GREEN BITS – E.F. appliances and a sewing challenge for you

This is a bit like a political announcement in the middle of a TV show…. stay tuned for more embroidery after this break….

Clothes dryer

I just read Burbanmoms (Going Green) post on her new indoor clothesline…and she gives me the credit for the idea! I couldn’t believe it when she wrote about their HOA (whatever the hell that is) that doesn’t allow for outdoor clothes lines. I read with interest people’s ideas about clothes draped over furniture, only putting some articles of clothes in the dryer, people complaining of crunchy socks/undies/towels if they are line dried (oh PLEASE – are you made of porcelain?) and even how to make your own dyer cloths (whatever they are – if you don’t gave a dryer you don’t even need to buy/make these – double the savings). Now I know that some people live in crap rainy snowy climates and living without clothes dryer seems impossible – but really give it a try – it rains a lot here too (usually). I bought a clothes dryer when Jimmy was a baby – I wasn’t sure how I’d dry all the nappies on rainy days…but when it died (bless it’s inbuilt planned obsolescence) we installed a retractable clothes line in our garage. The dryer – well its now rusting in landfill unfortunately– don’t need it, don’t miss it.

Dishwasher

I also got sucked into the idea of a dishwasher…after many years of saying and thinking I didn’t need one – someone called me an idiot for wasting my time washing up by hand with a family of 5….so I went out spent a grand on a reasonable dishwasher (reportedly a good brand) and then…realised how toxic dishwasher powder is, realised how expensive it is, how over-packaged and expensive those dishwasher tablets are, and how the natural(ish) ‘environmentally friendly’ dishwasher powder doesn’t really work very well(the one I tried didn’t anyway). The dishwasher broke down within the warranty twice and then of course again, about a week after the warranty expired. We decided to cut our losses (goodbye $1000), salvage some bits (eg: the stainless steel panel in door) and it now resides in landfill too. My only consolation is that I won’t repeat my mistake and that will be the only dishwasher I’ll ever put in landfill.

As for washing up by hand…well I actually quite enjoy it. Not as much as, say eating chocolate and watching Colin Firth on the telly, but more than cleaning toilets, dusting or any of the other myriad of tasks one has to do occasionally. As for the time …I don’t think that filling the sink with water and washing the dishes takes much longer that all the stuffing around packing and unpacking the dishwasher (and rewashing all the bits that the environmentally friendly powder didn’t remove) and washing up all the bits and pieces that don’t fit in the dishwasher and all the recycling. It madness that people use a dishwasher and then run water to rinse/wash their recycling before they put it in the bin (You DO that don’t you?). Washing up is a nice meditative task…I can think of other things – like my next quilt/Colin Firth etc, I can help Tom with his homework, and I usually do it as part of the next meal preparation, when I’m in the kitchen anyway. As for the water savings of a dishwasher…I just don’t know. I think those studies are conducted by DW manufacturers. I find them hard to believe. I rinse the dishes under the water while I wait for it to heat up. I wash the glasses and cutlery first…the dirtiest things last…and I rinse the recycling in the dregs. Easy. (We have solar hot water and use mainly tank water).

Nappies/diapers

I have just completed a very satisfying task. I chopped up and hemmed lots of old nappies to use as cleaning cloths. No more nappies – HOORAY! The worst thing (well one of the many) about having three kids is the cloth nappies wore out halfway and I had to buy new ones! I had chopped up the flannel ones and was about to start on the terry towelling ones when I discovered Freecycle. So now someone is the happy owner of 2 dozen slightly grey cloth nappies, some still folded into shape!

If you are washing nappies anyway…have you thought about chopping up an old towel and using that with water instead of buying baby wipes. It struck me as ludicrous to be spending money on wipes when Jimmy was about 3 months old….I didn’t look back. I just chucked the wipes in with the nappies. Some people (not us) even do this instead of using toilet paper….check out Crunchy Chicken! (This is a link to her blog – not the actual wipes post – do check out the blog it’s full of interesting and amusing stuff)

Speaking of Crunchy Chicken….

A sewing challenge – Good4Girls:

I never fail to read all the green blogs listed in my sidebar. Crunchy chicken has started a website called Good 4 Girls. She is looking for donations of reusable cloth pads to send to girls in Africa who currently have no access to sanitary products. This all started because some company in the US is promoting itself by sending free disposable sanitary supplies to girls in Africa. I haven’t seen the ads and I’m paraphrasing here…check out Crunchies blog for the full story. Anyway – Quite noble on the face of it, and not so bad as the Nestle baby formula fiasco a while back….but still – there are the issues of disposal, and the fact that this is a short term deal …once the girls are used to the products (and the company has established a market) the supplies will be stopping. So Crunchy Chicken came up with an alternative. She is dealing with some aid agencies, and sending them to areas where washing the pads won’t be a problem.

She is looking for donations of pads, or cash. The website has instructions on how to make them, the materials to use, where to buy them readymade etc etc. So – If you want to use your sewing skills for good rather than evil….. (I can’t actually think of an evil sewing project – capes for super villains perhaps) …BUT…..I don’t think they need anything embellished, embroidered or beaded …ouch.