One of the reasons my house is not a bastion of cleanliness is the fact that I am a recycling nut. I already came from a family that was afraid to throw anything away, and the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” was hammered into me so much during grade school that if scientists posthumously examined me I’m pretty sure they’d find a triangle made of arrows stamped on my brain.
When I clean my house instead of throwing things out, I put them into piles. There are piles for the recycling bin and piles for Freecycle and piles for Goodwill and piles to go to my friends and family, often consisting of items that my friends and family put in piles to give to me. And of course, nothing is as irresistible to a small child as a pile of things mother is trying to put away, so quickly my piles become spread over the carpet like leaves in the underbrush of the forest. If only carpet could be nourished by trampled plastic toys and crumpled paper the way the forest floor is nourished by rotten logs and animal carcasses, but then you’d have to add mowing your carpet to an already staggering list of chores.
Speaking of this, all food waste (except for meat) goes under my sink into a bucket made of biodegradable corn plastic that originally held organic spring green salad mix. From there the scraps go to the tumbling barrel composter in my backyard that my friend Josh built for me. I have been composting for over a year but I have yet to grow any vegetables because last spring I was busy growing an Alice. My husband refers to my composter as our “house fly farm” because every time we dump things into it we seem to disturb a thousand large, fat maggots. I’m not sure that this is supposed to happen, but I figure if my compost can support life then I’m doing something right, even if it is life in its most annoying variety.
I am not alone in my obsession with rescuing things from the trash. My husband jumped into a dumpster full of office waste to pull out a couple of enormous bags of plastic peanuts. These were sitting innocently in our house, waiting for us to ship out something elephant sized when the boys discovered them and decided to play Scrooge McDuck. I heard them screaming “I’m rich! I’m rich!” and found them rolling and diving into piles of “gold.” Now you can’t walk two feet in my house without finding a plastic peanut, either on the floor or in my daughter’s mouth.
In my attempts to go greener I have a new challenge. Cloth diapers! I was recently given a large bag of homemade diapers, lovingly stitched by a mother of 7 children. They are polka-dotted or flowered, made from old bed sheets (now that’s my kind of woman!)
In my research I learned that wool diaper covers are wonderful because they absorb moisture readily without feeling wet, they are naturally anti-bacterial and breathable. And the best part… you can just air dry them and only launder when they get visible soil! I have personally knitted about half a bib in my lifetime, and I could probably learn to knit a wool diaper cover but I need it now, and not in a year, which is how long I have been working on that bib.
Recycling to the rescue! I found this website with basic instructions for creating wool diaper covers out of sweaters from the thrift store! I purchased two wool sweaters at Goodwill for $2.50 each, one in neutral grey and maroon and one in bright stripes of red, black and grey. I brought them to my mom, who is a brilliant seamstress with the soul of a craftsman. She took the basic design and made it better with the additions of elastic and Velcro. It fits Alice well and I don’t even have to use diaper pins! And now the acid test…Alice woke up this morning with a wet, poopy cloth diaper and a dry sleeper! Mom is going to make a few more, and she is going to take the arms of the sweaters to make some diaper “soakers” with long pants!
So finally my recycling has resulted in some success, but now the question remains…what to do with all the wool fabric scraps left over from the cut up sweaters? I will probably put them in a pile while I try to figure it out, and my children will probably pretend they are slices of pizza and they will wind up strewn throughout the house and eventually become one with wall-to wall. Time to mow the carpet.
Brilliant. I married you for a lot of reasons, but if I had a pie chart of all of the reasons, your ability to spin a hilarious yarn would necessitate a significantly noticeable slice.
It would be the kind where you could actually fit the title inside the slice intead of drawing a little line out and writing it in the margin of the graph.
I can’t say I share your enthusiasm for cloth diapers. I am one who is all for modern technology…be it something of gears and gadgets ot something as simple and wonderful as a disposable diaper! I remember, still, the diaper rashes and messy accidents that came with my brother and his cloth diapers! I hate those things! But hey, more power to you. I always say your arem by far, my weirdest amd most quirky friend. That is what endears you to me so much.
I am a little green…I love this planet and want to see the needless destruction of trees and soil to go by the wayside. So, for me, my way of contributing is to pay a little more at the grocery store to purchase biodegradable items that I can throw away guilt free. I rarely donate to Goodwill…honestly, I know I should do so more…but my problem is when I get on a cleaning kick I want stuff gone and I want it gone now! I don’t have time for it to sit around until I can take it to a Goodwill. So, most of my trash that COULD very well be someone else’s treasure ends up in a dumpster. I have thrown many a cool thing away, just because I am lazy! hehe
You are the master of the concluding one-liner!
You have a compost heap under your sink, EEEEWWW
KAte-
Good to read your stuff again. Forget how much we are alike!! Look foward to reading more!!
You are my hero!
I’ll say it again.
You are my hero!
I have a link to a free crocheted wool soaker pattern, if you’re interested! It’s yje kind wothout legs…. (((((HUGS)))) sandi
yay! wool soakers and diaper covers!!! i have never made them but have used them. maybe eventually you (or your mom) could patch the scraps together, either in mosaic form or some other, and make a small blanket. it would be a great keepsake for alice.
you are awesome.
btw, i always loved cloth diapering. it was comforting to me to be able to wrap my baby in soft cotton versus paper and chemicals. it gave me a sense of accomplishment too like i was actually contributing in some small way. i do admit i would buy disposables for long road trips away from home.
keep up the recycling
from a fellow recycler owner of a freecyclegroup
Steve and I are thoroughly enjoying your blog and we agree you need your own column in a newspaper or magazine. You are an awesome writer!!!
When I become a mom, I want lessons from you. I’m not even kidding.
Delicious wool pizza! Yum, yum! Hopefully not coming soon to a Pizza Hut buffet near you. But seriously, Kate, you make me laugh and think that someday you will be the Erma Bombeck of the 21st Century.
Suggested book title: Everything’s Greener Except My Compost Pile
This is Stephanie formerly of Vagrant; I popped over there recently and saw you have a blog. I’m so glad to have a way to read up on your life! Keep it coming!
My friend from college has a blog with very similar ideas (recycling & parenting and making baby stuff out of goodwill clothes etc); if you want I can email you the info.
Ha ha, Kate. I love this – I am so glad you are writing! I would love to print this in CROQ… email me.
This is interesting that you are a Journalist, but yet you have such a simple looking blog. I think there is something that I should learn from this. The simplicity makes it easier for my brain to absorb the ideas, right? Or something like that. LOL