The Dump & Walmart
This weekend we are working on a rental house that we own. Our previous tenants broke their lease and hastily left leaving us with a lot of very old, and dirty, furniture that needed to be hauled away to the dump. They also left us with a dirty house that needed a good scrubbing before our new tenants can move in.
The blinds in the living room were especially filthy. I hate cleaning blinds. It is tedious work, especially when the dust is greasy dust. It involves painstakingly cleaning each section with a wet and soapy sponge, then rinsing. I suggested to my husband that we could just throw them in the dump and get new ones at Walmart. We decided to price new blinds before removing the old ones, but first, we had to take a load of nasty furniture to the dump. (I am a prude, but when I say nasty I mean water slogged, mildewed furniture.)
Wearing gloves, we loaded up our trusty pick-up truck and headed out to the Transfer Station. This was my first visit to the local dump. Usually it is a task my husband does solo, but this time he needed my help moving the heavy pieces. When we arrived there was a long line of trucks waiting their turn to go on the scale, then drive out to the "Big Shed". The big shed is just that, a covered shed. You back your truck in, then simply push your trash out the back and into a big pile. Every so often a bulldozer pushes all the trash into a pit at the very back of the big shed, into a gigantic dumpster that is positioned below the shed. Once that dumpster is full, then another takes its place.
We had to take three trips to the dump that day. Each time we went to the dump there was a new pile that needed to be pushed into the waiting dumpster. Piles of old couches, canning jars, bags of trash, cardboard, rolls of old carpeting, old wood. Some of this stuff could have gone to the recycling bin, but for some reason, perhaps ignorance or laziness, didn't.
Next, we drove to Walmart. The town where we own the rental houses does not have many options for paint, cleaning supplies, or blinds to replace those mysteriously missing since the last time that we fixed up this particular house. So, to Walmart we drove. The masses were there too, loaded up shopping carts with more stuff. We priced out blinds. They were $2.97 each. $2.97!!!! But, we decided not to buy them.
Today, we are going back to the rental house. I'll be there all day with my bucket and soapy sponge, washing each section of the blinds. I am going to keep those suckers out of the landfill until they fall off the ceiling. Then, when we have to replace them, I will install curtains instead. Curtains made out of 100% cotton that can be composted or re-purposed into something new.
p.s. The authors of two books "spoke" to me as I was at the dump and Walmart: Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff, and Bea Johnson, author of The Zero Waste Home.
The blinds in the living room were especially filthy. I hate cleaning blinds. It is tedious work, especially when the dust is greasy dust. It involves painstakingly cleaning each section with a wet and soapy sponge, then rinsing. I suggested to my husband that we could just throw them in the dump and get new ones at Walmart. We decided to price new blinds before removing the old ones, but first, we had to take a load of nasty furniture to the dump. (I am a prude, but when I say nasty I mean water slogged, mildewed furniture.)
Wearing gloves, we loaded up our trusty pick-up truck and headed out to the Transfer Station. This was my first visit to the local dump. Usually it is a task my husband does solo, but this time he needed my help moving the heavy pieces. When we arrived there was a long line of trucks waiting their turn to go on the scale, then drive out to the "Big Shed". The big shed is just that, a covered shed. You back your truck in, then simply push your trash out the back and into a big pile. Every so often a bulldozer pushes all the trash into a pit at the very back of the big shed, into a gigantic dumpster that is positioned below the shed. Once that dumpster is full, then another takes its place.
We had to take three trips to the dump that day. Each time we went to the dump there was a new pile that needed to be pushed into the waiting dumpster. Piles of old couches, canning jars, bags of trash, cardboard, rolls of old carpeting, old wood. Some of this stuff could have gone to the recycling bin, but for some reason, perhaps ignorance or laziness, didn't.
Next, we drove to Walmart. The town where we own the rental houses does not have many options for paint, cleaning supplies, or blinds to replace those mysteriously missing since the last time that we fixed up this particular house. So, to Walmart we drove. The masses were there too, loaded up shopping carts with more stuff. We priced out blinds. They were $2.97 each. $2.97!!!! But, we decided not to buy them.
Today, we are going back to the rental house. I'll be there all day with my bucket and soapy sponge, washing each section of the blinds. I am going to keep those suckers out of the landfill until they fall off the ceiling. Then, when we have to replace them, I will install curtains instead. Curtains made out of 100% cotton that can be composted or re-purposed into something new.
p.s. The authors of two books "spoke" to me as I was at the dump and Walmart: Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff, and Bea Johnson, author of The Zero Waste Home.
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