Organizing-Life » Green living

One Small Change ~ Greener Organizing Solutions

If you’ve been following along for a bit here in the space, you might remember Suzy from Hip Mountain Mama challenge other bloggers and those endeavoring to live greener to make One Small Change. The challenge ended in April, but those who began this movement decided to continue on and are still making One Small Change every month to live more sustainably.

September as a pivotal month of change. A change of seasons, a change of schedule, and a change of weather. So I decided this month to be the time to jump back in and share the One Small Change our family is undertaking to live greener. I love organizing my home, so this month I plan to collect and create some greener organizing solutions, and of course share them all here with you.

There is just so much plastic a girl can take I tell you! This blog, Organizing-Life began with my passion for all things in its place. I organized everything really. And all in plastic containers. They are cheap, simple, modular, interchangeable, uniform, and plentiful. Now, as a girl going green, I am thinking about what else can I use to organize our belongings that isn’t going to leach BPAs, phthalates, and other toxins? What do you use to organize your home you ask? Why, natural materials of course! Remember stone, wood, glass, paper, and metal? Ahh, to bring a bit of the earth into our home would be really a relief.

This month I plan to share a few of the ways we incorporate organizing solutions made of natural materials into our home. It isn’t easy. I feel like I am on a safari sometimes hunting down organizing containers made of anything other than plastic. I am usually astounded at the prices of these beautifully crafted organizers. Think outside the box, get creative, and thrifty, and make do. And really, it works to help make the home a bit greener.

The first switch we are endeavoring is to get rid of our plastic bowls. I found these very dirty, but very sturdy, wooden bowls the other week at the thrift store. With a little bit of elbow grease, these were revived into working condition and are now part of our collection. In fact, they are the perfect size for popcorn.

Sand them down. Use coarse sandpaper for wood first (like a #60) and then a fine sandpaper to smooth things out (like #150.)
Rinse to get rid of the dust, wipe, and let them air dry completely.
Let them be or seal them with linseed oil and beeswax. (Melt a 1:1 ratio, cool, and wipe on with a clean rag. Wipe off excess with another clean rag and let the piece dry completely. This concoction is food safe.)
Hand wash these babies. Don’t try to put them through the dishwasher because they’ll dry out and crack.

Where to find it:

Yard sales, Craigs List, Freecycle, Ebay, rummage sales, thrift stores, your parent’s attic.

How to use it:

Knick knack drawer
At the dinner table
Fill with stones, acorns and pine cones and use as a table centerpiece
Jewelry catcher on the dresser

We have a lot of plastic bowls. And we are slowly replacing them all with wood, glass, and metal. For food stuffs, it is a small way to keep the plastic out of your food. For the rest of your home, well, wooden bowls are a nice way to bring a bit of the outdoors inside. And we just like to limit the number of plastics we touch daily. (If that is even possible?) The fish Nemo’s friend Dori comes to mind. “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming.” We are just endeavoring to do the best we can in this world made of plastic.

Up next, plastic vs. baskets.

P/S Can I also submit this as an additional Small or rather Large Change? My husband just took a new position with the Department of Energy managing government loan guarantees for renewable energy projects across the country. I am pretty darn proud of him as I too believe that renewable energy sources will pave the way for our continued future energy consumption. As a former poli-sci undergrad, I am a bit taken aback that now we are part of that bureaucratic system. Yikes! All for a good cause perhaps.

P/P/S

Take a peek at what others are doing to live a bit greener at the One Small Change Blog!

P/P/P/S

Can I do that many P’s? For a much better tutorial about how to restore your wooden treasures, visit The Magic Onions blog here.

not washing my hair…nope not doin’ it

If you have been around the blogosphere a bit, you probably have noticed a million and one articles about going “no poo.” That is, not shampooing your hair. (Okay, maybe more like hundreds of articles, not a million.)

I decided to jump on then bandwagon and I don’t think I am going to go back.

I decided to go the more natural route a couple months ago. There are so many chemicals in commercial bath and beauty products it makes my head swim thinking about it. And many of them are toxic. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you know the site I always point to, the Cosmetics Database. Go look at what is in your shampoo.

Anyway, since my gluten-full days of yore, I’ve had dry, brittle, dull hair. With flakes. It didn’t look good. I wore it up, back, in a bun just to “hide it.” I figure some of this was my bodily nutrition, (the foods you eat can certainly help your hair look better) and some of it was my beauty routine.

Now, using budget friendly, eco-sensitive, simple baking soda and apple cider vinegar to cleanse and condition my hair, it feels soft, supple, and it shines brilliantly. Not kidding.

