This week I came across this article in the Chicago Reader about the garbage issues facing the city of Chicago. Honestly it was a little depressing. Mayor Daley is constantly up on his little pedestal saying how ‘green’ the city is and how he’s committed to making Chicago the greenest city in the country but we still don’t have a fully functional citywide recycling program. Granted he has implemented a few good ideas like having green roofs on some city buildings but overall he hasn’t done enough.

My neighborhood is one of the few that actually has the ‘Blue Bin‘ program but my building can’t get one because we have 13 units. We pay for our own recycling pick-up from an independent company. The problem is that we can’t recycle every thing that you can recycle using the city’s blue bin. We can only recycle #1 and #2 plastics in the shape of a bottle. No yogurt tubs, no margarine containers.. It’s not a huge deal but I think it’s silly that our neighbors who have 2 people living in their house get this huge cart to use and can recycle pretty much everything and we have to pay for a private company to come out to get our and we can only recycle a fraction of what they can.

And so I’m happy to have a little bit of power. I’m really happy my neighbors are excited about composting. I’m hoping it’s not too difficult to get people in the habit of doing it and doing it right.

There was a nice article in the Chicago Tribune early in the week. Check it out here.

If you want to keep up to date on this issue consider becoming a fan of No Foam Chicago on Facebook or join their mailing list.

I have been working with No Foam Chicago over the past few months mostly in a web site updating capacity. They are a fantastic group of people who have been working really hard to get this ban passed.

Yesterday I was reading an article on a group of people here in Chicago who are trying to get the city to ban stryofoam. Yay! Finally!! I was completely shocked and appalled to learn that Chicago Public Schools serve school lunches to it’s 400,000 students everyday on DISPOSABLE POLYSTYRENE TRAYS. I could not believe what I was reading. Seriously?

When I was in school we had reusable plastic trays. They worked just fine.

This is not only a disgusting disregard for the environment but an enormous waste of money! I found a website that sells similar trays and they cost about $37 for 500 trays. That’s about $29,000/ day. Five days a week. No wonder our schools are in such financial trouble. Holy crap!

What kind of message is this sending to children? Why did this switch happen? Why is my tax money being spent on this?

Styrofoam is another huge pet peeve. When I worked downtown my office was right across the street from this place that was kind of like a convenience store but they had a little salad bar and some prepackaged sandwiches etc. From time to time I’d go in there in the morning to get a muffin before work and would see person after person filling up giant styrofoam cups with coca cola and then piling salad fixin’s into a big styrofoam clamshell container. It pissed me off quite honestly.

Then I’d go to work for a few hours and go out to lunch at Corner Bakery and see person after person grab the prepackaged salads or sandwiches pay for them and eat them there instead of just ordering a sandwich ‘for here’ and having it come on a plate. Day after day I watched people getting up from their tables leaving behind a massive pile of plastic containers and paper and huge piles of napkins they grabbed and only used one. It made me crazy.

I had to try to stop myself from yelling at people..

I really wanted to do an installation art piece in a major office building downtown of a huge pile of Starbucks cups and to-go containers so people could see how wasteful is was. The average office worker probably goes to Starbucks (or other coffee place) at least once a day. Then at lunch they probably go to a fast food place where their food probably comes in a plastic or styrofoam container or wrapped in paper and put in a plastic bag. Add in all the paper napkins, condiment packets, soy sauce in a little plastic container, the plastic lined paper cup your soda comes in and don’t forgot the lid and the straw too. That’s just 1 day for 1 person. Multiply that by how many days a year those people are working, and multiply that by how many thousands of people work in offices in downtown Chicago. It’s insanely.. well insane.

But there is hope..

www.nofoamchicago.org

If you live in Chicago check them out. If you don’t, see if there’s a similar group in your city. There are so many alternatives to styrofoam that are much smarter and less toxic. There’s no reason why it should still be in use on such a large scale.

The major challenges to keeping the place cool are
#1 We’re on the 3rd floor
#2 South facing windows
#3 No shade from other buildings to keep the sun from beating down on the brick all day

We did inherit a window ac unit with the place which is good but it’s not big enough to cool the whole place. And it’s in our dining room. We have a blow up mattress in there just in case we can’t take the heat and need to sleep in a cooler room. So far we haven’t had to use it.

