bin. I also give my parents the #’s of plastic we can’t recycle as their city accepts all number 1-7. And I’m trying to buy used when possible – since that’s the best way to keep things out of the landfill. We even got a toddler bed for free – and then the bed rail to go with it. Gotta love freecycle!

As we get closer to having our baby, I’m struggling with the choices there, too. Bottles are now very expensive since they are all bpa free. I have some that my son uses, and we’ll use those. I think I’ll buy glass for home as they are cheaper and I prefer that to plastic, anyhow. As for diapers – I know I’ll use some disposable, but I want to do cloth diapers – and to use them on our son when at home, too. I’m hoping to acquire some and I’ve been checking craiglist for a good deal. I’m also considering a diaper service as for $32/week I can have both kids in diapers and someone else does all the washing. I may do that in the beginning, at least, and then do it myself. As the weather warms, I can hang them outside and that will save even more money and more energy.

We are also considering getting an energy audit. It’s $150, but then if you follow through, you can earn back that money and rebates, etc. for your upgrades done in the next 18 months. And your monthly bills go down as you energy wise your home. I’m thinking it might be worth the money even if we don’t do any huge changes. The little changes will probably add up all on their own.

So that’s my update. I’m still plugging along – trying to do the right thing. I even bought my son a metal sippy bottle – it should last him for years. I’m actually jealous because I don’t have one. I’ll have to look for one as cool as his and use it for water, thus eliminating the need for plastic bottles there, too.

Every day is a challenge – I try to do the right thing and make good choices, but it’s sometimes the choice between easy when I’m exhausted or taking more time to be green. And that can truly be a tough choice.

Well, you can see what I’ve been up to – if you have any great ideas, let me know!

Weed Wacking!

2008-09-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick entry. Maisie had commented that I could lay down newspaper to help kill off the weeds. I've started to do that - I have a massive amount of grass/clover in my flower beds and some is easily accessible (not entwined with the perennials) so I have begun to do this. I read that 2.5cm is the amount to lay down and when it all decomposes its also good for the garden. I've not put that much down yet, but will. I'm also going to lay it on top of my veggie garden to keep the weeds from coming back and to help next years crop. I gave up on planting this year - I don't have much time to grow anything and i can't find any seeds.

A note for next year - buy seeds in June, stock up the late planting ones then before the stores send them all back to the seed companies. (I read that tip in a magazine) It's a good one, I think.

I'm going to spend my winter poring over magazines and catalogues (from the library of course!) and making notes and lists for the garden.

For now, I'll just enjoy what I have. And since I broke my toe last night, that entails just watching it for a couple of weeks as I can barely walk! That's good for my consumerism needs - I can't shop, and that's kind of green, too!

This weekend I will rest and ice the foot, play with my son, and probably sort baby clothes for the new baby - keeping what I want and putting the rest aside for the garage sale we hope to have next weekend.

My new home - a greener place!

2008-09-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it certainly has been a while since I’ve written. We moved into our new home on August 16th and have been crazy busy since a couple of weeks before then. But now we are settling in. It’s been fun to put things away – and I’ve also let go of even more things – the garage sale pile is growing! I’ve even decided to part with some things I’d never thought to let go of. Ebay and I will be making friends this weekend, I think.

I’ve got books and teacups and all kinds of things togo. I’m impressed with myself! I just have to get past the fact that some things aren’t ‘in’ right now so if I sell them, they won’t bring as much as they should. I can’t decide whether or not to wait a little on them. Hard choice – as sitting in a box they do nothing for me and someone might really enjoy them – and that’s a good thing!

So – I’ll bet you are wondering what type of green stuff I have been doing. This is a green blog after all! Here’s a run down of what I’ve been up to and the little green things I’m trying to accomplish.

First off – let’s say that having a yard is an interesting change for us. But I’ve already got it in for the weeds! And do you think you can buy an eco friendly weed killer? No way! I understand there are a few things that are made from high acidity vinegar – Burnout is one of them, but it’s not available in Canada so that’s out. I’ve begun the battle with a shovel and a little hand spade. So far I’ve reclaimed the veggie patch and a little bit of the front garden. I’ve poured boiling water on the weeds in the cracks of the driveway/sidewalk and even made up a concoction from vinegar/lemon juice/salt/dishwasher detergent that will hopefully eradicate them. I just don’t’ want to use herbicides as I don’t think it’s good for the dog or my son.

I’ve acquired some strawberry plants from freecycle, as well as some drip hoses that will be of great use in my garden. And my garden has some nice solar lights in it. I plan on getting some more of these to brighten up things at night. I’m also continuing to save my eggshells to help keep down slugs and things around some of the plants and to help feed them. I had bought some goldfish for the little pond to control the mosquitoes, but they seem to have disappeared. I think maybe we have raccoons or a smart heron. No more goldfish until I find some kind of grate to cover it with.

We have garden waste pickup here, so I’ve been pulling the weeds and putting them in the bin. And I went and picked up extra blue bins and bags for the paper stuff so I can recycle. I’m also keeping a separate bin of things my community doesn’t recycle as I can take these to my parents or sister’s house to be picked up there. (milk cartons and certain numbers of plastic)

I freecycled all the leftover wrapping paper, boxes and bubble wrap – that went quickly and I’m glad it’s being used again for someone else’s move. We are continuing to recycle all the newspaper I used. I’d taken it from the recycle bin, so it got a second life helping us move.

I noticed when unpacking all the cleaners that I am now pretty much down to the natural cleaners – aside from a little windex and the last of the fantastic, that’s all I have. I knew the change would occur over time as I used up the old stuff – and now I can see it!

We have a programmable thermostat so I’ve set it to ensure the furnace doesn’t go on during the day when we are not at home. There were a couple of evenings/mornings it was chilly so we turned it on. I’m going to get someone in to service it so that it runs at its best. We also had issues with our dryer, but I had my trusty repairman come out (if you live in the lower mainland – it’s Cosmos Appliance – he is awesome and reasonable, too) he fixed it up and it should last a few years now. I’m glad as a new dryer wasn’t in the budget just yet.

I’m currently looking on freecycle/craigslist for a cutlery container for our dishwasher (ours isn’t in good shape) and we broke the crib so I’m looking for a rail for it (just in case someone broke a different part of the same crib) I did buy a new one right away, but it would be nice to salvage two broken ones to make a whole one. Less to the landfill that way.

We’ll be gardening and setting up over the next few weeks as we continue to get acquainted with our new home. We’ll be putting film on the single pane windows as the temperatures change, and making sure that all the weather stripping/caulking etc. is done. Lots of little things to do! And I really want to plant some radishes this weekend if I can find some seeds. So far no luck with seeds – seems everyone is done with them. But I’m still trying!

That’s what I’ve been up to. I’m hoping to be able to be more current now that we’re settling in. I’ve got so many things I want to do and I’d like to share with you how it all goes.

Catching up...

2008-07-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I have posted. We bought a house! It's a 1500 square foot home with 3 bedrooms and a family room. I'm so excited. I have so many plans for this new place, that's for sure. I have to admit - I was shocked by the utility bills for this place. I have a goal - and that's to significantly reduce the energy use in that home. I can't imagine paying that much for Gas, that's for sure.

We will have to find ways to better insulate our home this year. We don't have it in our budget to replace the windows and, as they are single paned, we will have to examine our options. I'll buy curtains for the winter, that should be a help in keeping the heat in and the cold out.

I'm looking forward to gardening, and while it's too late for planting a veggie garden, I think I might be able to get some radishes and carrots in and possibly some lettuce as I know that likes cooler temperatures. I also have a clothesline! I'm so excited about that, too. It's a little umbrella type one - exactly what I wanted as it doesn't hang your undies out for the neighbourhood to see, LOL...

It's been a time of purging yet again, as we begin to pack for this next phase of our lives. We joined in with a friend for a garage sale this past weekend and managed to get rid of some of our 'stuff' and have put a bunch of things on craigslist, as well. We've decided that we will have a garage sale one more time after we move as I'm sure that once we begin to put things away in our new home, I will find that there are things that do not fit anymore. I've been putting things into garage sale boxes as I pack. It's hard to believe there are so many things I don't want anymore, especially after the many times I've done this over the last couple of years.

I've been raiding the recycling bin for newspapers to pack in. I bought some tissue paper to wrap the china in, but only one layer as the rest is newsprint. Lots and lots of paper getting another use before recycling. and all of the boxes are second hand - from friends, family and the liquor store. Another re-use before recycling. I also think I'll be able to pass along the boxes again through fullcycle or craigslist after we move. We're moving mid-month - so there will probably be lots of people who could use the boxes.

We are also on septic at our new place, so I'll be even more particular about using natural products and environmentally safe cleaners. That's a good thing - and one that won't be too difficult given that I've been switching over for some time now.

So, while I won't be posting as often as I'd planned - the next few weeks will be seeing me work towards letting go of more, looking for ways to re-use items, packing up our home and trying to ensure that I cover off everything you have to do when you move. (and boy, that's a big list!)

My tip for the day: take shorter showers! I understand the daughter at the home we are buying liked to have long showers - really long showers - and that's probably why they pay near $183/ month for gas. Yikes! We wash on cold, take shorter showers and try to make sure our son has lower water level baths (he's little, so loves a bath - but with his eczema, we use cooler water, anyway). Lots to conserve on at the new place!!!

Is Bigger Better?

2008-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

We are house-hunting. What a big thing to do! We had lots of wishes for a house, but I think we’ve decided that we need ‘enough’ rather than ‘too much’. It’s easy to want to have all those extra rooms and all that space – but in the end, you have to take care of it all. You have to not only clean it, but insure it and heat it and do the maintenance on it and so on. Now that’s a BIG thing!

Our decision was to look for a smaller house. If it has enough room for our family, then it’s good enough. We will pay less, have less upkeep, less to heat – and we’ll spend much less on maintenance over time because there is less of it to maintain. When you don’t have to pay all those bills, you might have the option of working less, and enjoying your family and your home more, too.

I read a saying once that said something about how we work hard and long hours to buy the house of our dreams – the one we never get to spend anytime enjoying because we are too busy working to actually spend time in it. I’d rather not do that. We live in a part of the country that has extremely high housing costs as it is – why make it harder for ourselves?

Being green isn’t just about the kind of cleaners you buy, or trying to use less gas – it’s about trying live in such a way that you have what you need, not more than you need. When you buy a car – buy the one that suits your needs – not the one that looks just right (and is maybe bigger than necessary)

I also think that you have to be careful not to throw away things that others might need. Whether you give it away or sell it – your old stuff, if it’s in good condition, can be of great use to another person. Something it can’t do from the landfill.

When we move, we plan on selling our bedroom suite – it’s not what we want anymore (it's actually a big 'big'!) , but it’s in perfect condition, so we’ll make sure it gets a good home with someone who really likes it. As for our new one? We’re not sure if it will be new or just new to us – that depends on what we find. I’m open to either if it’s feel right.

