Enviro Girl lives with boys who play on teams–and each team means a new team t-shirt. Over the years, the family has accumulated boxes of shirts–many no longer worn. We’ve also got bushels of old socks (many without their life partner), towels, undies and blue jeans. Instead of filling a landfill with old clothes unfit for the thrift shop, Enviro Girl cuts them into squares and gives them another life as rags. Old socks slit up the side are the perfect size for polishing wood. Old t-shirts work great on windows and glass. Old towels clean up sinks, tubs and toilets beautifully. And even old tighty-whitey Fruit of the Looms work great for swiping away motor oil or wiping on shoe polish (and then into the trash)! These days the only time Enviro Girl uses paper towels is to absorb bacon grease when making Sunday morning brunch.
The cleaning industry has pushed consumers into using disposable cloths and towels–it’s a huge money-maker for them, but it’s also a huge burden on our planet. The production, packaging and final toss into a county landfill take human “convenience” to a perfectly loathsome level of wasteful and toxic behavior. Rags are free, reusable after washing and most fabric fibers decompose over time when you finally do retire them to your compost pile or the local landfill. Reincarnating old clothes as rags is a step closer to Enlightenment–and a step away from further global devastation.
Love your planet–reuse your old clothes when tackling cleaning chores. Put that “Lakeville Youth Soccer” t-shirt back in the game–it’s got several seasons left in it playing a new position!
Contrary to popular belief, most tree huggers have an inner diva and embrace it. They don’t want to wear baggy sweaters woven out of hemp and long gypsy skirts. They appreciate that in order to be taken seriously (and their message is a serious one), they can’t look like they a) tumbled straight out of bed b) tumbled straight out of a Grateful Dead tour bus or c) tumbled straight out of Haight-Ashbury, circa 1968. Continue reading 