So I’ve been doing some research to see if there’s anything I can do besides buying an additional ac unit to keep the place cooler. Of course just buying another unit would be the quick and easy fix but I don’t want to spend the money to buy and run it right now.

Here are some things I’ve done that have helped a little and a couple others that are on my to do list.

1. Fans Fans Fans – Fans are really cheap to run. We have a ceiling fan in the bedroom and have been setting up a standing oscillating fan as well as a box fan at night. It’s been in the mid-90’s and I have to say it helps but isn’t completely perfect. The circulating air feels much cooler than still air.
2. Close the Blinds or Curtains – The main objective has been to try to keep the heat out. Closing the blinds the ‘wrong’ way, with the blades facing up keeps more sun out. This has helped keep our South facing living room much cooler.
3. Use a Dehumidifier – My in-laws who live in Texas suggested this. Drier air feels much cooler.
4. Wear Natural Fabrics – Dress for the weather.  Seems like kind of a no-brainer but try to wear clothes that breathe and are loose fitting.
5. Shut Off Heat Generating Appliances – Keeps tabs on lights, appliances and computers. Shut off what you can.
6. Avoid Cooking,Laundry, and Showers at the Hottest Part of the Day – If you can’t avoid these then try to ventilate the room to get the excess heat and humidity out.
7. Drink Water – Stay hydrated! If you get really hot run cold water on or put ice on your wrists.

1. Bring your own bag to the market, convenience store, hardware store, everywhere.

2. Bring your own cup.

This one too is not just limited to the coffee place. Use that mug as much as you can. I’m not sure if fast food places like McDonald’s would be as open but I’ve used my own mug at Subway. They’re usually open to it if it’s a place where you fill your own drink. Know how many ounces your cup holds and make the effort. People usually don’t care. It costs them less to not give you a cup, lid and straw.

3. Turn the water off when you’re brushing your teeth

My little bathroom faucet pumps out 2.5 gallons of water a minute. It takes a lot of energy and resources to get the water from the treatment plant all the way to your faucet. Be conscious of how much water you’re using and try to shut it off when you don’t need it.

4. Another water related one. Modify your toilet by either displacing some of the water in the tank with a brick or some other weight (A plastic soda bottle filled with water or sand work well). This will mean that your toilet is using less water to do its work. If you’re feeling a little adventurous you could look into modifying your toilet and installing a toilet lid sink. Sounds kind of unsanitary and weird, yes but kind of intriguing. Here’s an article with more info.

5. Unplug chargers and other small (or big) appliances when they aren’t in use.

Phone chargers, coffee makers, computers, TV’s pretty much any electrical appliance draws some sort of power even when not in use. These ‘Phantom Loads’ account for about 10% of the average household electricity bill. So when you’re phone is charged unplug the charger from the wall. Don’t use standby buttons on TVs or computers if you can help it. Plug them into power strips that have an on/off switch and shut it off when it’s not in use. Also remember to shut lights off when you leave a room. And think about installing motion lights in outdoor spaces instead of having lights on all the time.

6. Buy local, seasonal food.

Not only does local produce taste better and fresher it’s so beneficial to support the local economy. If you can’t make it out to a farmer’s market or there’s not one near you try to do your shopping at local independent businesses instead of large chains. It might cost a little more to shop locally but the pay off is huge.

7. Buy rechargeable batteries.

8. Be conscious of where you’re spending your money.

This is one of the biggest ways we as consumers can make an impact. Let your money be your voice. Do some research on the companies you spend money with. Find out what their environmental policies are. Are they taking steps to help the earth? Where do they get their materials from? Where is the product you’re buying manufactured? This can be really time consuming and overwhelming but you can save yourself some time by finding a couple good store or online retailers that try to carry eco-conscious goods.

9. Stop using toxic cleaners in your house

This one is really important, especially for those with small children, pets or people with asthma or other respiratory issues. There are a lot of companies making non-toxic and biodegradable cleaning products these days. Read the labels. Go for perfume and dye free laundry soap and skip the dryer sheets.

10. Pick your battles.

Don’t try to do everything at once. It’s great to want to be an eco super hero but you have to be sure to keep things in perspective and not to beat yourself up too badly when you accidentally throw that glass bottle away. Every little bit helps and it takes a while to replace the old habits with new ones.

