Drying resusable baggies

I hung this string and clothespins for drying herbs, but it's come in handy for reusable baggies, as well.

Reusing fencing

Urban Ore regularly has old fencing and gates available.

I wish I had a friend with enough space to let me stockpile building materials until I get my homestead.

Tshirts into reusable bags

I love reusable bags. I have ten or so, and it's not enough. So when I recently went through my closet and set aside clothes to give away, and found these two tshirts that were too stretched out to keep or donate, I decided to sew them up into bags.

I turned in the sleeves on this one and simply sewed their edges to the shoulders of the shirt. Mostly I did that because it was the lazy way, but it also provides more reinforcement for heavy items.

 Here's a close up of the stitching that holds the inside-out sleeve in place.

Hanging as a bag. I turned the whole shirt inside-out when I was sewing up the bottom, so you can't see the stitching there.

Here is the second shirt. (The purple octopus is saying, "No, you've got it all wrong, AGAIN.") For this one I cut off the sleeves and sewed the raw edges under. However I wanted to keep the original hemming at the bottom so I just sewed straight across it.

Bulk containers

I recently finished reading the book Plastic Free by local author Beth Terry. I would love for everyone to read this book, because it is non-preachy and packed with practical tips for reducing your plastic consumption (and consumption in general). Whether you're just considering making small, easy changes to reduce the harmful and wasteful plastic your food and body come into contact with, or you're a green pro who needs fresh ideas and resources, I am sure that you will find great info.

I was inspired to make a few small changes to the way I purchase and store my food. When I last went to the grocery store to buy chicken for the dogs, I brought along my own container. The person at the meat counter put my container on the scale, zero-ed it, then packed in the chicken and charged me accurately. That saved the plastic-coated, non-recyclable paper that the food would otherwise have been wrapped in. It was easy-peasy, and ridiculously exciting.

I decided to purchase all my baking flour, nuts, and seeds from bulk bins from now on, and likewise bring my own containers for them. I had to buy a couple of large, stainless steel containers for the flour -- I go through a lot now that I'm regularly baking bread!

The "bulk food" corner of my counter. Fruit has always been purchased packaging-free.

Speaking of baking bread, I'm still in awe of how (a) easy, and (b) delicious it is.

Poppy seed and walnut loaf. Clearly I love them poppy seeds.

In order to make this "buying in bulk" thing easier, I made a list in my phone of all the foods I purchase regularly, and which of the local stores I can buy them in. I'm also committing to buying loose leaf tea whenever I can, and preferably in metal tins rather than plastic bags. I'll have to buy some things online, but I'll purchase larger quantities to lower the ratio of energy used to pack and ship them. (5 pounds of organic poppy seeds!)

Yuummm.

On one last do-it-yerself note, I fixed the space heater today.

Give me heat!

I took it apart and found the problem. The two metal connectors that complete the electrical circuit when you turn the dial were separated by a thick layer of dust and pet hair. A thorough cleaning fixed it right up. Note to self: clean it more often.

Reusable Christmas

My parents were not the ones who taught me "eco-friendly" values. I picked that up from books, media, trips to parks, and my awesome elementary school. Slowly, as I started applying the lessons to my own life, my parents started to use reusable bags at the grocery store and put some food scraps into their green bin instead of the trash. Along the way, without anyone making an intentional decision, our gift-packing methods shifted. Slowly, we started to use less wrapping paper and more tissue paper and bags at Christmas (or as I think of it, the winter solstice celebration). Each year, we save the tissue paper and bags (and sometimes ribbons) to be reused next time. Each year, the pile of trash and recycling to be tossed after opening presents is smaller.

I am delighted about this shift. As I told my mother, this adds to my enjoyment of the celebration, rather than worrying about the environmental impact of wrapping gifts in disposable paper.