Some of my favorite home upgrades come from the conscious habit of making use of what is no longer perfect and perfecting reused objects.
Upgrade, Downgrade
Pesach Already!?!? (AKA Why Is My Freezer So Full?)
With grocery prices increasing the way they have been, not wasting food is good for the planet and your pocketbook. In the lead-up to Passover, it takes special effort.
Thankfulness and Tu B’Shvat
The longer I live a low-waste life, I find that my gratitude becomes deeper and more multifaceted.
Miraculous Oil
As of this early Tuesday morning, we’ve lit the menorah (or chanukiyah if you want to be picky) for two nights. In addition to olive oil for lighting, we’ve got plenty of canola oil for frying donuts and latkes, and I’ve been using yet another miraculous oil of late. But to tell you about it,... Continue Reading →
Planning for Pesach Already?
Pesach is one of the biggest projects we undertake as frum families. One of the most powerful planning tools in my toolkit—one I use for managing projects both at work and at home—is the after-action report. While any project or endeavor I will undertake again in the future is fresh in my mind, I make notes about what worked, what didn’t work, and what could have worked better with a little bit of tweaking. This way, I can reduce, reuse, and refuse my way to a more sustainable, less stressful holiday.
Making Do
Pesach reminds me that limiting my choices and not having exactly what I want doesn’t have to mean feeling deprived.
Use It Up: The Purim Edition
My ideal would be to send mishloach manos in packaging that is both reused and reusable, but that’s not as easy as it sounds.
What About That Milk?
There’s a funny story that involves HaShem asking an angel about some human behavior He’s observed. “What are they doing down there?” He asks. “They’re making milk from nuts,” the angel replies. “But I gave them animals to get milk from: cows, goats, sheep, even buffalo.” “They don’t like that milk,” the animal explains. When... Continue Reading →
Eat-It-Up Muffins
I’m sitting down to write this blog post with a cup of chai at one elbow and a muffin at the other. I’ve been on a muffin kick as of late, spurred by the discovery that we had not one, not two, but three bags of dried apricots in our pantry.
Good to the Last Drop
One thing that often happens when people get interested in lowering their environmental impact is that they will run into a lot of bloggers, Instagrammers, and ads telling them about products they have to have for their low-waste efforts.
The Bal Tashchit Balabusta 