What should be done with...???

As I have been sorting through kids clothing, weeding out the too small or seasonal summer gear, I have come across several pieces with which I do not know what to do? Good quality jeans with broken zipper; lined jacket with, again, broken zipper; t-shirts too stained to pass down (bleach and I are not companions). Hating to see them simply tossed in the trash, but unable to do the necessary repairs (and knowing the cost of newly installed zippers is excessively high for what were free pieces of clothing), with an already overflowing rag bucket, and unwilling to donate un-saleable items to the local secondhand shop (and thereby leaving it with them to purge), I question their fate?

While visiting with my inspirational, funky friend Faye this morning, I revealed this dilemma. "Well," she said thoughtfully, "Sometimes I put them in separate bags with a note on it and give them to Value Village - they say they have someone who takes the damaged items...or if they're not toxic or plastic-y I remove buttons and zippers and shred them for the fire pile and toss them on...do you have a backyard burn bucket?" The answer being "no" we don't. As I glanced at her she knowingly held up her hand, palm towards me, "I do NOT want them for my firepit," she stated firmly, winking in a mischievous almost-maternal manner as though she thought I honestly would leave a box outside her front door (which I probably might have had she not unflinchingly denied me the opportunity).

Hmmmm...the burning/fire idea got me thinking. Could I compost them? The cotton denim atleast? And what about that company I had previously heard of that makes insulation from old jeans?



Planetgreen.com had some suggestions for old denim: area rugs, coasters, etc.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/delightful-denim-great-crafts-that-reuse-your-jeans.html

So, hmmm, what shall it be? Considering I am attempting to declutter, the idea of holding on to them to possibly, someday in the future, maybe recycle them into some sort of unneeded coaster, means I am choosing compost for the jeans and stained shirt and neighbour fire (if they say yes) for the double-lined jacket...Thanks, Faye!

Earth Day!?!?!

Earth Day - I forgot Earth Day.....arrggggg....sigh....well, in honour of Earth Day past, here is something I had written a year ago for a MOPS newsletter...

Remember those Girl Guide badges we so lovingly hand-stitched on to blue-box-coloured sashes (in order to have the sewing badge among them)? Uncomfortably perched on a wooden chair (because our cat has claimed the computer chair and I am just too lazy to deal with the melodramatic fuss of re-positioning him), I sit here considering, imagining what badges I might obtain if I was Brown Owl‘s “Earth Guides” keener…

Well, before we get to the pat-myself-on-the-back uplifting and positive part, let’s face it: there are, hands down, many badges that would not be sewn on to my little Earth sash. Chuck out hopes of the one-car family badge (we did successfully try until a caravan showed up, a bike was stolen, and first winter with second child hit) – especially since our other vehicle is diesel-guzzlin’. And I am not sure how many wild animals and plants have withered out of existence due to my past hair-dying obsession’s infiltration of some sort of scary toxin into the eco-system, so I definitely would have to forgo on that badge.

Hmmm…what else? All my dirty little eco-secrets are coming out here…Scrap any save-on- food-packaging insignia – I try, I honestly do, but I still purchase yoghurt in mini-containers (why are these more alluring to my toddlers? Why does the exact same yoghurt in a bowl suddenly take on new, unappealing flavour?), lettuce in bags, kidney beans and chickpeas in cans. I once read, in disbelief, of a three-person family that disposed of only one bag of garbage in an entire three-month time (but then, again, I still consider it cheating when he saved all of his waste for a giant art display of the ‘horrific, reckless, and voracious nature of human greed’). Yes, we only recently stopped using phosphate-ridden detergent in our dishwasher.

Well, this is getting somewhat depressing, so let’s focus on what badges would make the cut…

3Rs badge here I come…Not being much of a shopper (okay, despising the very act of it certainly aids in being reductionist in nature) chalks me up for the “reduce” part, and as for the recycling, well, like a good earth-loving girl I dutifully toss my recyclables to the curb and whatever they don’t throw back on my lawn gets taken to some deep, dark, secretive place and turned into something that benefits this planet in some way (I hope). Compostables are chucked into a home-made lid-less stinky bin in the backyard that neighbours are sure to complain about once weather becomes warmer, and clothing that is bi-annually sorted into second-hand-store or rummage-sale boxes finds new homes on other people. Recycle…check….Re-use…check….

Diaper-pin emblazoned badge for honourable use of cloth diapers, and even the laundry badge for replacing bleach with 35% hydrogen peroxide, dryer sheets with dryer balls (which are only used about 2x a year for "emergency use" since when it’s too frosty to plop them on the snow-encrusted clothesline I have a fantastic Ikea drying rack), using apple cider vinegar in place of fabric softener, cold water setting washes and only buying phosphate-free eco-detergent. I could weasel my way into earning the Cleaning badge for using white vinegar, baking soda, and elbow grease for pretty much every mess in the house.

Sigh. Still so far to go in my imaginary attempt to earn as many of these hemp badges (made right here in Canada, within 100 miles of Mount Forest, by legally-aged union workers who drive their hybrids only when it is too blizzardy to bike or rollerblade)…any suggestions???