striving to be less wasteful challenge - Page 2

[2M's Mom]

This is great! I'm in.....first goal for this week, purchase drying rack. If i can just cut down on drying all the towles I dry that would be HUGE. We've got a pool and there are endless dirty towles. I've been feeling guilty about it all summer.

[Awaken]

subbing- great idea! I'll be back later.

[hlkm2e]

Ok, I'm going to list my day and where I need to be less wasteful and where I do ok.

get up - take shower with dd - less water, good

breakfast - homemade muffins from freezer, pretty good when I remember
- watch some tv, not so good

get ds up and nurse, good

clean up kitchen from last night - unload and reload dishwasher, run it even though it's not full because friends are coming over, not so good

make some veggies and dip for playdate snack - good

playdate - good, kids play, mom and I chit chat

lunch - made pizzas at home, kinda good but used premade crusts (and now I have to make an extra trip to whole foods because 2 of them were moldy : )

So far so good, but also air conditioner is running like crazy, I need to do some wash, I guess I should hang it outside. I was good to make food here, the kids ate well, peppers, carrots, pizza, bananas, strawberries. My friends kids are good eaters too so I love when they play together. Oh, and my kids are both wearing disposables today. I am having a hard time getting back into the cloth, I'm in a total sposie rut!

[anthasam]

I have a few ideas for myself:

1) Either hand-wash or put dirty dishes in dishwasher. I tend to rinse (very well) and the plates look practically clean. It's a waste of time and water.

2) Post perishables on a list outside the fridge. We have strawberries, grapes, etc. that sometimes get "lost" in the fridge. If I noted their existence, perhaps we would eat them sooner

ETA: I've also been using our weather station more frequently. If the outdoor humidity is low, I turn off the A/C and open windows.

[nicandboys]

This thread speaks to me, sounds like where I'm at completely.

We buy a lot of groceries, because we're foodies and enjoy cooking and trying new foods so much, but I tend to end up wasting food because I'm so disorganized. And we buy organics too, which is an expensive waste. So that's something I need to work on also. Dh just went on the weekly grocery shopping trip today(I'm spoiled, I hate grocery shopping, especially with 4 kids in tow, so dh does it), and he got a ton of organic berries. Rasberries especially get moldy so fast that I served the whole container to the kids for dessert tonight, so that was good, they didn't go to waste.

I have a bunch of fresh veggies I need to plan for. Ideas? I usually serve fresh green beans steamed as a sidedish, which is good, but getting old, and I blanch asparagus because we like it a little crisp and not stringy, but we'd like to try something new. If worse comes to worst I guess we'll toss everything into a salad.

I am also currently on a toy and clothing sorting mission so that I can figure out what we need this fall (as far as what still fits and what doesn't), and so that maybe things will feel less chaotic around here. I'm trying to focus on having a small amount of very good quality toys around with a lot of play value as opposed to a ton of junky toys my kids trash or ignore. Anyone else have the ongoing toy battle going on too? Any thoughts on keeping on top of that with the holidays approaching? I'd like to be less wasteful when it comes to the money we spend on gift giving, since half of what we give isn't used or appreciated anyway. And I'd like our holidays to be less centered on the gifts.

[Stone Fence]

:

I probably waste water the most. We have lots, but it's still not right for me to use as much as I do.

Paper products is another big waster. Tissues and paper towels are something I've been trying to cut back on, but I doubt I could eliminate them completely (DH insists on Bounty).

[hlkm2e]

Here's a yummy way to make asparagus.

Preheat oven to 450. Lay them out flat on a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil on them. Put them on the middle top rack and cook till done. Sprinkle with feta and lemon juice.

They are totally addicting made this way. I could eat them everyday.

[2M's Mom]

I went to Target a bought a wooden drying rack (YAY! one goal accomplished). However, I got it home to assemble it and 1, there is something wrong with it, and 2, there would be no way I could ever hang a bath towel or jeans on it, it was so flimsy. So, the new goal is to return the drying rack and find a nicer one. In the last week I have also switched DS over to cloth diapers. He's at about 80% cloth right now, YAY!

[SugarAndSun]

I need to join this! Thanks. I have become more wasteful because of my hate of clutter.

1. Switch back to cloth! I have been using sposies b/c they are so much easier to keep organized.

2. Get cloth for the kitchen. We use an insane amount of paper towels.

3. Plan meals and eat out less.

Wow! If I can do those, I'm on my way!

[anthasam]

Are we still posting here or did we all move to other threads to share our less wastefull actions/ideas?

[Awaken]

I don't have time to go back and check, but I think it was on this thread that I read about washing and re-using disposable wipes. I washed a bunch in this last load and made some homemade wipes solution. I have no idea why I haven't done that before now (ds's are 3.5 and 9 months!); I do have cloth wipes also but it's usually an extra step to go wet them so I end up using a disposable. But now I'll have the solution sitting around so it'll be more convenient!