hiatus? what hiatus?

Woah. It seems like ages since I wrote last. Let me tell you, the two months before your wedding will suck up a lot of the extra time you thought you had. I wasn’t running around like a maniac, but the the last-minute lists and preparations for the family visit consumed an awful lot of my brain capacity. But I’m back with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and plenty of ideas to share. I plan to write a recap of the eco-conscious aspects of our wedding and mini-honeymoon, as soon as I’ve compiled some photos to accompany the words.

But in the meantime, my goal is to post more often and report on the little things I aim to accomplish in the “reuse” and “reduce” categories.

A few unrelated acts of note:

• I’ve made the switch to bulk shopping at Mississippi Market, and I totally love it. Granted, it isn’t as though I’ve never bought anything in bulk, but I’m referring to household items, such as dish soap, laundry detergent and household cleaner, in addition to food. I really don’t know why I didn’t start sooner. The one bulk item that I’m psyched to refill? Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap. Seriously.
• I’m still making my own peanut butter. I buy peanuts (in bulk!), toss them in the food processor with a little cane sugar and a teeny drizzle of canola oil, and voila. I love that the flavor is just a tad different every time I make it.
• I’m done buying jarred tomato sauce. The first batch of sauce I made last week has convinced me that homemade is the way to go. Plus, a big batch in the crockpot yields at least six full servings for the two of us, and it cost me less than buying two jars of the off-the-shelf stuff.
• We finally (finally!) started composting. I went to Home Depot and bought a Rubbermaid trash barrel, and drilled some small holes in the bottom, sides and top. Bingo. Homemade compost bin. Done, and done.
• We mulched our front and back yards to keep our native landscaping happy and healthy. We don’t water on a regular basis during the summer, mostly for energy- and water-usage reasons, so the mulch will help keep the precious moisture in the ground. Next spring’s project is a rain barrel.

Today’s good deed at work: I offered to take home the office’s household-cleaner spray bottles and refill them with Restore multipurpose cleaner in bulk at Mississippi Market. I grabbed a bottle of the stuff to clean my desk this morning and noticed it was almost empty. And the light bulb went off. There’s no sense in tossing the spray nozzle and recycling the bottle when I can refill them on one of my regular shopping trips.

lessons in reusability

I’ve gradually been working toward a plastic-bag-free household for quite some time now.

• I take my reusable shopping bags to the store, thereby eliminating the need to take home plastic (or paper) shopping bags.
• I’ve purchased two sets of reusable nylon BYO Bags, so I no longer take home plastic produce bags. (If I buy items in bulk, I use the brown paper bags, not the plastic product bags.) This also helps me curb the desire to bring home too much produce — a previous tendency of mine.
• And yesterday, we bought two 32-gallon Rubbermaid trash bins in which to collect yard waste — sayonara plastic yard waste bags!

I can’t believe I’d been stuffing yard waste into trash bags for so long. After finally removing all of last year’s dead weight — the dead leaves and old growth – from our yard full of native plants and flowers, and seeing just how many full trash bags we’d piled into the garage, I was appalled. We planned to take the yard waste to the county composting site and were able to bring half of it yesterday. We crammed five trash bags into my tiny Golf! While dumping the leaves onto the compost pile, I realized how many of the bags were now ripped and no longer reusable, essentially turning them into garbage after one use — mostly as a result of the thorn-riddled branches from our rose bushes. Ugh. What a waste.

So I decided it was time to buy some permanent waste receptacles, and we picked up the Rubbermaid bins at Menard’s after the compost site trip. Once home, I proceeded to stuff the remaining yard waste into one bin — it’s much easier to compact more waste in the plastic bin than a trash bag that your foot will easily — I guarantee it — get stuck in if you try to push the leaves down with it. Plus, Doug had some fun with his “dismount” while climbing out of the bin, which I also got a kick out of.

Of course, we’re still using the small 13-gallon trash bags for regular trash, but we’re down to one trash bag of garbage per week. And yes, I know we should be composting at home — building a Minnesota-weather-proof compost area is the next project on our list.

I’m also brainstorming options to eliminate the use of Ziploc bags altogether. I currently wash the ones we have and reuse them, but if I don’t have to use them at all, I’ll be very happy.