Image Credit: Sparklingdawg from Wikipedia

There are lots of options for shopping secondhand and donating used items. whether it's furniture, clothing, toys, or home decor. If you're interested in what Mid-Missouri has to offer, here is a list of links and information about secondhand retail stores and donation centers in Columbia and Missouri as a whole. This is not a comprehensive list, but it includes a variety of stores and services located all around Columbia. If you're interested in donation centers elsewhere in Missouri, visit The Stuff Shop, a site that connects donors to organizations accepting donations all across the country.

Secondhand Stores and Donation Centers in Columbia MO:

• Plato's Closet: used clothing, shoes, bags, and jewelry
• New Beginning Consignment: used clothing and accessories
• The Wardrobe: used bedding, clothing, and small household items
• Maude Vintage: used vintage clothing and accessories
• Upscale Resale: used clothing, furniture, decor, accessories, and more
• Goodwill and The Salvation Army: used clothing, appliances, dishware, furniture, electronics, and more
• Frugal Finds: used clothing, furniture, and many other household items
• Como Cares: children's secondhand clothing and toy store 
• Giggles Thrift Shop: used furniture, home decor, and more
• The Love Seat: ministry and resale store, used furniture, clothing, linens, appliances, and more
• The Just Between Friends Sale: This is an interesting, cooperative consignment sale organized by local parents in Mid-Missouri. You can apply to be a seller, and make money off of your used items, or get huge discounts buying from their scheduled sales events. Check out their website for more info!
• Yellow Dog Bookshop: used books, right downtown on 9th street 
• Village Books: a mix of used and new books, on Bernadette Drive. They offer a trading system where you trade in used books for in-store credit and discounts.
• Donation Town: Donate your used stuff without ever leaving the house! This website contains a directory of charities that will pick up donations from your home.
• The Stuff Shop: This site has a list of charitable and service organizations in Missouri that accept donations, along with a list of items they need. It also includes information on specialty recycling centers for items like electronics.

*This list was compiled using the most recently available information online, but some information may be out-of-date. Although I attempted to verify that all the stores listed are still in business, I could not find enough information on some to know for sure. Feel free to contact us on Facebook to let us know about any awesome secondhand stores we missed, or about any stores on this list that have gone out of business and we will update the list with the most recent information.

How to Take Back Control of Your Packaging Waste

Image Credits (alterations made): Alex Marshall, Mixed Municipal Waste (top), Kathleen Franklin, Tupperware (bottom left), Tammy Strobel, Mason Jars (bottom right)

Packaging is everywhere. It makes up about 30% of the trash American households send to landfills each year. When you go into most grocery stores, packaging is the first thing you see. Brightly-colored boxes with colorful pictures of the food inside, plastic containers sealing in pre-cut fruits and veggies, and individually-wrapped snacks and candies line aisle after aisle. Sometimes, just to open a package of cookies, you have to tear through a sheet of plastic shrink-wrap, then a cardboard box, then another plastic wrapper, just to find the cookies held in a row by yet another piece of plastic. There has to be a better way to do this, right?

Luckily, there is. Although excessive packaging is everywhere, there are plenty of ways to use less of it, even if you can't avoid it completely. Everyone has the opportunity to use non-disposable containers and reusable shopping bags, to buy products that use less packaging, or even forego pre-packaged products for homemade versions instead. Whether you just want to cut down on your waste a little or avoid disposable packaging at all costs, there are simple things you can do every day to make a difference.

Here are some ideas to help you reduce the amount of packaging you consume throughout your daily life. Most of these tips are simple and many of them can save you money, too. There's something that everyone can try, and every little bit makes a difference. Sustainable habits start with small steps and little victories, and it's never too late to start!

How to Reduce Your Packaging Waste

 

Buy in Bulk 

If you use a lot of something, it makes sense to buy the biggest container of it that you can. Not only is that way almost always cheaper, but it means using less packaging, too. For example, a family-sized bag of chips or crackers has less packaging (and often more product!) than a box of a dozen individually-wrapped snack packs.Remember, anything you buy in bulk you can transfer to reusable containers at home. If you keep a variety of small tupperware containers in your kitchen you can fill them up with individual portions for convenient, on-the-go snacks.

