How to Go Green, One Sheet at a Time

HOW TO GO GREEN, ONE SHEET AT A TIME

Going Green One Sheet at a Time

Going Green One Sheet at a Time

Authored By: Cinthia Singleton
Photo Credit: Carley Page Interiors
Featuring: Jennifer Harrison

According to The Energy Co-op, the average American uses approximately 45 pounds of them per year. Yes, it’s true, and even in an age when everyone says they want to live a more Earth-conscious, ‘green’ life. How ‘bout we start by thinking about using fewer paper towels, people

Check out this ‘green,’ albeit old-fashioned alternative to paper towels: cloth.  

1| Stop setting a roll of paper towels on the dinner table. Instead use vintage napkins that you keep in a basket on the table. Personalize the collection by seeking design styles that speak to you. Chicken images. Shabby chic embroidery. Days of the week. 60s mod. When the supper dishes get picked up, the napkins go into a soak bucket then get run in the next wash. [Soak bucket / sōk buck•et / noun / a bucket filled with sudsy detergent, bleach and water. Otherwise known as Ask Your Grandmother.]

2| Dishtowels. Now here’s where older can be better. Cotton or linen, vintage dishtowels are fabulously absorbent and soft, and generally lint-free. Calendar, travel themes, novelty prints… Quite a many are adorable too.

3| Instead of cleaning up spills and messes with several winds of paper towel, use a vintage towel. Terrycloth is super absorbent and comes in various sizes. Can’t say that about a paper towel. Keep ‘em on hand for when pups track in mud or kids drop juice boxes. Tip? Don’t just use some old towels but fun, colorful ones you pick up at estate sales. Just because they’re for “mop wiping” doesn’t mean they can’t be a cheery hot pink or groovy damask pattern.

4| As the cloth items get thin and worn they can then be used for other household projects (i.e. painting or washing the car) instead of the paper towels.

But aren’t vintage linens hard to clean? Nope. Got a bucket or laundry sink, water, Oxy and/or Shout, and a washer/drier handy, it’s EASY. Treat any stains and toss items in the soak bucket for the next wash load.  For specific types of stains there are many ‘how to’ tutorials on the interwebs. 

Doesn’t this create extra laundry and, in the process, more gas, electricity, and water consumed? Not really once the habits are in place. It will create conscious thought about one’s paper towel habit and, in the process, some new and ‘greener’ ones.  

How hygienic are vintage linens, really? Quite. Hot water wash cycle and they’re sanitized, clean and ready to be used again.  

What about bacon? Ah, yes, and what about BACON? Whether swine or vegan rice bacon, there’s gonna be grease, and you know what? There’s no better way to sop up and soak grease than with a good old-fashioned paper towel. Use paper towels as needed, of course. Just as needed.

How to start this ‘new’ vintage linens consciousness…

1 :: Bring out Aunt May’s linen napkins or the tea towels your mother inherited from her mother. They were meant to be used and loved.  Pick up pretty linens at yard or estate sales, eBay or Etsy.  Remember that vintage doesn’t have to be dowdy.  Look at vintage Vera table linens, for example - as fresh today as they were in the 1960s.  

2 :: Keep linens in handy, easy to reach places.  Basket of napkins on the table.  Mop towels in a drawer by the back door or hand towels in the glove box.  

3 :: Stop keeping the paper towel roll in the most convenient places, i.e. on top of the counter near the sink. Force the household into new habits, drawers or glove box.

In time - one square at a time - you’re keeping some of that 45 pounds of paper towel from hitting the landfills.

Use it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do, or do without.
 

ABOUT ANGEL

Angel Quintana

Angel Quintana is the founder of Holistic Fashionista, an alchemical herbalist and mystery school teacher based in Saint Petersburg, Florida. She's incredibly passionate about the alchemical process known as The Great Work and helping others evolve "the archetypes" found in their inner world, so they can confidently answer the questions: WHO AM I and WHY AM I HERE. Learn more about Angel's work at www.theoccultchateau.com


DISCLAIMER

The information on this website is presented for educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for the diagnosis, treatment, or advice of a qualified, licensed medical professional. The facts presented are offered as information only, not medical advice, and in no way should anyone infer that we are practicing medicine. Seek the advice of a medical professional for proper application of this material to any specific situation.

How to Manage Your Facebook Feed

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR FACEBOOK FEED

How to Manage Your Facebook Feed

How to Manage Your Facebook Feed

By: Cinthia Singleton
Photo Credit: Anum Tariq

Everyone, it seems, is on Facebook now. Neighbors. Childhood friends. Relatives we adore and the ones we don’t so much. Your favorite nephew. Long lost loves and the exes who live in Texas. Co-workers. Facebook has become the town watering hole and town crier.

People just want to connect and keep in touch, and share. But do we need to share everything in order to keep in touch and maintain relationships?

Photos of babies, puppies and kitties, wedding, meals, renovations, new cars, vacations.

Passionate opinions on and rants about politics, religion, new tv shows, re-runs, how people dress in Walmart. Cute memes and photos of animal babies so we don’t have to address the touchy subjects in mixed company.

So much ‘information’ all at once, some pertinent and some just TMI (if not downright unnecessary), but certainly a flood of it that seems uncontrollable. Or is it?

Not if you manage your feed. Here’s how, in a few simple steps from the moment you friend someone:

1) In your Friends section, go to Recently Added and put them into a Category. Facebook gives you two to start, Friends and Acquaintances, but you can create additional ones as you wish, i.e. Family, Work, High School, Choir, Summer Camp, Aerobics Class, Poker Buddies, Reunion Committee and so forth. This way when you are in the mood to catch up with those of a particular community or interest base, you can just click and then skim through its own feed.

2) Go to your new friend’s actual page and decide whether to Follow them or not. It’s not a forever or permanent decision; you can opt in and out depending on whether you like what you see in your feed. If you decide to un-Follow them altogether, you can use Step 1) to review their posts on a ‘need to know’ basis… or when you think of that person and are just plain curious.

Same goes for groups you join but it’s under a different name - Notifications.  Here you can change what you see in your feed from All Posts to Off completely.

3) If Facebook friends post things that bring you down, irritate or go against your core, unfollow them. Of course if it gets really bad you can un-friend them and if they truly offend, there is the big Block option, but try unfollowing them first; many are surprised how discreet and diplomatic an option this can be. A nice tool in the box during a political season.

4) You adore Great Aunt Tilly and her day to day adventures as well as goofing with her funny, blue-haired friends in Facebooklandia.  But all day? Don’t these people have things to do? lol You could unfollow her but then you’d miss out on the laughs. Did you know that there’s the option to turn off the notifications on posts in which you participated? There is!

These tips - simple and easy - are a great way to re-gain control over something that seems both frenetic and not going away anytime soon. Facebook. It has become a great way to keep in touch, exchange ideas and share common goals; it’s a much better one with a little organization to the feed and its flow. 

Are we under their control or are they under our control, or what? Push the button.

ABOUT ANGEL

Angel Quintana

Angel Quintana is the founder of Holistic Fashionista, an alchemical herbalist and mystery school teacher based in Saint Petersburg, Florida. She's incredibly passionate about the alchemical process known as The Great Work and helping others evolve "the archetypes" found in their inner world, so they can confidently answer the questions: WHO AM I and WHY AM I HERE. Learn more about Angel's work at www.theoccultchateau.com


DISCLAIMER

The information on this website is presented for educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for the diagnosis, treatment, or advice of a qualified, licensed medical professional. The facts presented are offered as information only, not medical advice, and in no way should anyone infer that we are practicing medicine. Seek the advice of a medical professional for proper application of this material to any specific situation.