My lesson for today – think about what you need, aim for that, share what you don’t need, and try to be sure that whatever you buy is something you can enjoy.

carbon tax - my thoughts

2008-06-12T14:06:00.001-07:00

Be prepared - I'm on a rant! British Columbia will be introducing a new carbon tax effective July 1st, 2008. While I understand the principle behind this move - I have to admit - I'm against it. Basically we will all pay more for gas and things like coal and natural gas that heat our homes. I listened to Carol Taylor speaking about how we need to reduce our dependency on fuels that produce high levels of carbon - how we need to change the way we do business. I don't disagree - but I think that taxing us on our gas usage and then turning around and giving it back to us in the form of income tax cuts is insane.

For one - I'm sure that somewhere along the line whatever I get back on my income tax will be swallowed up by another type of tax. Second - if we want to reduce dependency on carbon fuel, we need to work harder to make things like fully functioning mass transit a reality. And three - if you look at where I live - the Greater Vancouver/Fraser Valley region of BC - we have thousands upon thousands of people who work downtown and live in the suburbs - most without decent transit so they have no choice but to drive.

In fact - we are building another bridge right now to accomodate the increase in traffic heading from the Valley into Vancouver and they are going to twin the Port Mann bridge to alleviate congestion. Meanwhile, if you live in Vancouver you will have the skytrain and decent transit system to use (but one can't afford to live there - that's a whole other story) and the skytrain, which is a light rapid transit system only comes South of the Fraser River for four stops - useless for those thousands trying to get in from the Valley.

If you live in Vancouver - you will soon be able to take the skytrain to UBC - where there is a population of about 60,000 that could use it. It will be build for an astronimical cost (setting cost records, in fact as it will all be underground) while those of us in the suburbs will continue to drive and pay more to do so as we aren't deemed a priority and won't be getting the pitiful (at best) extension to the rapid transit system for about another 20 years. Since this is where all those cars coming across those bridges are coming from, one has to wonder at the sense of it all. We can't all move closer to work - and for some of us, we have no choice in our work locations (at least if we want a decent job)

If the goverment of BC actually worked in conjunction with municipal governments, and if Translink actually had a decent board with real forethought, we wouldn't need a carbon tax - and if we had one, wouldn't it be good if we'd use it to really reduce our carbon output by supplying proper transit options, taking thousands of commuters off the road everyday. (don't even get me started on how people are supposed to pay even higher fees to heat their homes when they can't afford to switch to electric!) Paying us back the money is a joke - we aren't going to drive much less, since we still have to get to work. We are going to use just as much gas, since congestion is getting worse and alternatives are, to be frank, virtually non-existent. We live in the most expensive place in this province, possibly this country - we can't move closer and still hope to afford something with a roof that doesn't leak.

I think it's time that our translink (which deals with roads/transit in the area) municipal governments, provincial and federal governments got together and created a real plan to take action on fossil fuel use. That's the only way its going to work. This piecemeal throw it together, fix it for today approach is a joke.

I'd say take your tax and, well, you know - but apparently I'm going to pay it and then get it back, so I suppose this is mute point.

A Charity Request - Noah's Wish

2008-06-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to put in a plug for a charity that I support. Noah's Wish works in disasters to assist animals in need. This helps people as so many don't know what to do with the animals and many put themselves in dangerous situations to stay with beloved family pets. They rescue those that are stranded or injured. They save lives the lives of animals in the midst of chaos. My husband worked with them after the hurricane in New Orleans, so he's been there and seen exactly what they do. (and the experience changed him in so many ways) We've both trained with them to assist in future disasters, and I believe strongly in what they do. June is their fundraising month - and all of their volunteers are asking friends & family to make a donation of $10. That's it - just $10. If you'd like to help, please donate - you can do so online at

http://www.noahswish.org/

You can read about the organization and see what they do. If you donate, drop me a line to let me know and I'll add you to the list of people that have donated (this way they know that you heard it from us). Like I said - they are an amazing group of people with volunteers who do incredible things and your support means they can continue to do just that. With a stronger hurricane season predicted for 2008 and the summer fire season just around the corner, they may be needing our help sooner than we think.

A little of this, A little of that...

2008-06-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, while I've been quiet on the blogging front, I've been doing my part to be green in small ways. First off, though - I have to admit to ending up with a few styrofoam take out containers when I bought lunch. I have great intentions, but I forgot to take down my reusable container and was just too tired/lazy/timecrunched (all excuses) to go back to get it. I have to be more diligent about this.

The garage sale was done on the 24th - and it went rather well. We managed to get rid of lots of things - and my parents even rehomed some large appliances. There is still quite a bit left ( I really let a lot go!), so I will chat with a friend to see about doing another one sometime in the near future. Leftovers after that will be donated - making sure that it's all still in good condition first - remember, they don't want your garbage! I think I can come up with a few more things in the meantime, to let go of. I've been doing pretty good on that front and haven't been bringing in many new things. Most of the new stuff seems to be things that are given to my son (and yes, I bought him a book and a little chalkboard, so I'm guilty, too!)

We are blessed with incredible parents who not only take care of our son while we work, but who also make dinner for us so we don't have to cook when we get home. However, I think we'll ask my Mom to skip a meal here and there and we are building up an incredible supply of leftovers each week and we want to make sure we eat all we have. It's a goal to not waste food, and while we're not perfect, this is a great way for us to do just that. There always seems to be more than we can eat and I want to do something about that. Tonight is our first go at it - we're eating all our leftovers for dinner - smorgasboard, here we come! We don't do this nearly enough - and now that I've gotten rid of our deep freezer, we don't have the space in the fridge freezer to build up a supply of leftovers to nosh on when we don't want to cook. I think that every four days we should probably eat dinner like this or pack it all up for a delicious reheatable lunch.

I also decided to switch my son's favourite crackers. He loves baby MumMums rice crackers - but the packaging is insane! So I bought some rice crackers in a big container - and thankfully he loves them, too This will be the new way I buy him crackers. There is still packaging, but as it's not in individual servings. Much better all round.

At work, for environment week, the sustainable development team offered a little contest. We are giving away two books "The Green Book" and "Ecoholic". We encouraged people to either join the Sustainable Development team or to submit a sustainable idea that they'd be willing to help out with. They get two entries if they do both. We've recruited at least 3 people from areas where there was no volunteer (yeah!) and gotten some ideas. The draw takes place Thursday so hopefully there will be more in by then. But getting 3 new people is fantastic! We also decided to put a sustainable tip in the Friday newsletter that goes out by email to all staff in the region. I think that it's a great thing, giving people ideas of easy things they can do to be more sustainable.

My goldfish finally went to their new home - in case anyone wondered if I've ever gotten rid of them. I'm using up the old pond water to water all the plants and then I'll clean everything up - the pump, the giant container I was using and so on. This can all be reused by someone. My remaining pond plant is heading to a new home, where it can really be planted in the ground rather than stay in a pot. Nothing wasted from this take-down!

Who Made This Great Big Mess?

2008-05-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

That's a direct quote from the comfy couch - a favourite show around here. I'm looking around my home and it's a level one disaster - despite my best efforts! This weekend is going to be our garage sale. The long range forecast calls for Sun for many days in a row. Yippee!! Now all I have to do is run around like a madwoman and fill another box with stuff to part with on Saturday! Pretty much everything has been moved to my parent's home, where it will be held - but I have high hopes of just one more box of 'stuff' leaving my own place. Maybe much of this stuff hanging around isn't necessary? I could be wrong, but I'm going to challenge myself to one more full boxload!

I'm glad I've inspired my cousin, Brenda to purge her stuff. Yep, if it's moved with you and you haven't looked at it in over a year - and it's not seasonal items, well you probably don't need it. If it's very sentimental - then find a way to unpack it and put it in a place of honour.

I'm going to retract that statement now, though - for any of you that have a determined toddler who looks to be a climber, maybe it's a good idea to leave it packed a little while longer, lol. And if it's stuff you're keeping for the next baby, then it's ok to hang on to it - but only until the next baby!

Speaking of which, if you read the comments on my posts, you know the cat's out of the bag! Yep, we are expecting number two in December. And yes, I did keep all of number one's stuff for this baby. When we are done with it, my plan is to pass it on, give it away, sell it at a swap - just get it out of the house! But saving it all is green - I really don't need much of anything - especially if it's a boy ( if it's a girl, I reserve the right to frilly dresses and a tea set)

I think that I'm going to suggest to my family that if anyone wants to send the new baby a gift when it's born, perhaps they might instead wish to throw a couple of dollars towards a diaper service. I've been looking at them a bit and there are many that aren't very expensive - and would be a great thing for the first bit until I'm up and running with a baby and my active little man. If you know someone that's expecting - see if they are interested in cloth diapers - and if they would be if they didn't have to do the laundry. This is a fabulous gift for them and it's good for the earth, too. And don't forget g-diapers as a possibility to help reduce the disposables when they are out.

I don't know if I mentioned this here, but in Canada there is something called the Red Dot Campaign. http://www.reddotcampaign.ca/ I got one of their stickers at the sustainable living expo and put it in my mailbox. I've learned something - if you live where you have multiple mail boxes together - the postal carrier opens the whole panel and won't see it on the inside of your door - put it right on the bottom, front of your mailbox - they see that. I have to move mine or print one and tape it there as mine isn't working - the carrier can't see it when he opens the panel since I put it on the inside of the door!
and
Canada Post also has launched a place on their website to help you be 'greener' http://www.canadapost.ca/corporate/about/green/Consumer/recycle-e.asp

I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of paper we receive and charities can be really bad for this. In their need for soliciting funds, they do multiple mailers. I suggest this - if you want to sponsor a charity and you will always send money at a certain time of the year (I do one each Christmas in memory of my Grandmother) send them a note - or call them, to ask them to take you off the mailing list, saying you will send at this time each year and the other solicitations are a waste of their funds and our resources. I immediately stopped receiving the mail and I will without question be giving as I promised. If you tend to need the reminder - write it on your calendar, set up a reminder in your email using your calendar function, put a note in your Christmas decoration box. Doing this saves money that can be put to better use and saves energy and fuel in the creation and delivery of the mailings and saves the trees used for the paper. If you never intend to donate, do the same thing, anyway. They save and you don't get the mail. Now that's a win -win!

My little green update

2008-05-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since I've posted, so I thought I would pop in and quickly share a few things I've done this past week.

Over the weekend, we made a concerted effort to eat from our fridge. We had so many leftovers in there and rather than see it wasted, we made up some interesting combinations for meals. The result - a much emptier fridge and a bigger pocket book than we'd have had if we'd eaten out as we kept thinking of doing.

Last week at work I took a big batch of posters that couldn't be used and rather than recycle them, I cut them all up and turned them into scratch pads. It took a few minutes, but I ended up with a couple dozen scratch pads that I put into our supply room for people to use.

I've been very good about recycling and took down a lot of things for the bins - and a big batch of stuff to my parents since they recycle some things where they live that we don't in my city.

We thought carefully about our veggie order this week and I've already steamed and made most of it into nice chunky kidlet food.

I have visions of using some veggies in some muffins, too - so that I can sneak some more veggies into my kidlet. I thought that perhaps making something from scratch and knowing what was in it would be a good and green thing. I looked at a package of muffin mix and there were just too many things in it I couldn't pronounce!

I haven't done much in the way of shopping as I'm trying not to bring more stuff into the house (we still have enough despite my decluttering efforts), I've shared a green tip with my e-mail group and I keep trying to be green at work - avoiding the takeout containers and using my reusable hot pot.

