Category Archives: Green Ideas

A basket for baby

In this age of rampant consumerism, what’s the best way to prepare for a major life event, like having a baby?  BUY things, of course!

Excessive consumption of resources and accumulation of “things” wreaks havoc on the planet and on personal finances.  I know this, and so I strive to lead a life of simplicity and minimalism, but the message can be overwhelming at times.

Lately, I’m fighting feelings that the lack of baby stuff around our apartment makes me a bad mama-to-be.  Illogical?  Yes!  But the feelings are there nonetheless.

Marketers work hard to convince us that buying and accumulating lots of baby stuff can prepare new parents for the major life transition they are about to experience, but that’s just not the case.

The truth of the matter?  Newborn babies have relatively simple needs: eat, sleep, poop and pee.  We can meet most of these with minimal material investment.

Eat: For the first 6 months or so, I should have this one covered.  At some point, we will most likely introduce a bottle, and there may be a breast pump involved, depending on work arrangements.

Sleep: The plan is for baby to sleep next to me in bed, which is “where babies belong” according to my anthropology professor, and where they sleep in many cultures around the world.  To learn more about cosleeping, including how to practice it safely, click here.

Poop and pee:  Cloth or disposable?  Turns out, those aren’t necessarily the only options.  I’ve been reading about Elimination Communication (AKA Natural Infant Hygiene) in books like The Diaper Free Baby and Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene.  Though I will have cloth diapers to use at times, I am very interested in this approach that cuts down on the number of diapers needed.


For now, our small collection of baby “things” fits nicely in this Moses basket that we found used at Kangaroo Kids.  We’ll use the basket as a daytime sleeping place that we can keep near us when we’re not using a sling.  Arranging the basket was fun and assuaged some of my “bad mama” guilt.  When the time comes, we’ll have the basics covered, and we’ll provide a loving, nurturing family and home — something that all the money in the world can’t buy!

We ain’t goin’ nowhere

On Saturday, April 30th, we finished our Cycling Savvy training and biked an additional bit to see one last apartment.  After 4+ months of looking, and little luck, it was decision day: give notice that we would vacate by the end of May or sign a year-long renewal.

We took it right down to the wire, but in the end, we renewed the lease on our one bedroom apartment for another year.

What does this mean?  Well, we haven’t quit looking, but as my due date draws ever closer, it’s becoming more and more likely that our little apartment will be accommodating an additional person (albeit a tiny one) come July.

On the upside, smaller spaces are more efficient than larger ones, we’ll be saving money, and we have a VERY GOOD reason for keeping baby stuff to an absolute minimum.  We will carefully screen any new item that comes into the apartment.

Right now, my goal is to continue looking for unnecessary stuff that we can eliminate from the space, while finding better ways to organize what remains.  In a recent post on clutter, the Eco Cat Lady shared this minimalist standard for decluttering, “if your house burnt to the ground, would you replace this item?”  As much as this makes sense, for most people, it is actually very hard to follow through on the conclusions to this question.  You almost need to actually HAVE a fire and be FORCED to start from scratch.

Funny thing is, this kind-of happened to me in high school, when my bedroom caught fire.  And while I would not wish for something this dramatic (and potentially dangerous), there is a certain appeal to having a perfectly clean slate.

In my mind, moving to a new place was going to somehow provide that clean slate, a rather unrealistic assumption, given that we would just be moving all of our current “stuff” into a new, slightly larger, space.

We are making some progress — a pile of stuff to take to scrap metal, other stuff for donating — but it feels SO slow.  About that clean slate . . . .

Water, Purified — To Filter or Not to Filter

Having always been a straight-up tap water kind of girl, I’m not sure how I feel about this few addition to our kitchen:

Unfortunately, standard water treatment doesn’t address many not-so-pleasant contaminants that have been found in water supplies across the country, including pharmaceuticals and agriculture-based pollutants. *

Given that reality, we’ve considered a water filter for years, but I’ve been too ambivalent to take action.  The fact that the City of St. Louis apparently has relatively safe water (in the top 10 for large U.S. cities according to this 2009 report), not to mention consistently ranking as some of the best tasting tap water (though taste does not necessarily represent quality) in the country, did little to motivate me to make any changes.

