My Apartment Exploded

I didn't post about Christmas, partly because unlike everyone else on Earth work did not slow down for me. I was a busy as ever and did not have a minute of "me time" at work.

The other part of that was how it all turned out. I was determined not to have a spend happy Christmas. We got a $5 tree artificial tree and 50 cent strands of lights from a local department store that was getting ride of its used floor displays. We borrowed old ornaments that my parents had and made some out of felt and popsicle sticks. I bought my family members "experiences" instead of "stuff" and made sure not to buy my daughter too much.

So why does my apartment now look like a disaster zone? My Mother.

My mother, God bless her is a shopper. She buys Christmas presents early and often, and my daughter (the youngest grandchild) got the brunt of it. She now has all kinds of worthless things to add to her already large collection of worthless things. I have to admit, the bike is awesome, but why does she need a rainbow maker or a caramel apple machine? I have spent the last week just trying not to look around (or brake my neck) for fear of completely losing my mind.

So this weekend we will have to roll up our sleeves and organize. Wish me luck as I prepare Alex for the realization that some of her stuff will have to go....

Greening the Office

Main Ceremonial House

Polyensiane Resort,

Walt Disney World 2008

So Hines (the owners of the building my office is in) have decided to go green. Yeah!

The good thing about this is that they are recycling two things that have been hard for me to get ride of at home ... aluminum cans and plastic bottles. While that is good for me and my house, I am still wondering what that helps here at the office. Why? Because there are not a lot of bottles of water and canned drinks floating around this place. Every floor has a fountain drink machine. In our firm you can find almost any kind of soda you could imagine. That means most thinking people don't bother with bring canned drinks from home. There is no need for bottled water.

Another recent change has been going from plastic forks, knives and spoons to compostable ones. That's a great step in the right direction. But so far, I have not seen a compost bin anywhere. I don't think it helps to have compostable cutlery if it is just going to end up in a plastic trash bag in a landfill.

I am really starting to think that there is some kind tax break for offering these things. Here are some green ideas, that might actually be useful...

1) have reusable glasses and mugs available in the coffee bars.
2) have a compost bin in the lunch room.
3) turn up the A/C we won't need to wear jackets and sweaters in July.

Light bulb

So when you take this long to post- blog ideas build up.

Last week Arduous posted on her blog about when she new that she wanted to start changing things. It happend while she was watching the Coberlt Report.

I got to thinking about when I had my moment of decision. I started out slowly, I'm still moving slowly. The moment when I felt like my everyday choices meant something, and there was something that I could change came after reading a post by Plastic Fish. She was takeing a count of her plastic use for the month. She has been trying to get to zero plastic and that month she had a plastic seal from a bottle, a plastic do-hicky that was a part of something she had purchused (before she realized the do-hicky was there), and one other thing that escapes me at the moment.

Anyway, weeks before that I had started reading No Impact Man. He was in the process of turing off his electricity. Already not buying anything, not creating any trash, composting with worms in his apartment, not using any carbon dioxide burning transpertation, and more. He seemed super human. What he was doing was cool, I felt his obervations offered a lot of insight into how one should live, but I wasn't there. I'm not in a place where I can avoid driving or not throw anything away. I'm not bring a tub of worms into my apartment, and I'm not completely turning off my A/C in the Texas summer.

There was something simple about Plastic Fish though. She was looking at her world,and avoiding plastic. It seemed simple. I got up from my computer and went into the coffee bar at work to make my coffee. I picked up my styrophome cup and filled it with ice, used two creamers that come in little plastic packages, got my coffee and then picked up the pastic stirer. I think put the plastic lid on and then reached for the plastic straw that was wraped in plastic.

Wow. Not so easy.

So the next day used one creamer and instead of a stirer I stired with my straw.

I then went to bringing my own cup that has a lid. I don't use a straw and on most days I don't use creamer at all. (I admit that there are days where I can't take it and I use it because I'm treating myself. I figure that if I'm that low, that creamer in my coffee will make it seem better, I need it.)

