It is a new year and you have made your New Year's resolutions. To eat healthier? Live lighter? Be greener? All of the above and more? Citizenpip is here to help! A mom-powered business, Citizenpip was inspired by the belief that making small changes in your daily habits can make a significant impact. Citizenpip offers eco-friendly, practical, and safe reusable lunch kits that make it easy to pack a waste-free lunch.

Citizenpip generously sent me one of their Soup To Nuts Kits (pictured above) for review.

The Soup To Nuts Kit includes:

All of Citizenpip's "munchgear" is "muck-free" containing no lead, no BPA, no PVC, and no phthalates. What it does contain is great little air-tight containers perfectly sized for snacking at lunch. Now your child can have their favorite sandwich at school without it getting smooshed in a brown paper bag. Not to mention, there is no bag to throw away! Maybe you want to take some leftovers to work for lunch the next day? No problem, the silicone-seal leak-proof containers can handle an ooey-gooey entree too. Each BPA-free polypropylene container comes with four flaps on the lid, that snap onto the bottom, to securely seal the contents inside. I sent my 13-year old with it on a school trip and she arrived home incident free. Since she only packed a sandwich and some dry goods that day I thought a little more rigorous testing was needed. I filled each of the containers with various levels of water, packed them into the lunch bag and carried it around in my purse (Yes, I have a big purse) for the day while running errands. I am not as rough and tumbly as an 8-year old boy, but jumping in and out of the car, running to and fro car to store - it is darn cold out there(!) - throwing my purse in shopping carts, and sloshing around while schlepping groceries into the house, I think I put it through its paces. Happy to report that I and the contents of my purse remained dry, I decided to go Mythbuster style and see just what would happen if I were an 8-year old boy.

Dropped from three feet or more and still good! While I honestly believe that glass is better than plastic, I do realize that not everyone may be at that stage and reusable is definitely better than disposable. I love that this kit comes with it all - beverage container, utensils, and napkin are all included. Not just one napkin mind you, but a whole week's worth! Who has time to do laundry every night after returning home from work? No need to worry about that with this kit. There is even an insulated container for packing soup on those cold winter days - like today.

For the complete lineup of Citizenpip products check out their website: www.citizenpip.com

To get your New Year's resolution off to a fun, convenient, eco-start Citizenpip is offering up their Square Meal Kit (pictured above) to one lucky reader in the continental US. Thanks Citizenpip! Leave one of your green resolutions in the comments below by January 13 to be entered to win. I will announce the winner the following day, January 14. Good luck!

This Monday at The Green Phone Booth I discuss the purgatory of PH (Printing Hell) and a few surprises from HP (Hewlett-Packard).  Did you know printers now come with instructions on how to be green?  Now if they only told us how to make the damn thing work.

What do you do when challenged to come up with table centerpieces for a sports award banquet attended by 280 guests with a $5.00 budget? Oh, and you have seven days to accomplish your mission?

If you are wondering why things have been so quiet around here the past two weeks, my Monday post at The Green Phone Booth might give a clue.

Household paper goods are so ubiquitous we do not even think about them anymore, but there was a time when towels and napkins were made of soft, reusable cloth. Nowadays the equivalent of about 270,000 trees are used and discarded each day worldwide. the average North American churns through 50 pounds of paper products a year, including napkins, paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper. While some of these goods are made from sustainable tree farms, native forests are still a primary source. This leads to erosion and loss of animal habitats. Plus, papermaking is a toxic process that is hard on the environment. Many paper products are whitened with chlorine-based chemicals - which are not as harmful as chlorine bleach, but still release carcinogens and toxins into the water. Others are scented, dyed, or treated with "lotion" made of petroleum, silicone, and chemical surfactants.

Use cloth napkins and wash them when they are soiled; they are more absorbent than some of the "eco" paper brands. Substitute sponges, dishcloths, or kitchen towels for paper towels. A good way to start is to throw a dish towel over your paper-towel rack, as a reminder to dry your clean hands, countertops, and dishes with a reusable cloth towel instead of a disposable paper one.

How many paper towels does it take to dry your hands? One, two? One never seems like quite enough, but one cloth towel is all it takes to get the job done. Our hand drying towels consist mostly of the flour sack variety. They are thin and therefore dry fast. I like to throw one over my shoulder while working in the kitchen for quick access. Otherwise, one is always hanging on the oven door pull - which acts as a dryer while baking.