• Many stores have bulk aisles with a myriad of products people commonly use a lot of, including rice, pasta, beans, cereal, nuts, grains, legumes, granola, and more.
• Pro Tip: some stores allow you to bring in your own reusable bags, jars, or plastic containers to fill from the bulk bins. That way you don't even have to waste the disposable plastic bags provided in the store. (The store will need to weigh your empty containers before you fill them to subtract from the total weight.)
• You can buy products like dog food, toilet paper, napkins, and other paper products in bulk bags or bundles. You can always transfer them to smaller non-disposable containers at home if needed.
• For cleaning products like soap, Windex, dish & laundry detergent, and other cleaning products, you can reduce waste by reusing the individual spray bottles and dispensers. Buy refill-sized bulk container to refill the bottles instead of throwing them away every time they're emptied.
• Shop at farmers' markets where you can buy fresh foods with minimal packaging. You can bring your own reusable produce bags, containers, and shopping bags to eliminate the need for disposable bags and boxes to carry your food home. Often you can buy items in bulk at farmers markets that aren't available in bulk at the grocery store, and you have the added bonus of eating local food that hasn't been transported across the country using fossil fuels.
• Above all, avoid single-use and individually-packaged items, including water bottles. Beware of common individually-packaged products like juice boxes, snack packs, boxes of chicken stock and individually-wrapped boullion cubes, individual yogurt containers, and more. It pays off to buy the larger versions and re-pack them into reusable containers yourself.

Cook From Scratch

It takes much more packaging to store processed foods than it takes to store the ingredients they're made from. You can make a batch of cookies from bulk ingredients like sugar, flour, and stored at home in reusable containers, but a package of cookies from the store usually comes in multiple layers of plastic and a cardboard box to boot. There are many foods people habitually buy pre-made from stores that are surprisingly easy to make at home with little or no waste. Here are some ideas:

• Breads: Making your own biscuits, baguettes, and other breads is both fun and rewarding, and lets you avoid the double-plastic-wrapped loaves on store shelves. Pita bread and tortillas are also simple to make from scratch, and they are perfect for making in large batches to freeze for later use.
• Pasta sauce and soups: Why keep buying jars of pasta sauce over and over when you can use your own glass containers to store fresh, homemade batches? You can use fresh tomatoes and spices to make huge batches of sauce, then can them and store them away. When you go to cook you'll have delicious, homemade sauce ready to go.
• Beans and Rice: More and more people seem to be switching to instant microwave rice and canned beans without realizing how effortless, and how much cheaper, they are to make at home.
• How to make rice at home: LINK
• How to cook dry beans at home: LINK
• Tap water! This is by far the most effortless home-sourced ingredient. If you need cold water to-go, you can always fill your own reusable water bottles and keep them in the fridge until you need them. If it's taste you're after, home water filters are inexpensive and easy to use, and can give you the taste of bottled water by filtering out minerals and other substances.

Reuse packaging

One way to reduce the environmental impact of packaging is to re-purpose it rather than throw it away. Lots of foods, especially refrigerated foods and sauces like dressings and mustard often come in glass or plastic containers that could be re-used instead of sending them immediately to a landfill.

•  If you don't bring a reusable bag to the grocery store, have your items bagged in paper and reuse the bags as “recycling bins” for your paper products.
• Select items with packaging you can reuse around your home. Avoid flimsy plastics that won't last and aerosol bottles, which cannot be reused like regular spray bottles.
• Reuse food containers as tupperware for leftovers or homemade foods and sauces. Try to re-purpose glass jars from foods like pasta sauce and jelly, and plastic containers from things like yogurt and sour cream. (Hint: recycled food containers are a great way to send leftovers home with dinner guests without worrying about losing a piece of your matching tupperware set!)
• Get creative! You could reuse plastic yogurt cups to organize crayons and craft supplies or save tall jars and bottles to use as flower vases. You can even reuse cardboard egg cartons to sprout seeds for your garden!