I’ve heard this method isn’t for everyone. Some love it, some hate it. But I am a believer and I hold firm. If you’d like to check it out, here are a few of the hundreds of places to visit.

Hip Mountain Mama-Tree Hugging Tuesday No Poo Method

Simple Mom, How to Clean Your Hair Without Shampoo

Babyslime Shampoo Info

Green Phone Booth, No Poo Convert

Building Ordinary No Poo Day 15

Now, I wonder if in the Rodgers and Hammerstein play, South Pacific, the leading lady would have been able to “wash that man right out of [her] hair” with baking soda and vinegar. Doesn’t sound that romantic does it? Maybe we’ll just go for the commercial suds shampoo there.

greener gift giving

I wrote a bit about Mini Mister’s fourth birthday celebration yesterday. So today I thought I’d aspire to inspire you to make your next gift giving experience to be a bit greener. (That was a bit to mouth…oh, but you read it. Did you follow all that? *wink*)

This year I decided to wrap our gifts in a more sustainable wrapper. A cloth wrapper actually. It is like creating a gigantic napkin out of the pretty printed fabric of your choice. Roll up the edges, and press. Edge stitch. (If you need a napkin sewing refresher, I posted a tutorial here.) Fold the corners around your gift and secure them with a bit of ribbon, or seam binding tape. (I knotted the ends so they wouldn’t unravel.) Presto, quick and easy, and sustainable way to wrap gifts.

When the gifts have been revealed, fold up the fabric (I know you try and save the paper too, so this is the same thing, just less expensive) into a bundle and put it in a small sack for the next time you need to wrap that little surprise. There is nothing to throw away, and just think of all the beautiful printed fabric choices out there! Infinite I tell you. *Here is to a greener kind of gift giving.*

P/S I don’t think I got one good photo of the gifts all wrapped in their pretty fabric prints. But you get the idea. Ripping off the wrapping, the anticipation, the wonderment, and supreme excitement…*oh wow*! Next time my shutter finger will have to be a bit quicker.

recycling

Growing up my parents were always going a bit “greener.” We composted, gardened organic, ate local, bought in bulk, and recycled. I didn’t realize then that living “greener” would make me want to choose a more sustainable lifestyle as an adult. Fast forward to today. Life is a bit more complicated in the dense suburbs. (I just looked this up on Wiki, our suburb measures approximately 3,400 people per square mile. The town where I grew up is approximately 45 people per square mile. I sensed some over-crowding.) And we aren’t able to do all the same green things I did as a kid. Nevertheless, involving the kids in our “green” endeavors is perhaps the best way to show them how to take care of our small planet.

When we were in New Hampshire visiting my parents this past weekend I insisted on taking the kids to “da dump.” I remember this waste transfer station to be this extraordinary place of wonder to a child. We’d pull up into this old shed of sorts. Everyone would get out of the car and guys in jean overalls would help us dump our buckets of tin cans, glass bottles, news papers, and trash bags into their respective spots. Occasionally, we’d have to roll tires to the tire pile. I remember old license plates, antiqued washboards, LPs, and ceramics hung up high on the walls, forever watching the unwanted items come and go. It smelled like stale beer, (or maybe that was our brown glass bucket) and rain water. And it was always an exciting place to visit on Saturdays with Dad.

Da Dump, as it is affectionately called by the locals has changed quite a bit. Now run by volunteers, the town has adopted a Pay As You Throw policy. Trash bags are about $2 each and to minimize the amount you throw there is a place to recycle almost everything there. My parents (Dad works and Mom stays at home most days) and one dog usually fill a trash bag every three weeks.

Motor oil, cooking oil, papers and cardboard, construction waste, glass, tin, plastics, old windows, mercury light bulbs, textiles and gently used items can all be recycled. (Some items require a disposal fee which covers the cost to transport it to wherever it is made into something new.) I ran around taking pictures and the kids explored the bails of aluminum cans, old reflectors, and new treasures in the “swap shop.” What kid wouldn’t like a place where there is the opportunity to take home a new game.

The kids already know we recycle #5 plastic containers. And now they have explored how others are recycling and “going green.”

save bananas and $$ in your freezer this summer

This article and it’s counterparts (Save Your Money in Your Freezer here and here) were published last summer here on the blog. I feel summer is the perfect time to think about stocking up for the winter and we as a family are certainly doing just that. Canning peaches at their peak ripeness and stashing away the best cut strawberries in your freezer now is one of the ways we can eat local, more sustainably, healthfully, and save money. So read on and be sure to visit the other ways you can save your money in your freezer! Here is to the bounty of summertime.

