Rescue a beloved object. Our son's favorite shirt had a very short life on account of it being a white shirt and his being 6 years old. He didn’t want to give it up. Mom found a second hand shirt, cut out the graphic and sewed it onto the front of the new used shirt and presto! A new improved, larger, not-worn-out shirt. What was left of the white shirt was turned into rags. This could apply to almost anything. Scanning an old family photo and restoring the color is another example.
Wrap it in reuse. We wrapped all our presents in comics one year and I have to say it was sort of sad looking. Now we are just careful about how we use our wrapping paper. We cut from the roll frugally. We save large pieces for reuse next year and reuse our bows and ribbons from year to year. Since the number of gifts we give is small, so is the resource investment. This year I did a few packaged wrapped with a combination of tissue, ribbons and plastic bags as exampled in Natural Home Magazine and they turned out suitably festive. The Christmas Tree. I think the best choices for a Christmas tree are a living tree or a second hand artificial tree. This is pure opinion but I like to think its and informed opinion. There is nothing new being consumed and the natural environment isn’t being destroyed to make room for a tree farm with all the accompanying fertilizer and pesticides. Many of our ornaments were passed down from our grandparents, some were decorations from our wedding or, one year we did painted eggs. Lighting. Be sure to think about your lighting. There is a huge supply of second hand light strings available but they differ greatly in energy requirements. Older lights use more wattage than newer lights. If you have older lights, it’s a good idea to buy a timer. It’s one more thing to own and draw power, but it will save you from accidentally leaving the Christmas tree on all night. If you are in the market for new light for some particular reason, look for LED lights.- Log in to post comments