Econundrum #2: Plastic Stuff

It was actually the husband that got sick of them before I did.... all those plastic bowls and storage things in our kitchen. We had been acquiring metal bowls slowly but surely, and finally there was just no more room for both sets. I was managing, but the husband couldn't take it any longer. I came home to the plastic bowls all sitting out in another room. A small part of me resisted for just a moment, thinking, "Wait! I still use those!!!" (I'm dangerously close to being on of those people who has a hard time getting rid of stuff. I watch "Hoarders" just to keep myself in line.)

Someone else' cupboard. I feel their pain

But now the dilemma. Here they sit. I don't quite know what to do with them! They are still useful. They aren't broken or anything. They still function. But I really can't think of who would want them, and I am certainly not going to throw them away. Thrift store donation???? I guess. What else is there?

Ah, the mending of ways. Turning back is hard. It definitely reminds me that all we can do is go forward, try to not ADD to the problems out there. We can't take them back. These bowls exist in my home, and these problems exist in our world. Neither will just disappear.

So... days later... here sit the bowls. The husband asked what we were going to do with them. My answer was, "I have no idea." I guess the thrift store is going to be the answer. Maybe at least they'll get a little bit more use. Meanwhile, for my part, I simply won't buy any more. And when I am at that thrift store, I'm going to pick up some glass and Pyrex and Corningware!

Then, I'll have even more plastic to oust from my kitchen. Someday, it'll all be gone. Someday!

How Many Are in YOUR Home?

"The safest cleaning products are cheap, widely available and have been around for centuries: baking soda, water, and vinegar along with some elbow grease. The EWG says these ingredients can be used to clean everything from countertops to hardwood floors to ovens."

Funny, I have said this over and over and over and over. And again. And yet, most people I know will STILL have one or more of the products on this list in their home, check it out:

http://shine.yahoo.com/green/worst-household-cleaners-health-152200302.html

Remember this guy??

How many of those can you dig out RIGHT NOW from your cupboards? In your bathroom, your kitchen?

Do you have to run out of the room after using your cleaners, so you can breath? Do you have to wear rubber gloves? Do you have to wear clothes you aren't afraid to ruin? does this NOT seem like a problem to you?

I was scrubbing my Pyrex dish and thinking about commercials where women hold up stuff that has "baked-on stuck-on" messes. I was thinking, really, nothing actually STICKS to glass. It comes off. Sure, it might take a little muscle. So.... so what? Are we too frail to use elbow grease anymore? Was that for our grandmothers who didn't have the luxuries we have now?

All those commercials... those companies do not CARE if your nails look good because you don't have to scrub a pan. They don't CARE if their product, used too much or improperly, is actually bad for the environment. They don't CARE if it's bad for our health. They put the warnings on it they need to, then happily take your money for their shareholders. If you think for one second that they want YOUR quality of life to improve, you are sadly disillusioned. I don't know quite where you got that idea. Get rid of it. And if you think everything should magically float off your pots/pans/bathtub and you shouldn't have to work on it at all, get rid of that, too. Life takes a little work. It should. We shouldn't be replacing a little bit of actual work with toxic cleaners, just because we can't be bothered to do the right thing. Don't have time? Tough. Our planet doesn't have time. Our kids don't have time. WE are killing time for them with what we have done and what we have become.

You ask, "What do you mean, what have we become?"

Lazy.

Let's rewind and go back to the better way. Simple, frugal, hard-working. Just because we get a little dirt under our fingernails doesn't mean life is hard. It means we appreciate Life and will do what we can to preserve it.

And let's stop thinking that "clean" means we have to run outta the room so we can breathe again. I mean, really.