Exchange 4 For 2 (Wheels, That Is…)

Gas prices seem to be decreasing slowly. This doesn’t mean we should go back to our old greedy ways of jumping in the car to make those short trips to the corner store, multiple trips during the week when you could have made one trip one time, or abandoning the thought of carpooling or sharing your shopping day with someone else.

These things are minor inconveniences compared to the inconvenience of pollution, ozone depletion, and eventual (again) high gas prices.

If you need to make a trip to the store to get some milk because when you were shopping with your two friends during your Shopping Club outing it slipped your mind, why not grab your empty backpack, dust off that Schwinn that’s been collecting dust in the garage for 8 years, and take a bike ride to the store!

If that wasn’t all… if you have the means, and you’re healthy enough, and your job isn’t a million miles from your home, consider taking your bike to work once a week.

It’s great exercise, it doesn’t pollute, and it’s a nice thing to do… just cuz!

Corral Your Cart

Hurry! You’re running late! Don’t worry about the other guy. Get the best parking place. Be the first in line.

S L O W    D O W N ! ! !

Everything is fine – you don’t have to get all stressed and tense over time. Take time to do those random acts of good stuff.

When you’re in the parking lot of the local big box store, emptying your bounty into your trunk and back seat, instead of looking at the empty cart and wondering where the closest place there is to leave it, lock up your car, and take the cart back to one of the cart corrals in the parking lot.

Or if you wanna be really nice, take the cart all the way back into the store. Why? Well, why not? It doesn’t hurt you or cost you a single penny. And it makes it just a little bit easier for the next person, whether it be the employee who has to wrangle all the wayward carts back into the store, or the next customer who walks in, and sees that all the carts are out in the parking lot.

Do it just cuz.

Windshield Wiper Notes

The only time I’ve seen something stuck under a windshield wiper, it’s been a parking ticket!

Why not change that?

Next time someone does something nice, leave a short thank you note on their windshield. In fact, next time you’re driving around looking for a parking place at your nearest supermarket, making a point of Leaving Space for someone, leave a note on the car next to yours that says, “Thank you for parking far away so someone differently-abled can get a good spot.”

Just cuz…

Concentrate

Fresh squeezed juice is SO good, but to be honest, I sometimes can’t tell the difference between the carton of “fresh squeezed,” and the carton of “natural” with “from concentrate” in tiny print.  So I did a little (I’ll admit, very little) research, and from what I saw, there was very little difference between commercial products.  You’ll really have to look at the ingredients and the nutritional labels to convince yourself.

But I was actually thinking of the packaging of the “fresher” stuff. A lot of packaging, to be honest – between glass bottles and plastic jugs. Sure, they’re recyclable, but as I talked about in a recent post, isn’t it more important to reuse and reduce than it is to recycle? Recycling should, I believe, be a last resort.

So save one or two of those gallon- or quart-sized plastic bottles, and when purchasing frozen juices, head to the freezer section. With breakthroughs in packaging and processing, many of the “from concentrated” juices are just as healthy as the non-concentrated or fresh-squeezed versions. And the packaging for these products is very small compared to the jugs and bottles you may buy every year.

Give it a try. See if you and the kids like the concentrated stuff. Rinse and reuse (or recycle) the containers the frozen concentrate comes it, and use – or actually RE-use – the plastic jug from the last time you bought the more expensive stuff… just cuz.

Turn An Old T-Shirt Into A Grocery Bag

I cannot recall where I saw this – I’m thinking either Martha Stewart or Rosie O’Donnell. In either case, it’s a great way to reuse old t-shirts. Turn them into grocery sacks!

Here’s how to do it…

1. Cut off the short sleeves, cutting along the seam of the t-shirt.
2. Fold the bottom of the t-shirt up about an inch.
3. Stitch the folded up portion with some strong thread (this will be the bottom of your shopping bag).
4. Put your new t-shirt bag in your car, and carry it into the store with you when doing light shopping (thus, alleviating the need for paper AND plastic!).

The opening for your head becomes the opening to the bag. The “shoulders” of the shirt become the handles. To make the bag even stronger, you can double up the t-shirts.

An easy and convenient way to save a little bit of paper and plastic… just cuz.

Stop Recycling!

When we were children, we were told that the most important things we were learning in school were the three R’s – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. As a kid, I was pretty good at spelling, and thought it was weird to call it the three R’s when it was really an R, W, and an A.

Now in the beginning of the 21st century, there’s a new set of “R’s” – namely, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

It seems the most prominent of the three is the last – Recycle, however, when you think about it, it really should be a last resort!

Here’s a different way to think about it all:

Reduce – when purchasing items, consider how much extra packaging is being used to contain the product. If the product’s packaging wastefully uses plastic or empty space, consider buying an alternative!

Reuse – Although storage is a concern in many households, before you toss something in the trash to be carried off to a landfill, or toss it in the recycling bin to be carried off to a recycling plant, perhaps there is an alternative! Many churches, schools, and daycare centers use cleaned tin cans, egg cartons, and other items for children’s crafts.

Recycle – This doesn’t mean “Replace!” There have been times when friends or co-workers tell me that they’re “Thinking Green” by replacing all of the non-green things in their lives with green things. So they go out and purchase paper cups for their picnics and throw away their unused Styrofoam cups that have been collecting dust for three years. They buy the new fangled swirly fluorescent light bulbs and replace all of their current (WORKING) light bulbs, throwing the perfectly good light bulbs away. Once a recyclable items has used up it’s life (so to speak), and can no longer be used (or reused) as something else, then (and only then) should recycling be the option.

So I’m not really saying DON’T recycle, I’m saying we should think about reducing and reusing first, and then choose recycling as the last resort.

Bottle Caps, Box Tops, Soup Labels, And Yogurt Lids

You may not realize this, but there are some things you can do with little or no effort to help other people.

Many food and food distributing companies have programs that we, as consumers, can join or participate in. These programs are not only ones that we can benefit from, but ones that others can benefit from as well.

Why not dedicate a shoe box (or two) to collect those bottle caps with codes in them, or box tops and soup labels for school points, or metal yogurt lids to help fight breast cancer.

Check with your local school district or place of worship, and see what they are collecting. At the end of the month, take your bounty to the school or place of worship, or if you’re entering codes from bottle caps, consider donating the points to charities (if this is an option).

Don’t just throw these points away, make the effort to save them to give away, just cuz.

Get An Extra Can

Grocery shopping is one of those things that you either love to do, or simply loathe, but it’s something we do all the time.

Here’s a way to make it a little less about our own cupboards, and more about those with empty cupboards. Each time you do your grocery shopping, whether it’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly, pick up an extra canned good – or even two. Dedicate a box in a hall closet for these canned goods, and once a year, take your bounty to a local food shelf.

Many people go hungry each year; especially children. Your simple gift can help.

Do it just cuz.