All I did was....Home Staging Success Stories

We all have them- at least I hope we do!  Reuseable shopping bags. I am now the owner of 27. That's right 27.

I forget to take them with me when I go shopping, so I buy some more and they end up in the front hall closet too. And now to top it all off, our local grocery chain store is now charging 5 cents for each plastic bag if you want one of those. How to break this guilt inducing cycle? 

You see I am a Live Green, Live Smart Trainer. Someone who is supposed to be setting an example when it comes to living in a sustainable way. Someone who is supposed to be trying to create a smaller carbon foot print on this earth. It seems so simple. Why do I forget to take the reuseable bags when I only shop once per week. I know I am going to the store to buy a week's worth of groceries. It never dawns on me until I actually start to bag the food.

I'll tell you why. Because I am human just like everyone else. I have things on my mind. I am busy. I am on a timeline to get this and that done before I need to be somewhere else.

But I was given a solution today when I attended a meeting at the local Barrie radio station, Rock 95 & Kool FM 107.5.

I noticed cases of canvas reuseable bags sitting in the meeting room. I remarked that I try to use them and always forget to take them with me to the store. The person sitting there said he found a simple way to remember was to change where I stored them. Instead of the front hall, put them all in the trunk of the car. Use them up, say 6 or so each week. Those get put in the hall to pile up again, and then when the  pile looks big enough, put them all in the trunk again.So simple, I busted out in a big laugh. Why didn't I think of that?

It's what I always say. Don't raise the bridge, lower the river. Most solutions in life are right under your nose if you care to see with new eyes. Look for the simple solution, the low cost solution, the solution that will become a habit and you have solved your problem.

I'm off to put all my reuseable shopping bags in the trunk now. I can shop with confidence now that I can make one more simple effort to make my carbon footprint smaller.

I recently replaced the 30 year old carpeting in my master bedroom. There are many options out there today from wood to laminate to bamboo to low VOC carpet. I would like wood but I also wanted the softness of carpet in the bedroom. Decisions, decisions.

It took awhile to decide, but I finally opted for Low VOC carpet from Gallery of Floors in Barrie. The carpet cost a little more than regular carpeting, but the upside was no off gassing from the carpet. As you spend 8 hours sleeping this was a concern for me as I have asthma and did not want any odours and off gassing from the carpet to effect my health.

I knew I had made the right choice when my husband came home from work that day.

The first thing he said was "didn't the carpet guys come today?" He couldn't smell the new  carpeting (he works on new residential construction sites all day so he knows first hand what new carpeting smells like).  I told him that the carpet was in and there were no odours to speak of. We slept very well that night and I suffered no ill effects from the carpet off gassing.

So if you are in the market for new flooring, take a look at Low VOC carpet. It may be exactly what you are looking for. Especially if you are marketing a home for sale, it is a great marketing tool to use when listing the house.

Way back in the early 90's, my children attended a school Prince of Wales in Barrie that believed the children should not bring anything to school in their lunch that would have to be sent to a landfill.

Their solution to this was as follows-

In each classroom there was a container with 4-5,000 worms in soil inside a box. All vegetable and fruit scraps would be placed in the box and the worms would take care of it from there. It is called vermicomposting.

Of course it was only a matter of time before there was a box of worms in our home. Children are early adapters to things that make sense. They could see immediate results to their actions and how those choices effect their environment.

Any container that was brought had to be reusable (first choice and heavily promoted) or recyclable (distant second choice).

This pretty much took care of any waste that had previously been taken to a landfill.

A list was provided to the children to post on their fridge with ideas for a healthy lunch that did not produce waste.

Does anyone know of any schools that are practising this method of reducing waste in their town?

It makes more sense to not create the waste in the first place instead of trying to figure out how to dispose of it afterwards. You have the choice in how big your carbon footprint is. How about it? Ready for some worms in your life? They are quiet, you don't have to clean up after them and they cost nothing to feed except your scraps that were previously going to the landfill.