Tackle it Tuesday – a touch of green
*** Here’s a teeny tiny project for those attempting to go green but still have cold feet.
Maybe this should be a ‘guess what it is?’ post instead?
O.k. so what is it?
Need a bigger clue?
O.k. so whilst you think about it, first a little back ground to explain the truly ironic nature of this tackle.
Several life times ago I was married to a different man and therefore enjoyed a relationship with a different mother in law. The house of my mother in law, was like none other. Even now, some two and a half decades later, I have never experienced a household such as that.
To say that the house was clean would be an atrocious understatement. Not only was it hygienically pristine, it was also ordered. Her whole house was immaculate. Not the immaculate of Homes and Gardens, but the kind of immaculate where screw heads were sanitized with a tooth brush. To say that it was tidy would be tantamount to a lie. For example, I slept in the spare room. The spare room housed spares, spares of everything. Each spare was lined up in the closet and when I say 'lined up' I mean you could take a ruler just to check that each item was exactly spaced within the available space. The twin bed spreads were hand crocheted, as were all the other bed spreads within the house,……but I digress.
One of the most staggering, heretofore never witnessed by any living breathing creature, was the kitchen. To enter the kitchen was unwise unless you wore sunglasses. Bear in mind that this was England, mid winter where the light twinkled once every 24 hours on a Wednesday when there is an R in the month. I would stand in the kitchen wearing my muffled feet on one single linoleum square in total awe as I watched my mother in law wash plastic bags in the sink and hang them up to dry so that they could later be re-used. I would remain static in part due to the three hounds of the Baskervilles that glowered in the hall ready to eviserate anyone who so much as dropped a hair follicle. I knew at the tender age of 18 that house-wifery was not the career choice for me.
Later as I sat on a freshly laundered and ironed towel on the sofa, drinking Evian water from a dazzling, lead crystal tumbler, I wondered if I would ever reach such exotic levels of exactitude?
So now, I know that I too have advanced to bag washing and recycling. Furthermore, I have been reduced to making a bag, or rather a bag dispenser, for my washed bags, because for some reason, few people are willing to re-use a used bag when there are also new bags available.
Thusly, the first thing to do, is to hide the box of new bags and instead display this handy dandy bag dispenser, stuffed to the brim with old or rather, newly washed bags for everyone to use.
Now whilst I’m sure you’re clamouring for the ‘how to’ details, as luck would have it “Dioramarama” has step by step instructions over “here” which is just as well as I didn’t capture the moment myself.
I would just add that the careful selection of the correct material or fabric is paramount if you wish to engender co-operation and participation by other family members. Forget colour co-ordinated, aim for soft, or better still, super soft, as we wouldn’t wish to damage those little digits, now would we?
Cut and paste
from this little
boxy thing below
November 18th, 2008 at 12:56 am
very cute. And I love the red.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:04 am
I always have trouble getting the washed bags dry enough to conquer the “ick” factor in re-using them. So alas, I rarely try. (Besides, they look so messy while they’re drying.)
The bag dispenser is a cool project, though!
November 18th, 2008 at 5:26 am
well, i grew up with a single mom whose housekeeping motto was “clean enough to live in, dirty enough to be happy.” (really it was a matter of maintaining sanity without jeopardizing public health…makes perfect sense to me) she washed bags too as a way of saving a few pennies. who knew we were being green back then?
November 18th, 2008 at 5:42 am
I knew what it was!
You certainly traded up-on in-laws. Let’s hear it for Nonna!
We 3-R muchly in our home, but the only such bags I re-use are the ones bread are stored-in – not “ick” washing mine.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Excellent idea! Not only does it make the freshly washed bags accessible, it also keeps them contained! Somehow, I end up with bags all over the pantry, they’re slippery little things!
November 18th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Really?
No, seriously, REALLY?????!!!!
That’s cool.
Although in my entire lifetime, I will NEVER use such a thing…it is really cool.
What a fun post. Enjoyed every word of it!
Happy TT
November 18th, 2008 at 8:10 am
We have a neat canvas bag that my SIL brought back from Australia to hold plastic grocery bags. I wouldn’t go so far as to wash them out however; if there are too many or they are in bad condition, they go into the trash!
November 18th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I knew what it was, but have never seen one that pretty before.
Great story.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Wow! Are you sure that was a house you lived in and not a museum? Hoky smokes, Bullwinkle, I would have been terrified to even breathe in a place like that!
I reuse plastic bags but only ones that have not contained anything wet and don’t really need washing out but the dispenser is definitely a great idea. That might work with plastic grocery bags, too, which I resuse for a lot of other things.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
what does it say about me that I knew that was a bag dispenser?
I just stuff the ones taken home from shopping in a drawer, in unruly fashion—there’s fewer of them now that Charlie and I use our own canvas bags when shopping.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
What a great idea! Great tackle!
November 18th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Love the colour
November 18th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
My God Maddy, I would be scared to breathe in a house like your erstwhile mother in law’s! We take the atitude that the dirt doesn’t look much worse after a couple of years!
November 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
First, I do love all your “whilsts” so much. Truly I do.
Second, your bag recycling efforts put me to shame.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
That is a really cleaver idea…I just shove the clean ones back in the box of “new” ones…then again, no one but me puts anything away anyway…
November 18th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think my son took mine when he moved out. Now they’re just stuffed in a drawer.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
This is one of my favorite posts of yours–ever. It goes beyond instructions or gorgeous slice-of-life stuff and into character examination and personal history. LOVE it.
Now I’m curious as to how the ex-mother-in-law’s mania manifested itself in her son…and if that’s at all why he’s your ex.
Oh, and my kids have never seen a new plastic bag, so they have no idea there’s a choice.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] just thought I’d better let you know after all the “ick” comments [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Wow, old MIL scares me. She makes me feel so inadaquate! And you too, what with all the bag-washing.
*shuffling off to wash out my old bags… feeling guilt that I just stocked up on like TEN boxes because they were on sale… who needs ten boxes if you are a bag-washer…*
November 19th, 2008 at 6:49 am
oh great, now my typo also makes me feel inadEquate…