Secret Santa

Last night Matt and I snuck out of the house. We gently closed the door behind us, and left our two sleeping children and sleeping kitten, and crept out into the street. 

We were heading out with our arms full. Of garbage. For we were off on a merry adventure, to spread Christmas cheer to all of our neighbours. 

We really, really were. We really, really did.

For you see, dear reader, we forgot to put our garbage bins out before Christmas. And then we came back to some funky garbage that was brewing good and proper in the heat, and an almost overflowing recycling bin. 

We lived for a fortnight. Our dustbins they runneth over. I had a hissyfit. Matt ignored me. 

And last night, it finally came around to yellow bin night, and we snuck out. I told Matt we were just like Santa, giving all the neighbours recycling bins some presents so that they were nice and full. 

I don't think he was buying it - I think he was more pre-occupied with someone walking out and catching the two of us, in our PJs, in the middle of the street gifting garbage. 

Thankfully at 11pm most of our neighbours are fast asleep, and we got to declutter good and proper. 

I can't wait 'til I receive all our neighbours thank you letters. 

Big Fat, Old TVs. All About Recycling Stuff.

Matt and I have been tidying up around our house. It's been happening slowly, and once we open up a space, it feels good. Then it gets re-populated with the kid's toys that sprawl into empty spaces, and, well it has to start all over again.

In the last week we've cleansed our house of the portacot, some clothes that don't fit, some old books - and best of all - the big fat old tv. While everything else went to charity, no one wants a big fat old tv. And I didn't want to toss it out on the side of the road, hoping and praying someone else would either:

a) pick it up thinking it was the score of the century

or 

b) let some teenagers smash the TV and then let it sit on our footpath for the next few months.

After some research I discovered that those big fat old tvs are not only a footpath eyesore, not only outdated, and not only big and fat, but they carry 2kgs of lead and other heavy metals. If you toss them in landfill, not only does it overstretch limited capacity, but the toxic contents can leach into the ground. 

So I discovered that for a fee of $50 we could recycle our e-waste with a better conscience - as well as removing the space hog from our living room floor. We went to Planet Green Recycling (in Artarmon), but I've since discovered other places that do it. The City of Sydney host e-waste drop off days every three months, and this includes collection of computers, printers, electronic games, CDs, DVDs, cameras and phones (although you can donate your old mobile handsets to YouCan to help raise money for teen and young adult specific cancer wards). 

I hate the idea of tossing things into landfill, which I pretty well documented when I went through "the bin" reclaiming someone else's 'stuff' over the course of a couple of months, I'm pretty chuffed we found somewhere to recycle our big fat old tv. 

This Is My Way of Recycling...

I try really hard to recycle. I really do.

I send my old magazines to the doctor's office - or at least I have good intentions to, but sometimes they sit in my boot for a few extra months.. Well that would be nothing on the two or three year old mags currently sitting there.

We compost our leftovers and food scraps.

We recycle.

I'm trying to reduce what we throw in the bin.

I re-use containers. I sometimes use newspaper to wrap garbage in (but mainly the newspaper is sent for recycling).

I leave my green supermarket bags in the car for any shopping expeditions that spring up.

And my favourite motto:

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

That's become our households mantra actually. And it saves lots of water!

Oh - and I thrift like a maniac - and vice versa.