Some useful information, some anecdotes, some rantings, and some inspiration
from my quest to make my family and perhaps the world around me A Little Greener Every Day

I mentioned the other day that my eco-friendliness has led me to embrace thrift store shopping. Buying at a thrift store or even a consignment shop is environmentally friendly because it gives a second life to something that might otherwise be thrown in the trash and it keeps down the amount of new things that need to be created from raw materials.

I’m not a seasoned thrift store shopper, but  I do have some tips for those of you who are just starting out and are looking to buy clothes.

• Try it on. Thrift store purchases usually can’t be returned. There’s one thrift store in my area that doesn’t have any dressing rooms. I won’t shop there.
• Bring cash. Most thrift stores don’t take credit cards or checks.
• Be prepared to spend some time. It varies from store to store, but many stores don’t have the time or resources to sort clothing. Often the boys and girls clothing are on the same racks, and things are rarely sorted by size. It can take a lot of hunting to find something you like that is in your size.
• When you’re looking for something specific, check everywhere. My youngest son needed a costume for a local theater production that he was playing a pirate in. I was looking for a vest and some sort of shirt for him. After finding nothing in the children’s section, I went to the women’s section and looked through the size smalls. I ended up finding a perfect shirt and a black woman’s sleeveless button up blouse. We cut the collar off the sleeveless blouse and it made a great vest.
• Clean everything before it gets worn. Most things can be thrown in the washing machine, but some things will need to be dry cleaned. If an item needs to be dry cleaned, factor in that cost before you consider it a bargain. After I bought a black wool coat for $6.99, I spent an additional $14 to have it cleaned. That was definitely still a bargain.
• Take you own shopping bags.
• You don’t ever have to tell anyone you bought something at a thrift store if you don’t want to.

Those are my beginner thrift store shopping tips. Got anything to add?

Image: ilovememphis

Carole Brown tagged me for an Honest Scrap Award. I like Carole and I learn a lot from her Ecosystem Gardening blog. She promotes my writing often to so I’ll play along this once. In order to accept this award, I have to tell you 10 honest things about me that you wouldn’t know from reading the blog. And I’ve got to tag 7 other bloggers to participate in being honored in this way.

Okay, here it goes.

1. I was a full-time undergrad student for six and a half years. You read that right. I changed majors a few times – elementary education to communications and ultimately to Bible. Then when I got my BS in Bible (go ahead and snicker – BS, Bible, I know), I decided I wanted to teach high school English. So I had to take a whole slew of undergrad courses and do student teaching.
2. I could live on cheese, wine and all of the things that accompany them (good bread, fruit, etc) for the rest of my life.
3. I’m mostly a wine girl and have several favorite local or organic wines that I love, but my favorite beer is neither local nor eco-friendly (as far as I know). It’s Smithwicks from Ireland. If I’m at the bar and it’s on tap, I’m getting it.
4. I would love to have a podcast with my friend Susan that’s as clever, funny and relevant as More Hip than Hippie except we’d do it about food and wine. Unfortunately, Susan lives too far away for us to attempt it.
5. My eco-friendliness has led me to accept shopping at Good Will. I found a black wool coat that I’ve gotten a ton of compliments on this year for $6.99 there. In fact, the shirt I’m wearing right now came from Good Will. So are the jeans. All of the clothes are name brands and no one would ever know I bought them second hand if they looked at me. So why not?
6. There are some websites I wrote for when I first started freelancing that I wish would take my name off of the pieces.
7. I keep my Facebook account for people I actually know or work closely with online. If you ask to be my friend on Facebook because you like my writing, I’ll be flattered, but I won’t add you to my friends. However, I will probably send you a message saying thank you and letting you know I’ll follow you on Twitter.
8. Sometime back in the early ’90′s, fueled by much Aqua Net, I caught my waist length hair on fire at a Christmas Eve service on one of the candles. I wasn’t hurt, and it’s a great story to tell now.
9. I am a terrible, horrible speller.
10. I think it’s absolutely hysterical how those of us who are doing this are making it a point to say we normally don’t do these things. Really, I think we’re all a little happy to talk about ourselves a bit. Me included.

