It's a Lean, Grean, Earth-loving Scene!

My journey toward healthful living has extended from what I put in or on my body to what I bring into my home and kitchen. It has reached from the boundaries of my backyard to the boundaries of the Earth around me.
My interest in going a bit more Green began years ago when I was living in northern Idaho. I moved to Idaho from a suburb outside of Boston where recycling was picked up weekly at the bottom of your driveway. In my new home, there was no city recycling service. Cans, glass bottles, paper, cardboard, batteries, plastics--it all just went in my trash bin--my 13 gallon, plastic trash bin, which I always lined with a brand new drawstring plastic bag. My home was full of paper towels, paper napkins, plastic bags, disposable kitchenware, and chemical cleaning agents. When those items ran out, no problem--I went to the store and brought home disposable plastic bags full of more!

I was babysitting one afternoon for a family nearby. Their three children were all raised in cloth diapers, and ate strictly vegan diets comprised substantially by local produce (much of which was picked from their very own yard). On this particular afternoon, I was preparing a snack when a spill occurred and I needed to wipe it up.
"Where do your mommy and daddy keep the paper towels?" I asked the 3-year-old. "What are paper towels?" he responded.
As I looked around, I realized I was standing in--::GASP::--a PAPERLESS KITCHEN!
I'd like to say I vowed that day to go paperless myself, to wipe my nose only with snot rags made from old bedsheets, to hug a tree, to rescue a manatee, and to save the world all in one summer afternoon. I didn't. I just went home to my disposable lifestyle, washed my hands, and probably dried them with a sizable quantity of paper towels.
A few summers later, now living in Washington, I found myself passing by this * book * every week on the new arrivals shelf of my public library: Sleeping Naked Is Green by Vanessa Farquharson. Every week I picked it up, read the back, read the first few pages, and put it back on the shelf. This went on week after week after week. I don't know what made me reluctant to check it out, the title was intriguing if nothing else. Perhaps I feared and anticipated that I would not be able to merely return it and go back to buying my paper towels in bulk at Costco. So, I finally checked it out and read it cover to cover in two days. Sleeping Naked Is Green is the autobiographical account of Farquharson's own personal challenge: to make one Green change to her lifestyle over the course of 366 days. Her book is witty, poignant, and often-times left me with tears of laughter streaming down my cheeks (which, of course, I blotted away with a reusable handkerchief).


This book did make a profound impact on me. I did not get up after reading it and save a lobster, handcuff myself to a tree in a forest while awaiting the attack of an imminent chainsaw, or even donate the adorable matching napkin holder and paper towel rack I'd purchased 5 years ago to a thrift shop. What I learned and took away from Farquharson's determination and misadventures was that Going Green didn't have to be as extreme as unplugging your refrigerator or building a compost bin in your living room. With Earth Day celebrating its 40th anniversary this past March, I did decide to adopt some new habits.
My kitchen is now--::GASP::--paperless. I use cloth napkins, wash rags and dish towels for all my cooking, eating, and cleaning needs. Cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom, and even doing the laundry have become an adventure in kindergarten science experiments involving white vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide-- and a variety of fun, bleach-free concoctions that go kaBoom! I learned that using less doesn't take more time and it doesn't cost more money. Most of my cloth napkins are from thrift stores, discount stores, or dollar stores. When bathroom towels got shabby, they became useful for wiping up spills or scrubbing sinks and counters.
Small amounts of 100% cotton yarn make perfect little dishcloths. This basket-weave pattern is simple, attractive, and quite functional when it comes to scrubbing caked-on, greasy pots--and never leaves scratches on my stainless steel.

My crafty side got to come out and play, too, as I used my love for knitting and my abundance of cotton yarns to produce dish scrubbers and wash rags in a variety of patterns and sizes. I try to bring my own reusable tote bags along on shopping trips. I even found some adorable homemade bulk/produce bags at a local organic whole foods store. Food storage these days is less about plastic bags, saran wrap, and tin foil, and more about getting creative with recycled jars, second-hand mason jars and some reusable glass and plastic containers.
I am blessed and lucky to have access to curbside recycling again, and as for the trash bin? It's now a 2 gallon pale lined with one of the many plastic bags I saved from grocery store visits over the years. I collect my kitchen compost in an air-tight container (after an unpleasant fruit-fly event caused by the summer heat and open containers of organic matter on my kitchen counter). I unload it out back in my Lovely Housemate's compost pile when it gets full.


Being Green isn't about making lifelong, radical decisions. It's not about an all or nothing lifestyle--either I do it all the way or don't do it at all. Every little thing I do to live more organically, healthfully, and in-tune with my environment adds a level of mindful beauty to everyday tasks I often plowed through with no awareness at all. Being aware and mindful of my internal and external environment is a gift I am happy to give myself and the world around me.

*Go Green yourself and check out Sleeping Naked Is Green by Vanessa Farquharson at your local library or purchase it used at Amazon.com