I prefer cloth versus paper when cleaning up spills - no matter how messy and disgusting they are. With cloth one is enough to clean my entire kitchen, it holds up to scrubbing, rinsing is not a problem, it is far more economical, does not come packaged in plastic, and I never run out. These "bar towels" are just the right size for wiping down counters, scrubbing the stove top, cleaning the refrigerator, and catching spills.

By investing just a few bucks I have drastically reduced our waste, my trips to the store, dioxins in our air and water, trees being cut for virgin wood fibers, and plastic packaging; all while getting a far better return on my investment than the one time use and disposal of paper towels.

As I walk into the grocery store I cannot help but notice all the carts coming out overflowing with paper and plastic bags. My mind recalls the day when I opened the closet door and was engulfed in an avalanche of plastic shopping bags. I drop my reusable bags in a cart and quickly breeze by the aroma-less bread in its plastic prison. My mind drifts to the heavenly scent wafting from my kitchen as a fresh baked loaf is pulled from the oven. I arrive a my first stop, organic produce. Ugh, more plastic. Why must vegetables be suffocated by plastic? I want to smell them. My mind makes short work of compiling a seed list and adds food preservation to my 2009 to do list. While I load up my string bag, the lady next to me rips off one of those flimsy plastic produce bags and puts in an onion. One onion. Rips off another bag and puts in a red pepper. One pepper. When she reaches for the third bag I bite my tongue and make a graceful exit. My mind adds plastic produce bags to my pet peeve list and files it away in future blog posts.

I enter the meat department and search for some grass fed beef. My mind instantly conjures up an image I saw recently of a herd of cows all pooping. Pooping at the same time. Nothing but butts, pooping. It was like a methane fountain of poo. Gross! I look at my list, thankfully I do not need much since we are having meatless meals twice this week. I pick up a pound wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray. My mind thinks back to Beth's post about when presenting her butcher with a reusable container, a journalist asked, "Do you ever get embarrassed?". At that moment I realize I am embarrassed for buying the plastic wrapped beef on a sytrofoam tray and decide to start bringing my own container to buy from the meat counter.

Making my way around the perimeter of the store I move on to the dairy section. Pathetically excited to skip the five dollar pound of organic butter, I reach for the glass bottle of cream and look forward to making butter with my daughter. I start to drool as my mind relives the fresh buttermilk pancakes we enjoyed for breakfast. Also on my list is yogurt and sour cream. Sighing, I add them to the cart. My mind adds them to the tally of the non-recyclable tower in my basement awaiting some future use. Learning to make my own also goes on my 2009 to do list. A man reaches over me for a styrofoam carton of conventional eggs. My mind replays the scene from The Meatrix where chickens are being de-beaked so they don't peck each other to death living in such close quarters. I pop open a carton to ensure the beautiful brown, free range, organic miracle nuggets inside are all intact before placing them in my cart. My mind goes back to the tower in my basement. Next to it is a stack of cardboard egg cartons happily awaiting Spring, when they will be filled with seedlings to be transplanted into my square foot garden. Milk is the last dairy item on my list. I grab three gallons of rBGH free milk and make room for them in my cart. Thankful my state still allows rBGH free labeling, my mind wonders what I will do if the labeling becomes outlawed? rBGH free milk already costs more, but organic milk costs twice as much. I cannot afford organic. My mind goes back to a time I believed this. Yet, a family of four living on one income we eat nearly all organic. My mind thinks of the all the receipts I have kept for the past three years with the intent of developing a budget. I decide to add up all those receipts to see just what we were spending eating conventional compared to organic. Perhaps I can afford organic.

