Going Green in Comfort

Recycle or upcycle My daughter and her second-grade classmates recently learned a little about recycling and got to do a little upcycling in the process. The assignment: Turn discarded items you find around the home into something useful. My daughter’s idea: A tin-can “robot army” that functions as a desk organizer. Because a person can use only so many pens and pencils, my husband and I recommended that she scale it down to a single pencil holder, but we both agreed that making it look like a robot would be adorable. She created a face on a circle of cardboard and made robot “feet” out of the bays of an egg carton. She drew start and stop buttons onto used paper, and cut slivers of cardboard and glued them on the side to look like arms. In the end, it looked very little like a robot, and, to be honest, if I were to go to the store and buy a pencil holder, I’d choose one that looked a lot more generic than what she created (though, once the one she made comes b...

(Photo by Chotthanin Udomwariyawat / FreeRangeStock.com ) Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, having a baby six years ago didn't bring financial disaster to my husband and me. We got many necessities (and a few non-essentials) at the baby shower, and we have received tons of hand-me-downs my oldest niece had outgrown and a very generous collection of garage-sale finds from one of my best friends. Within months of my daughter's birth, we, too, we're amassing a pile of out-grown clothes and things our daughter had outgrown. I had no idea what to do with them all. At first, we put them back, thinking maybe, just maybe, another baby might come along. When that didn't happen within the first couple of years, I started thinking about what to do. Thankfully, my younger sister soon had a daughter of her own, and everything I had that was still usable found a new home. I know passing along clothing, especially among people with growing children, is a commo...

(Photo by Jack Moreh / FreeRangeStock.com ) One day last week, my daughter said to me, "Plastic is bad for the environment." I was surprised she knew this. Even though I've been trying to reduce our plastic use, I've never really said a whole lot to her about why. So I told her she was right, but added, "How did you know that?" "Octonauts," she said. For those who might not be familiar with "Octonauts," here's a quick explainer: It's an animated series featuring a troop of anthropomorphized cats and vegetables who travel the ocean saving sea creatures. Episodes include facts about the animals being rescued, such as feeding habits or how they breathe, etc. One episode my daughter had watched earlier that day featured the main characters saving sea creatures from a "garbage patch" in the ocean and mentioned how animals can inadvertently ingest plastic and get sick. The next time my daughter had a ...

(Image by Stuart Miles / FreeRangeStock.com ) The other day as I was cooking dinner, I came to the end of a roll of aluminum foil. I teasing tapped my daughter on her head with the cardboard tube that remained, then started to throw it in the trash. “Can I have that?” my daughter asked. “I can use it to make something.” “Sure,” I said, and handed it over. My daughter took the tube and headed off to her bedroom. Later, she reappeared, using the tube as a pole that held up one of her drawings like a flag. This is just one of the many reasons I am often in awe of my daughter. She always can often see the possibilities in an item I considered to be trash. She stops me from throwing something away at least once a month. Most of the time, it’s a box or something like those cardboard canisters that oatmeal comes in. She’ll turn it into a home for her dolls, or a fence for her toy horse, and, ocassionally, something as simple as a stick for holding up a drawing. Most days, I tos...

When I was a kid, each year for Halloween I wore whatever costume my older sister had chosen the year before. I have no idea what my mom did with them once I outgrew them, though I figure they probably wound up rotting in a landfill somewhere. But back then, costumes weren't made like they are today. The body of the costume was very flimsy material that frayed easily. Most had only a drawing of an outfit on the front and nothing on the back. So, for instance, the year I went trick-or-treating as Lucy from "Peanuts," my costume had a print of Lucy's blue dress on the front. The masks that accompanied the costume was made of plastic and had little eye holes, nostril holes and one mouth hole just big enough for kids to entertain themselves by sticking their tongue through it. An elastic cord stapled on each side of the mask helped secure it to the child's face. Even if I had a younger sister close enough to my age to pass the costume on down again, they weren...

(Photo by Sarah Sturtevant / FreeRangeStock.com ) If you're like me, you average at least one piece of junk mail in a day. That means that in a year's time, at least 365 pieces of unwanted paper find their way into my home, your home, your neighbor's residence, and so on. While scrolling through my Google+ feed recently, I saw a basket someone had made using old magazines. The basket was gorgeous and full of colors from the hues of the pages of the magazines. I don't buy a whole lot of magazines, just a few here and there if something catches my eye as I stand in the checkout line. But seeing the basket got me thinking: Surely there are things I can do with the pile of junk mail I accumulate each week besides just tossing it all into the trash. Overall, I'd rather the mail just not come, but since I don't know of a way to stop it, perhaps I can put it to good use. So I spent a little time on Pinterest, searching for good ideas for giving n...