I don’t remember where, but I read somewhere that washing dishes by hand actually uses more water than washing dishes with a dishwasher—and, no, it wasn’t a dishwasher add. Being the dutiful natural resource exploitation fighter that I’m trying to become, I decided that I would start using my dishwasher instead of washing my dishes by hand. The only problem is that my dishwasher doesn’t actually clean many of the dishes most of the time; therefore, I end up washing a bunch of dishes again—by hand. I’m thinking that I’m not saving much water that way…so I’ve decided to go back to washing dishes by hand…and apologizing to God and the universe if I’m wasting water…especially since a whole bunch of water always ends up on my belly.
I decided, too, to scrape the bottom of my pots and pans with steel wool in hopes of helping them work better again. I don’t know what’s happened to them but they’re not cooking as well as they used to. Yet I feel bad getting new ones and producing the trash of the old ones. So I’m hoping I can restore the ones that I currently have. True. There are plenty of new pots and pans that have already been manufactured and will therefore one day be trash, but if I don’t buy them then I am not demanding them and if I don’t demand them—along with a bunch of other people—then maybe the need to over produce will stop. I have to do my part, right?
Sometimes I think that ignorance is easier than this!
Last week, I had the opportunity to rescue a bunch of “trash”—only, it really wasn’t trash at all. It was stuff that other people simply didn’t want and was therefore being thrown away. Here’s how some of it will be used by Barb the Art Teacher, Jacqui the Crafter, Mom the Musician, or a couple of others:
1) Scrap paper will be used for drawing/coloring designing.
2) Old give-a-away mirrors will be used to help the students with self portraits. I rescued an entire box of these.
3) A plastic cart will be used to roll paint supplies around the classroom.
4) An old display box will be made into a piece of art.
5) A perfectly good, wall-sized art picture frame will be used to house a piece 0f art from grandchildren to grandmother.
6) A wooden house frame will made into a piece of art.
7) Unused chopsticks will be made into art journals.
8) Animal bingo chips will be used for an art lesson on creativity. Barb gives her students two animals and has them combine them into one new animal.
9) A table easel will be used for teaching and holding big books.
10) Pocket folders will be used for art journals.
11) Hanging file folders will be used for organizational stuff.
12) A wall filing system will be used to sort mail.
13) Desk filing systems will be used to organize classroom folders and art.
14) Three ring binders will be used for a county-wide art teacher meeting, to hold choir music, and at an after school tutoring program.
15) Old banners will be used as drop cloths.
16) A portfolio carrier will be used to transport student art work to the county wide art show.
17) The Five Love Languages book and teaching pack be used as a church study.
18) Two teaching packs on financial freedom will be used as church studies.
19) A magnetic board and picture frames will be used to hang pictures.
20) An upright desk paper holder stands will either be used to hold papers at the computer or to hold books for the kids to see.
21) A CD holder will be used to store teaching CDs.
22) Rigid square tiles will be used as square templates.
23) Bendable square tiles will be used in a print project.
24) Wooden desk trays will be used as pet beds or some other crafty thing.
25) An entire box of “Making The Church Work” will be distributed to people who want them.
26) Magazine holders will be used to store, well, magazines.
And…there’s more…but I can’t think of what it is right now.
Yes, it took me quite a bit of time and effort to make sure stuff wasn’t wasted. As people threw things out, I picked them up. But it’s totally worth it to know that perfectly good resources are being put to good use…by friends and family members—by associations and churches—who actually needed the resources not to be thrown into the trash.
I spent a good portion of last week singing the chorus of, “Rescue The Perishing.” I might be wrong…but maybe rescuing reusable “trash” really is part of rescuing the perishing…and maybe my simple actions of being mindful of the water that I use in washing dishes and thinking twice before throwing away my pots and pans really is part of redeeming this world.
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