Thank you!

Wow! When I offered to put D's fund raising effort on my blog, I think he thought it wouldn't do much good. Boy was he wrong! You guys totally came through. Thanks to your donations, and to the donations from D's contacts, he has managed to raise $850 in just a couple of days time. We've eagerly been checking to watch the number go up and are so grateful to have the support of so many friends and family. Seriously. Thank you so very much! If you haven't donated yet and would like to, there's still time! Just click here.

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As promised many moons ago, I finally am posting a picture of my recycling station in the garage. It's working very well. I now get very excited when I find a "rare" numbered plastic, like a 6. I enjoy sorting the plastics into their various bins. Lest ye be concerned that this results in more consumption, I do not get that excited! Now that I am making such a concerted effort to minimize the trash by recycling, I'm also considering packaging when I buy stuff. Of course, I need to work on simply buying less stuff! OK, now for a tour of my recycling center. I only put stuff that doesn't go into the roll cart recycling bin that is emptied with our trash each week.

Top Shelf

• The bag on the left is full of bottle liners. It hasn't been that long, but there are so many that I can't store them in the Plastic #4 bin or I'd run out of room. Eeek.
  
• In the middle, I have my stack of reusable grocery bags
• On the right is a green bin for CFL lightbulbs. Did you know CFL lightbulbs contain mercury and should therefore not be simply discarded with the trash? It's important they not break, so be careful with them.

Second Shelf

• This is my all-purpose shelf. I store batteries, printer cartridges and anything I haven't found a specific spot for.
  
• I am also storing paper sacks here. I try to always use the reusable bags at the grocery store, but sometimes I just forget, so I have some bags.
  
• On the right starts my plastic bin recycling. I have 7 bins labeled Plastic 1, Plastic 2, etc. Each one contains the plastics that correspond to the number inside the recycling symbol. I put ones that don't go in the general roll cart recycling bin.
  

Third & Fourth Shelf

• These continue with the bins for plastics recycling.
  

Bottom Shelf

• The yellow bin on the left is for misc. plastics. Any plastic that doesn't have a recycle symbol on it goes in here. Things like the tab that closes a bread bag or the cap to the milk jug.
  
• The yellow bin on the right is for glass. This does get picked up each week, but you can't put glass into the roll cart, so glass needs its own container.

To the right of the shelving unit, there is a large canvas bag that I use to put all plastic bags into: bread bags, cereal liners, the bags that dental floss comes in, etc. If it's a plastic bag, it goes in here.

Not pictured is a roll cart I use for Styrofoam. We accumulate a lot of Styrofoam since we do so much online shopping/shipping (not good, but we do it).


What will I do with all this stuff? Hopefully, most of it can go to the next Master Recycler Plastics Roundup. Anything that cannot, I will find a specific location where I can take the stuff to be recycled.

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I finally got the handyman scheduled to come here to hang the balloons for Avery's room. He also hung a curtain rod and some curtains so her room would be darker for naps. She can sleep in light, but I think she sleeps longer (for naps) when the room is darker. Plus, I understand that having blinds reduces your energy bills, so that is a good thing. I will post pictures on Avery's blog soon.