March In like a Lion out like a Lion

Typically in March our family starts a clean out.  We start going through the closets figuring what we will use next winter, what won't fit next year and we can donate and what we will need for spring.  This year is different. In March we have started a new approach to waste - the less the better.  After reading recent articles about Zero Waste in homes suddenly all the old papers and shoes heading to the trash can doesn't make any sense.  Can someone use those cleats my kids outgrew, should I send that jacket with a broken zipper to the local donation center, and what about the bathroom draws - should I throw out those old tooth brushes?

Research, Education and more Research.

With April here tomorrow, Earth Day in a couple of weeks and good weather around the corner I have used March to rethink our family habits, educate my children on where all those papers go, and try to find out myself what to do with almost everything that you would typically throw away.

Through our high school I have found a business that accepts old electronics and electrical items for recycling.  What a find, that typewriter (no my kids have never used it) that has sat there with a broken "n" key for the last 25 years - just in case we might need it - can be recycled.  The old tape recorders/vcrs and chargers for I don't know what - recycled.  Zerowasteamerica.org will point in a direction to recycle.  Check with your local public works - I noticed they are having paper shredding events at ours which is a great time to reduce all that you have saved and haven't looked at in 10 years.  My smartest purchase this year is a toothbrush from Whole Foods that you can mail back to them for recycling, now if I can find that sleeve to mail it back that I saved somewhere in this house!!

In the past I would clean the insides of draws and cabinets with a good disinfectant and remove all finger prints with a well known polish. Not this year, it is all natural citrus cleaners and lemon oil polish.  I never realized how many chemicals I have sprayed into the atmosphere until this year all the time thinking I was doing a good thing by keeping my house clean.

So for  today we are still working on the big clean out  which will probably continue through April.

As I learn more it will be passed on but for now - remember tomorrow is April 1 - my husband always switches the sugar with salt for my coffee, hopefully I won't be too tired to remember not to use the sugar tomorrow.