Use Reusable Containers for Storage at Home

Reducing or eliminating your use of disposable packaging, like plastic bags and paper products, is probably the easiest way to reduce your packaging waste. Making the switch to only using reusable containers like reusable plastic containers, glass jars, etc. is surprisingly easy to do, yet many people still over-rely on plastic and paper products, packing their lunches and leftovers in plastic baggies and saran wrap rather than tupperware.

You can make your kitchen much more earth-friendly by substituting reusable tupperware for plastic baggies and plastic wrap, avoiding disposable pan liners and aluminum foil (which requires enormous amounts of energy to mine and produce), and using reusable cloths and kitchenware instead of paper towels and disposable plates.

Here are some ideas for reusable containers and bags:

• Produce bags: You can make DIY produce bags from mesh, cheesecloth, burlap, and other easy to find materials. Here's a tutorial that teaches you how to sew your own DIY produce bags from cotton fabric. Or, for something even simpler, check out this tutorial to learn how to re-purpose old t-shirts into breathable produce or grocery bags!
• Reusable shopping bags (e.g. canvas, burlap, etc.): You can buy cheap, reusable canvas bags online or at most grocery stores. Or, better yet, make your own for free from scrap materials. Here's an article with links to dozens of DIY tutorials for making shopping bags that range from minimal to fashionable.
• Mason jars and other glass containers
• Miscellaneous containers like wooden boxes (e.g. for a potato bin), cookie & coffee tins, wicker baskets, etc.
• Non-disposable plastic tupperware and other seal-able plastic storage containers (e.g. cereal savers)
• Remember to bring reusable containers with you to:
•  Bagging produce while shopping
• To fill with bulk bin items at the store
• To bag your groceries in the check-out aisle
• You could even bring your own tupperware to restaurants to bring home leftovers (This one seems a little unusual, but if the restaurant doesn't mind, why not? Takeout containers are usually flimsy and not even airtight anyway. You'll reduce your waste and have fresher leftovers by using your own disposable containers.)
 

More and more people are recognizing the importance of packaging waste, and we have made progress as more people recycle and manufacturers switch to lightweight packaging materials. To keep up this trend, it's important to pay attention to the products you buy and find creative ways to reduce and reuse product packaging. Luckily, you can take back control over your packaging waste by making simple changes to how you shop and stock your cabinets. There's something everyone can do to keep disposable packaging out of our landfills and ecosystems.

Late April Veggie Planting Guide

The Sustainable Home's Wishlist: Money Saving Upgrades

Are you looking to upgrade old, inefficient appliances or invest in something new for your home? Why not put your money towards something that will improve the quality and efficiency of your house? No matter what your budget, there are plenty of smart, sustainable improvements you can make to your home.

Here we have a list of ideas for high-reward home upgrades that will reduce your environmental footprint and even pay themselves off over time.

Insulate & Weatherize

One of the easiest ways to save money, energy, and improve your quality of living is to thoroughly seal off your home from the outside elements. So what if weatherstripping and double-pane windows aren't glamorous purchases? You could have a comfy, draft-free home and save hundreds of dollars over time simply by insulating your doors and windows. Here are some ideas for making that happen: 

Check out these useful links on weatherizing your home:

• Guide to energy-efficient windows
• Energy.gov home insulation guide
• Another home insulation guide
• How to install weatherstripping
• Tips for weatherizing to keep home cool during the summer

Rain Barrels

Did you know that thousands of gallons of water flow off of your rooftop every year? Why allow it to go to waste when you can easily collect this valuable resource with a rainwater collecting barrel? You can re-use the water from the barrel in your lawn and garden, and collecting rainwater has the added benefit of reducing polluted stormwater runoff and flooding. Many modern rain barrels are inexpensive, easy to use, and easily connect to your existing gutters. The City of Columbia is even offering a special discount on two rain barrel models if you order them before June!
Check out these useful links about rain barrles:

• Order discounted rain barrels from the City of Columbia
• Building your own rain barrel
• Calculate Rainwater Collection Potential
• Rain Barrel Benefits

Gardening Supplies

Have you ever wished you could have your own fresh, home-grown produce? Why not invest in some seed, soil, and gardening supplies to make garden-fresh fruits and veggies a reality this year! Growing your own food is truly rewarding in many ways; it can save you lots of money on store-bought produce, it's a great way to get exercise and spend time with nature, you have full control over any fertilizers or chemicals used growing your food, and fresh fruits and veggies are both more delicious and nutritious. You can start a small garden with little up-front cost, but with just a little extra you can invest in lumber for raised beds, sturdy and durable tools (like stakes, shovels, and hoes), and other supplies you can use for years to come!