This is topic near and dear to my heart. Nothing gets me more riled up (well almost nothing) than getting a bunch of spammy junk mail in my mailbox.

We recently purchased a home and of course now we’re getting tons of junk mail. Super frustrating, wasteful and annoying!

Over the past couple years at our old address I spent countless hours calling catalogs and signing up to be removed from direct mailing lists online. I do all of the bill paying online through our bank account and signed up for paperless billing for all of our utilities and our credit cards. I had pretty much tamed the mailbox.

Over the past few weeks our mailbox has been exploding! It’s pretty small, but still…  I kind of knew this was going to happen. Our info was put out in the world again and sold to a bunch of insurance company lists. We’re getting right about 6 or 7 mortgage insurance or mortgage payment plan letters per day. So in the 6 weeks we’ve been here that’s probably about 100 unsolicited pieces of junk mail. This isn’t including the mailers from Home Depot, and the local banks and other ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ mailers.

I know it might seem crazy to get so wound up over this stuff but I really really hate people trying to sell me things I don’t want. I especially hate people trying to scam me by sending me official looking paperwork. So my battle of the mailbox starts again. I guess it gives me something to do.

A couple great resources to check out if you’re sick of getting a bunch of garbage mailed to you.

1.  DMA Choice
2. Catalog Choice
3. wikiHow (There are a bunch of links and tips in this article)
4. http://www.discountlifeleads.com/ (Call these people and get removed from their insurance leads list)
5. (Another article with a lot of links)
6. 41Pounds.org (This is a paid service.)

The one everyone should really do is 

https://www.optoutprescreen.com

There’s a link to this website from the DMA Choice website too. This is a way to opt out of credit card offers and other pre-screened offers based on info sent out from consumer credit agencies. 

Here’s one more website that has a lot of information about protecting yourself from identity theft.

http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/

Lots of homework I know but really worth it. If you don’t have a lot of time just do the DMA Choice opt-out and the optoutprescreen.com. These 2 will reduce your junk mail substantially.

Now that I’ve finally starting recycling on a regular basis I’ve started thinking about composting. Though I’ve noticed a huge reduction in the amount of garbage we’re producing, it’s still not as good as it could be.

My husband and I cook quite a bit and I’d say probably about 60-70% of our garbage now is probably compostable.

I’m really interested in starting a compost bin but I have a couple reservations about it. The biggest one being the smell. I know if you do it properly it’s not supposed to smell at all, supposedly. My sense of smell is really sensitive and I find it really hard to believe that rotting organic matter in a closed bin isn’t going to have some sort of odor. Another reservation I have is attracting bugs.

One of my biggest issues previously with the idea of composting was what to do with the compost itself. I didn’t have a garden or a lawn, just a couple house plants. Now we do have a courtyard and some trees, it’s a shared outdoor space but at least I have a use for the compost.

I’ve started doing some research again on the subject and found this great website that talks about composting in the city. I wonder if there’s a similar program in Chicago…

The New York City Composting Project

The Chicago Recycling Coalition has some great info as well.

Another website with a lot of info on composting is MasterComposter.com

A link to some books on the subject

This will be a really good test for me. Is it possible to stick to my guns and not buy anything made in China this year? Will I be able to resist the call of Target? I’m gonna try.

The thing that I think is the most challenging about it is the cost. Things from China are inexpensive. Whenever I move into a new place I always want to redecorate and get rid of the old, replace it with new things. 

I’ll just keep repeating the mantra “You don’t need more tchotchkes.” Eventually it’ll sink in.

I have to get better at thrifting, or at least make an effort to check out those places first before running out and buying new things. I’ve built up so much thrift store karma over the past few months I’m bound to find some great stuff.

My only issue with thrifting is my lack of patience. I’m working on that one though. It’s a process.

A couple things I found this week that I’m enjoying:

Reusable Produce Bags - from Qwerty O on Etsy

I ordered some of these and am looking forward to putting them to use.  I already have some really great nylon shopping bags that I use but it started bugging me that I was still bringing home a bunch of produce bags. The two were kind of canceling each other out. Etsy has a lot of different people selling reusable produce bags but these are the most inexpensive and the proceeds from the sales of the produce bags are going to help Susan’s (Qwerty O) daughter Kristen save some money for college.  A win win if you ask me!

