Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day - It's America Recycles Day. How do you recycle are your home?

We recycle constantly at our house. So much so that my husband wishes we recycled a little bit less! We have two bins in the kitchen, a paper bin in the office, and a large bin in the garage. Everything and anything that can be recycled and collected by Waste Management goes into the bins, except for paper which goes to our elementary school so they can make money from our recycling efforts. I also make an effort to make sure that nothing gets thrown into the recycling bins that shouldn't be there, as that defeats the whole purpose, and not everything can be recycled by Waste Management. When we lived in apartments, before we bought a house 12 years ago, I still insisted that we do our part by hauling our recycling to a drop-off place or someone else's house!

We also take old, recyclable materials (shoe boxes, coffee cans, egg cartons, toilet paper tubes, etc.) to Thalia and Carys's old preschool for the kiddos to use for art projects and creative play. In five years, we've probably hauled hundreds of little plastic and paper "gems" that we can't bear to throw out just yet!

Once a month, on a Saturday or Sunday, we take clothing, furniture, small appliances, toys etc. that have seen better days but are still usable or useful to Goodwill, Salvation Army or Medina Children's Home. In addition, barely worn clothing and almost-new toys go to children's resale boutiques here in town; my favorite is Once Upon a Child. It's oddly satisfying get (some) money back for my kids' stuff! Books, CDs and DVDs that we've grown tired of or outgrown find new life at Half-Price Books, where we can choose new (used) stuff to read and enjoy.

More recently, we've discovered Craigslist as a way to get rid of stuff that is in great condition but no longer needed. And it's really nice to meet the people who buy your couch/crib/TV in person! We don't even care how much (or little) we make on the transactions; we're just happy that our stuff goes to a new home that needs it. Last year, our couch that we'd had since the month after we moved in together in 1996 finally found a new life in the apartment of a college student on a budget! It was the comfiest couch we've ever own.

So, yeah, recycling and reusing in some way are really part of our everyday life. It keeps us from wasting even more than we already do, and helps us keep on top of things in our home!