A Few of My Favorite Things- Part 1
Written by Helga
Thursday, 2 December 2010 09:16
My husband called me out on something.
After my last post on being Grinch-y, he cocked an eyebrow at me and said “You can’t make it sound like you don’t like some stuff. I know you are anti-stuff, but you still buy some stuff.” He’s got me there, so I am going to tell you about some stuff I like.
Let me start by saying I love books. I love to buy books but lately I’ve acknowledge that the library, for the most part, fills my needs. But I don’t feel comfortable taking library books into the tub.
I love taking a tubby, as we used to call it when the kids were small. I love a good organic lavender oil, (I get them at Whole Foods) some Epsom salts, a loofah and a book or a mag. My daughter likes to come in while I’m taking a tubby and practice her violin for me. A lock on the door would be nice but that’s a lot to ask for.
Out of Africa Organic Shea Butter
After a nice hot bath in the winter, I love to smooth on Out of Africa Organic Shea Butter with lavender oil. I get it at Bed Bath & beyond, it’s around $16 but I use the $5 off a $15 or more purchase coupons you get in the mail. It comes in a tin and my kids fight over who gets the tins when I am done. (Note: did you know that regardless of the expiration date on BB&B coupons, they never expire. They honor them regardless of date! Yay!)
I love clean windows. My problem? I could never clean both sides of my windows. You can clean the inside but it almost doesn’t matter if you can’t clean the outside. My windows were painfully dirty. This past summer I was cleaning my windows from the inside as best as I could when…I noticed on one of the window’s upper tracks, hidden away – instructions on how to tilt in the windows to clean them.
Holy hell, I have been living here since 19-effing-99 and I only just now figured this out?? I spent the next week scrubbing my windows with zeal & glee. They were so filthy! 11 years of not being washed, you can just imagine. And you know what works best on windows? (And everything else you clean, but especially glass & mirrors) Microfiber towels & a spray bottle of vinegar. If you haven’t cleaned with microfiber towels, you are missing out. (I know what you are thinking – Live Green Mom, if living it up to you = cleaning windows, I might just have to remove you from my RSS feed) I love microfiber towels to clean with. Someone gave me a small microfiber towel earlier this year and I was floored by how well it paired with my spray bottle of vinegar. Then I received a big fat package of killer microfiber towels from MicroFiberHome.com (Thanks Jeffree!) and I went to town. They make cleaning a breeze, and they are very inexpensive. I do not know why they work so well, but you will have to take my word on this. They just do. Here’s a thought: if you are going to buy someone a gift, say, a book, buy a pack of the 16 x 16 Eurofiber towels and wrap the book in it, or whatever little gift fits, tie it up with a pretty ribbon, and voila! The cloth is a gift too. Less paper waste. Some towels for you, some towels as gifts. I keep a couple in the car because they are awesome at soaking up liquids. I also like to carry one in my purse because you never know when you need something handy to mop up a kid.
At the risk of sounding completely daft, I couldn’t stop admiring my windows this summer. Even my husband had to admit, clean windows make a difference.
You know I’m not a huge advocate of shopping just to shop & acquire stuff but if you are going to shop, or you have a holiday list that must be attended to, you might as well try and take a greener shopping route, like Neerg.com. Neerg is a site for not only for buyers but also sellers of greener, more eco-friendly products. Sellers can set up a profile and sell an item that fits into at least one of the following categreens, as they call their categories: organic, recycled (upcycled), biodegradable, energy or resource efficient, fair trade and sustainable. And they have everything. Seriously. From fish fertilizer to elephant dung paper, check it out. I know, you stopped and had to re-read that. Elephant dung paper. You didn’t even know that existed. Neither did I.
On the other hand, here’s a website many of you home improvement greenies will delight in, DiggersList.com. It is like a Craig’s List of home improvement items (but without having to wade through some of the sketchier listings that are on there) either second hand, new, or overstock (or someone bought too much & can’t return it) that a private party is selling directly. Everything is on here! Someone has too many tiles leftover from a project? Maybe it is just the right amount for your back splash. Need a used dump truck? Yup, it’s there. At least in the Boston area. From light fixtures, washer/dryers, doors, windows, tools of every kind, plumbing supplies, it’s a gold mine for the do-it-yourself-er on a budget. Lamp shades? Barstools? A college kid’s dream! Great way to recycle, not throw away. And list stuff that you need to sell, as well. Or donate. Pick your city and give ‘em a looky loo.
