Summer Blog Challenge: Day 39

Today's Challenge: What are a few of your biggest pet peeves? 

Oh, so is that an invitation to gripe? Not a genius idea because I am a master griper.  But okay. Here are some of my pet peeves...

• I hate wastefulness. Like when I see someone grab 10 napkins for 2 people in a restaurant, knowing that 8 of them will end up unused in the garbage. Or when I see my kids write a few lines on a sheet of paper and move on to the next sheet. Heck, I wrote an entire post recently on all of the disposable "convenience" items in the grocery store (see it here). I mean, who needs a disposable toilet brush? Really! 
• I despise a nasty dish cloth. For some reason, I am the only person in my house that can hang up the dish cloth or put the sponge and scrubber in the soap dish that sits beside the sink. No, the rest of them leave all three items in the bottom of the sink. And, even better, they will then proceed to put dirty dishes on top of them. And oh heaven forbid they scrape or rinse those dishes first! Yuck!
• It really gets on my nerves when I see items that are labeled as green or natural that have artificial preservatives or color or fragrance. Or the items that are labeled 98% natural...yeah because the other 2% is all the crap you don't want. It shouldn't be so difficult to find the truly organic/natural items.

Okay I warned you. I could go on and on and on. In fact, I work on bettering my attitude constantly because it would be easy for me to fall into a pattern of negativity. LOTS of things are pet peeves for me. I will leave you with one more, which is probably my #1 biggest pet peeve of all...

• Do not lie. Period. I didn't say don't lie to me. I don't want to hear you lie to anyone. Sure I tried telling lies when I was younger. Luckily, I discovered early that I was not a very good liar. In fact, I am a terrible liar. I always get caught because I stink at lying. So I quit. I am not perfect, but I can not think of the last lie I told. Seriously. I know better. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I now cannot stand to hear others lie. My kids will testify to this...lying is the ultimate no-no in our home. 

I promise I am not a [bleep]. Haha. But don't get me started! See what happens?!!!

What would you say is your #1 pet peeve? I'd love to hear!

Waste Not, Want Not?

Waste not,want not....Is that saying really true anymore? I see so much waste everywhere I turn and as we learn more about the effects of our wastefulness on the environment, companies are marketing more and more products that are wasteful of resources. And people are buying them without any thought for the consequences! It seems more like want more, waste more!

Let's go through a few examples.

K-Cups require a special coffee maker that costs lots of money and requires a separate little plastic "k-cup" for each cup of coffee you brew. Talk about wasteful packaging! A number of these little plastic cups are packaged together in a cardboard box. This, when you could buy one package of instant or brew coffee and make pot after pot after pot.

Why is it so hard to use an old fashioned toilet brush? Now Scrubbing Bubbles is selling disposable toilet brushes! Clorox makes one, too! Really? And don't tell me about the germs on the toilet brush that sits in your bathroom because those germ-y brushes have been sitting in bathrooms for decades and not bothering anyone. As long as you don't play with it or put it in your mouth, just leave it sitting in its little holder, it isn't going to hurt anything.

Disposable Clorox wipes and Lysol wipes are wasteful and unnecessary, too! Scrubbing Bubbles has their own line of bathroom wipes. Why not just use a washcloth? Worried about it getting ruined? I was raised by a frugal and green mama who taught me to tear old t-shirts into rags that can be used for any job without worrying about the condition of the rag. Old socks are good for this, too. And if you really need something disposable sometimes, use a paper towel, but you don't need something disposable for every time you wipe off the kitchen or bathroom counter!

I would like to see some of these corporations taking responsibility for the environment, not just in the way they are manufacturing products, but also in what products they manufacture. Considering how much we know about good environmental practices and global warming, I would like to see government regulations on packaging, as well as disposable items.

What items make you angry when you walk the aisles of the supermarket?