While much less wasteful than bottled water, water filters still involve some waste — most need replacement filters every few weeks, or months, depending on the brand, and then there’s the plastic pitcher or the plastic housing of a sink-attached filtration system.

When Matthew came home from Home Eco with this filtration system a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t fight it too much.  I relegated it to the corner of the kitchen for about a week while we considered it and offered no resistance when he installed it after the mandatory waiting period.

The filter is supposed to last through 1500 GALLONS of water, which we estimate means at least 2 years before we even have to think about replacing the filter.

My main complaint is the mandatory (though small) water wastage that occurs because you have to have water running before you pull out the pin that switches over to the filter.  To minimize waste, I try to let the water run onto/into a dish that needs to be rinsed anyway, and fill a large jar with filtered water as long as it is running, instead of just one cup at a time.

I don’t notice a taste improvement in the water.  It tastes different — flatter — because it is dechlorinated in the process, but I adjusted to that pretty quickly.  It’s hard to be a complete convert when I just have to trust that there are bad things in the water that the filter is removing, but I guess I’m willing to give it a shot.

What are your thoughts?  Do you  filter your water?

*Don’t you dare run out and buy bottled water!  Almost all bottled water comes from the tap in one city or another, so you aren’t escaping anything — it’s just a huge scam!  In fact, you may be exposing yourself to more unknown danger from whatever chemicals leach from the plastic bottles into the water.

Happy Earth Day!

Wondering what to do for Earth Day?  Here are a few ideas.

Check out green cleaning tips, including some from yours truly, in the “Green Cleaning” post from KERF.

Want to learn more about Earth Day?  Apparently there’s a documentary called Earth Days available for screening on Netflix.  I haven’t watched it, but Taryn at Mama Gone Green reviewed it here.

For a discussion on the green movement and avoiding “ecological snobbery,” see The Eco Cat Lady’s post “Greener Than Thou.”

Curious about having a party in your pants?  I’ve written about it (here and here).  In celebration of Earth Day, the folks at Party in My Pants are offering free shipping on all orders and 10% off orders of $35 or more through the end of April.  If you’ve never tried a PIMP product before, you can try one of their cloth panty liners for free.

Edible souvenirs

In our quest to not accumulate too much “stuff,” we usually forgo souvenirs when we travel.  If we do buy something, it is often edible.  Here’s our booty from Italy:

  • Truffle-infused pici — a thick noodleto be prepared in a traditional way, simply topped with olive oil, grated cheese, and black pepper)
  • Very high quality dried porcinis — super flavorful and much fresher than any dried porcinis you can buy in the States
  • Sciacchetra — a special dessert wine, product of the Cinque Terre region.  We plan to use a bottle to toast baby’s arrival this summer 🙂
  • Our two non-edible souvenirs are still food -related: a big ladle and a baby spoon, both made locally in Siena from olive wood.

Sure, edible souvenirs don’t last forever, but that’s kind-of the point.  For lasting memories, we have plenty of pictures!

I also have a few trip “souvenirs” that I would like to disappear.  First, there’s the cold that started halfway through the return flight from Rome.  A week later, with lots of hot honeyed tea, water, and regular neti pot usage, I think it’s on it’s way out.

Unfortunately, the knee pain that started in Siena or Rome shows few signs of subsiding.  Regular walking is not too problematic, but going downstairs (or down steep hills), is a different story.  Today I discovered that I can walk downstairs at a slightly faster rate if I go down backwards.

To make matters worse, biking is also painful.  I biked to my dentist appointment last Friday and haven’t been back on since 😦  I’m really itching to get back on the bike, but I also want my knee to heal, so I’m trying to be good.  Will I get desperate enough to go see a doctor?  TBD.