It's been a good week and I'm heading into this one with a positive attitude. Oh - and my green books arrived from Canadian Living online. I'm looking forward to reading the Living with Ed one as I enjoy the show by the same name.

It's Not Easy Being Green... At Work

2008-05-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

This week I participated in a conference call (the green way to have a meeting!) about sustainable development at work. This is something the government has committed to with its workplaces, and as part of this initiative, at work we have a volunteer committee. I, of course, had to join!

One of the things we discussed was paper recycling. Yes, you heard that right. It doesn’t happen everywhere as many locations are leased from other companies and so we are not a part of the recycling that happens. We are looking at how to make that happen in those locations.

The conversation moved on to lots of other ideas – one of which was how to encourage employees to use less disposable stuff – and if they use it, how to encourage them to take it home to recycle, rather than throw away at work. Plastic recycling doesn’t happen everywhere for us, either. For example, in the building I work in, the owner company doesn’t want it as they think the containers will attract rats and pests since not everyone cleans things properly.

We decided that we’d look into how to encourage people to bring reusable stuff to work. That maybe for next year’s Earth Day we could find a way to get reusable lunch bags for everyone. We also talked about one location that has a fully stocked kitchen – they have plates, glasses, mugs, cutlery etc. for everyone to use. In some places there are water jugs – and while many now use the kind that are wired into the water supply with changeable filters rather than the big jugs, people use paper cups – a huge waste maker. Maybe we can find a way to encourage people to have their own glasses/mugs for this – even with their name or something on them so they don’t misplace them when it’s busy.

I bring home my recyclables, and I have my tiffen and hot pot and cutlery – but there is so much more we can encourage each other to do. Bringing a litterless lunch is a great intiative in my opinion. And for those that use the cafeteria where there is one – bringing your own takeout containers & cutlery should be encouraged. I see a lot of coffee mugs, but there are still paper and Styrofoam cups in the office in the mornings. The question will be how to encourage people to make the change. Less resources used, less garbage created – so much better for all of us.

I think it will be my own personal initiative to encourage my coworkers to bring a takeout container to work, and to encourage those without them, to get a reusable mug. With just those two things, we could make such a difference in the garbage we generate and the resources we waste.

If you do anything at work to be green - please share. This is one place many of us have trouble with and we can all use all the help we can get!

Almost Famous! & working towards less waste

2008-04-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm nearly famous! I wrote a blog entry for Canadian Living's Online site - their green blog - and they will be printing it tomorrow! How exciting! So if you want to know about my dirty little secret - you need to check it out

http://www.canadianliving.com/blogs/category/green-living-blog/

It will be published on Sunday April 27th.

It is a beautiful day here in Southwestern British Columbia. Perfect for being outdoors. I've got the windows open (Mother Nature is the best air freshener!) and the blinds up (the sun is warming the floors and making the plants happy)

On my patio, I have a little pond - it's really a giant orange bucket with some goldfish, some plants and a pump. My fish have outgrown the container and I have decided it's time to let them go. One of them, Fred, has been with me for more than 8 years so its a tough decision. However, a friend of mine has a big pond, net covered (so the birds and raccoons can't get in) and I think they will have a much better life there. I'll miss them as they've gotten quite tame and come up to check you out when you go outside. But it seems to me they deserve a better life than a bucket. When they are gone I'll make sure to share the pond plants with one of my friends with ponds, and the big bucket will be cleaned well and can be repurposed to hold outdoor toys, or passed along to someone else. The water I'll hang on to and over the next week use it water my plants. It's the perfect fertilizer mix. So not one thing will go to waste.

We are accumulating too much food again. I think that perhaps I will have to skip the odd week of delivery to ensure we don't waste food. I've been thinking about the world situation and the price of grains, etc. I we just used everything we buy - and didn't buy more than we need, I bet that those of us in developed countries could certainly make a difference in how much is available. Now when I throw away bread or rice or flour that isn't used, I'll be thinking about how someone else in world could have used this. I think that it's a good goal - only take what you can use. It's earth friendly - and it's definately good for those in need if we don't hog more than our fair share.

It won't be easy, but I'm going to work toward that goal and try to plan better. I'm used to just getting what looks good and I don't always put much thought into how I'll use it up. This is going to be something I'll work on. More for others, less for waste, just enough for us. I think that's a win/win situation, don't you?

Happy Earth Day (two days late!)

2008-04-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day!!

I feel like there should be some kind of celebration - perhaps a National Holiday even! Ah well, I may have had to work today, but I still did what I could to acknowledge the spirit of the day. Today, as in all days, I parked and rode transit into work. I was hungry, so later in the morning I bought breakfast - using my stainless steel mug and my wonderful metal hotpot with my own cutlery. I was responsible for one less take out cup and sleeve and one less styrofoam container with plastic cutlery! I did this the other day, too. I went to the food court in a nearby mall and used my hotpot for my takeout. I was amazed that no one seems to mind I bring my own take out container. Such a good thing!

This past weekend we attended our City's Earth Day celebration where we got to plant a bush in the park's garden, release salmon fry into the stream, listen to storytime and music, plant a couple of beans in paper pots to take home with us, and bring home a little leafy seedling to plant. It's in our big pot on our patio and when we move to house, we'll take it with us and plant it in our yard. We also attended EPIC, which was a sustainable living show held in Vancouver. While I appreciated the opportunity to listen to Adria Vasil (Ecoholic) speak, it was a tradeshow and not nearly half as fun as the local Earth Day celebration. But if you were looking for products and ideas, it did have a lot there to offer. Sadly I missed Mike Holmes talk about Green building and renovation but in order to go to the park, significant sacrifices had to be made. ;-)

As we get ready for a garage sale in a few weeks, I find myself thinking about how to share things with others in an environmentally friendly way. I think garage sales are great, they give you a little pocket money and someone else a steal of a deal on something they'd like. I'm a firm believer that garage sales should be about bargains - so pretty much everything I sell is a super great deal. After all, the object is to part with the items, not sell a few at a high price and get stuck with the rest!

But what about those things that don't sell? If you don't have another sale planned for later in the year, then I suggest you consider two things. One would be buy-and-sell papers or online forums. Very good for those big things you'd like to get money for. And usually better than a garage sale for those items with greater value. The other option is to find someone who needs what you have. Look up freecycle or fullcircles groups in your area. I found this neat link on Yahoo! today. You can enter where you live and it pulls up the free-sharing groups in your area. What a great thing! You can both give away and look for things you need on these forums. They promote great stewardship of the 'stuff' that flows through our lives.

http://green.yahoo.com/earth-day/find-a-group.html

I've also discovered something else. If you want to 'go green' and be more aware of what your impact on the environment is - you need to make it fun. Just like exercise (I'm trying out bellydancing starting tonight - totally new for me!) you need to find a way to make it fit into your life in a pleasant way. It's not about sacrifice and letting go - it's about embracing a lifestyle that you enjoy. And isn't Earth Day a perfect time to begin to look at how you do things?
If you've done anything for Earth Day, feel free to share so that others can learn from you, too!

(p.s. this was written on Earth Day, however, life got in the way and somehow I never actually posted it!)

Tiffin triumphant and BPA worries

2008-04-16T20:17:00.001-07:00

I have to start the entry by telling you that I found a tiffin! I am now the proud owner of a 2 level tiffin. Nicely insulated and it came with an insulated lunch bag that fits it perfectly. Now, a tiffin is sort of small - so when ordering a regular meal at the lunch counter, I thought they might not like having to put it into two pieces - so I also bought an insulated metal hot pot. A friend of mine told me that they use these to keep Naan bread warm. But for me, it's perfect to use for take out food. If I have any issues with it being used, I can always use an eat-in plate for my order and then transfer it myself. I'll have to do that for soup in my tiffin - use a bowl and then put it into my container (for measurement) and a plate for salad as they weigh the salad if you buy it separately. But that's ok - it still means I'm not using the plastic and styrofoam take out containers. I'm quite excited about it!
The next thing on my list to find is a 'safe sippy' cup by Kid Basix. It's quite a neat little invention - it's metal with BPA, phthalate and DEHA free plastic used for the spout/handles. It's funky and fun. It's also sold out everywhere. I've put my name on a waiting list and hope to get one. Looks like this company is going to make a fortune if they can ever keep up with the orders!
Health Canada is expected to classify BPA (bisphenol A) as a dangerous substance. Many large chains such as Mountain Equipment Co-op, Sport Check, Athletes World, Coast Mountain Sports, Lululemon Athletica, The Bay, Zellers, Canadian Tire and more have or are currently pulling plastic bottles off their shelves if they contain BPA. This includes baby bottles & sippy cups, many of which come from some big name brands. This leaves parents looking for an alternative for their children. Right now the alternatives are expensive, unless you can find them second hand (where I'm hoping to obtain some BPA free bottles for my son) or unless you happen to be in the USA (where you can buy 3 glass bottles for $5 instead of $5 each or more up here).
I think my decision to switch my lunch stuff was a good one. I'm going to bring a ceramic bowl and a plate in, too - so that I can use them to warm up things. There are plastics that are safe, they are just a little harder to find right now and I think it's important to do your homework. While the Health Canada label won't constitute a ban on the products, it will make people stop and think. I heard on the radio today that BPA is in everything from your cd's to your baby's bottles. Not to scare you into banning all plastic, though. It's present in polycarbonate - which classed within the #7 type plastic.
Whatever your choice for food and beverage containers and storage - make sure you do a little reading (and not just on the internet chat groups and forums) and make an informed decision. Me, I'm keeping my #5 containers and I'm happy with my new metal ones - especially that funky little tiffin!

Consigning Myself to a Greener Life

2008-04-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

Being green certainly has its ups and downs, doesn’t it? You make a little headway, then you get Chinese take-out and you end up with paper lids you can’t recycle and some Styrofoam containers. I discovered that I can recycle the foil container which is better than nothing – but still…

It’s been a busy week as I worked at decluttering some more. It never ceases to amaze me how I can get rid of so much stuff (13 boxes to the garage sale, 2 bins to the consignment store, giveaways to friends/family, thrift store donations, food bank donations and more) and it looks the same after a busy day. Compared to people on those clutter busting tv shows, my place is empty, but to me, I have trouble seeing the change. However, I do know that things are leaving and that I’m not throwing them away – they are looking for new life with other people who can use them. That’s green and that’s progress for me.

I wanted to share about the consignment store I frequent. It’s called the Urban Attic and it’s located at #6 - 6468 King George Highway, in Surrey, BC. They are open Monday to Saturday 10-5pm giving you lots of opportunity to check out their funky mix of clothing, accessories and household stuff like nicnacs, furniture, pictures, linens and more. It’s all quite unique and the owner chooses some really great things for her shop. My advice – if you see something you love, don’t wait – buy it now! I lost out on the perfect hall table, something I’d been wanting for a long time. because I waited too long before going back to get it.

I highly recommend this shop - if you know anyone who lives in the Greater Vancouver /Fraser Valley area of British Columbia, tell them to check it out and tell their friends. I’d love to ensure that this shop stays viable as it offers a great way to recycle your amazing stuff and to find the perfect item for your home at a pretty good price. It’s not your average consignment store and I love that.

