Spokane Bans Phosphate Soap

I learned that Spokane is the first city to ban phosphate soaps! Phosphates in water increase plant growth - which sounds nice - but in fact, these plants grow so much they can choke bodies of water. When the plants die off they do so en mass and the normal decomposition process in water is overwhelmed. Think of this like a factory that increases it's production of widgets, sends them down the line but only one worker is boxing widgets up. The worker is overwhelmed. (Are you recalling I Love Lucy's Chocolate Factory epsiode too?)

But many of our favorite soaps we have grown up with have phosphates in them. So what to do? Some folks are smuggling their soaps from across the border. This makes me wonder if they are shopping for all their groceries across state lines to get their fave soaps. If so, is the ride out to Idaho worth the time and gas?

I have been a huge fan of Method soap. Good smell, cute bottles, lots of soapy feeling and suds. Give it a try. Sure it is a little more then 99 cents but sometimes we have to pay more for what we really want. And what we really want is clean water. You can find Method in most grocery stores and at Target.

Here's an older report: NWPR News Phosphates Banned in Spokane

Yard Sale Success!

Just so you know, we made a little over $100 from our yard sale. I would say half of that money came from dumpster stuff. It was really hard to not say, "Oh I got it in the dumpster. $5 please." I honestly think that if we put more time and energy into our sale we could have made more cash, but our goal was to de-clutter and make a little money.

You may already know this if you are a yard sale person, but kid's stuff sells fast! My friend brought over loads of kid toys, clothes, even a high chair and potty - GONE like that! It was a real draw to the sale and probably go people to buy other stuff.

My next project is to create two xeriscape garden beds in the front yard. I did a report last month on xeriscaping and at first thought it was going to be about grasses and plain flowers. I was happy to learn that there are many options for the gardening who wishes to decrease their water use!

As for the beds, I plan to use broken up cement as the stones. This means I get to peruse alleyways and craigslist for discarded cement clumps.