Eco-Friendly Auction Items

My kid's elementary school had an auction tonight and we were determined to both support our local public school and honor the spirit of April's Buy-Nothing Challenge.

In terms of what to give, we decided to go with eco/crunchy items that busy friends and neighbors might already covet but hadn't yet tracked down. Time is what we all really lack, right? Here are three ideas (phew, they all sold! and two people actually got into a bidding war for the cleaning basket so I'm making another!) in case you're trying to come up with something eco-friendly to give to an auction.

BYOBag Medley
2 reusable shopping bags (Get Hip Get Green and Make Love Not Carbon); 5 cloth produce/bulk/grain bags; 3 mesh produce bags; 1 string bag plus red string to tie around your finger to help you to remember to bring them to the store! (I got the bags at ReusableBags and ecobags)

Crunchy Lunch Bunch Basket
2 Kleen Kanteen stainless steel water bottles with sport tops; stainless steel containers (2 small, 2 large); 2 red check Wrap-N-Mat reusable sandwich holders; 1 box Cut-Rite waxed paper bags; 2 organic cotton lunch sacks with fabric markers (perfect art project!)

Mean Green Cleaning Machine Basket
3 spray bottles containing nontoxic, environmentally friendly cleaning concoctions (All-Purpose Cleaner, Window Wash, and Produce Wash) - plus recipes for these. Dozen assorted cloth rags, 2 natural cellulose sponges, Better Basics for the Home by Annie Berthold-Bond. I am a huge dork so I not only upcycled old baby towels for the rags (local towels! already passed down from another family to us! used by 4 kids!) but then geekily sewed heart shaped scraps on them with my freecycled sewing machine so the winners could feel all mellow and happy while they got their clean on. Also?! I found in *my* rag bag a Santa Cruz Earth Day t-shirt from '91 that had a big earth on it. It went front and center on one of the sewn cleaning-rag sandwiches. (Note: the All-Purpose Cleaner and Window Wash recipes are from Better Basics -- I used rosemary essential oil which is a natural antifungal and antibacterial agent; I steer clear of the popularly used tea tree and lavender oils as I have heard they may be linked to endocrine disruption aka man-boobs. Also? I skip fresh lemon juice although it's a great natural antiseptic since it has to be refrigerated. But good to keep in mind if you need to say, disinfect a cutting board on the spot.)

So that covered our contributions (hope the specifics are helpful for folks at the auction who asked me where to get particular items). But what to buy to support the school without acquiring stuff?

Luckily, in the thick of the auction organization team were both a former EWG staffer and an eco-minded neighbor (who jogged by me today with a bunch of newspaper bags for the dog park, talk about reuse and public awareness) who know their audience. I got this email titled Give Green at the School Auction just yesterday:

Hi MamaBird,

I know that April is your "don't buy a thing" month, which has got me thinking about some of my own impulse buys (stop me before I spend $5 on 73 perfect blueberries). So I wanted to let you know that I created two items at the school auction with people like you & me in mind: the Teacher Wish List and School Library Fund. We don't (just) want more stuff, we want to contribute to the school.

We asked the teachers and staff to give us their "wish lists." We think you'll agree that this is what the auction is all about -- providing the resources that our teachers need.

Teacher's Wish List: On every teacher and staff member's list (it would be wonderful to fulfill this dream!) - A working copy machine and a supply of paper.

Um, be still my beating heart. When I taught I used to spend half my life (and disposable income) at Kinko's and the other half breathing purple ditto paper fumes. I cannot believe that I didn't know my kid's teachers don't have enough paper or a functioning copy machine. We totally leapt at that one. And we won a bowling party for my daughter with her teacher (yeah!) and a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Zoo for her and some friends.

Rockin' night and relieved to report, a pretty non-consumptive night after all, despite money changing hands for good reason.