So from there I started looking at my trash. Now I take the trash out once a week. Not really because its always full, but mostly because I don't have a tub of worms in my apartment and things do start to make their presents known.

Movin' On Up!

Yes, I have the theme song to the Jefferson's stuck in my head right now, and yes, (thanks to re-runs) I got the chance to be a fan of the Jefferson's as a kid. Anyway, something that I have been so afraid wasn't going to happen is now actually happening. I am moving out of my parents house. I know its pathetic. I'm 25 and I have never lived on my own. People always remind me that my patheticness is not my fault, and maybe its not, but it still feels pathetic. Anyway, I have officially been approved for my apartment. Apartment No.5!!! I got a really cool retro Mickey Mouse table off ebay that is in Tyler, Texas (you have to say that with a twang). ROAD TRIP next weekend! And this morning, I walked outside to take Alex to the bus and the people across from me were having a garage sale. They had a couch. I'm talking it up to people, but the thing is really ugly. I'm not sure why I bought the thing. I have been trying to still one of my parents couches for the past few months, and Anna has offered me Jason's old futon for free, but something about talking my neighbor down to $50 and its mis-matchiness just said, BUY ME! If I'm ever home and awake long enough I will share pictures. It truly is a cute ugly couch. That's the only way I know how to describe it. I think in the early 2000's it was probably called "french country" now I think its more "shabby chic". Well, it might be shabby chic if I got a slip cover for it. Do you have any idea how expensive those things are though? Its things like slip covers that make me wish I could sew.

Anyway, this weekend is trash weekend. I am getting rid of everything so if you find yourself by my house, come on in and take whatever you want.

No trash day 5

So the end of an era. Yes, I have 5 day weeks! My no trash week went out with bag. On Friday I went through an entire day at work with out using any trash at all. I was patting myself on the back as I walked out the door. Then it was time for the 3rd grade retreat. It was at or church, and I volunteered to help out since there were some people who backed out at the last minute. Anyway, there was a bible meal... and well... let's just say that apparently in bible times they ate on plastic picnic table clothes, kept their ingredients in plastic cups (until it was time to mix them up in plastic bowls with plastic spoons), used plastic knives to cut their apples, drank juice and water out of plastic bottles, and ate off of paper plates, with paper napkins. Wow. I think I used enough trash in that one meal to make up for all the trash I didn't use earlier in the week. Also, I was in charge of the craft room which meant, a lot of paper, metal, tape and old markers got tossed in the clean up.

I think this week has showed me what I already new. Our culture is addicted to plastic and throw away stuff. It really drove home just how entrenched this is. In trying to avoid trash on Saturday I found myself wondering what I could buy from the grocery store. The hard fact is that trash in today's society is unavoidable. Sure, there a places where going to a Farmer's market, or bargaining with your neighbors for their eggs would work, but not where I live. Until there is a grocer in the city that will re-use milk bottles, egg cartons and other containers I will be making trash.

There are ways that I can reduce trash, and I have tried to do that.
I think the most important rule is to buy in bulk. Instead of getting two packages of chicken breast, I got one large package, and then portioned them out when I got home using reusable containers. Instead of getting "snack bags" of chips and goldfish I bought bulk and reuse different containers when I want to take a snack along. Using tap instead of bottled water and bringing my own bags when I shop are two major things that are easy to do also. Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, not eating at fast food places goes a long way to cutting trash. So these are the changes I feel like I can make in my life today. I will continue to be conscious of my trash and look for ways to reuse and recycle before I throw away.

No trash day 4

I had an awesome no trash day Wednesday. That did not carry into Thursday. Well, it kind of did. I brought a rag with me to work so no paper towels or napkins. I brought my lunch in a reusable container and drank water from my reusable cup. Then I went home. It was Alex's birthday and we were going to have a picnic with my sister and brother-in-law. I would have brought sandwiches, but Alex desperately wanted spaghetti so we compromised with tortellini, because I thought it would travel better. We reused plastic ware we had around the house, but I brought paper plates and napkins, because we would be using sauce without a place to wash things and nothing grosses me out more than food left on a plate. I brought one of those "salad in a bag" things. We didn't end up eating all of it, but when I do that bag will be trashed so I'm counting it. I We also drank from aluminum cans, which we recycled thanks to the bins in the park. Oh, and I wrapped the tortellini and sauce containers in aluminum foil to keep them worm (which worked really well. I was pleased.) so we recycled that as well.

