More Things!
1) Bulk-food bags. Cook and I got sick of using so many lightweight plastic disposable bags for our bulk and produce purchase. (We had already gotten an assortment of reusable sandwich/snack bag things, so our ziplock bag consumption is minimal.) During the brief period when we lived across the street from a co-op grocery store, we carried big glass jars over there and put the bulk stuff straight into them, but when you have no car, it's pretty hard to tote those around with you. So I got a few nylon bags that you use just like the plastic bags in the bulk section - fasten them with twist ties, with no need to tare them because they weigh so little. These would be really easy and cheap to make if you had a sewing machine and even rudimentary ability to use it, but I don't have those things, so I had to buy them expensively (off Etsy, no less). They're terrific. They aren't good for storage, just transporting food from store to home, but they meet our needs perfectly.*
2) Wheeled collapsible pushcart. We have been car-free for more than 10 years now, and we've NEVER had one of these carts before. That was really stupid. I went to a garage sale a few weeks ago, and bought some random homeowner stuff, including a really big wheeled cart.** It's transformed my shopping! When I see that our preferred pasta is on sale IF you buy 10 boxes, I can buy them! I can buy diapers in big boxes. Everything is different now.
And while I'm on the topic of car-freedom, I just want to say how happy I am with where we live. Within a 20-minute walk, I can get pretty much everything I need for daily living. Today Skipper and I dropped Dutch off at school, then went to the coffee shop across the street from our house to ask for grounds to add to our compost. Then we went to the hardware store, a 10-minute walk away, and got some primer and a paint roller. On the way home, we stopped at a shoe-repair place (my shoes need resoling so I can keep walking everywhere) and watched a construction site for a while. After Skipper wakes up from her nap, we'll probably walk over to the grocery store to buy coffee and to the library to get some new books about horses, before walking back over to the school to fetch Dutch. That's pretty much the way I want my life to be.
*I'm on a mission to reduce our trash production down to 32 gallons a month (we're currently at 80, because certain people refuse to use the toilet and we haven't been composting). I think we can do it without too much difficulty, but maybe not until potty training is complete.
**And a snow shovel. We may need to use it once or twice, and then it'll be really worth the $1 I spent on it.
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