Let the 3 Rs Help with your Organizing Efforts

Organizing your home and being environmentally friendly can easily go hand-in-hand. Here's how:

Reduce

Stop bringing items into your home. Think twice before buying everything. How will you use it? Is it worth taking up space in your home? If you have everything organized you'll also avoid buying duplicates.

Reuse

Look around you and think of a way you can reuse items rather than throw them out. If you can't reuse it, donate it or give it away. Wednesday's post about reimagining items provided some great ideas for reusing common things.

Recycle

Get the clutter out of your house. Find a new home or recycle it following your city's guidelines.

Are there any other ways being green and organized can go hand in hand?

Green Dishwashing Failure

One of my goals is to reduce the chemicals in our house. I'm starting with our cleaning products. After using the last of our chemical-laden Cascade, I decided to try a green detergent made of borax, washing soda and baking soda. The results left a lot to be desired. My dishes were coated with a nice layer of white residue. I attempted to rerun the load with less detergent, but it didn't solve the problem. I had to hand scrub the entire load, taking so much more time than if they were just dirty from use.

I know our hard water with lovely orange staining abilities and lack of a water softener are to blame for the issue, but I'm still very frustrated about it. Here I am trying to do what I think is best for my family, and my failure is not welcome!

But I'm not giving up. I'll try just a few dishes with about half the amount of detergent. If it works, I'll be thrilled. If it doesn't, I won't have as much to hand wash, and I'll move on to another recipe.