Elle with her green bag, heading for the store.
Two years ago we started to recycle in our home. That may seem a bit late for the green movement, but we lived out in the middle of no where and I had to sort everything then take it to the recycling place. Waa, but I finally did it and we cut down our trash by half.
I actually made it into a summer project for my oldest daughter Meg. We kept track of how many bags of trash we went through in one normal week. Then we started recyeling for a few weeks and once we had the hang of it, we counted again and cut our trash from six bags a week down to three. In time I think we improved that number, I just never did another officially count.
The next summer I vowed to now us paper plates/cups/napkins anymore. I did make a few exceptions (birthday party themes are very important!) but I cut out all paper plates and cups and cut the napkins way down. I picked up a lot of cloth napkins on clearance. You can find a lot of post season sales to take advantage of. Of course my table is a collections of mis-matching napkins, but my kids don’t care and right now either do I. I’m sure someday they will all match and my house will be clean. Someday is a long time away.
The next year was our first summer with Mita and Enu home. I didn’t have any special projects or goals. I just wanted to stay sane. I did however start making most of my cleaning supplies out of baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice. It’s kid friendly and kids love to help out with cleaning as long as they can spray stuff. I also purchased re-usable sandwich bags that we use the majority of the time.
I must admit I was feeling pretty green. Then we moved.
Very busy + four kids+ winter time + exhausted mom = I took a week off being green
That week has turned into five months I’m ashamed to say. I have yet to figure out the recycling rules for our new house. I used paper plates the week our dishwasher went defective on me. When I throw out something I should be recycling the guilt starts.
So as of Earth Day 2009, I am back on the recycling green wagon.
How do you go green? I’d love to steal some ideas from you!