I love the idea of consignment - it's a perfect business opportunity as your stock is free and it's a perfect way to make money on things you no longer need as someone else handles the sales for you. You share the profit and I think that makes it a win/win proposition. If you have a consignment store in the area you live in, check it out. If you don't - why not consider a new business opportunity. Find a niche - vintage, kid's stuff, ladies, men's household, maternity and baby. The options are endless. And you can proudly call yourself a 'green' enterprise!! Where else can you shop local, support a someone in your community through their business, share your great items with others and find great things you need? It the perfect re-use idea.

I discovered a website for you to check out. Canadian Living Magazine has a green section and right now there is also a 52 week Go Green Plan you can download. I just got mine tonight and there are lots of good ideas in there, some of which I already do.

http://www.canadianliving.com/life/green_living/

while you are there, check out the Green Living Blog.

Ah, so much to do, so little time. If only there was a time fairy who could give me some extra. I just know I could accomplish so much more!

It Pays To Recycle!

2008-04-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Isn’t it amazing to think that your old ‘stuff’ can do a lot of good in the world? And sometimes there’s a great incentive for you to put that old stuff to work? As you know, I’ve been clearing out the clutter and I’ve been building piles of stuff to take out of our place and redistribute.

I’m most happy to report that my freezer has found a new home. It now belongs to a family with four children. I know they’ll make great use of it so it’s a win/win for everyone – me, them and the environment as it’s not in a landfill somewhere.
I’ve gotten to thinking about where my stuff will end up – and I realized that much of it will benefit me twice. Once by freeing up space in my home and again by giving back to me on it’s way out. Read on and discover how your ‘stuff’ can do great things in its own way.

Our local grocery store gives us points for returning certain items for recycling – milk jugs, different product containers, empty inkjet cartridges and so on. I’ve accumulated many things and eventually those points add up to certificates I’m cashing in for my son’s RESP. Free money!

Here we pay deposits on many items – returning them gives you back money in your pocket. My family saves all of the bottles, cans etc. with deposits and once again, the money goes to our son. I know so many people that throw away these or toss them in the recycling bin. A terrible waste of their money!

You can take items to resale/consignment shops, sell them on ebay, craigslist, your local buy and sell paper and more. You can sell nearly anything, but clothing, household items, collectibles, furniture, kid’s clothes and toys and even electronics go quickly. And remember a garage or yard sale can sell just about anything. In many areas Kid’s Swaps are sweeping the regions. These are the best places to buy your baby and kids items at incredible prices. Why buy new? And you can sell it all again when you’re done!

There are locations that will take back wood, batteries, electronics, metal, old paint and more for recycling. In most cases you don’t get anything for it – and in some you may pay a small fee – but the reward comes in the environmental savings.

Used book stores and music stores are great places. You often don’t get cash, but with the credit you can get partial to full credit to spend on new to you things. I love my local used book store – (Sue’s Bookshelf). It’s a fabulous store with an every changing stock to browse in.

If you are not looking to make money – but want to do the right thing (and really, deep down inside, who doesn’t) don’t forget that taking a few minutes to take things to thrift stores, church clothing drives, shelters (both for people and animals) and toy depots can help to raise money to change a life – or to give things to someone who really needs it.

I was driving in North Delta, BC today and they are in the middle of a recycle week. You put all your stuff curbside and people take what they want. The rest goes to the dump. It’s a great idea, but I did see a lot of great things going into the big garbage trucks. Maybe next year they can encourage people to post the good stuff online so that other people can connect with the things they need, ensuring that it gets reused and not compacted. However, even as it is now, it’s still a fabulous idea and I’m sure it saves a lot of things from an early end to their useful lifecycle.

So before you toss something, think about whether it has value – to you, to someone else, to a recycle depot. If not – then think about whether or not it’s harmful to the environment. If so, is there a way to dispose of it better? I think I’ve found a place to recycle alkaline batteries for a few cents a pound. I’ve been saving mine in a baggie and will return them when I have more. Consider doing one small thing like this because when we all do it, it adds up to one really big thing!

Happy reusing and recycling!

Tiffin Tales

2008-04-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Great Tiffin Search
I have discovered a very cool thing - something that probably millions of people in the world use - but it's not readily available here. This something is a Tiffin Tin. It is a really cool little unit that consists of two (or more) tins, usually round, that stack together and close up with a handle. It's made of metal and often has a little plate as well. Here is a link to what one looks like. http://www.reusablebags.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=tiffin&osCsid=8cd2c93de8d79fb8c89ae848dfed0eea It's a pretty long link, so depending on how you are reading this, you may wish to cut and paste it into your browser.
I sometimes buy food in the cafeteria downstairs, but since I take it back to my desk, I end up with styrofoam that I can't recycle, or plastic that I really don't need. I've been searching for the perfect plastic free alternative and I think this might do it. It's not too big, but I think it holds more than enough for a lunch. I can take this down with me and have them fill it instead of a styrofoam container. And if I want soup, I can take their ceramic bowl and then pour it into my container (so they know what size to charge me for) And it would be great for bringing salad, sandwiches, fruit etc. to work. Not so sure about bringing warm stuff, as I have a long commute and I don't think it would be warm by lunch. I suppose I could keep a ceramic bowl here, too, for heating up things.
So my challenge is to find one of these. I live in Surrey, BC which has a very large Indian community - so perhaps there may be a place to buy one. I'll ask around. I can always buy one online, but I would like to see what other options I have, as the one in the link above is the only one I can find online. We may also go to Granville Island for lunch one weekend and there used to be an Indian restaurant called Rubina Grill that sold them with lunches and you could bring them back for cheap refills. (kudos to them for providing a great incentive to reduce takeout garbage!)
When I find one - I'll let you know where - and if you know of a place - leave a comment. It's such a great little item that others might love to get one! And just think, you'd be the talk of the lunch room. Just add a cloth napkin, your own cutlery (bamboo or metal) and you're set! And if you really like, you can scout out or make yourself a funky little tote bag to put it in. I think if I can't find one, I just might sew up a fun canvas tote that has room for a tiffen, with a big pocket to hold my mug and little pockets for my cutlery and napkin. Hey - I just might be on to something! Fashion forward AND a greenie!

P.S. I just got my organic order and while the average distance products travel to the grocery store is 2500kms, my order travelled only 30km to their warehouse. Pretty fabulous!

The Organic Debate

2008-03-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight I thought I'd share a link for you to check out:

http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-entertaining/articles/healthy-choices/eatingwell/20576

I found this on yahoo earlier today and have been reading this and other articles. I think it's quite an interesting one - talking about organic food and if it's worth it. There seems to be a debate about what is better for you - organic or not. And it also looks at locally grown, not certified organic but from farms that work hard to not need pesticides & hormones etc. Very interesting reading.

And again, another list of what to buy, what to skip, in the organics section of the grocery. Worth a look as it's more comprehensive that what I have shared before. (you may have to cut/paste this one if it comes out too long)

http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-entertaining/articles/healthy-choices/rogers-chatelaine/food-natural_selection

I'm looking forward to late spring and onward as the locally grown stuff will soon be ready where I live. I'll continue to order through SPUD but I'll also compliment it with local stuff as a lot of what I can get around here is grown without sprays etc. It may not be certified organic - but it came from just down the road so it's fresh and hasn't used up a lot of gas to get here.

So take a look and enjoy those links. It's nearly 8pm. We missed Earth hour last night and so I want to get in an hour of being unplugged tonight. I may be a day late - but I'm still trying! Besides, I had a date last night and I didn't want to miss the opportunity for a nice dinner out with my husband. We were participating in spirit and will do so properly tonight.

So...lights out now! And if you missed Earth hour on Saturday - take an hour this week and get unplugged. Light some candles and play a board game, talk to each other, take a bubble bath, a nap - whatever you fancy.

Declutter Update

2008-03-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

If you are reading my blog, you know I'm working on letting go of the excess. I say that we are blessed to have too much, rather than too little, but that it's time to share what we don't need.

I'm making progress. It's slow, but it's happening.

So far I've got a deep freeze in my hallway that's nearly ready to move on to it's next home, I've got 4 more boxes of things to take to the consignment shop (Urban Attic in Surrey - that's my plug, it's an awesome store!!), three more boxes to take to my parents garage for our yard sale later this year - maybe more as I've not boxed up everything and I'm guessing. I've also cleaned out my son's room and it's much more user friendly. My closet is cleaned, my linen cupboard is cleaned out, my hall closet is nearly there, too. I've listed a few things on craigslist and full circles (the Canadian version of freecycle that's now taking over the nation) to both sell and give away. I have two boxes of stuff to put on ebay and I've given friends some more things that they can use. This is what I've done in the past 10 days.

I'm still going to go through my son's toys for things to pass along, and I've got a little bit more culling to do with my books. We've got two bins of them in our storage room to sort and we'll let go of most of them. I also have two rubbermaid bins of clothes to sort. I kept them for when I lost the weight after the baby. Hmmm.. lost most of it, but I'm bigger than before. Sigh. I'm going to take most of it to consignment and when the time comes, I'll head back there to buy new to me things in a new to me size. I'll keep my most favourite pieces and then someone else can make use of the rest now while it's in style, instead of it sitting in storage for nothing.

You can feel the change in our home, it's feeling lighter. Now all I have to do is move on all the stuff piled at the door waiting for it's new home. That's a job for the next few weekends. I really need to cook some more or at least take some of the stuff in the freezer for my parents to cook during the week as a nearly empty freezer isn't very energywise. I've stuffed my fridge freezer full, so for another week, it'll have to do. After that, I'll take the last of it to my parents and store it in their freezer. I can hardly wait for this one to be gone!

My last task will be to tackle the kitchen. I've put all the kitchen gadgets in a bowl on the counter and as we use them, they go back into the drawers. Whatever is left will be let go of, unless it's something we usually use but didn't this past month. (i.e. the can opener) I have a sneaky feeling that the zester is going. Can't remember the last time I needed it for lemon or orange peel and I'm sure a little sharp knife could do the trick. I've still got pantry cupboards to tackle and lots of 'stuff' to make choices on in all the other kitchen places.

While I'm making the most of March, I'm not as far ahead as I'd like since we've been down sick for pretty much all month. I plug away when I'm feeling good - and that's ok. It's a process and it really never ends. Once you're done the big clear out, you always have to take a second look at what is in your life and decide if it's needed.

I wish I'd weighed what was going out, though. It would have been neat to know how many pounds of things I've been dragging around all these years that I've finally let go of. Now I'd like that to correlate to my body!!

The Pain of Packaging

2008-03-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

OK - I'm on a rant. Be prepared!

For Easter this year, my son got toys from his Nana. While we don't really need more toys, I understand the need she feels to spoil him. But that's not what's got my panties in knot.

PACKAGING!!! When on Earth will these toy companies get with the program? For one Little Tykes toy truck I had to undo countless pieces of wire holding it onto the cardboard, cut apart tape, peel away two layers of non-recyclable plastic, and in the process, I was stabbed by a piece of wire that wasn't coated on it's end. I am NOT impressed.

My son got a Fisher Price farm - the barn and it's contents were new to him, but not new from the store. That got two thumbs up from me. The truck that accompanied it was by Little Tykes - it's getting a F for it's packaging practices.

