Monday, January 17, 2011
Finding a sustainability shop in PDX and some exciting products!
I read Ashley's post on Design Sponge on Friday about wooden clothes drying racks, smacked my forehead with my hand, and said, "Now why didn't I think of that!" It is pricy to do laundry at our apartment facility, plus we don't always like our neighbours. People are supposed to lock the laundry room door behind them, yet few people do. I want less of a chance for my clothes to be stolen, to save some money, and to save some energy! I keep reading that after the refrigerator, using the dryer often takes up the most amount of energy a household uses. So I had a mission to find a drying rack. (I am really thankful that Jonathan is so open-minded to trying new things.)
I began researching them, first looking on Craigslist and not finding anything and then trying to see how much they were online. Knowing our laundry habits, I knew that I was going to have to get a rack that would fit multiple loads of laundry. Not using the dryer isn't going to make us do laundry any sooner than usual, that was for sure. (In my searches I did find this tutorial on making your own clothes drying rack and the author totally won points with me because of the part about inviting the cat to investigate. Hee!)
I ended up finding The One Stop Sustainability Shop on 14th and Alberta, about fifteen minutes from our apartment. I called the shop to ask about the prices of the drying racks and the girl I talked to was super nice! We ended up chatting for almost ten minutes. Apparently the shop is owned and operated by Jessica (the girl whose name I later found out) and her mom, Barbara.
Jonathan and I headed to the shop on Saturday afternoon and were pretty pleased by what we found, which was a lot of awesome stuff. Jessica was really helpful in telling us all about the products and answering any questions we had. It turns out the drying racks are made in Eugene from reclaimed wood, which is pretty cool. They had a ton of other stuff that was really neat and we ended up getting more than we had came for, which worked out because it was stuff we needed to replace anyway.
(If we are FB friends you may have already seen these, so humor me. Sorry!)
I have to admit, when I opened this up I was doubting I could fit two loads of laundry on it. Boy, was I wrong!
I was able to fit 2.5 loads of laundry on this bad boy! The only items that didn't fit were sheets, which we were able to dry on chairs.
The pot scrubber is by Full Circle and is made from bamboo and the scrubby part is made from biodegradable plant "plastics" and can be thrown into a compost pile and changed out when it's past being used! Also bought biodegradable plant cellulose sponges from Twist and a bamboo pot scraper by Bambu.
Three big-sized glass containers by Frigoverre to store food in that won't leach chemicals into our food. Also, glass is infinitely recyclable, which plastic can only be recycled about three times, usually. Unfortunately, made in Italy but this is what TOSSS could get. Also, I have priced out other glass containers and they are pricey! We got three for $24, which is pretty good, considering I just saw one big one at Fred Meyers for $15. We're trying! We're also not made of money, so baby steps!
On Sunday I went to Camellia and picked up...
- Two 100% Pure lip glazes, which are made from yummy ingredients and have nothing gross in them (I bought cherry on the right, which is a great bright, sassy red, and fruit punch on the left, which is a super fun pink that's bright but not hot pink bright - which I will own eventually!)
- Powder from Alima, which is made here in Portland (IN PORTLAND YOU CAN PUT A BIRD ON SOMETHING AND CALL IT ART!)
- Face mask powder. Just have to mix water (or milk, yogurt, honey, whatever) with it and it's a mask! SUPER cheap because you're not paying for the liquid part. These are the only masks I buy. I usually take my own container in and fill it up, but I forgot today.
We have been working on becoming more eco-friendly and trying to make more sustainable choices. Obviously, no one is perfect and it is hard to give up certain things. Also, trying to make a better choice can definitely cost some money. I'm really excited with the products we got this weekend. I feel really good about them!
I'd love to hear about any eco-friendly products or things you do!
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i WANT that drying rack! mine is way too small. that one is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteIt is really awesome!! I bet you could find one that was just as big. I'm really impressed by it!
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