Category Archives: Green Ideas

Out with the old

We’ve talked about getting a new [to us] couch for awhile now, but we weren’t actively looking.  So imagine my surprise on a lazy Saturday morning two weeks ago when Matthew announced he’d found an estate sale couch while browsing Craigslist.

Rather annoyed at the interruption in my morning, I agreed to go check it out with him.  One thing led to another, and we left the estate sale down an eighty dollar cash deposit, with the promise of a new couch as soon as we could get a truck to transport it.  I realized on the way home that we really could not get the new couch until we found a home for our old couch — this proved more difficult than I would have expected.

Craigslist, ReUseIt St. Louis (formerly FreeCycle), Salvation Army . . . nothing was working.  No one wanted to buy it at $85, and no one wanted it for free.  In the meantime, we moved the old couch out of our apartment (no small feat with two people, a second-story apartment, and a relatively tight staircase) and into the backyard, anticipating a quick turnaround with the free listing.

When that did not come to pass, and with rain looming in the forecast, we moved the old couch back inside.  Unfortunately, it would not fit in the basement door, so we faced the unpleasant prospect of moving it all the way back up to our living room.  In the end, we brought it partway up the front staircase, where it stayed for almost a week, sitting on end, with just barely enough space for us to squeeze by and get out the front door.  Fun times!

As much as I hated the idea, I was beginning to see how perfectly decent, usable furniture could  just end up in the dump.

In the end, we lowered the price on Craigslist to $35, and made a sale, provided we could deliver, which we agreed to, since we would have a truck anyway to get the new couch.  All the stars for borrowing a pickup truck and arranging for drop-off of the old and pick-up of the new finally aligned last Wednesday night, the night we got freezing rain . . . .

Our big blue bin

On Monday or Tuesday night, Matthew informed me that St. Nick had brought us something extra this year.

For the last two years, we had curbside recycling pickup, and our landlord paid the low rate that the city subsidized. With the start of the city’s new recycling dumpsters in the alleys, they dropped the subsidized curbside service.

Problem was, the city is rolling out their program slowly, and while some relatively nearby alleys had their bins in November, the only info I had said that they all should be in place by March 2011. I was preparing for the reality of having to drop our recycling off somewhere for up to 4 months (and the idea of driving somewhere to recycle really rubs me the wrong way), so I was super excited to hear the news about the bin in our alley.

The only thing that kept me from running out to see it right when Matthew told me was the fact that I was comfortably curled up on the couch and the temps outside were under 20 degrees.

Despite my excitement, I would be remiss if I did not point out, as I’ve mentioned before, that recycling is only a stop-gap measure, and not an ultimate solution to our problem of over-consumption and too much waste.

Environmental sustainability really depends on us practicing the other R’s: Reduce and Reuse. I’ve also heard mention of a fourth R, Refuse (as in refuse disposable packaging, containers, etc.), which I see as being part of Reduce.

A fashionista, I am not

Sometime between when high school ended (many, many moons ago) and now, I became anti-clothes shopping.  The majority of my wardrobe dates back to college or earlier.  I’m sure that owning and wearing many of the clothes I wore in high school will not earn high marks on the fashion scale, but fashion’s never really been my thing.

I bought my two main pairs of gym shorts in 7th and 8th grade, and am just now thinking about retiring them.  The elastic waist band seems to be giving out, as evidenced by the blue pair nearly falling down on my last run.

In general, I prefer clothes that are NOT trendy, so it won’t matter if I’m still wearing them in 10 or 20 years.  In order to insure that my clothes last 10+ years, I have a couple of tricks.

First, if it’s not dirty (i.e., stained or distinctly sweaty/smelly), don’t wash it!  Excess washing is hard on clothes, not to mention the environmental impact in terms of water use and energy if you’re washing on warm or hot (if you’re doing this, switch to cold water washes).  I may have a bit of an advantage here — I seem to sweat somewhat less than the average bear, but you may be surprised at how long you can stretch things.  Also, the infrequent washing works best if your clothes don’t spend time in a heap on the floor — this makes them look wrinkly and dirty, even if they aren’t, plus it’s hard to tell what’s dirty or not.

Second, when you do wash your clothes, line dry them.  The dryer may be even harder on clothing than the washing machine.  You can extend the life of your clothes and save energy at the same time — double green bonus!  If you’re tight on space for clotheslines, either inside or out, there are many options now for collapsible drying space that takes up minimal space when not in use (check out the links in this Tiny Choices post for some options).  Due to limited yard space, we just use the clotheslines in our basement year-round.

Third, invest in good quality clothing.  A $75 top that lasts 10+ years is a better investment than a $20 top that lasts less than two years.

That said, almost all clothing does eventually wear out, or cease to fit in one way or another, and taste in clothing does change.  So what’s a greenie to do when she does want to buy some new clothes?  Come back later this week to read about my recent attempts to purchase clothes.

No tofurky? No problem.

I have never purchased a tofurky, but I have sampled this interesting creation at potlucks, and I did make a homemade “tofu turkey” a few years ago.  It was rather delicious, but it also required quite a bit of work, and with so many other delicious vegetarian options out there, I have not attempted to recreate it.

Whether you’re celebrating a meat-free meal this year, or just need inspiration for some healthy, tasty side dishes, check out this tantalizing plethora of recipes at Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving.  Treehugger has some additional offerings here.

If you are doing the turkey thing (or any kind of meat), look for locally raised, pastured birds.  In St. Louis, I know of two sources: Local Harvest Grocery and Fresh Gatherings Cafe.  While it is probably too late to preorder a bird for this Thursday, there’s always Christmas and next year to consider.

Plastic trash tally

As I mentioned here a few weeks ago, I took the “Show Your Plastic Challenge” on Fake Plastic Fish.

The trashy truth is now posted for the world to see.  Click here to see my Week 1 results and my thoughts on where I can cut back on plastic trash.

Anyone else out there ready to take the challenge?