Okay, I love my freezer. If you have been reading this blog for a bit, you probably think I use my freezer like a piggy bank–which I kind of do. It is kind of like my bank for saving leftovers, saving fresh produce, and stashing dishes made-ahead of time which otherwise would be bound for the trash. Reading TipNut.com’s zucchini bread recipes in my Reader, reminded me of another freezer-saver favorite from my childhood: frozen bananas.

My mom would beat out any other sugar police out there, so we stuck to healthy everything with no refined sugar. One of my favorite snacks as a kid was a frozen bananas dipped in yogurt and coconut. In my home, we always have ripe bananas the kids aren’t going to eat, and because I don’t eat them anymore, they head for the trash. But, with this money and time-saving healthy tip, we can start saving our banana money in the freezer! Here is how I make them and some other variations:

Select moderately ripe bananas, peel, take off those stringies, and slice in half width-wise.
Push a clean round popsicle stick through the cut side of the banana about 1/2 way up the banana. (You can cut a 1/4″ dowel from the hardware store with a kitchen shears into 6″ lengths.)
Coat with desired topping.
If topping is drippy like melted chocolate: Place banana flat on baking sheet lined with waxed paper, lightly cover with plastic wrap and freeze flat for 4 hours. Then roll each individual frozen banana in waxed paper, twisting ends, and place in Ziploc freezer bag. Label the bag, and place in the freezer for a sweet and yummy frozen snack.
If topping is dry like toasted coconut: Roll each individual frozen banana in waxed paper, twising ends, and place in Ziploc freezer bag. Label the bag, and place in the freezer for a quick, refreshing money-saving snack.

Suggested toppings:

Plain yogurt and toasted coconut or granola
Fruit flavored yogurt and mini chocolate chips or chopped nuts
Peanut butter – can get messy
Melted chocolate (white chocolate is yummy)
Berry or fruit puree
Caramel (melt caramels, or make your own, place bananas on baking sheet lined with waxed paper and drizzle caramel on with a fork.)

I hope these inspire a chilly snack to cool off your summer days! For more Save Your Money in Your Freezer posts visit here and here. For a printable Save Your $$ In Your Freezer download it here.

first peaches of the season

Saturday we needed to pick up our meat order. Back in March we ordered almost 200 pounds of grass-fed beef and pork from a local farmer. Since driving an hour to the butcher and then driving another hour to come home right away didn’t seem like fun, we decided to take a side trip and visit the farm and pick the first peaches of the season.

Hollin Farm in Delaplane, Virginia is a wonderful farm. The Hollin family raises beef and pork, as well as tends their peach orchard, berry bushes and vegetable gardens. They sell their grass-fed meats in bulk, and their produce is all pick-your-own.

The landscape view was tremendously beautiful.

We are going to have to return another time for the blackberries…sadly, they weren’t quite ripe…the bushes were taller than I am! Blackberry jam…yumm.

The kids had such fun touching those peaches hanging on each tree. Really an entirely different experience than seeing them stacked in the grocery store, or sliding out of a can. I asked Tyler what was on the trees and he exclaimed, “PEACHES! I LOVE PEACHES!”

We ended up picking two bags full. That is about how long a toddler’s attention will last. We gave one bag to my in-laws with a disclaimer that the toddler-touched-fruit could be a bit bruised. Little Miss liked to drag her bag along the ground after her as she romped around the orchard.

We stopped in Stephens City at the butcher, Gore Meats. This family business has been working for generations butchering and preparing meats for sale. We get to pick up our order neatly packaged and labeled, and frozen.

After loading up three Igloo coolers we were on our way.

As parents we really enjoyed sharing with our children where their food comes from. My son must think that the behind the grocery store doors is where food magically appears. He and my daughter were both amazed that food does indeed grow on trees. The peaches were juicy enough for even my most picky eater to enjoy.

P.S. I didn’t get to take a picture of the steaks we grilled for the 4th. I believe we will be doing more grilling in the coming weeks and I’ll leave a note here on the blog about how our meats turned out. As for the Independence day rib steaks, second to none! Happy belated 4th everyone.

all-natural bath time recipes

For the month of May my One Small Change was “to go off the grid” and make our bath and beauty products at home. I have been more and more concerned about all the antifungals, preservatives, fragrances, and colors that go into the shampoos and lotions we used every day. Our skin absorbs so many of the substances we spread on it and I am now aiming to steer clear of these petro-chemicals and go all-natural. (Not au natural, just use natural shampoos.)

So was I successful?

Mostly.