The list:
thrown away:
1 plastic tortellini packaging (no I don't make tortellini from scratch)
4 paper plates
8 paper napkins
1 plastic salad bag
2 cheese wrappers (I know I'm still eating that cheese)

Recycled
4 aluminum cans
4 sheets of aluminum foil

No trash Day 3

So I used one paper towel, yes one. The ones that are in the bathrooms where I work are so thick they are like cloth. Anyway, I used it all day, even as my napkin at lunch. I met Katie for lunch and so we went to Vietnam. I had fresh spring rolls, instead of the ones packaged in cellophane and Styrofoam, and a sandwich that came in a basket lined with wax paper. I didn't throw a lot of papers away yesterday, but I did make a lot of copies. These copies will either end up in the trash at some point or they will be put in the file room for eternity. The only other trash I made yesterday was a pizza box. I know so easy to avoid, but its Alex's birthday week and so I had to cave.

the list:

1 paper towel
1 wax paper
1 pizza box

No trash Day 2

Okay so I don't have a picture today. And I did really bad.

I ran out of time in the morning and didn't make my lunch so I got a sandwich from a place in the tunnel. That meant that I threw away the paper that the sandwich came wrapped it. I did however, tell the clerk that I didn't need a plastic bag or paper napkins, I had my own rag from home. I cleaned my office and got ride of A LOT of papers and documents. I did however, save all the clips, and made sure I took all the paper to the recycling bins and didn't trash it. Not perfect, but better. Then there was dinner. Alex and I went to the young adult bible study and instead of bible study they decided to go out to eat. I got lucky in that the place had cloth instead of paper napkins, and I went without a plastic straw in my dink. However they did bring Alex's drink in a styrofoam cup, and I'm 99.9% sure that they threw out the rice and beans I didn't eat. So I did worse. I am hoping to redeem myself today.

So the list is:
1 Sandwich wrapper
Tons of used paper (recycled)
1 styrofoam cup
1 plastic lid
1 plastic straw
two plates of food waste

I know that Alex isn't doing no trash, but I include her dinner stuff because I bought it for her.

No trash Day 1

So this morning I declaired that I was going to go a whole week with no trash. Well, this is what I threw away on day one.

2 paper towels
1 cheese wraper
1 post-it
2 junk letters (not pictured)

So here is the thing. Trash is hard to avoid. So instead of NO trash, I'm going for less trash. I'll see how good I can get by the end of the week. The no post-it think is going to be hard. I know I only threw one away today, but I could have thrown away more, but instead I just left them stuck where they were (to be thrown away at a later date). The paper towel thing could be solved if I carried around my own cloth to use after washing my hands. (I'm still thinking about that). Finally, obviously I don't have to eat that cheese, but its SO good!

Anway, I'll see what happens tomorrow.

A week of no trash

One of the blogs I frequent is the No Impact Man blog. I do this for several reason, one of which is to get ideas about how to reduce what I do. I have take a few steps toward making my life a more sustainable one, but not many. Basically I'm lazy.

So last week he challenged people to go through their trash and see what it is they are throwing away. Everything that is in the trash at my house, is not mine, in fact, I figured that most of the stuff I throw away is not in the trash at my house. So instead I kept a list of everything I trashed. It was loose. I wrote stuff down at the end of the day, but the end of Saturday it was non-existent. We cleaned a lot of stuff and so writing down everything I threw away that day would have killed too many trees.

Now here is the deal I am challenging myself to a week of no trash. That means I don't throw anything away. This is going to be really hard so I am committing to keeping track of it all on this blog. If I do throw something away, I will post it here. I hope that this helps be be accountable.