Eco Easter

Easter is hiding right around the corner.  This year I have decided to try to do more to make Easter Eco friendly as well as fun.  I thought this would be a good place to share some of the things I’ve done in the past and things I plan on doing this year.

1. The obvious, Easter baskets.  Cheap Easter baskets end up in the garbage usually a few hours or days after Easter.  This adds a lot of trash to our already overflowing land fills.  Here are a few ideas for kids as well as adults.

Look at getting a good quality basket that you can reuse over and over again either as an Easter basket or something else.  My daughter has a basket that we bought her last year that she turned into a travel basket for all her toys, flowers, lemons off our tree anything that will fit in it basically.  She still carries it around with her.  This year we bought two baskets that are going to be dedicated Easter baskets, not baskets or totes for the girls!  They are both made of a sturdy wicker with fabric lining and a very thick handle.

If your not really big on the whole basket idea, but want to give a “basket” that has practical uses try something like a gym bag, sand pail, serving bowl, backpack, lunch box etc.  So what do you do with these unconventional “baskets”?

Here are some ideas for filling the baskets with Eco items as well as things that won’t give the recepeint a sugar hangover the next morning.                                                                                                                                                                                                        For the kids: Every kid has something that they love, find out what it is.  My little girl that loves to draw, paint and create.  I have ordered Eco-paint from Eco-Kids http://eco-kidsusa.com/products-page/ It hasnt’ arrived yet, but I do have the Eco-Dough by the same company and it’s amazing. Check out their site to get a list of the all natural ingredients they use. They also have an egg dying kit!
If you have a Wee one that likes to dance or sing, why not make them their own CD.  Add all their favorite songs and then make a CD cover for it.  Best part of this is that their isn’t much packaging and you know your little one will love to dance and sing along with their very own CD.  A version of this would work for the older kids too.  You can buy Gift Certificates for the online apple store.  Your big kid can go online and download their own music with these.  Very Eco and you’ll be getting them something they will actually use.
If you have a Wee one that likes to be outside or is interested in gardening, think about filling their Sand Pail with things to plant with, shovel, gloves, seeds, little eco plant starters etc. This would also work for any garden lover, instead of a sand pail why not get them a harvest basket to use, you know the one that you see Martha Stewart always in the garden with.
Adults or big kids:
Last year I gave my husband a gym bag basket.  Inside it were a few chocolate goodies, but I also gave him a few new workout shirts, pants and a gift certificate to his favorite vitamin store.  This basket had minimal waste products in it.  The few treats that I gave him were wrapped in aluminum which can be recycled.  The clothing he is still using today and the bag is never left at home, he takes it with him every morning.  This would work great for any kid that is into sports, and it’s a great gift for anyone that is trying to stay fit.
A serving bowl, sounds boring right! Well for some it might be, but a couple of years ago my mother in law gave us a serving bowl, with pot holders, tongs, kitchen towels and a small book of her favorite salads. To this day this is probably the best Basket I ever got. I loved it! If you have grown children or you have someone that loves to cook this is a great gift. To keep it super Eco you could buy all bamboo goods to fill it with. Bamboo pot holders, towels, tongs & even the bowl if you wanted. If you have a few great receipts you’d like to share even better!

To finish up on the Eco basket. Here are a few things to use and few to try and avoid.
1. Try not to use plastic baskets, or the pre-made, pre-wrapped baskets. These have a lot of waste in them that will end up in land fills
2. Try not to buy fake plastic grass. They now have a recycled paper that comes in different colors works great if you need the grass look. This can be picked up at most craft stores and drug stores.
3. try to stay away from the plastic eggs, instead dye an extra dozen real eggs that can be used to make deviled eggs or potato salad after they’ve been found. Really the fun part is the finding. If you’d like to hide other things besides eggs, hide chocolate bunnies wrapped in foil or foil covered eggs.
4. Bake some cookies from scratch with your kids or with friends. Use fun cookie cutters, frosting etc. Make it fun, then add those to your Easter decor. They are an edible, Eco friendly way of making your house Easter ready or a great filler for an Easter basket.
5. Eco friendly clothing is also a great addition to a green Easter basket.  For the younger kids check out Green as Wee Grow on line store at  http://www.greenasweegrow.com/home.php

For the older kids check out http://www.greenedgekids.com/

6. Chocolate, what Easter basket is complete without chocolate? Why not try to find fair trade chocolate, and stick to one or two large pieces. Fair trade chocolate is socially aware and sticking to a few big pieces cuts down on packaging. Another type of Eco chocolate would be part of the rain forest alliance. Check out these sites for chocolate ordering
http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/default.aspx Fair trade Chocolate
http://sjaaks.com/home Organic & Fair trade chocolate
http://www.taraluna.com/main_Chocolate.htm fair trade, organic & has vegan chocolate. 
These are just a few of the many shops available out there with earth & human friendly chocolates

There are a lot of other things that you can do to make this easter more Eco friendly for you and your family, I would love to hear some of your ideas as well.  Also I would love to see pictures of your Eco friendly Easter baskets after the holiday. Please send me pictures of your finished products and I will post them!!
Thank you and enjoy the Spring!