In the bulk goods section I have a lengthy list: flour, sugar, salt, pepper, oats, baking powder, cornstarch, dill, rosemary, peanut butter, honey, rice, my favorite chocolate covered raisins (damn no grazing sign!), and Dr. Bronner's. One by one I fill my containers from home and check an item off my list. Reused spaghetti sauce jars, a yogurt container from the tower in my basement, a drawstring bag made from an old camisole, whatever; all with their tare weight recorded in permanent marker on the bottom. I fill the container, insert the appropriate PLU twist tie from a previous shopping trip, and place the item in my cart. Happy to be making use of the stockpile I could not bear to send to the landfill; someone next to me grabs a plastic bag off the shelf, fills it pasta, grabs a twist tie, records the PLU on it and goes about their way. My mind wonders why bother shopping in bulk to avoid the packaging if you are just going to create unnecessary packaging by taking it home in a plastic bag? #3 on my pet peeve list, bulk goods plastic bags.

My last stop on this grocery trip is the checkout. I file in line like cattle being herded for slaughter. Waiting my turn I read the tabloid headlines, fight the urge to buy that magazine with all the wonderful recipes in it, compare contents of shopping carts, blush when someone oddly examines mine, and pretend to look at my list whilst avoiding the judgmental gazes. My mind delivers a pang of guilt as I recall I used to be on the sending end of those judgmental gazes. "Hippy." "Freak." All to quick to stereotype. How wrong I was.

The cashier greets me with the ubiquitous, "Did you find everything you were looking for?". Hmm... I will not go there. She rings everything through and gives me my total, nearly the same as always, no matter what I buy. I hand over my reusable bags and the bagger obligingly fills them. While fishing for my keys I do not notice he slips my grass fed beef into a plastic bag before placing it into my cloth bag. Oh bother. Pet peeve #4. My mind asks, "Why do I even try?".



This is my submission for the January APLS Carnival on "mind games". Read all submissions January 22 at VWXYNot?

Ahh, adolescence. That wonderful time when your face resembles your favorite food, boys no longer have cooties, and girls experience that rite of passage, menarche.

My 12 year old step-daughter walked into womanhood this summer. Being the terrible procrastinators that we are, we were unprepared for the event. A late night run to the local grocery store and a myriad of choices Oy!, none of which I have used since I was 12, took care of the problem at hand. The next day when we, I, was thinking clearer we logged on to Lunapads to discuss her options. Disposables had been covered at school, but she had no idea there were alternatives. We discussed the pros and cons of each and I left it up to her.


Bucking the norm, she chose to go the reusable route. I was surprised, but gleeful. Not even I had ventured into that territory. I started using the Diva cup a year ago, but was still using disposable pantyliners as a backup. Who is teaching who here? Having no personal experience to base her decision on, she went with economics. Although I think the leopard print had something to do with it. Putting aside all societal perspectives going green just makes sense. It seemed a pretty easy decision for her. "I can buy these and use them over and over, or buy these and buy them over and over?" Ahhh... Yep.
So we ordered a mini pad and a few liners to get her started. The total came to $34.97 with shipping. Not exactly a small price for 5 liners and 1 pad, but will ultimately save money in the end. She has been using them for several months now while with us during the week and disposables while at her mother's house on the weekends. After experiencing both options she has decided to go reusable all the way. Stating, "they feel better."

Since participating in Rob's Make Do an Mend Challenge and the simplicity of their design we thought a little DIY was in order. She found purple flannel fabric and matching thread she liked. Total for the half yard of fabric and thread was $4.32. We used one of her Lunapad liners as a template and cut out a few pieces.

• Overcast around a single piece for a pantyliner.
• Pin two pieces together, sew a straight stitch down the center, and overcast the edge for light days.
• Using an old towel, cut an inner lining piece. Cut two pieces of fleece slightly larger (1/4 inch or so) than your inner liner. Pin inner liner to one piece. Sew zig-zag down center and around perimeter of inner liner. Pin second piece of flannel on top of first. The inner liner (towel piece) should be face down. Sew straight stitch around edge of inner liner leaving a two inch opening on a straight side. Trim excess flannel and turn right side out through opening. Sew two straight stitches on either side of center zig-zag. This will prevent shifting. Hand stitch opening shut. This would be for heavy days.
  

We have not even used half of the fabric and already have nine pads of varied thickness and design. Some with wings some without, some short some long, some fasten some do not. Add a waterproof layer of nylon if you like. Use scrap fabric you have, old flannel shirts, whatever. You can totally customize them! Ask Pauline has a great tutorial and free pattern to make your own. The Cloth Pad List is a great resource for finding every brand, size, shape there is. Also lists tutorials and free patterns available.