Check out these useful links about preparing a home garden:

• 12 Raised Bed Tutorials
• Raised bed building manual
• Choosing sturdy, long-lasting gardentools, and the basic necessary tools to get
• 10 Essential Gardening Tools

Low-flow fixtures

 

Toilets and showers account for the vast majority of water used in most household. If you want to really cut down your energy bill and save water, low-flow toilets and shower heads are a must. Another option to reduce the amount of water you flush away is to install a dual-flush toilet. These toilets have two flushing options, one for solid and one for liquid waste, and can save you up to 17,000 gallons of water per year! You can even convert you existing toilet to a dual-flush system and reduce its water usage by 45%.

Check out these useful links on low-flow fixtures:

• Comparison of low-flow shower heads (flow rate)
• Installing dual flush conversion kit
• Guide for choosing low-flow toilet
• Concerns about dual-flush conversion

Energy-Star Appliances

Getting energy-efficient appliances can save you tons of energy throughout the year—did you know water heaters make up 15-25% of most households' energy use? Replacing large appliances like old refrigerators, water heaters, and air conditioning systems will yield the largest energy savings. An energy-star rated central air conditioner can make cooling your house 15% more efficient. Some quick tips: Buy appliances that are just big enough for what you need, but not any bigger, so you can see the most energy and money savings. Replace the oldest appliances first; they are most likely the least efficient and will yield the biggest benefit.

Check out these useful links about Energy Star appliances:

• Info and advice on Energy Star appliances
• Energy Star rebates (in Columbia, LED & CFL bulbs, clothes dryers, refrigerators)

Financial Incentives for Upgrades

There are many rebate programs, loan & financing programs, and tax credits available for certain types of energy-efficient and sustainable home upgrades. The Residential Energy Efficiency Tax Credit, for example, allows you to claim tax credits for a variety of common home upgrades, including insulation materials, replacing doors and windows, energy-efficient heat pumps, hot water boilers, central air conditioning, and more.

Check out these useful links about financial incentives for upgrading your home:

• Residential Energy Efficiency TaxCredit
• Financial Incentives in Missouri

If you found this list helpful, don't forget to share and add this page to your bookmarks! We will keep adding more smart home improvements and worthwhile sustainability investments to this list, so don't forget to check back the next time you're looking to spend on a sustainable upgrade.

Wild Edibles

Image Credit: Jim Ehle (Morel mushrooms, left), Abrahami (hickory nuts, top right), Alan Fryer (blackberries, bottom right)

Did you know that Missouri forests and prairies are full of wild veggies and fruits that you can eat? It's true! You could make a whole salad, or even a whole meal, from flowers and greens plucked straight from the wild.

You might be wondering what kinds of meals and dishes you can make with the wild veggies you find. And how do you know what's safe and what's poisonous? Luckily there's a lot of great resources online to get you started!

• Reference pictures are crucial for correctly identifying wild edibles. Click here to see the Missouri Department of Conservation's great field guide with images and descriptions of all kinds of edible plants in Missouri.
• Foraging for wild edibles can be dangerous if you don't know what to look out for. Some toxic plants are look-alikes to edible plants, and even some edible plants have poisonous parts that you should stay away from. Click here to see a list of these plants to watch out for in Missouri, along with pictures and descriptions to help you identify them.
• The Missouri Department of Conservation provides a PDF copy of each chapter from the book Wild Edibles of Missouri by Jan Philips. It is a comprehensive guide to edible plants in Missouri that includes recipes for making salads, soups, juices, and more from wild plants. Click here to access the book.
• For great step-by-step recipes using wild edibles, visit the Youtube channel Missouri Wild Cooking run by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Their recipes include: sweet and sour rabbit, wild rice and mushroom soup, and morel mushroom and asparagus fettuccine. Click here to visit the Youtube Channel.
• The Foraged Foodie blog is a great resource wild edible recipes, tips and ideas from an experienced forager. I love the big, bright images she posts of her meals and foraging spots.