Okay, now, tag you’re it. That’s right, you. I’m half cheating here and half giving anyone the chance who would like to participate in this the opportunity to. Maybe you would like to do this on your own blog, but no one has tagged you yet. So, if you’re one of the first seven people to write a comment, say “I’m it,” and put do this on your own blog, I’m tagging you.

The purging of my office is coming along slowly but surely. I need to look at each piece of paper that has piled up and decide if it needs to be kept, scanned and gotten rid of, or plain ol’ gotten rid of. The papers that are going, I need to decide if they should be shredded before being recycled.

Last Thursday when the recycling truck came by, there was a huge amount of paper to be hauled away. While it’s good to recycle the papers, my goal is to go as paperless as possible by the end of the project.

One of the things I need to learn is exactly which important documents need to be kept as hard copies. The rule of thumb used to be to keep 7 years of financial documents, but with so many records being kept electronically and easily accessible, I’m sure a lot of that has changed.

In addition to business type papers, there is a lot of paperwork from my two boys. Report cards, special projects, art work. Should I scan the end of the year report cards in that have the entire year’s record and shred the original or keep the hard copy?

The busy holiday season has left me with little time to spend working on my project in my office, but I’m trying to do a little every other day or so.

Any advice about keeping or tossing papers that you can give me, I’d be happy to accept.

Image: Muffet

Last night after I posted about the phone book problem, I decided to dig around to see if I could find a legitimate way to cancel phone books. From what I’ve read, the phone book companies don’t have to honor a request from a third party to cancel phone books so using a website like Yellow Pages Goes Green may be futile.

I was able to find information on both the Yellow Pages and the Yellow Book websites to opt out. Whether the opting out is actually honored or not, I suppose I’ll have to wait about a year to find out. Here’s what I found.

Yellow Pages  Consumer Choice Page – The Yellow Pages people claim that “Yellow Pages publishers want their products to be welcome in your home.” You can input your zip code on the page and find your local publisher. Their instructions are to “Please contact the following publishers to adjust the number of directories you receive or to remove yourself from directory distribution lists.” When I input my zip code, I was presented with two different phone numbers to call. I’d prefer an easy to fill out online form, but it’s something.

Yellow Book Opt-Out from Delivery Page – There is an easy to fill out online form for Yellow Book. You do need to know which region you are in, though. When you’re done filling out the form, you’ll get the following message, “Thank you for submitting your information. We will contact you as soon as possible.” Since your phone number is a required field and e-mail is not, I can only assume I’ll get called to ask why I’m opting out and try to get talked into receiving the phonebook.

Image: carlos.a.martinez

Two years ago, my husband built me a fabulous desk. It’s six feet long and three feet wide. I want to see the top of it again. I want to walk into my office and not hear the crunch of paper under my feet. I want to sit down to do the bills and not spend a half hour trying to find the bills and the checkbook. I want to get my printer off the floor and on to my desk.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a slob. Even in my little blurb to the right, I admit to my poor housekeeping skills. No where in the house is this more obvious than my office. It has gotten so bad that it is hurting my productivity. I can’t find things. The top of my desk is piled high with books, magazines, papers, and mail. The floor is covered with piles, too. It doesn’t help that my office is the dumping ground for things we don’t know what else to do with. And, it’s also where I keep a couple of containers to throw the clothing and other items that are destined for Good Will.

Thoreau commented in Walden abut the railroad that was making everyone’s lives easier but consuming everyone’s lives to create. He said, “We do not ride upon the railroad. It rides upon us.” I can’t help but wonder what he would think about the computer, printer, and iPhone in my office. Do I use them or do they use me?

This is part of a six-foot by two-foot folding table that is in the office covered with papers. It's only there to hold papers.

I have decided it’s time for me to be more in charge of the office. So I’m starting a new project – I’m calling it “The Green Home Office.” I’m purging, organizing, going as paperless as possible, finding a computer program that can organize all my finances and statements, and decorating as greenly as possible. If I can do it, anyone can. So I’ll be documenting my project every Wednesday on this blog, and if I’m successful, perhaps I’ll even write a book. Any publisher out there want to scoop me up now and give me a big advance? No big advance? Okay, just scoop me up.

The first step in my project is the purge. I started yesterday. I’m going through the thousands of papers. The shredder has become my best friend. I’ll update you next week on the purge, but rest assured, all paper will be recycled.