Waste Not: Energy and Paper Products

As I'm not an authority on all things Energy-related by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just going to point you toward a favorite resource of mine I found on our energy provider's website:

101 Easy Ways to Save Energy

If you're an energy-saving expert, I would bet that there's at least a couple things in that link you either hadn't thought of or aren't already doing; if you're more of a novice:  Don't be overwhelmed.  We've been slowly decreasing our waste over the past several years, executing one or two new waste-reduction measures at a time.  Maybe pick one of the things in that list, and do that.  You'll find how easy it is, try something else new in a month or two, marvel at how simple these changes are and how good it feels to waste less, then before long you'll be that annoying person that sneaks into your friends' houses to install aerators on all their faucets and sorts their trash for recycling.  IT'S GONNA BE GREAT.



Now, how about a list about paper?

•   I won't talk about all the wasted paper that comes home in one of our children's backpack (SO.MUCH.PAPER.), but I will mention another of our children who, if you look at the backside of most of his preschool creations, you'll find junk mail and such the preschool teacher is obviously reusing.  How much paper do we immediately throw away after opening the mail?  I've started setting aside the paper that's only been printed on one side for our children to use, as they're heavily into coloring and painting and creative wastefulness.

• Paper towels.  This is one we've been working on decreasing, although I do still keep a roll under the sink.  My darling mother was kind enough to buy me some Norwex cleaning cloths, which I use for cleaning the bathroom sinks, mirrors, all our windows, and just about any other surface other than the toilet.  I'm ashamed to say I still use paper towels on our toilet, because I'm a little eeked out about using my fancy cloths on there, especially with three males in the house whose aim is often less than stellar.  I'm working up to using some of our cheap terry cloths on the toilets- I got them from Wal-Mart around eight years ago, and they've held up really well.  After all, if people can wash cloth diapers in the washing machine, I suppose I can handle washing a cloth used to clean our toilets.  I guess.  Probably.  We'll see.

• Napkins. We, apparently, are a nasty, nasty family, as in general we neither own nor use even paper napkins, although we do on occasion make use of those dreaded paper towels if we're eating spaghetti or pizza.  Enter cloth napkins!  If you're like me and have a fabric stash, it's the easiest thing in the world to cut them into squares and hem them.  Or you can get something like a set of 12 napkins for $12 at Wal-Mart for all you fertile Catholic families.  Cloth napkins have the added benefit of instantly making every family meal feel uber-fancy.  I suggest you obey any subsequent urges to start wearing a monocle or carrying a cane for twirling around.  (Sidenote:  it would seem that all my notions of class and fanciness come from Mr. Peanut.  I'm choosing not to ponder too deeply what this says about me.)

• Kleenex.  First of all, please be aware that I know this is where I will lose some of you.  I may not have known that three days ago, however, had I not waved around my pretty embroidered handkerchief at supper with friends and seen some of them cringe away from me in horror.  I see nothing wrong with using my handkerchief when it's for allergies or for when I'm cold or working out and my nose-faucet forgets how to turn itself off.  Rest assured, when I'm actually sick I still use disposable tissues.  (And I wash my hands a lot on a daily basis, okay?)  But really, I've watched my grandpa use a handkerchief for years, and let's be honest, the world would most likely be a much better place if everyone were a little more like Edgar Von Soosten.  I should note that I have not switched the rest of our family over to handkerchiefs.  I have mixed feelings about our children using hankies, although it would probably be more sanitary than some of the methods of snot removal they currently employ.  And you are welcome for not describing those in detail.

• Coffee Filters.  I've been looking around my house over the past week, trying to identify paper goods we can replace with their more economical and ecologically-friendly alternatives, and coffee filters was one I just noticed this morning.  I know those filters go into my compost pile when I'm done, but still- it feels more ecologically and financially sound not to purchase them in the first place.  A quick google search led me to mesh filters, which can apparently be found at Wal-Mart and on Amazon for $5 or less (or a lot more, because I guess some people just can't stand not to pay $60 for coffee filters- thanks, Sur la Table!).  Do any of you have any experience with these mesh-style filters?  Do they work okay?  Any complaints about or praise for them?  And yes, I know there are "environmentally friendly" paper coffee filters, but to me, those are still filters that are made from trees and had to be produced by some kind of machinery that uses some kind fuel to run.  I'm sure we could get into all kinds of debates regarding the worthiness of eco-friendly paper filters vs plastic-including mesh filters, but I don't know enough to possibly participate, much less win, this debate, so... someone go research that for me.  Please.

• Other stuff.  Looking around my house, the only other major sources of paper consumption appear to be toilet paper (which isn't going anywhere, okay?  Well, I suppose it is, right down the toilet, but you know- we're not getting rid of it.  We're just not.) and books, and the only way you'll suggest I switch exclusively to ebooks is if you've been searching for some passive aggressive way to end our friendship.  

Any other paper-replacing suggestions?  I have a feeling I have big blind spots where paper products are concerned, but they seem to be hiding from me, as blind spots are wont to do.  Help.

Waste Not: Laundry

My bible study is currently embracing that one book I've told you about two or three hundred times (7 by Jen Hatmaker, which is about creating margin and the concept of the biblical fast but is somehow simultaneously hilarious), which means that each week, following along with Jen, we find a way to create a personal fast around that chapter's topic.  The first week I only ate 7 foods.  It was hell.  The second week I only wore 7 clothes.  It felt embarrassingly easy, given how hard the Foods week was, although I was cold a lot.  The third week I abstained from social media (although I did have a couple scheduled blog posts), which was harder than I thought it would be- I learned some hard lessons that week.  So now, here we are, Week 4: Waste.  Reducing waste in your life, understanding that taking care of God's creation isn't just for hippies, etc, etc.

