Wednesday, May 2, 2007

dispose

It is SO about paper plates. And paper bowls. And plastic utensils. And paper towels.

It is 2 in the afternoon and instead of dripping oozing tipping stenching mountain of dishes filling the sink and covering every surface in the kitchen including the stove, there is only a coffee cup, the blender, and 2 sharp knives. Because of the disposables.

It may seem bad for the Earth, but hear me out: How good is it for the planet for me and Steve to stand there from 10-1130 everynight washing dishes until our backs seize up? How much water does that use? How much soap? How much time?

We had a barbecue party here this weekend and so I have lots of leftover disposable stuff. It has made more of a difference than I anticipated. Instead of the hour+ dishathon tonight, I will be free to cut loose and fold laundry ;)

People have absolutely no inkling of what is involved in being home all day living and caring for 4 children. No concept of the cleanup and prepwork in being vaguely presentable as a crew in public. Ahhh to teach in a public school and have the kids only from 8-3, to have a crew of cooks and janitors, lunch breaks, after 3 pm to sit at my "desk" in the quiet and plan things out...all the kids the same grade level, summers off...
haha

But yeah its hard to do all this homemaking. if paper products help me then hallelujah.

5 comments:

Chris / Chuck said...

I have no problem talking about saving time by using disposables, but the link that you're trying to make about saving the environment is a little dubious.

Here are some references.
http://www.vegetariansolutions.org/paper.php
http://www.vestaldesign.com/blog/2005/09/being-green-is-hardwell-complicated.html

Housefairy said...

Thank you for the links!

I do feel bad about throwing things away, and am scrupulous about recycling. I guess the whole post was really about just HOW much difference the disposables have made to my days AND evenings.

I feel like I have "racked up" some "green points" over the years with various lifestyle choices---plus wouldnt want to go insane from housework and then burden the medical system with my pharmaceutical needs...I joke

Housefairy said...

Thank you for the links!

I do feel bad about throwing things away, and am scrupulous about recycling. I guess the whole post was really about just HOW much difference the disposables have made to my days AND evenings.

I feel like I have "racked up" some "green points" over the years with various lifestyle choices---plus wouldnt want to go insane from housework and then burden the medical system with my pharmaceutical needs...I joke

Sgt Howie said...

Use the disposable stuff without guilt. There are plenty of other ways you can make a difference.

Unknown said...

I completely plan on it. Time is also a precious finite resource/commodity, and I am learning to respect that more and more.