Whatever happened to putting the toy in a box with a picture on the front. My son was recently given a vintage Little Tykes schoolbus that someone had purchased years ago and never used. It came in a box - a regular box with an attached lid. I was thrilled! This way you could reuse the box if you wanted to. Yes, there was a little bit of plastic inside (a bag with the little people in it) but not near the packaging they use today.

I have to ask - what does it say about us as consumers that we allow this to happen? That we allow the toy companies to not only influence what our kids think they need - but that we go against our values and buy them - packaging and all! Something's gotta give. If we don't take a stand and tell these companies how we feel, they will continue to do this. Why do we need to see the whole toy before we buy it? A picture on the box used to do the trick, but now we want the whole thing encased in plastic so we can see it all. BAD BAD BAD! Shame on us and shame on the toy companies. (and let me tell you, they aren't the only ones that do this)

I'm tired of a ton of wire, tape, unrecyclable plastic and cardboard that is only fit for recycling. I want a box I can keep that toy in so all the parts stay together. I do NOT want to be throwing away my child's future along with the packaging. It's bad enough all these toys are plastic - but at least we can take care of them and pass them on to other children over and over so they have a useful life.

I'm the first to admit I've bought toys like these - I even have a few in the cupboard to give to my son later in his life - but now I think I'm going to take a stand. I am going to head back to the kid's swapmeets to buy his toys. I'm going to buy him toys without packaging or that are made without all the bad stuff (IKEA - this is where you win with some of your stuff - not all, but some)

And while I'm at it - what is wrong with the Overwaitea / Save On Foods chains? They sell eggs in styrofoam cartons????!!! I applaud their good sense to introduce their Changes centres to help give incentive to people to return packaging for recycling - but they won't touch these. Western Family Eggs - NOT good for the environment. And even those that are in flats are packaged with plastic film that's not recyclable.

This week I'm going to write a letter to Fisher Price, Little Tykes, and Jim Pattison's grocery store chains(again on the last one- they don't bother to reply, either) and tell them just how bad they rate with these products and what I'd like to see (cardboard and recyclable materials at the very least) in the future.

Heck - while you're at it, do the same. Tell all those companies that package things in wasteful ways just how bad they are for the earth. Tell them to change or you won't buy. Money talks and if we all made the choice to avoid until they do right, they would change. They'd have to or else they'd go out of business.

This week - put your pen to paper and your money where you mouth is. Speak up with your words and your pocketbook.

Green Tips from a Wet Place

2008-03-17T20:57:00.001-07:00

In lieu of a long post today, I thought I'd share a few quick tips to help you be a little 'greener'. It's raining here so I think these will all be about water.

For a quick fix that helps both the environment and your hydro bill - put a low flow shower head onto your shower. Today's shower heads use much less water, but unlike the old ones,they have more force behind them so you don't have a trickle for a shower - you still get a nice strong flow. You can spend as little or as much as you like and over time (depending on your price point) you'll see savings that you can take to the bank.

Get a rain barrel. You can use the water you save in your garden. It's better than the chlorinated stuff you spray onto it from your tap. And it's free! If you can't get a barrel - put out a bucket and collect the rain. Use it to water your houseplants. In the summer, put a lid on the bucket and water the plants outside on non-rainy days.

Fix a broken toilet. When they run, they use water and they cost you money - very likely much more than you save by not buying the part you need to fix the thing in the first place.

Toilet not broken? Displace some water in the tank by using a small milk jug filled with water. You'll save a couple of litres with every flush.

Turn off the water when you brush (shave, wash your face..etc) turn it on when you need to rinse.

Always run your dishwasher when it's full.

If you must run the washing machine with a smaller load - use the lower water settings. No need to wash a few small things with an extra large dose of water.

And that my friends, is all I can think of tonight to save you money and save our planet at the same time.

To Be or Not To Be Organic

2008-03-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

It's a tough decision. Organic is, without a doubt, a healthy way to go. It's best way to get a handle on all those nasties we ingest (pesticides, fertilizers and heaven knows what else) that are put on & in the food we eat. It's also expensive, and as my friend Maisie said in her comment to my last post - when you've got growing children and a budget, it's not easy to do.

I order from a company called SPUD - small potatoes urban delivery. They have great prices and having it delivered helps me to NOT make impulse purchases at the grocery store. This is how it saves me money. Plus, I'm busy and it saves me quite a bit of time, not to mention gas (which is creeping ever upward!) They are at https://www.spud.ca/index.cfm . If you'd like to browse and see what they have, use V4C 3C9 as a postal code (not - not mine, but it's in their delivery area) I'll put in a referral code tomorrow in case you live in their delivery area and want to try them out - that way you can use me as the referer (is that a word??) Aha.. here is the code: CR5-318120.(save's you $25) I believe they do Vancouver/Lower Mainland/Whistler and Calgary. But you'd have to check as they may deliver elsewhere, too.

I order quite a few things from them - but not meat. I still can't get my head around the price of organic meat. Maybe soon - but not yet. I do buy from them veggies and fruit, dairy, my cleaners, and this week I even bought recycled toilet paper. When I was in the grocery store this morning, I checked out their prices on the things I buy and the prices were very much the same.

If you are unsure of what to buy organic - here is a list from Canadian Living Magazine of the items with the most pesticides: Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Lettuce, Imported Grapes, Pears, Spinach and Potatoes. If nothing else these would be good choices to start with. And remember - with your fish - the bigger the fish, usually the higher the toxins. That's why they don't encourage you to eat tuna daily anymore.

Items like Avocados, onions, pineapples, magoes, Asparagus are said to have less pesticides. I've seen avocados listed as the least likely to contain pesticides in a few different articles , so I'm not going to pay the extra for organic anymore - especially when my son loves them and I buy a few a week.

And to be green - buy local. If you buy local, in season produce, you will save money - what a bonus! My local veggie market sells a lot of things that are grown without sprays (leafy greens of all kinds) at excellent prices (the best anywhere) and they stock a lot of locally grown items. When I have the time to go by there, I will pick up these things and just order what they don't have. I'm not yet ready to give up my bananas, but I'm trying to balance this with buying as much local stuff as I can. I do choose local items over imports as much as possible not matter where I buy them.

I'm planning on using up all the leftover veggies tomorrow. A stir fry or soup or something tasty like that. Gotta fit in the next order of fresh stuff - so I'll make applesauce with the old apples, too. I do not want to waste food like we used to. This is another bonus of my ordering. I'm not buying lots of extras that catch my eye, only to end up in the garbage when they've gone off.

It's good to do a little research on what is grown locally and when it's harvested. Plan your meals around that, buying local organic when possible, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the taste, the price and the good feeling you get from supporting a local farm.

Lighten Up!

2008-03-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

This week I think you can take that literally as we hit daylight savings this weekend and I'm letting go of stuff. We've returned from vacation - to all of us getting sick. Yet the declutter is still happening. I now have 8 boxes of things for the garage sale. I just have to figure out where we will store them until we have one this spring. My food processor- barely used, my cross-stitch stuff and some of my fabric are finding a new homes with a friends and family. These things just didn't want to go to a garage sale. It's funny how you look at something and someone's name just pops into your head! Now the intent is these things will be useful for the recipients, not left to become another person's clutter. I'm asking first - always a good thing.

I have some towels/pillows for the animal shelter, clothes/shoes/household items for the consignment shop and a batch of recycling to go out. All of this will be distributed on or before Friday. We also pulled our freezer out of the baby's room (yes, we had a deep freezer in there). It's now sitting in the front hallway and as soon as we've eaten our way to the bottom, it's going to be getting a new home. This move is allowing me to put the stroller into the hall closet (keeping the dirt out of my home!) and my big blue trunk into my son's closet. I can put his toys on top of the trunk and still have room for his clothes to hang, so it works out well. The contents of the trunk will be reviewed before it goes there, too. It contains my mementos and I'd like to work on letting go of the unnecessary and finding ways to honour the other things.

I've cleaned out my craft trunk and now have a list of projects to complete. I will be assigning them a deadline and if not done they will be released to the world to find a new home. This is where the cross-stitch stuff, the fabric, some knitting needles, and a few unfinished projects that are being let go of came from. I find it very hard to part with stuff like this, but I'm doing it and am proud of that! I only have one rubbermaid trunk of craft stuff now. (not counting my scrapbooking stuff)

Speaking of scrapbooking, I have decided, after 10 years, to stop as a consultant. It's been on my mind since my son was born and now it's time to let it go. Rather than a joy, it became emotional and mental clutter. It might not be physical, but clutter is clutter. I'm having a final workshop at the end of the month and will then pass my clients to my upline and a friend. Now when I scrapbook, it's for pleasure and not business.

Papers have been culled - lots and lots of papers. These things multiply like bunnies - no - like fruit flies! I have a small basket of things to go through and action or file. Much better than the great big box of stuff I'd collected. From this point on I'm going to try to open the mail over the recycle bin.

And the final tally of things thrown away - nearly zero - a few bits of plastic, a bit of string that's about it! I'm determined to find new homes for all of this.

I'm also using the library more, not printing things at work if I don't need to, recycling everything I can - even if I have to take it to my parents place as their city recycles things mine doesn't, and bringing my mug and utensils to work to avoid disposables.

Peter Walsh says that you must focus on the live you wish to live. I wish to live a simpler life, without clutter all over the place. One that is kinder to the earth and safer for my child. I have a vision of what would look like and I'm aiming for it. Somehow having thought that through first really does make a difference in how I look at things. It's easier to let go of something that isn't contributing to the vision - even if it's sentimental.

I'm trying hard not to buy anything right now. I will wait to buy containers until after the purge - this way I'm only containing the things I want in my life, rather than trying to contain everything I have now.

And my last green endeavour is that we are continuing with our organic foods delivery. I think it's worth it.

Stay tuned - I'm not nearly done yet as I pursue my need to let go of stuff, while ensuring it stays out of the landfill!

The Story of Stuff

2008-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

If you do nothing else today - go see this website! It's a 20 minute video and I guarantee you, it's worth watching.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

I had this site passed along to me by my cousin, Brenda, in the comments to one of my posts. My husband and I watched it and... well... were chastened, to say the least. While we know all this - it's more a back of the mind kind of knowing - not a conscious knowing. And it should be a conscious knowing to help us make better decisions.

We are in the process of replacing appliances - but since ours still work (albiet not that well) we will ensure they get more life out of them by passing them along to someone who can use them. Our dishwasher needs replacing first - and I've had it serviced twice already to extend it's life. Since it could still be useful to someone, I'll put it on Craigslist, etc. to see if someone would like it.

If we sell - and we plan to do so in the next year - we need to have upgraded appliances. We've made ours last over 12 years, and I hear that's good for the quality of appliances we have. That also includes our hot water tank that apparently should have been replaced years ago. Thankfully no one told it about the fact it was supposed to be disposed of after about 6 or so years. All of our appliances have been serviced over the last few years, rather than replaced - and after watching this video, I'm so glad we did that.

And I'm also going to try to hang on to my computer a little longer. My laptop has broken keys, doesn't charge and barely plugs in - but I think I can get a little more life out it - and so I will.

Plastic Paradise?