Here is what I was aiming to replace.

toothpaste, mouthwash
shampoo, conditioner, body wash, facial cleanser
shaving cream
body lotion, body oil, moisturizer,
facial moisturizer, toner, and lip balm

I ended up making and trying all the items I use except mouthwash. I ended up liking and now continue to use:

shampoo
body wash
body lotion, body oil
facial moisturizer and toner
lip balm

I couldn’t give up my commercial natural conditioner, toothpaste, and facial cleanser.

My husband…well, he would rather stick to the commercial stuff for now, though I did purchase for him a more natural brand of hair gel, shaving cream, and body wash.

The kids now use homemade shampoo/bodywash, and body oil. But they still use commercial tooth-gel sometimes. The rest of the time they use simply xylitol. (More explanation about this one below.)

As a guide I used my favorite book Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles which I have mentioned here a thousand times. But I was able to adapt and develop a few of my own recipes which I intend to share with you here.

So, without further adeu…

Minty Body Wash

8oz unscented liquid castile soap
10 drops peppermint essential oil
2 drop tea tree oil
1t jojoba base oil

Pour all ingredients into a pump or squeeze bottle and shake vigorously. No refrigeration necessary, but best if used within 1 year.

Floral Clean Shampoo

1 C distilled water
1T calendula flowers
1T nettle
2t comfrey roots
2t orange peel
10 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops calendula essential oil
1/2 t jojoba oil
1/4 C natural shampoo

In a small saucepan bring water to boil. Remove pan from heat and add calendula flowers, nettle, comfrey, orange peel, and rosemary and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain liquid through a double cheese cloth lined stainless steel sieve into a medium bowl.

Add essential oils and jojoba base oil and stir to blend. Add shampoo and stir. Pour shampoo mixture into a plastic squeeze bottle.

Refrigerate and use within 4 weeks. I like to decant a small portion I can use in a week’s time and leave it in my shower. I refill it each week.

###

The toothpaste I tried is actually a tooth powder made of xylitol and baking soda. I didn’t love the sweet tastes of xylitol. But for the kids I omitted the baking soda and just dip their brushes in Xylitol. This can be swallowed in small amounts, so I just stick their damp toothbrushes into a small tub of the xylitol powder and just stick it on in their little mouths. If you haven’t tried xylitol, it tastes sweet.

For more small changes you can make to make your lifestyle a little greener, click on over to the Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change blog! Here is to being green.

getting rid of stuff

Sorry for the blog interruption this morning. Host stuff. Glad to be back.

Getting rid of extra, unused, unnecessary stuff is difficult. How is it that accumulating things is so easy?

I’ve been spring cleaning. (Is it still spring? Am I a little late?) Some may think I am nesting. Others may think I have reverted to my frenetic, anxiety-ridden, organized ways. As I see it, when we move to a less congested part of the country, I don’t want to bring all this STUFF with us. I only want to take the stuff that is useful and the stuff that we love. So, shouldn’t that imply we need to get rid of the rest?

Or, putting it differently, we are finding a better afterlife for those items we once loved, (or just never loved) or don’t need anymore (like those baking cookbooks.)

We could certainly fill trash bags with unwanted pillow covers, costume jewelry, and plastic candle holders and set them out by the curb for the trash pick up. Or we could be a little green and find these usable items a new home that is not a landfill.

Post It

Post your unwanted stuff on Craig’s List, Freecycle, ebay (though I have never done this), community classified ads, or yard sale it. If you have an item and want to work to get a bit of cash for it, besides Freecycle, these are all great ways to get rid of your unwanted stuff. But when I mean “work” to earn that cash, I mean sifting through tens of e-mail inquiries, meeting up with your prospective buyer, or shipping your item, and then being prepared for a no-payment deal. But, hey, you are keeping things out of the landfills and getting the item out of your home.

Donate It to Charity :: 501(c) (3)s and beyond…

Give your unwanteds to the Salvation Army, Good Will, Purple Heart, thrift stores, consignment stores, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, libraries, churches, schools, crisis shelters, food banks, and community centers. There are probably a huge number more charities you can think of I haven’t listed here. I volunteered to teach inner-city adults basic computer skills and the charity ByteBack did accept computer donations way back then. Take a gander and look at idealist.org for a good cause near you.

Oh, call or e-mail your prospective charity before dropping by with your next donation, just to make sure they are still accepting “stuff.”

Recycle It

Recycling can be confusing sometimes. Well it is confusing for me a lot of the time. What can you recycle, what can’t you recycle? And where do you recycle any of it?