If you are interested in learning more, don't miss Peaceworks' Center for Sustainable Living Wild Edibles program Wednesday, April 13 at the Boone Government Center. The program starts at 7pm with light refreshments at 6:30pm. Don't miss it if you want to learn how to find and use edible plants you can collect around Columbia! For more information on the event or to invite your friends, click here to see the Facebook event page.

Sowing Seeds Indoors: Resources

Image Credits: aneheathen (left), Jnzl's Public Domain Photos (top right), and John Athayde (bottom right)

Starting seeds indoors is easy and fun, and can give your plants a critical head-start. If you are just getting started, here are some beginners' tips for successful seed starting. For a list of plants you should start seeding now, see the list below, and follow the link to the University of Missouri Extension website for a complete guide on what seeds to start when.

Tips and Considerations for Starting Seeds Indoors:

• Soil: It's best to use seed-starting mix that is light, fluffy, sterile, and ideal for fragile seedlings.
• Planting Containers: This is where you can get creative! Any small, light container is okay to start seeds in, and recycled yogurt cups, egg cartons, and homemade newspaper pots are great candidates. Just remember to poke holes in the bottom for drainage.
• Check out this guide for making DIY seedling pots from recycled newspaper.
• Check out this list of 8 DIY seed starting pots.
• Sunlight: Seedlings should be kept in a very sunny spot for optimum growth. 
• Humidity: Plant seeds in moist starting mix and cover your containers with loose-fitting plastic to seal in humidity. Once seedlings sprout up, you can take the cover off.
• For more seed starting tips, read this guide from burpee.com, or check out this step-by-step guide with photos from gardenbetty.com

Seeds to start now (ideal to start in late March): 

• eggplant
• pepper
• tomato

Seeds to start soon (ideal to start in late April):

• cucumber
• okra
• pumpkin
• squash
• watermelon

For a complete guide on when to start sowing seeds indoors, take a look at the University of Missouri Extension's guide for seeding date, germination times, time until harvest, and more. The guide covers both flower and vegetable seeds.

Everyone Could Use a Rain Barrel!

Image credit: Gilbert Garcia on Flickr 

Did you know that thousands of gallons of water flow off of your rooftop every year? Why allow it to go to waste when you can easily collect this valuable resource with a rainwater collecting barrel? 

Rain barrels are good for your lawn, the environment, and reducing your energy bill. You can re-use the rainwater you collect in your lawn and garden. It is even healthier for your plants than watering them from the tap; rainwater doesn't contain the minerals, fluoride, and other chemicals found in tap water. When you collect rainwater rather than letting it flow to the ground, it has the added benefit of reducing flooding during storms and it prevents storm water from washing fertilizers and other pollutants into creeks and rivers. 

Many modern rain barrels are inexpensive, easy to use, and easily connect to your existing gutters. The City of Columbia is even offering a special discount on two rain barrel models if you order them before June. Alternatively, you can build your own rain barrel using a large trash bin and other hardware supplies.

Here's a list of resources to help you get started with your very own rain barrel:

• How to build your own rain barrel
• Benefits of using a rain barrel
• Calculate the rainwater collection potential of your roof
• Order discounted rain barrels from the City of Columbia

Image credit: Arlington County on Flickr

Early April Veggies for Your Garden

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Peaceworks' Center for Sustainable Living Blog!

This blog is all about providing practical guides, resources, and creative ideas to help anyone learn how to live a more fulfilling and sustainable lifestyle. Whether you are looking for ways to cut down your home energy bill, grow your own food, simplify your life, or reduce your environmental footprint, there's something here for everyone.

For more information about the Center for Sustainable Living, visit our About Us page, our Facebook page, or visit the Peaceworks website.