The iPad. I know, I know, it’s an expensive electronic and why am I advocating it? I knew my husband would be getting one for work at some point, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know I tried my darndest this past spring to win one on a Twitter contest. I didn’t want to plop down $500 for one, and Powder Room Graffiti was sponsoring a contest to win it through tweeting a link. The more tweets = more entries = increased chance of winning. I didn’t win it but I know I irritated many of my followers – one tweet in response after a week of this: “for GOD’S sake I hope you win it and SHUT UP!” (and I swore online I would never, ever do that again). My husband finally relented and bought one in October, and he loves it. He uses it for work constantly – he loves the free app Dropbox, where he can store work files he needs to read/review. He can pick up his iPad and pull up those files easily anywhere he has an internet connection. Know what else? We got rid of our three newspaper subscriptions and now just catch up on the iPad. (Why don’t we just use our laptop? Because both of us are constantly on our laptops, and his is for work. His laptop is so completely bogged down with work programs and security, online surfing is painfully slow) Here’s what surprised me: the newspaper subscriptions we canceled paid for the iPad. (I hadn’t registered how much we were paying for our papers!) And I get to stop having the debate in my head, and out loud, about how un-green it is to have three newspapers delivered to me, read then recycled. That’s a lot of energy & waste to bring me something I can get online. And we were so pleased by how little paper we are having to recycle each week now.
Those are a few things I’m enjoying right now. You might say that they aren’t very green, and aren’t I supposed to be promoting the whole less is more thing, and you would be right. But I am trying to be honest with my readers.
I like to read.
I like to take a bath.
I like to keep my skin soft.
I like to clean my windows. (I actually like to clean, if you know me, you know this.)
I like to read the papers but I do it now on an iPad.
What about you? Any guilty pleasures that you feel might be frowned upon?
17 Comments
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A Few of My Favorite Things…like washing windows…- Part 1 http://bit.ly/gfvJLo
A Few of My Favorite Things- Part 1 http://bit.ly/gfvJLo
A Few of My Favorite Things…like washing windows…- Part 1 http://bit.ly/gfvJLo
A Few of My Favorite Things – washing windows??- Part 1 http://bit.ly/gfvJLo
I think it’s okay to indulge a few pleasures – green comes in many shades…
Thanks for your thoughtful awareness all year long — hope the holidays treat you well,
SO not green to your level and have WAY to many guilty pleasures to count. Right now, with the cold temps I am guilty of drinking too much hot tea. BUT about a week ago I ran out of my all time favorite that is sold no where but in a small Seattle market. Typical I have my sister in law drive to the market and then mail me the tea; so not green. I have told myself that I cannot buy anymore of that until I have finished off the hundreds of other kinds of tea we have in the house. So this winter I am trying to drink all the teas that I have purchased over the years but haven’t gotten too because I have been too obsessed with my one favorite kind! My sister and law and I have also agreed that I can only have the tea by actually coming for a visit to Seattle and buying it myself! Good enough reason for me to go!
Found you on Twitter! Missed out on the IPAD contest! Happy #FF. Can’t wait to see what other green things you are doing this holiday season.
Any little bit towards being green helps! Never discount any effort you put towards it. I meet others that are SO much greener that they make me feel (unintentionally!) so NOT green!
I get the tea thing, though I only have about 3 packages of loose tea I need to finish before I will allow myself to buy more. I had to stop myself, as well. There are too many tasty choices out there! I am a green tea fan.
Thanks for reading my post and stopping by Live Green Mom.
RT @ecopond: RT @neergdotcom – neerg is mentioned on livegreenmom.com! http://bit.ly/gkiTa4 check us out
#green #news
RT @ecopond: RT @neergdotcom – neerg is mentioned on livegreenmom.com! http://bit.ly/gkiTa4 check us out
#green #news
RT @LiveGreenMom: A Few of My Favorite Things…like washing windows…- Part 1 http://bit.ly/gfvJLo
Thanks for the shea butter source. I just started using it and LOVE it. My guilty pleasure – scrapbooking! All that paper does make me feel a little guilty but I love the memories. I could go digital, but I think that loses something. I do however, reuse ALL my scraps and recycle what I can’t.
I think scrapbooking is a good hobby to have, I wish I had more desire to do it. but instead, I have a drawer/hard drive filled with photos that need a destination!
Thanks for stopping by, Kristina!
RT @neergdotcom: neerg is mentioned on livegreenmom.com! http://bit.ly/gkiTa4 check us out
#green #news
RT @neergdotcom – neerg is mentioned on livegreenmom.com! http://bit.ly/gkiTa4 check us out
#green #news
neerg is mentioned on livegreenmom.com! http://bit.ly/gkiTa4 check us out
#green #news
Hi Helga,
Thanks for the great write up, I could not have said it any better!
I enjoyed your entire blog, and now I want to go “take a tubby”
Matt
-DiggersList
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