all things being eco. accidentally.

never in a million years would i have cast myself in the role of the environmentalist but it is sort of the place i have landed. by accident. but to be fair - i do use the term environmentalist very loosely.

i distinctly remember 6 years ago standing in line at the IGA and the woman in front of me had canvas bags and was also stuffing her food in her backpack. i remember thinking to myself at the time - what's her deal? how pretentious is she? - like many others now i find myself in her boat. would i plan to go to the store without my bags? no. do i feel ridiculously guilty when i forget them? yes.

we try our best here with all things eco but are by no means superstars. do i compost? no. do i think i might? probably not. do i use too much paper towel? you betcha.

5 years ago i attended mother goose with aydan and we all went around the circle and talked about how our cleanng routine/products had changed now that we had all had babies in our lives. everyone had tales of beautiful organic eco products to talk of and i had my old buddies mr. clean, windex and lysol wipes keeping me company. to tell you the truth i had not even thought about it - i was just worrying not to drop the baby! again i thought they were all trying to hard and had attitudes - maybe this is why they never invited me to go to coffee which i later found out they did after every class! i have since changed my ways as well. this switch was not done consciously rather it happened quite organically - using more and more eco stamped products rather than the fore mentioned group although we sometimes do reminisce and have a house party together for those tough to clean jobs. everyday cleaning on the other hand is eco cleaning.


then we come to ziplock bags and my secret love affair with them. i can't help myself - i love them. i love them for sorting toys. for sorting art supplies. i love them for travel. l love them for packing away decorations. i just plain love them. but the husband and me did get to talking the other night and we realized we use too many especially for lunches. with this info in hand i scoured the internet and came across these and instantly fell for them - lunchbots. the source i had was amazon.com. add to cart. checkout. do not ship these items to canada. and not available on amazon.ca. RATS! okay look - found them somewhere else, will ship to canada but for the additional cost of the entire order. no thank you. found some in canada but they were marked up so high that the attractive factor is slipping away. the dollar has been at par for basically 3 years - why are we still paying more??? i had almost given up my on-line not-leaving-the-comfort-of-my-own-home search when i came across these guys. prices same as amazon.com (editors note: the amazon price has gone down but these are still a good buy at this canadian price.) . check. by buying four i got free shipping. double check! even though these cost a little green they are now not getting pricier as all the hidden fees are being tacked on. they are now looking as attractive as ever. the sleek metal base. the bright coloured metal tops. love them. order. checkout. purchase. also i was very very happy with the customer service. and if you know me the one thing i can't handle is bad customer service - i mean c'mon, know what you are selling and how to either use it or prepare it. basic stuff that seems to elude most people - takes 5 minutes to learn and also always having your ears open helps. i decided the next day i wanted to change my order and it was no problem. i shot them an email and they promptly replied and took care of my request. man i love that. service. good service. and look at all the samples they enclosed and i got the bonus blueberry loose tea monthly promo as well!

so here we are now - i wash all the recycling and add everything possible to the humongous glorious bin that the city provided and picks up every two weeks; we use all eco containers as much as possible; most cleaning is done with eco products and we are conscious to turn off all lights & heat when the room is not in use.

we are attempting to reduce our carbon footprint one day at a time.
are we perfect? no. are we trying? with all our heart.