Another Etsy find..

Hand Stamped Copper Pet Tags - from jmanigrossi

I’ve been looking for a new tag for Saul and thought these were really unique.

We have gotten so much snow this winter. This is the most I’ve seen since I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin. 

It’s nice though. Winter is supposed to be snowy not just gray and cold. Snow makes it fun.

We finally found out that we got our financing for our new place!  Not knowing whether or not we got the loan for sure was making me crazy. So that’s a huge relief. Not we just have to rent our place and get packed.

Yesterday we took on the mammoth task of washing every piece of fabric in the house, clothes, bedding, rugs, towels.. I’m glad it’s done but what a pain. I’m excited we’ll have our own laundry. No more walking down the snowy stairs to the creepy basement to find that the one washer that 7 apartments share is being used, waiting until it’s done and swooping in before anyone else gets in there. I will not miss that at all!

Next on the list of stuff we have to sort is our storage space. That’s going to be fun. 3 years of crap to go through.

I have been shocked by just how much we have. And doubly shocked by how much of that stuff we don’t use or need. Last year we went through all our clothes and cleared out the things we didn’t wear or like any more. I think we got 6 or 7 bags of clothes to donate from that project. This past summer I went through and purged my clothes again and got a couple bags more. Yesterday we got yet another 4 bags. Where are all these clothes coming from? We hardly buy new things. I bought maybe 8 or 10 new items this year…

I think we finally have our clothes clutter under control. The new place doesn’t have a ton of space for clothes storage so we have to just get rid of the things we don’t wear on a regular basis. I don’t want to have a messy cluttery looking clothing rack in our bedroom so we are downsizing. It doesn’t bother me really. I get lost in the clutter really easily. It’s also a little depressing to look at a rack of clothes and think about how much money you’ve wasted on clothes that don’t fit or you thought were cool in the store and when you got home you changed your mind. 

It’s all about efficiency.

Keep the stuff you need and don’t take up space with the things you don’t.

The place we bought is from the 20’s. People didn’t have 400 sq ft walk in closets. 

We’ve been watching all these house hunting shows on TV and it amazes me how many people complain about the size of bedrooms. I understand the complaint if you can’t fit a queen size bed in it and have room to walk around a little..

Do people really feel it’s necessary to have massive master suites?

Do people really hang out in them?

I can understand wanting a large bedroom if you have a roommate and you want to have your own space to hang out. Is it really necessary to have a giant bedroom with a giant walk in closet to store all the clothes that you never really wear anyway just so you can show your friends how much space and stuff you have? 

Just wondering.

I’m happy we won’t have a giant closet again. Right now we use our 3rd bedroom as clothes storage/ utility closet/ a home for all the other things we don’t quite know what to do with and it’s a nightmare. It’s a constant source of annoyance and frustration. I’ll be happy to have some normal sized closets to work with. 

We close in a little over a month! I’m excited to start the new adventure.

A few months ago I bought an iPhone. It’s a really cool gadget but not so great at being a phone. I like the look of it. I like the features mostly. Being able to check my email anywhere is great (kind of) but it sucks as an iPod (the sound quality is really poor) and I can’t talk on it anywhere in the house except for right next to the front window.

So I’ve decided to get rid of it and just use my old phone. My old phone still works perfectly fine, actually a little better.

The grass was not greener on the other side of the fence.

I think the thing that triggered it was a couple weeks ago I got an email from Apple announcing the new iPhone. The tagline was ‘Twice as Fast. Half the Price’. It pissed me off. So now even though I just bought this thing 12 weeks ago, and paid quite a bit of money for it, I feel like a have a piece of junk because it’s not the shiny new version. Grr. I hate it so much. So screw them. I’ll have my 2 year old Motorola PEBL (which I really love) and send picture messages to everyone I know (can’t do this with the iPhone) and I’ll talk in every room of my house and I will be perfectly happy.

Marketing messages are really hard to ignore sometimes even when you’re fully aware that it’s all a game. I get sucked in. Apple is the worst for me. I don’t really care about cars or clothes or most material things but computers and iPods… They get me. I didn’t realize how much until I got that email and I felt that sinking feeling and the ‘Man I really want that one’ thing started going through my head.

I’m breaking the cycle. I already feel better…