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A little bit of anything and everything that's part of
creating, enjoying, and living a simpler life!
creating, enjoying, and living a simpler life!
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When in doubt, don't just throw it out!  Have you ever thrown out any of the items in the picture above? Well, all of those items are either recyclable or residential hazardous waste. Yes, hazardous waste! Bottom line: none of them should be going in the regular garbage or into a landfill. Especially the hazardous waste which can leach out of the landfill and into the groundwater. I certainly don't want any of them in my drinking water! In my last post Recycling Part I - At Home Basics we discussed the basics of recycling aluminum and tin cans, plastics #1 and #2, glass jars and bottles, paper, and corrugated cardboard. Today we will talk about the other garbage, the oddball stuff that also includes hazardous waste. Getting Rid of Garbage Step by Step:
 Hazardous Waste Products Household hazardous waste (HHW) is any household product that contains corrosive, toxic, ignitable, or reactive ingredients. These are items that should NEVER be put in the regular garbage. Town waste facilities provide a means for disposing of most hazardous waste, so you should be able to take all of these there. However there are few things that may be more difficult to recycle and for those I provide some alternatives.
*As stated earlier, local waste facilities usually manage the collection of the hazardous products mentioned above (as well as others). My facility requires proof of residency and that the products are placed in sealed plastic bags. All products must also be in the original labeled container. Whatever is necessary to properly dispose of the hazardous waste is worth it. These items should NEVER be in a landfill that could leach into the groundwater (and ALL landfills will eventually leach).  This is the label on my bin. Miscellaneous Recyclables These are items that usually must be recycled in a special way. I simply keep a bin - see the label I use above - in my house and just put these items into it as I go. When I know I am going to be at or near one of the locations I take the items with me to drop off! Simple! Best Buy Recycling Kiosks: The kiosks are right in the front of the store. I love this because it's a one-stop-drop! Simple!
NOTE: If it the item is in working order, wait for Recycling Part III - Selling & Donating!  E-Waste Recycling through Best Buy Recycling: Just click on the link, choose your state, and then choose the item you want to recycle. Most items are free to recycle, but there are some exceptions so it is best to check before you go. It's that easy! Here is a partial list of items they will take (they literally take hundreds of items):
They DO NOT take large or small kitchen appliances. Don't Want to Bring Your E-Waste to Best Buy? Then check out the EPA's Donation/Recycle E-Waste to find other locations near you! NOTE: If any products are in working order, wait for Recycling Part III - Selling or Donating!
Are You Part of An Organization? Terracycle collects large amounts of a particular type of waste and gives proceeds to a cause of your choice – example: all Garnier Fructis Beauty Products or squeezable Juice containers. You just arrange to collect it, then mail it to them. Just go the site, select your waste, collect, and send. Simple! Sources: http://www2.epa.gov/recycle http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8817.html http://www.earth911.com http://www.wm.com/enterprise/municipalities/residential-solutions/household-hazardous-waste.jsp Coming Soon: Recycling Part III - Selling and Donating! Please like us on Facebook and sign up for our mailing list!
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Free 4 x 6 recipe template AND two fresh vegetable recipes below!  Cooking is not my favorite thing to do. I don't mind it, but it certainly wouldn't be my first choice of things to do with my free time. Actually it wouldn't even be my second, third, or fourth either! However, it is a necessary 'evil' that must be accomplished for the sake of my family, and well, keeping my own body going. We have to eat to survive, right? I do like to eat, but thats a different subject for another time. Suffice it to say that for now I at least try to keep what I cook as simple and as healthy as possible. My recipe book, however, is anything but simple so I recently decided to redo it. I have had it for about 20 years now and it's a complete disaster. I just kept throwing new recipes into it haphazardly over time to the point where it's completely disorganized and I don't even know what's in there anymore. Of course my favorite recipes don't require 'looking up' but I have been thinking for a while now about making sure they are all written down and organized so that I can share them with my daughter. So that's basically what my recipe page is really about: organizing my recipe book, creating one for my daughter, and of course sharing it all with you in the hopes that you will want to organize your recipe book too!
First Things First: A New Recipe Book See that dilapidated old recipe book above? Well, I asked for a new one for my birthday. I did a lot of research on the kind of recipe book I wanted. It needed to be something that I could organize the way I wanted and not the way the company that made the book forced me to. I needed to be able to take the pages out, but also be able to add new ones at will and move them all around as needed. I also wanted to be able to make my own recipe cards on the computer (typed of course) and be able to print them and cut them out myself. I really had a lot of requirements....picky? Yeah, definitely. But I only plan on doing this ONCE! However, I also read online that making a recipe book for someone is a great gift as well so I wanted to be able to save and easily print out all my recipe cards for someone if I decide to make it as a gift. At the top of this post is a picture of the new recipe book I picked out. It meets and exceeds all my expectations! It is a CR Gibson and is available on Amazon. Additional pages can also be purchased (I asked for and got those too!). I specifically like it because of the following:
Whether you buy a new recipe book or not, I hope you join me on this journey to getting it organized and/or starting over from scratch! Recipe Card Template There was absolutely no way I was handwriting all of my recipes (Ugh... I couldn't even imagine doing that!). Writing them by hand would also defeat the entire purpose of being able to easily duplicate the cards to make a 'gift' recipe book. So I went online but there were so many recipe card templates to choose from that I didn't even know where to start! I finally just decided to make my own because I wanted the card to be simple, one sided, and not use a lot of ink when I printed it out. This makes it very easy for me to keep a file of all the recipes I type up so that if I want to make the gift recipe book I talked about earlier I can just open the file and print up the cards that are all ready to go! Here is an example of the card:
Typing & Printing the Recipe Cards To use the template, download the MS Word Document and open it. On the card, right click on the black text next to 'Recipe For' and delete or highlight "Type Name Here." Then simply type in the title of your recipe. Do the same for the ingredients and the directions. If you are good with MS Word you can insert a picture as well! After typing the recipes in, simply print the cards. I use white card stock paper because it is heavier like an index card. Then I simply cut out the card on the dotted line (which may be very faint) and slip it into a sleeve in the book!
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Hi there! I'm Kathie, the author behind Creating A Simpler Life blog. I'm excited to share our longterm projects (and planning) toward building our future retirement homestead in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. In the meantime I will be sharing all the other little things we do that are part of creating our simpler life!
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