New Baby New Ideas

Like most parents getting ready to bring a new baby home I start to go through check lists.  There’s the normal  list like diapers, clothes, wipes, car seat, clean house and how to live on a tighter budget.

Then theirs the crazy lists that I start.  How can I keep this new baby from the toxic world that their about to become a part of.  What other Eco changes can I make to make our house safer?  How can I keep my impact on the earth as small as possible so this new little person has a chance at the best world possible. How can I save money and still live an Eco friendly, healthy lifestyle now that their is another person in our household.  I think about things like reusable cloth wipes vs. disposable wipes.  Disposable diapers vs. cloth.  One will make my life easier the other is environmentally friendly and more cost effective in the long run.  Granted I think about all these things before getting pregnant but when the reality of another baby is right there, well it gets a little more intense.

So what do we do with all these checklists and how do we make choices that are easy and convenient, but at the same time are doing the most to keep the future of the Earth as Green as possible?  This doesn’t just apply to babies either.  There are small changes that we can choose to make every day that might not seem like much but in the long run they could really add up in the Eco friendly checklist.

I’ve been thinking more and more about small things that add up when talking about the environment, and I think a lot of people feel almost helpless in the face of what needs to be vs. what they can do.  I started thinking about how saving money and trying to go green sounds almost like an oxymoron, because  green products usually cost a little more than non-green.  This puts an even bigger amount of pressure on those trying to help the environment but also trying to stay afloat financially.

So here’s what I came up with.

Everything green doesn’t have to be bought for the intent of saving the world and you don’t always have to buy green to be doing the world a favor.  Simple things can add up, like keeping items that have multiple uses out of land fills, not buying a lot of NEW paper products, trying to buy local items or items made in the USA.

Multiple use items:  I know most of us have purged our closet and given a big, or multiple big, bags of stuff to our local good will or salvation army, but what about those items that are so far gone or worn that you just throw them in the trash?   I’m sure there are many homes that do this same thing that Ty and I do.  We take all the items not suited for donation: shirts, lounge pants, towels, sweatshirts and sometimes the occasional socks and turn them into rags to be used when we clean the house.  I cut the items into different sizes so depending on our need we have plenty to use, best part is you just throw them in the wash and tada you have a clean rag.  I am always amazed when I see people using paper towels as a cleaning product, what a waste.  I could see if you were cleaning up an animal accident on the floor, but cleaning up juice from the counter top why not grab a shirt rag? Paper towels aren’t cheap and if you figure your using them on a regular basis they go fast and your helping cut down trees.

New paper products this one is tricky, most of us get at least on magazine or newspaper delivered to our house, some of us get enough for 6 families.  I understand the joy of the newspaper and really newspaper can be recycled after it’s been used and it can also be used to clean with or used in litter boxes for animals.  My issue is with books, don’t get me wrong I love books, I love the sound of a new book that has never been opened cracking at the seam, but the amount of paper that is used for books is amazing!!  There are tons of second hand books stores out there check some of those out, also amazon has second hand books available if you like to order things from on-line.

Everything we use becomes something that we will eventually throw away so the more things that we can reuse the less we are putting into the landfills.  This all comes back to babies and checklists.  If we make an effort to cut down on the waste that we produce the better off our future generations will be.  Make a mental checklist of the things that you use most often, and only use once.  Is there another use for them or is there an alternative to that item.  If we could all make one simple change it would make a big difference.  I’ve made a small list of items that are traditional one purpose items, or one use items and given an alternative use or an alternative product

1. paper towels : old shirts, towels, socks, cloth diapers

2. disposable diapers : cloth, G diapers (http://www.gdiapers.com/) if you must use disposables try Seventh Generation or another Eco friendly brand. The traditional diapers are made with dioxins and sit in landfills indefinitely.

3. Newspaper : Great to clean windows with, also can be shredded and used for chicken nesting boxes and as liners for litter boxes

4. Shirts : T-shirts once they’ve reached beyond the help of washing are great rags.  Cleaning with t-shirt material is great for all surface types and once your done you can wash it and use it again.  If the shirt is still in good condition but doesn’t fit anymore you can always donate it to a local charity.

5. Cloth diapers : once you are no longer using cloth diapers as diapers they make amazing rags!!

6. Vinegar and baking soda are the king and queen of multi use products they have so many uses that it would take way to long to list them.  Cleaning and Cooking are the two most popular!

This is a short list, but I hope you found it somewhat helpful.  I’d love to hear other ideas you might have of multi use products and items.