The thing is?  I'm already good at this.  I'm struggling to figure out what I'm supposed to learn from this week.  I know, I know there are further ways to reduce waste within our family, but I'm having trouble identifying them.

This is not because I'm just so, so awesome.  We are a frugal family who lives on a budget, and that more or less forces you to eliminate as much waste from your life as possible.  It's not hard for me to pare down on wasted trips to the store when our van gets 16 miles per gallon.  It's easy to tell our kids to put another layer of clothing on instead of turning up the thermostat, because heating costs are expensive, especially in a winter like the one we just survived.

I've been thinking about writing a series of posts on this, the topic of waste, for quite some time now; what you'll find below is actually a draft of a post I wrote back in December (I think I entitled the series Frugal in '14, which I still can't decide if I want to find that embarrassing or clever).  I got three posts done in the series, reviewed them, decided that THIS ALL SUCKS, EVERYTHING I WRITE IS PURE CRAP, which I do a whole lot of the time but post it anyway, but for some reason for this I decided to shelve the series.  Anyway, given the discussions my friends and I have been having on reducing waste, I thought I'd go ahead and post the drafts, crap or not, plus write fresh posts, finishing out the series.

HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN.  I'm seriously having trouble figuring out how to reduce waste in our household.  I know there are things we're not doing, but I can't seem to identify them.  So if you know of some trick corresponding to that day's topic, could you please, please, please, let me in on your secrets?  Please?





[Frugal in '14, Draft]

Ah, laundry.

I have three small children.  I do lots of laundry, which often includes re-washing the same load because there were M&M's/rabbit poop/ladybugs/crayons in their pockets.  (I check their pockets, okay?  I do.  But at some point children's clothing designers decided it would be a fantastic idea to put right around ten million pockets on little boys' pants, probably because they hate me.  I sometimes miss a pocket or two.  Obviously.)

I don't even know how people who live on a ranch/farm/anywhere near sand do it.  I'm pretty sure I'd give up the laundry ghost.  

But because so much of my life is spent doing laundry right now, I have spent considerable time considering all the ways to save money doing so.  Here's the list:

• Only wash full loads of laundry.  It's the most efficient, which is code for 'saves money.'  P.S.  I'm a little jealous if you only have enough laundry to do a partial load.  And by "a little jealous" I mean "trying not to hate you."

• We regularly receive a little pamphlet from our energy provider (which I'll go on and on about ad nauseum tomorrow- who's excited?!); one month it told me that the average dryer cycle costs around $0.50 to run.  This, of course, was all the incentive I needed to air dry as much of our laundry as I can.  4 loads of laundry this morning currently drying on the drying racks = $2 in my pocket.  $0.50/load may not seem like much until you look at how much laundry you do every week and multiply it times 52 weeks per year.  In the winter, this obviously takes longer because I'm drying everything inside on the drying racks, but when it gets anywhere above 50 degrees F, I put those racks on the back deck to dry in the sun.  It's amazing how fast a load will dry in the middle of summer.  I'd love to have a clothes line in the backyard, or possibly one of these beauties one day:

It's an indoor clothes line!  I found it at zorotools.com.

• If you're dead set on drying your clothes in the dryer (my family has threatened to revolt the times I didn't dry their towels in the dryer; something about "cardboard" and "sandpaper."  My insistence of "feels like money saved!" fell on deaf ears), make sure you're drying a full load as often as possible; it's the most efficient.  You're also supposed to try and dry one load after another, capitalizing on the fact that the dryer's already hot, so it doesn't have to waste energy reheating every time you put a new load in there.

• Make your own laundry detergent.  This is the one where people usually start to say things like, "Funny, you don't look like a hippie," and "Oh, so you're one of those people."  It's true.  I make my own laundry detergent.  And I am not ashamed.  It's easy, relatively quick (takes me about half an hour to make a batch that lasts around six months), and is ridiculously inexpensive.  I use the Duggars' recipe (you know, the Duggars?  Live in Arkansas?  Have a million kids?  Or 19, anyway?  See, you do know who I'm talking about!), which I found in one of their books but you can also find on their website (which I've so helpfully provided via that linky-thing back there).  I find all three ingredients- Fels Naptha soap bar, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, and Borax in the laundry soap aisle at Wal-Mart, all for around 7 or 8 bucks, and you're not going to need to buy new boxes of Washing Soda (NOT the same as Baking Soda, trust me on this one) and Borax for a long, long time.

• As for dryer sheets- I don't use them.  We have certain friends, ahem, who claim to have static cling problems (that was hilarious conversation, let me tell you), but as I hang-dry most of our clothes, this isn't a problem.  As for softness, I've found a little vinegar in place of fabric softener in the washing machine works just as well, and no, does not leave a smell.  I do know people who swear by those dryer balls; Derek's parents have some, I tried and liked them, but just haven't remembered to hunt them up at Wal-Mart yet.

Okay, Laundry Divas (ugh.  Do me a favor and please don't ever call me that.), how can I reduce or even eliminate waste in the laundering areas of my life?  What am I forgetting?