The little things

A few little things I've been doing recently, green-wise:

Mr. GV attends continuing education every year, and that always means a lot of paper.  Two full binders of paper, as a matter of fact.  All things that he will never reference again.  There are a few sheets that are blank on one side, and they are pulled out and put beside our printer.  We don't do a lot of printing in this house, but there are coupons and a few other things, and I use those papers. 

The pages in this picture are all printed on both sides, and there wasn't much I could do with those, so they have gone to the recycling facility. 

Mr. GV went through the items hanging up in his closet that he hasn't worn in the past 6 months.  He managed to let loose of these 6 shirts, plus one more that I am going to keep for myself, to wear around the house. I'm proud of these 6 that will be leaving our house soon, because it is tough for Mr. GV to let go of things, and I sincerely appreciate it when he does.  These shirts will be headed to Goodwill in the next couple of weeks. 

I had stopped using dryer sheets for a couple of years, but the static is just terrible in the winter.  I found 2 boxes of dryer sheets in my laundry closet, and cut the sheets all in thirds.  That is enough to keep the static down, and as a bonus, one box will last three times as long!

(Dark picture--sorry about that.)  I buy conditioner that comes in a plastic bottle.  Is there any other kind?  I have to be honest--I have finally found a vegan conditioner that makes me happy, so I haven't bothered to check to see if they sell conditioner in a container other than plastic. 

Lately I've been cutting the bottles open and using a spatula to get the last bit out before recycling the bottes. The amount I got out of 2 bottles was enough to do my 'prone to super-tangles' hair a couple of times. 

As I was putting my Christmas decorations back into their tubs for another 11 months, I pulled out a few pieces of which I don't have any sort of attachment.  This includes a stocking I was given when I held a volunteer position, a small Beanie, 3 candle holders (minus one glass that broke), and some bud vases.  I will admit that I am waffling about the vases though, as I kinda love them.  They may not make it to the thrift store, but the rest certainly will. 

I'm not sure if you can really see how big this bag is, but that's a wide doorway between my dining room and kitchen.  There is some heavy-duty bubble wrap in there, the likes of which I have never seen before.  It came with our new microwave, and is extremely sturdy.  The rest of the bag is filled with regular bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and air pockets. 

A few months ago I offered up some bubble wrap and packing peanuts on Freecycle, and the owner of a local used bookstore took them, as they use it all in shipping books and handcrafted wooden items that her husband makes.  I save it up, and whenever I get an assortment together, I take it by.

All on their own, these little things don't seem like very much, but when you add them all together, you can see what a boost the environment is getting from recycling and reusing.  Of course the VERY BEST thing to do is Refuse!  Refuse that plastic bag, refuse to buy that dust collector, etc.  But sometimes we made poor choices in our past, we have no choice in the matter, or darn it--we just don't want to change that one thing that we love so much!