2008-02-24T21:12:00.000-08:00

While I was looking for some information on the the North Shore of Oahu, I came across an article that gave me pause for thought. It started with me finding a story about plastic bags and how there is a group on this island that is working toward banning them - and since it's stalled in their legislature at the moment, they are working on converting the people that live here. They promote reusable bags and one person even went so far as to bring in compostable take out containers (replacing the styrofoam clamshells) as well as compostable cutlery and even a recycled paper napkin. I was impressed. I wasn't as impressed with the lack of recycling pickup here - that's a definite thumbs down for Oahu and something that needs to be instituted here.

What really got me was the conversation that started in the comments section. It brought out a lot of opinions, that's for sure. What seemed to run through was that people don't want plastic if it's bad for the environment - but that they don't want laws that tell them what to do. I keep hearing that in different places - that we shouldn't be pushed into this Global Warming issue. That people aren't sure of the science and aren't willing to let the government make that choice for them - they want to do the right thing - but not because they have no choice and not under the banner of Global Warming.

I think I have to agree - somewhat. In a world that has countries that won't be players in the issue because they appear not to care, it's hard to swallow the fact that your government thinks you should be the fix. It's also hard to compete in a global market when you are taxed to death over everything - and then again for this on top of it - while at the same time your competitors don't have that to deal with. But, if you do it of your own accord - because you care - and if big business is forced to do things in an environmentally safe way, without having to additionally compensate for the rest of the world that isn't, maybe that's a good compromise. No one should be allowed to exploit and pollute our world. We've done enough damage.

Ah - now off my soapbox and back to my article. I was shocked to hear this one. Here I am - in Paradise - and I find out that a part of this state has a plastic beach. Yep, you read that right - a plastic beach. Apparently so much plastic wears down in the ocean that the little itty bits it separates into end up there and it's a plastic beach - a good foot or so deep. Now if that doesn't have you thinking twice about things, I don't know what will. If I'd read that article before I bought my son some toys to play with here (that we are leaving for future guests to enjoy) I'd not have bought them since they are beach toys and they are - you guessed it - plastic.

Here is the article if you'd like to read it.

http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=7334574

So - while I admit to getting some plastic bags when we picked up a few things at the swapmeet, (couldn't leave without a classic Hawaiian shirt, right?) I used the first bag to put all my purchases in. And I'm using the bags over and over as I can. I'll probably even pack stuff in them, and then recycle them when we get home.

Lastly - I thought I'd share. I did laundry yesterday and not only did I wash on cold but... I hung it out to dry! I did have to put some things in the dryer (thick towels and what was damp at days end) but most of it air dried and it felt great! My friend Maisie would be proud.

Aloha

2008-02-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

While I hate to brag, I really have to share that I'm writing this blog entry from Hawaii! We are staying on the North Shore of Oahu in a house on the beach. This is the life. Really! I know it's just a vacation, but I could see myself living in a place like this fulltime.

Most of our time will be spent right here in this house getting some of that R&R that I've heard rumours about. We'll do a few touristy things but for the most part this house and this beach are just where we want to be. Right now I'm still trying to slow down and enjoy the unfilled time. It's hard - I keep looking for stuff to do. I figure this time next week, I'll have perfected it.

Now I'm sure you're wondering "Just what does this have to do with living a greener life?" Well, I'm so glad you asked. It has PLENTY to do with it. You see, I have a plan. While we are here, we are not at home with all of our things - those things you know I'm so attached to. We are not using all the things we use every day - all the cleaners (both house and body), all the gadgets and so on. We are taking time to take stock of our life and to see where it is we want to go. I'm living without my stuff - which is giving me the time and distance I need to think more clearly about what it is I want out of life.

While I haven't gotten to the point of writing it all down - I do know that things will have to change as my vision of life has changed over the past decade and I've just not adjusted my lifestyle to meet that vision. Upon my return, you will get to find out more on this topic. Remember I said March was the month to declutter - well, it's about more than just stuff. It's going to be about decluttering a life, making room for what's important (friends, family and so one) and letting go of what's not (shopping for fun, a disposable lifestyle, etc.)

I've also learned that travelling with a baby is an experience and that it is NOT an earth friendly one if your baby isn't able to regular food yet. Since my son has allergies - he can't eat a lot of commercially prepared baby food. He's just beginning to eat things with more texture and is not ready for 'real' food. This means making him something different from us. I forgot my hand mixer, so I'm limited in what to make him as I need to be able to dice it finely. I ended up buying a lot of baby food - I searched to find the few things he can have and stocked up. (not too much variety but he won't starve) I also bought some stuff I can cook for him when we are at the house. At home I make his food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Can't do that in Hawaii as it's too hot to be carrying it around when you go out. Plus - if you do keep it frozen - you can't heat it up for him at the beach. So jars and fruit cups it is. And I'm not sure what to do with them. I never throw them away at home - so I'm hoping to find a way to recycle them. Otherwise I can see me bringing it all home. (did I mention my suitcases were full when I arrived here?)

We also bought a playpen for him to sleep in (we'll keep it at our family's place to use when we visit) and we bought a beach umbrella to keep him in the shade. Both of these will get plenty of use over the next few years - by us and by anyone we know that can use them. And when we are done with the playpen, it will go on to another life with another family as I intend to take good care of it. (another key to being green - take care of what you have - make it last and then pass it on so it can continue it's useful life)

The fact that my suitcase is full is a good thing, though. I could have filled another suitcase coming here but by squeezing it into less space, it means that I don't have room to buy junk. We don't plan on bringing home souvenirs for everyone. No sense in bringing home stuff for their next garage sale. It's definately not earth friendly to buy stuff people don't want! My own souvenir will be a baby food jar with some sand in it. Maybe a little piece of coral (it's washes up on the beach here) and a shell or two that we find (uninhabited, of course!) That's it. We will have pictures, maybe a post card or two, and our memories. This will be a first, that's for sure, as I usually come home loaded with things.

Oh - and just in case our house-sitter is reading this - don't worry! You're getting some thing - just not something disposable!

It's All About The Stuff!!

2008-02-11T21:43:00.000-08:00

At least, sometimes it feels that way.

Do you ever feel overburdened by things, paper.... stuff? I know I sure do. I've been on a decluttering mission for a few years, but it seems that I take two steps forward and one (sometimes two) steps back. I make a little headway, but then more stuff just appears. Either its a conspiracy to make me crazy or it multiplies in dark corners!

It's hard to admit that maybe, just maybe, I'm the source of the problem. After all, who wants to be the source of all that brings angst into their lives? Alas, it is true. I really am the source of all that is cluttered. I find that in my effort to not throw things away, to save money, to be prepared, to (insert excuse here) I accumulate more and more. Sometimes it's a great deal and I have to buy one, or two or ten of whatever it is. Sometimes it's something I really did want but didn't plan for where to put it or what to get rid of to make room for it. And lastly - the hardest one of all - it's something that someone is giving me. This is particularily true for the things that I'm given for my son. Grandparents, friends, acquaintances seem to buy, share, hand down all sorts of wonderous stuff that finds it's way into my home. Granted some of it is particularly beautiful stuff, but I don't differentiate at the door.

I've come across a great book for someone like me - good enough that I actually went right over to my bookshelf and got rid of 1/2 of the books that are supposed to tell me how to get organized, uncluttered, financially free and all that great stuff. If they are on the shelf, well, they are obviously not working! It's Peter Walsh's "It's All Too Much" and the title just sang to me as I walked on by. I recommend this book as it has you examine what you want out of life before you tackle the stuff. It's not about finding great storage, it's about examining your relationship with things and your own sense of control in your life. Very powerful words in this little book. My one issue is that he talks about trashing things with great abandon. For me, if it has life left, it is to be reused. So I ask that if you follow this path - find ways to share what you let go of, rather than sending it to the landfill.

So as my journey begins, what to do with all that Stuff is going to be the issue. I was saving it for a garage sale, but as the boxes get higher, I'm not sure I want to store it until late spring. I've decided that I'll put what I can on consignment and unless I find a place to keep the boxes that's out of the way, they will be donated. It's more about living the vision, than making a few bucks out of my old stuff. I'll also do some research to see if there are any places that can use what I have or where I can take things.

For anyone letting go of things consider used bookstores, thrift stores, consignment shops, transition houses, church projects, homeless shelters and animal shelters. All of these places are available as an outlet for your used items. There are even some charities that take old stained clothes if they are good for rags as they sell the material by the pound to buyers. Look into it in your city and see how little you can throw away, while at the same time letting go of a great deal.

My journey will really take off in March as I have designated March as the big letting go month. I'll definately keep you posted on how it goes. So far I have four garage sale boxes, two ebay boxes, a stack of books, a few items of clothing and some odds and ends to send back to their owners - all waiting to go. And by the way, I did get rid of that fish tank - it's now happily esconced in a long term care facility for the residents to enjoy.

Recycling Troubles

2008-02-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been a great one for letting go of 'stuff' and sharing what's good with others. I've taken quite a bit of stuff to the consignment shop, a box of items and two bags full of grocery store bags to the thrift store, took down some recycling, returned all the pop bottles for their refund and left a bunch of stuff out for people to pick up, thanks to freecycle. I'd say that this was a productive weekend as far as not throwing away perfectly good things.

Now - on the down side, my city is failing rather badly in the recycling department. We have had two pick ups since December 18th. I live in the city of Surrey, B.C. and I can't believe what a terrible job they have done with the switchover of service providers. A new contract was awarded to International Paper, effective January 1st 2008. It appears that during the last two weeks of their contract, Waste Management decided not to bother fulfilling their contract, and the new company - over a month later, still can't do theirs.

As a tax payer and a person who feels very strongly about recycling, this situation disgusts me. I spoke to the person in charge on Thursday to find out what was happening. As we'd had snow, and I was fine with a delay due to this, I wanted to know when they would come. I was told that day. On Friday I was told that he'd dispatched "his" crew and they'd be there that afternoon. Well, it's now Sunday and they never showed. We've been given an assortment of excuses ranging from not having remotes to undergrounds, to them not being able actually enter the undergrounds (something that was never a problem for the previous company) I really have to ask - just how much does the City of Surrey care that my neighbourhood is paying for a service we're not receiving. Do they care that the bins are overflowing and that people are using the garbage instead now? Do they care that our tax dollars are paying someone to NOT do their job?

I applaud the decision to add things to our recycling stream later this year, but if it is done with the same finesse as changing contractors has been done, I'm already concerned that it will only result in chaos and, in the end, a terrible waste of resources.

So, to the City of Surrey, I say - Wake up! Get it right! Make these people accountable and make them do their job. This is affecting our planet and it's time you stood up and did something about it.

I'll be following up tomorrow. I've already left a message this weekend and I intend to see this through until we get the service we've had in the past.

Freecycle Frenzy

2008-01-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still working on the declutter aspect of my life. I have too much stuff and not much space. So I've been trying to get rid of things. I have a box of things to get ready for the consignment store again and today I managed to pass along a few things via Freecycle. I am now lighter one bag of packing peanuts (which I could not throw away), a bag of baby clothes, a bag full of hangers that came with many of the baby clothes my son got as gifts (also couldn't throw these away) and there are a bunch of things to go to the thriftstore.