Before buying the fabric we walked past a pack of disposable pads in Target. They were nearly $9.00 for 32. When we got home she started doing the math. According to a 12 year old:

21 pads per month x 12 months = 252 pads per year x 33 years (she's assuming she doesn't have to pay for them until she's 18 & the average age of menopause is 51) = 8,316 pads divided by 32 (the number in the package she saw) = 260 boxes she would have to buy x $9.00 (the cost of the pack she saw) = $2,340.00 for disposable.

33 years divided by 5 (the number of years Lunapads states their pads last) = 7 (she rounds) times she would have to make new pads x $4.32 (the cost of fabric and thread) = $30.00 for reusable. (the cost of laundry doesn't even cross her 12 year old mind!)

$2,340.00 - $30.00 = $2,310.00 she saves! "That could feed a lot of cats!" HA!

She certainly gets the economic benefit of reusable pads, but also understands their environmental impact, too. Way less waste and no plastic. It has served as a great life lesson and a launching pad for her to think outside the norm for common sense solutions for the rest of her life.

Living on the Edge.

Back in August, Burbanmom threw out the idea of more eco-friendly hair removal. I have been thinking about it heavily since then. I am a long time consumer of disposable razors. Well, disposable razor heads anyway. I have been using the Venus Divine for several years now. The replacement blades cost anywhere from $2.50 to $3.50 a piece! At that price I try to go as long as possible before changing blades. Shaving daily, I will go a month or more before switching, usually resulting in a nick or two and afflictive razor burn. One of Burbanmom's alternatives resonated with me. The safety razor. After reading many, many reader's comments, discussions with my husband, Q&A with my Father-in-law, thorough internet research and running out of Venus refills it was time.

I purchased the Weishi Double Edge Safety Razor Starter Kit from RetroRazor off Amazon. I selected this particular razor because it specifically stated it was for beginners. I have been shaving for years, so I am not really a beginner, but was extremely nervous about using the safety razor and wanted to play it safe. The kit cost $25.99 included the razor, three 5 pack blade samplers, a cleaning brush and info sheet packaged in a muslin bag.

Junk drawer.

Free yourself!

We set a FREE table out by the road and over the course of the weekend got rid of everything! You would be amazed at what people will take if it is free. While replenishing the table I met lots of interesting people. Everyone was very polite and overly thankful for the items they took. I heard many stories of how the items were going to help So and So, about troubles people were having in their lives, answered many questions as to why I was giving away so much stuff - No, I am not moving, and learned how my items were filling a gap in theirs. It was wonderful. The many thanks and smiles will always out weigh the potential dollars.

Some of things that went to good homes:

• cleaning supplies I quit using over a year ago in favor of vinegar and baking soda
• plastic cooking utensils replaced with bamboo
• tupperware and ziploc food containers
• excess serving bowls
• many coffee mugs
  
• reusable lexan water bottles
  
• a small fryer
• dish drainer
• partially used cans of paint
• half burnt candles
• Christmas decorations
• picture frames
• shoes
• all of my purged socks and bras
• tons of toys
• doll house
• Barbie cars
• remote control cars
• transformers
• moon sand
• coloring books
• crayons
• children's books
• vhs and dvd movies
• snowpants
• swim suits
• clothing
• aquarium and everything you would need, minus the fish
• vacuum cleaner
• bathroom trashcan
• shower curtain hooks
  
• toilet brushes
• toothbrush
• toothpaste and mouthwash
• tampons - I'm a Diva
• cosmetics
• many lotions
• shampoo
  
• bath salts
• air fresheners
• razors
• hotel toiletries
  
• pictures
• curtains
• entertainment center
• bookends
• books
• magazines
• chafing dishes

The list goes on and on. I realize this is not exactly a way to be thrifty yourself, but if you take into account the time and gas it would take to haul everything to the thrift store or the enormous undertaking of a garage sale you might have a different perspective. Plus, keeping all of this out of the trash is a great way to help the environment and others. On man's trash is truly another man's treasure.

Next time you purge consider setting up a FREE table. Free your home of clutter, free your valuable time, free your sanity and free yourself!

Draft Stopper.

Paper binder.

After punching holes in the top cover it was as simple as assembling.