First go to your municipal website and look at trash collection, recycling, solid waste, and waste management. My county site says what can be recycled, what needs to be tossed in the trash, and where to go to recycle special items like motor oil, appliances, and hazardous waste.

Also, remember to query the company where you purchased your now-broken-camera-lens or no-longer-working-VCR, and see if they are accepting old items to be refurbished, or dismantled for parts.

Keep on the look out for recycling bins at grocery stores for those #5 plastic containers and #4 grocery bags. And be keen for other recycling or up-cycling opportunities.

Finding new homes for our unwanted stuff takes time and energy. But we feel a little greener not tossing everything in the landfill. Do you have any other ways you give your extras a second life?

win some lose some

This was a messy loss. This month, I decided to “go off the grid” and make my own bath and beauty products. I am becoming more and more leery of the chemicals and additives in commercial shampoos and lotions. So, I decided to step off and instead of dabbling, jump in, and make all our lotions and potions with natural ingredients.

I have a few recipes that work well, and am experimenting with the ones that don’t work well. Like this one.

An example of an emulsification gone bad.

An example that ended up in the trash. This was supposed to be a creamy smooth, pale yellow calendula cream.

I am now off to the kitchen to try a new experimental concoction. I hope to share my recipes and results with you at the end of the month. For a little further reading about other bloggers making One Small Change in their lives to help preserve our Earth click on over to the blog!

fresh farmers’ market buying tips

I’ve been reading a lot about how to make the most of local farmers’ markets around the blogosphere. (Simple Organic posted this informative article here.) So, well, I thought, since we are blessed with a wonderful market near our home, I’d jump on that band wagon and offer up my own tips to maybe help others make the most of their local outdoor market, or perhaps, even entice a someone out there to make their first trip. (By the way to find a market near you, Local Harvest’s website has great links. Also check out your municipal government website. My market is organized by the county.) So without further adieu:

Browse first then buy

Take a tour around the market. See who has what that week. Anything look at its ripe peek? Anything look particularly enticing? Compare prices. Compare selection. Refer to your shopping list and decide how you are going to allocate your budget. (I usually subtract $6 off the top of our weekly budget for fresh wheat bread which is a treat for the kids, and, well, a half-eaten, gift for our in-laws. So as not to cross-contaminate my gluten-free kitchen you know.)

Use your senses

You have eyes, ears, fingers, a nose, and a mouth so use them! Taste samples and compare flavors. Feel the texture and firmness of different vegetable varieties. Notice the sweet and pungent smells of herbs and fresh produce. Listen to the voices and the outdoor ambiance of a farmers’ market. It is really so different than grocery carts clanging and sales announcements on a loud speaker. And use your sight to soak in the brilliant colors heaped on tables and in bins. It is visual excitement that will most certainly invite your appetite. Begin to really explore your food, its origins, and notice the beauty of a fresh air market.

Bring an open mind

Maybe there are veggies you haven’t tried or don’t prefer. Step off and take a chance. Grab a bunch, or pick up a few, and bring them home. Search your favorite Internet recipe site for a new dish and you may just find a new love.

Join me as a write my new summer series Delicious Discovered. I plan to post each week a new recipe using a more unusual ingredient. Or just one we don’t typically eat. Last week was an exploration in preparing ramps, a wild leek that grows locally. I made gluten-free ramp and buttermilk biscuits and posted the recipe here.

Take your own containers

Bring your own reusable produce bags and use fewer plastic baggies and save your farmer some money. Also bring your own berry containers to trade-in and egg cartons for those farm-fresh eggs. Just store these extras in your reusable grocery tote for a quick grab the next time you head to the market.

Ask questions

Even though you are shopping at a farmers’ market doesn’t mean everything available is locally produced and is organic. Ask where they grow their crops, are they resellers of certain products, are they certified organic or use organic growing practices? Also ask questions to learn more about their wares! Ask what is new that week, or about how to best way to cook up that new veggie you decided to try!

Say “thank you”

When I am still fast asleep, my favorite grower wakes up at 4 AM the day he comes to sell at our market. I thank him every week for his hard work and dedication to growing wonderful produce. Without which, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy fresh kale, spring onions, and asparagus at my dinner table. Other ways you can express your appreciation is to visit the farm and volunteer your help for a day. Or join the farm CSA to buy a share in their small farm business, or go do some picking work yourself. Many farms hold festivals and events for customers who come to visit their farm operations. (For a listing of farms near you, visit www.pickyourown.org.)

There are really so many ways to take full advantage of summers bounty and connect with the amazing folks who work to produce the foods we serve at our dinner tables. What is the way you love to celebrate your farmers’ market?