I think I've decided not to wait for a garage sale. If I can't find a spot to store the boxes, I will either freecycle them or donate them. I just want the space back. Freecycle, by the way, was an ingenious invention. I find it amazing that there is a place to share things and to ask for things you need - and that people actually use it! Craigslist here also is good for selling or giving away things and I've made good use of it, too.

Today will see me taking down a good sized load of recycling. It's mostly paper I've purged - where does it all come from?? It's like it multiplies in the dark! But at least it's hitting the recycling bin and not the garbage.

I'm going to clean out another cupboard tonight after my son is in bed. It's full of 'stuff' and I'm sure there are some great things in there to share with others, too.

Dinner tonight is leftovers. I'm doing well on not tossing out leftovers since I'm sticking them in the freezer until I get to them. Makes it kind of like a free frozen dinner! We had a snow day here today and I'm too lazy to cook (saving energy, lol) and so this is perfect. I really am glad I read Maisie's blog and decided to follow suit.

That's it for today. A few little things.

Another Green Baby Step

2008-01-24T21:35:00.001-08:00

If change happens in small increments, I'm moving forward. I now have a bowl and spoon at work so I can have a can of soup for lunch without using any of the throw away instant soups. I bring in a can opener and bring home the can to recycle. This is my lunch choice for when I'm rushed and don't have time to make anything. I do brown bag my food most of the time, and I'm working on making the contents better. I'm a Weight Watchers member - so I am encouraged to eat more fresh fruit/veggies and leaner proteins and good carbs. These are all things that are easy to bring and some of it comes in it's own Nature made packaging. I still need a suitable tupperware container in case I buy something for lunch, but I'm trying not to spend the money there, so it's not a priority at the moment.

I did take a slightly bigger step today and I placed an order for organic grocery home delivery. My food will travel an average of 1125 km's to my door - less than half the usual 2500 km's that most grocery food will travel. And that's mostly due to things like bananas, avocados, mangos, oranges and papayas. These things will never be local for us. I want to give my son as much organic food as I can afford, since it has less pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones. And it definately can't hurt my husband and I to follow suit and eat better, too. I'm trying to find a balance between the high cost of organic and the best choices in the non-organic foods. I did read that avocados are the least likely to be pesticide ridden - and that grapes can be extremely high in them. I'll do some more research to determine my best organic choices and get the rest at the grocery store.

I'm hoping not to have to shop next week if I have this stuff delivered. That's another good choice - both for the environment (no car emmissions to get there) and my wallet (no veering off the list into oblivion)

Use it Up!

2008-01-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

I am a member of a yahoo group that is a close knit community of women. Because we are of all different ages and backgrounds, we certainly do learn a lot from each other - while at the same time inspiring one another in exploring new things. This week a member issued a freezer and pantry challenge. This gist is this - see how far you can go without shopping for food/beverages, etc. Use up what you have on hand. This got me to thinking about all the things I currently have in my refrigerator - and once again I am guilty of too much food and things are spoiling.

We (my husband and I) decided it was high time we tried this. Now, since our parents usually send home dinner when we pick up our son, we don't cook dinner often. However, we do end up with lots of leftovers and we do buy things that need to be used all up, too. This week we are bound and determined to use up everything possible (not including what are sure to be science experiments in the back of the fridge) and I have decided that once a week will be leftover night. In order to ensure that things don't spoil from now on, we are putting the leftovers in the freezer (thanks Maisie for this idea!!) We can heat them up on the weekend and have a lazy man's smorgasboard.

With the use it up theme in mind, I'm also packing my lunch and snacks to work. Lately I've spent far too much money in the cafeteria - not to mention the fact that I've generated far too much waste by doing take out. I enquired about using my own take out containers so that I do not have to use styrofoam and they are amenable to me bringing in my own. Until I bring in a good size container for this purpose, I'm not buying lunch. I do use plastic cutlery as they don't want the silver removed, but I've been using the same set for quite some time and plan on doing so until they are no good - then I'll bring in something from home. And I was given an excellent travel mug for Christmas and I use that for my tea at work now to avoid the disposable stuff. I did forget it the other day and used a paper cup, but didn't take the plastic lid and I'm keeping the cup at my desk to get water for my plant.

Once again - nothing drastic, but baby steps in the right direction. I do a lot of things right - I take transit, I have a reusable mug at work, I recycle everything I can, I buy second hand - and much more. But there are so many things I could do better (i.e. drive less, waste less, spend money more wisely to support things that fit my values).

I continue to learn and for now - I'm working on that pantry/freezer challenge.

Declutter (reduce, reuse, recycle)

2008-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s been a busy week – and I’m working on clearing out some things. After calls to the city, we finally had a recycling pickup. However, our bins are nearly full again as we are trying to get rid of the stuff we’ve been keeping until there is room. I do have to say I appreciate that they came. We were told they’d be there on Friday and they were – at 9 o’clock at night! But they did it and I am happy. I was quite upset someone in my building tossed all the boxes that were filled with cardboard into the dumpster. Very disappointing to say the least as they were not a nuisance and had a lot stuffed into them while awaiting pickup.

I have posted some packing peanuts that a package arrived with, and a quirky little kettle on Craigslist. I’m hoping to keep them out of the landfill. I’ve also thinned out my son’s toys and clothes a little. A few things have been packed up and put away, a few things put aside in case a neighbour would like them for their baby and a few things are in the garage sale box. I’ve also listed a few toys on Craigslist. I packed up some things of mine for ebay and will list them later in the week. I have a bunch of clothes to wash and press to take to the consignment shop in a couple of weeks.

I also took some things to the consignment shop, some things to the thrift store and some stuff to the used bookstore. It’s been a pass it along to the next owner kind of weekend!

I can happily report that when I went to the grocery store I used my own grocery bags! I didn’t use plastic for anything. But on the downside, I was hungry when I shopped and bought an instant soup in a nonrecyclable container. I don’t think it offset the no plastic bags and all the organic produce I bought, but still – not a sound decision. In the future I will plan better.

I’ve also decided to part with my fishtank,stand and accessories and it will be donated to a senior's care facility that my sister works at. A good re-use, I think. And it will make lots of other people happy, while simplifying my life just a little. Hopefully we’ll move that in the next week or so.

My goals this week are to continue in my declutter and to ensure that what leaves the house leaves it in a responsible way - being reused by someone else.

Recycling Blues and Shopping Highs

2008-01-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

This week has had a bit of a blip as far as recycling goes around here. Our city has changed contractors for pick up and it has created quite a mess as the new company gets going. There have been people who, as a result of the change over, have not had pickup since Dec 18th. As you can imagine they put out the bins and then no one comes. It's a mess and a recent windstorm has not left things looking pretty. Hopefully this will resolve itself. One well meaning person put a sign on our bins saying not to use them as there is no pick up and directed people to use the garbage instead. The situation has been rectified, but at the time I was absolutely horrified and quickly sent out messages to find out what was going on.

So until the pickup occurs, I am accumulating paper and containers in my home. I live in a complex and we share bins, so until things are settled down, I'd prefer to wait to ensure my stuff actually gets picked up.

I've been saving things that cannot be picked up and that are interesting in shape or useful for a local elementary schools kindergarten. They liked getting formula containers and baby food jars, little cardboard boxes and such, so I've continued saving things for them. I have a collection of fruit cups for them - I can't recycle them but I think they would make a great base for a craft.

I think I've mentioned this but here we can recycle plastic numbers 1,2 4 and 5 as well as cans, mixed paper and newspaper. I also save all the store brand containers to take back to the shop to earn extra membercard points.

Today when I ran into the store to buy milk, I picked up a few other things I was low on and declined the bag. I had some in the car, so carried my items out and used my own bag. And to note - I bought a 4 litre jug of milk for my son instead of the 2 litre carton. We can't yet recycle the cartons and I figure he'll drink it all before it expires so I went for the recyclable packaging.

The other day I bought a new winter coat. Now it may not seen eco friendly to shop - but I keep buying the cheaper items, which don't last long as they aren't well made. My last coat is no longer serviceable so I spent the extra money and bought a very good coat - one that will last me for years. It's very nice and dressy, good for work and going out. And I waited until now as it was reduced in price (less than 1/2) and then had further clearance discounts on it. So even though it cost more than I'd usually spend, it's good quality and I won't need to replace it for a long time. I read that you should buy investment pieces when you can - things that last, rather than one season wonders. That many of the bargain items are not going to last as long and may also have been made with questionable labour. Something to think about, too.

This weekend will hopefully see me taking more items to the consignment store and to the thrift shop. I'm determined to declutter by making sure that serviceable items do not get thrown away.

To Shop or Not to Shop

2008-01-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

That really is the question. I came across a very interesting little book at the library the other day and as I was reading it, I started to really think about how I spend my money. Like most people, I do not have endless supplies of cash. I shop for bargains, I use coupons, I figure out how much I'm getting for the dollars I spend on an item. Generally I buy what is going to give me the most for my money. As I said in a previous post - it's not easy to spend less and shop more responsibly. In fact I heard a news story the other day that said that one of the reasons that people are getting fatter is that bad food costs less.

This little book "the better world shopping guide" by Ellis Jones (New Society Publishers) rates different companies based not only on how environmentally responsible they are - but also their social responsibility looking at human rights, community involvement, animal protection, corporate crime, discrimination, employee treatment and philanthropy. It is a fantastic little book - and while it has an American focus, it is still invaluable for Canadians and even those abroad.

I was shocked to discover some information about companies I thought were better - we drive Saturns but GM received the worst grading for many reasons- and pleased to see that I've made some good choices - Seventh Generation was rated the best company on the Planet!
I'm looking into organic home delivery from a local supplier who buys things as close to home as possible and I was thinking this was a great move(and it is) yet this little book showed me in a few minutes how many other things need to be looked at. If you want more information - go to www.betterworldshopper.org . You can research all the information there and even buy this great little guide (small enough to fit into your pocket) to take shopping with you.

I guess it comes down to making good choices - buying fair trade products when available, organic when possible and buying from companies that show responsibility in what they do. You can see the top 10 changes to make in your shopping habits for the most impact for your dollar, the top 10 best companies, the top 10 worst companies and more.

I'm going to make some changes in my shopping habits. A little more review is needed, but there are some things I can do easily as I put together this week's shopping list. I can buy my husband's favourite coffee as it’s fair trade and organic (one of the top 10 things to do) I can still buy chocolate but make better choices on who I buy it from (another top 10 item to do). I can choose some of my groceries from the brands listed (and I even have coupons for some!) And best of all - I can keep buying my Tetley tea!! Again - small choices but important ones. I think I see a theme here, don't you?

Who knew your morning coffee choice could be environmentally friendly AND change lives?

A Cleaner Clean

2008-01-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

It's so easy to talk about making changes, isn't it? It's nice to say that I'll switch to a more environmentally friendly kind of cleaner or that I'll try to eliminate phosphates or chlorine from my home. It's a little harder to bite the bullet and actually buy those things. I find it rather amazing that it costs so much less to eat crappy food, use toxic products in our home, and poison the natural world around us, than it does to buy healthy, non-toxic, safe products.

