Kleenex Addiction

This isn't the most eco-friendly post.  There, I said it.

With moving in full-swing, packing tape and scissors out, the dust in our house is deciding to show it's ugly face.  Without fail, when we re-organize or prepare for a house guest (you know, the kind who actually sleep in the guest room/office/storage room/extra nap room/place to hide room)...our noses drip.  I know, gross.

I cannot tell you how many boxes of tissues we've been through in the last few weeks.  An obscene amount.  What did people do before Kleenex?  Have an embarrassing drip running down their noses during allergy season and/or a heart-attack inducing pile of snotty rags?  Disgusting.  I would rather think of my rapidly increasing carbon-footprint due to using disposable face tissues than even imagine how it would add to my laundry pile right now.  *Shudder*

I think back to one of my cute hippie friends in our post-college days.  Our one-child days.  I had lots of opinions then.

My cute hippie friend had me over one day to hang out in her garage apartment, and she was suffering from allergies, too.  Except, when she went to blow her poor, red nose, she grabbed for a hip handkerchief instead.  Who still uses those?  My family certainly didn't.  It was so old-school, yet actually, "green," that I was impressed.  My friend was really short on cash in those days, so I just thought she was being thrifty.  I asked her about it.  She shrugged, "Oh, this?"  Like I was the odd one.  And, in that moment, I did feel odd.  Because, who in their right mind would pay so much to blow their nose once and then throw the evidence in the wastebasket instead of the washing machine.  Uh, ME! 

The experience got me thinking...but not enough to go out shell out more cash to buy new handkerchiefs!  (Like they cost that much anyways!)

Since then, every time an allergy attack hits our house, dust flying in the air and tissues quickly filling every available trash can available, I think about my friend.  It is funny how we attach very small, insignificant interactions with events that continue well into the future.  

I think that one day I might be one of those nostalgic people who carry around handkerchiefs and recycle my rainwater to hand wash my organic cotton little squares that rescue my aching nose from eternal dripping.  One day.   When I have a clothes dryer.  Or, a child who can finally do the laundry for me. 

One day.