Solving a mystery and other tales

I hope you are ready for this sad tale of whoa, Simple Year friends. I’m afraid this will bring more than a few of you to tears, and yet, I must report it, despite my desire to shield your tender hearts.

It’s been several weeks now that there’s been a mysterious plastic bag under my kitchen sink. I didn’t think anything of it at first — my sink area is just a wreck, what with the cat food that’s now living side by side with my beautiful glass bottles and jars of homemade cleaners. I peeked inside it once, just out of curiosity, and it looked like a plastic bag depository. I mean, that’s not completely crazy — we still have some plastic from Eric’s loaves of (stupid, whatever) store bought bread that he continues to hold on to as his bye item.

Is it really better? These cartons can’t be recycled at all, so … (Also, definitely the weirdest thing I saw during last weekend’s grocery trip.)

But then I checked again a little while later and it looked like … well, it looked like there was trash in there.

Hmmm. Someone was trying to sabotage my plan!

Now, for those who don’t remember, I moved my garbage can out of the kitchen and into the laundry room quite a few months ago, the sole idea being that, if it was difficult to throw things away, we’d work harder as a family to avoid making trash. Although I may as well admit that our house is tiny, so we’re talking maybe 15 steps from the kitchen to the laundry room. Not really a workout.

So earlier this week, I’m all, hey Eric, what’s that plastic bag under the sink?, and he was like, um, yeah, that’s my trash can, and I was like, watch now as I commence throwing a fit.

And I did.

He said that it’s “too far” to walk into the laundry room all the time, and I was like, GOOD, it’s supposed to be!

And then I told him if it were really that much of a hassle to walk 18 feet, then he needs to find something small and compact for under the sink. I figured that’s just marital compromise. He has yet to take me up on that, though. But the bag has been removed from under the sink.

I’m calling it a win.

Shaking my head. This would be so much easier if it was just me. Alas, that would be super boring.

*

For our next thrilling adventure, let me tell you about my efforts to use up all those bath products that have been languishing in my cupboard for years. I decanted like items together — which is how I ended up with a fairly smelly body lotion, not sorry that particular jar is gone — and have been diligently working on a face cream that may or may not make me gag. (Okay, fine, it doesn’t, but I don’t like that smell either.) But! I finished it on Wednesday! Now I can go back to my favorite facial moisturizer, which is just olive oil and beeswax, or if I’m feeling fancy, my “homemade” calendula oil.

All I have left now is a small jar of leave on conditioner stuff. That might take a while to get through, though, because I never remember to actually use it.

*

And finally, because apparently when you’re writing you need three examples (I don’t know, I don’t make the rules), our last saga involves me being a general poser at the office.

So we were talking about the plastic bag ban that took effect on Wednesday at three major stores in town — the full ban won’t happen until July — and most of my co-workers were complaining about how hard it is to remember to bring bags into the store. (It used to be for me too. But you get in the habit.) Anyway, it made me laugh — I was like, well, don’t ask me about my reusable produce bags or my jars for the bulk bin, then and immediately felt like a jerk. I mean, it’s easy for me to talk, right?

But our publisher sort of gave me an appraising look and asked if I’d write a first-hand account of my experiences with reusables (note: the words “zero waste” did not factor in this at all) for an upcoming edition of Home and Garden.

Uh, yeah, I think I could do that. 😉

No one at the office knows about my Simple Year project yet. Still. I mean, it’s only been 10 and a half months, let’s not rush into anything.

Now I just have to decide what to write about.

Next up: I’ve been slowly documenting how much unpackaged items cost vs. their packaged counterparts to see if, over all, zero waste is more or less expensive than traditional items. So hopefully that.