While I know that I can buy some vinegar and baking soda and lemon juice and so on and make my own, the reality is that I want the convenience of ready made products. We work 40 hours a week, we both commute 3 hours a day (yes, we are looking at this later in the year) we have to do all the household chores and still find time to spend with our baby and each other. While it is definately something to aspire to, taking the time to make everything from scratch at this point in our lives just isn't realistic.

So, I decided to vote with my dollars and make my money count by buying things that cost a little more, but hurt a little less. I want to replace all the items in my cleaning cupboard with non-toxic alternatives; to that end we purchased non-toxic, phosphate and chlorine free items from Nature Clean and Seventh Generation. My caddy under the sink is now the proud holder of dishwasher detergent, rinse aid, chlorine free bleach, glass cleaner, kitchen and bathroom cleaner and tub and tile scrub. It looks rather pretty, if I may say so myself.

But being the realist I am, I know that I have to finish what I've already bought. So that means that I'll be using some of the less desirable things for awhile. My choices are to throw it away (definately not environmentally friendly), to use it (still not a good choice) or give it away (passing the buck). I've put together a small bag of things I know I won't use and I'll give those away, I'll use some of it on things our son doesn't touch and begin using the gentler items where he'll come in contact with them. (i.e the bathtub) In the future I do not plan on buying the harsh cleaners so it's a start.

Being a Bag Lady

2008-01-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

Did you know that if you shop once a week and take home only four bags of groceries, you will use 224 plastic grocery bags a year? Just think about that for a moment. In five years you will have used over 1000 plastic grocery bags. And let's be realistic, how many of us actually get all our stuff into four of those little bags? In fact, I'd be willing to bet that six bags a week is probably more the average if you take into account the bags you get from all the other places you frequent. That's 312 a year or a whopping 1560 over a five year period. If the average large city has a population of between 500,000 and 1,00,000 and if you make the average family size four people and every family replaced plastic shopping bags for four weeks, that would keep 3-6 MILLION plastic bags out of the landfill. And that's just one city.

For an investment of as little as 99 cents a bag, you could do your part to keep millions of plastic bags out of the landfills. Everyone wants you to buy their new 'eco-friendly' shopping bag - so why not find one you like and invest in a few. They don't have to cost a lot of money - they just have to be sturdy. I've noticed, too, that most of them hold far more than the standard plastic ones. You could even make your own if you were so inclined - that way you could have funky and fun bags that you want to show off - a good reason not to forget them in the car!

After thinking this over, I have decided to actually USE all those bags I keep buying at my grocery store. I have about 8 or so of them, but I keep forgetting to use them. I will buy a few more (I keep using them for other things and never have them all in the same place) and will put them in my car. When I bring grocery bags upstairs, I will put them right back at the front door to go back into the car. I do use them now and then, but I never seem to have them with me when I want them. Today I got a plastic bag when buying books - so I'll bring a canvas bag to work and leave it in my desk drawer for next time.

And if you happen to have too many plastic bags in your cupboard - don't throw them away when you declutter. Take them to your local thrift store and they can reuse them.

Recycle, Recycle

2008-01-03T21:56:00.001-08:00

I was looking at my city's website and I've learned that my city is going to expand their blue bin recycling program. This is fabulous! Soon we will be able to recycle things like milk cartons, tetra paks and those aluminum pie tins. We currently recycle glass, metal, mixed paper, newspaper and plastics labelled 1,2, 4 or 5. They also accept most plastic shopping bags. We will also no longer have to sort items, which will make it easier to use the blue bins.

While I know that the ultimate goal is to reduce and reuse before you recycle, this change will be welcome as I do sometimes have those things and hated throwing them away. I always return the drink boxes/bottles for the refund as I save all that money and put it in an account for my son's education - a very good reason to recycle! My grocery store also has a recycling program. By bringing in the containers on their list, you earn points. I've cashed in those points that we earn through shopping there and recycling there, and so far it's netted over $100 in his education fund over the last year. It really is such a simple thing to do, and with an incentive that makes it even more worthwhile.

As I'm cleaning I'm adding to the recycling pile. I'm trying hard not to throw things away this week and am identifying items that are an issue for me. For example, my son's organic individual fruit cups come in a plastic container with a foil lid. While I like the organic aspect, they are packed in plastic labelled with a 6 - something I cannot recycle. I will now be on the hunt for a new source of this for him. Other than applesauce, I haven't seen large sizes of these that I could distribute into smaller portions, so this will be a challenge. I have no idea where to buy fruit 'sauce' type treats that aren't packed in these containers. I did buy yogurt in the large container for him this week - thus saving me from recycling a case of little containers.

Tomorrow we go on our first family 'experience'. I'm trying to do things, rather than acquire things so we are going to a hockey game. This is one of the ways I can reduce my use of 'stuff'.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T20:21:00.001-08:00

Well - It's Official! My living green journey is beginning. It started with a bit of a bump, though, as we were exposed to a nasty virus yesterday during our New Year's celebration. We left our son with his grandparents for another day, just in case we get sick. While sharing is good, this isn't something we'd want to share, lol.

So my day was spent taking down the tree. We use an artificial tree (allergies - no real trees allowed here) and it's all that remains up in our home. I purged the decorations that were left in the boxes this year. I have a large box full of things for a garage sale this summer. I've decided not to throw away anything, rather I'll see if anyone wants it first. And a garage sale seems like a nice way to recycle things. I can use the money to do something fun, later.

I guess I started the year green by not throwing away any of those things. I also have a bunch of old pinecones that I purged and they will go into the in-laws composter. I saved all the gift bags, tissue paper, gift boxes to be reused. I always do this. I've accumulated quite a big collection, so I think I'll clear that out and put away some to share. I've also put away the Christmas cards to save. I also put away all the ones I can reuse when I make cards or gift tags. We got gift tags in the mail from junk mail, so I kept those to use next year rather than throwing them away.

This is my start - reusing things where I can. And as we go through our home, spring cleaning (a little early) I will be putting things aside for the garage sale (I think these are the perfect re-use events and afterward I donate everything that is in good condition) and for the consignment shop (where I like to shop, too). I already check out thrift stores and we are inundated with Kid Swaps for me to find things for our son. After this month I am sufficiently disgusted with the major toy makers to not buy their stuff new. I have never seen so much packaging - it's sick. I threw away a big bag of plastic, wire and tape and have a huge box of cardboard to recycle from it. This is one way to stand up for what I think with my money. I much prefer the way toys used to be packaged - in a box that you could reuse. This new packaging of a half open box with plastic overlays, wire holding everything in, shrink wrap and more is so very wasteful.

Day one is over - and I'm happy with my beginning. I'm doing my best not to throw away things - and I've fixed a bunch of things so they can be used properly, too. A very successful day, I think.

The Final Countdown

2007-12-31T13:01:00.001-08:00

Well, I would think that if one is going to start something big - it should feel like there is a life altering moment before them. I’m not feeling it - I’m about to change the way I do things, but I don’t think of it as such a momentous thing. Maybe it’s because there are just so many changes to be made that I can’t think of it as just one big thing, or maybe it’s because hindsight will be what defines what I do.

I do know that I’ve made one choice already. I think it’s a good one. I’ve used the same hairspray for years (think 1980’s big hair) - I don’t use it all the time, but it’s aerosol. I’m thinking it should be the first thing to go. So I’m switching to a non-aerosol version. This will take care of both the emissions and the need of safe disposal for the cans. I read that non-aerosol hairspray doesn’t add VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) to the atmosphere and that’s a good thing. Did you know that in 1999 in Oregon, in one day 2.5 tonnes of VOC’s a day come from hairspray? Compare that to 70 tonnes a day for cars and I think that’s pretty significant for something from a teeny can. Now I can’t say how much one can puts out, but if I use 4 or 5 cans a year, then this will add up a little. If everyone who uses aerosol hairspray switched one can - just one can - to non-aerosol it would make a big difference. Now this won't start until I buy some hairspray - but I already have a little pump bottle of it and the other can is nearly empty, so it will be soon.

I've been thinking about all the changes to come. If I make one change a week, that's 52 changes. If I make one change each day, that's 366. I think I'll fall somewhere in between the two. As I said before - baby steps, a little done over a long time will be better than a lot over the short term. It's too easy to go full bore into something, and then burn out.

Tonight is New Year's Eve - the cusp of all things possible. While we will enjoy our evening with family this year, we will also be looking to the future and all the great and wonderful things that await us.

Happy New Year to All!

One Big Footprint!

2007-12-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

OK - It's true. I have big feet - both figuratively and literally. Looking around my home I find the idea of a Year of Living Greener a little bit overwhelming. I have so much stuff - and I can't just toss it to make it go away. Now, even more than before, I have to make sure to do the right thing and dispose of items properly. I wish we could compost - that would ease the guilt I have about cleaning out my fridge. With Christmas just past it is full to the brim, but so many things didn't get used up in time and will have to be tossed. And that's just one little spot in our home.

I have a lot of decisions to make, that's for sure. We need a serious declutter around here and I will pack away everything we don't need for a garage sale this summer. I'll also consign some things, donate some things, freecycle some things - the list goes on. When I think about clearing out, I know I can recycle a lot, reuse some, and I've had success with putting some things on craigslist and freecycle so that they get one more use (at least) before being recycled. But still, all this takes time - a very precious commodity around here.

What about cleaning? I know I should replace all my cleaners with more environmentally friendly ones - but the frugal woman in me says I have to use up what I have first (and that the 'good' stuff is expensive!)

What about food? Do I need to go all organic, do the 100 mile diet, eat no meat? I have a child with allergies, so good food for him is important. And how do I get all this good stuff? I have so little time as it is, going to the produce market, organic grocer, etc. is time consuming (and did I mention expensive?)

I want to do the right thing - but the big box stores have the right price and usually what I need. I can get it all in one place and save money. Of course then I'm also not using so much gas - driving around for stuff isn't green either. But shopping there isn't green... Oh - too many things to think about.

As for transportation - I use both car and transit (a necessary thing if you have a small child to go to daycare and terrible transit service where you live) I go one way and my husband goes the other - it takes us each 1.5 hours to get to work. Crazy! So we will think about a house and a better location - yet how will that work with our current home in the middle of our commutes already? Work at home? Work sometimes at home? Change job location?

The more I think about it, the more questions there are, the more the choices abound - it really is quite overwhelming all the possibilities you have to consider. And now that 'being green' is the buzzword, more choices are thrown at us everyday.

This journey should be an interesting one. Seeing the difference in our lives from now to the end of 2008 will be exciting. I think I'll take pictures of our home now, too. After all, being more conscious of what I do will also mean living more simply - buying less 'stuff', being more organized, and in the end, probably being less messy!

I'll sleep on all these ideas in my head. Choosing what to start with is important. I know it can't all be done at once, but rather as a succession of baby steps.

Getting Ready

2007-12-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for quite some time about how to make changes that make a difference to the world I live in. As a busy Mom, working full-time, it's not easy to change the way I do things - after all there are only so many hours in the day! But I'm willing to try. I want to be a good example for my son - to do something to build a better future for him.

I want to practice the 3 -R's - reduce, reuse, recycle. I want use what still works and replace things in a more environmentally friendly way. I have lots of ideas and have picked up a few books to help me out.

I guess the big question is Can someone like me change enough to make a difference?

And so the journey begins.