Clean My Green Bin Please!

After about 4 years of waiting, I finally have green bin pick up at my townhouse. With two kids, food waste is a fact of life and I adore the fact that we are no longer sending compostables such as sandwich scraps, chicken bones and paper towels to the landfill.

Unfortunately, green waste brings with it grime, bugs and odours.

I soak and wash my kitchen waste bin at least every few days, but the outside green bin gets horrendous quickly. I like to layer newspaper throughout to help minimize the amount of exposure the waste has with the air, but that only does so much and cleaning green bins is a dirty job to say the least.

So what if you NEVER had to wash out your Green Bin again?

Last week when I arrived home from work with the kids I asked my husband if the Green Bin was clean and a pleasantly surprised look washed over his face as he asked me what that was all about. I excitedly peeked my head inside and was greeted with a fresh, clean smell; a refreshing change.

The fine folks from VIP Bin Cleaning had been by our house (while we were at work) and cleaned, sanitized and deodorized our Green Bin, a service they provide for about $8/month. Perhaps the best part of all is that VIP Bin Cleaning uses an average of 2L of water compared to the average 9L that residents would use so you can go ahead and consider this a water-wise investment.

I know 9L sounds like a lot, but when the hubs told me he'd been dreading washing the maggots out of the bin all day, it didn't sound like near enough water.

In fact, in that moment $8 a month to never have to clean our own Green Bin suddenly seemed like a pretty reasonable budget expense.

Check out this video of local Owner Colin Bell demonstrating exactly how they get your bin all sparkly clean.

You can check out VIP Bin Cleaning Online, on Facebook and on Twitter!

Disclosure: I received a free bin cleaning in exchange for this review, however all opinions are my own.

When is Good-ish NOT Good Enough?

Today, in the midst of our morning chaos, I started to cry.  Feeling overwhelmed by life,  I took a moment to breathe and before I knew it, I was sitting on the stairs, my head in my hands, my body quivering as I tried to contain the tears.

I know it's cliche but as a mom I'm used to feeling like I'm fraying at the edges,  but the  last few weeks have left me feeling like I'm ripping apart at the seams. 

Everything started when I took an intense week long course that had me studying until 1 am every night and commuting 45 minutes in each direction.

Then I spent 3 days at the hospital when 4 year old Bolt slipped off the top of a little tykes play centre at daycare and broke his elbow, fractured  both bones in his forearm and needed surgery, pins and wires to put everything back together.

I spent another day at the hospital when Bolt started showing signs of infection with a 40 degree fever, which ultimately required removal of his cast for careful examination prior to recasting and a round of heavy duty antibiotics.

At the same time, in addition to feeling neglected, 2 year old Simba has also had a flu complete with a fever and diarrhea.

And since both boys have been sick, they only want their momma and sharing her isn't an option.

And forget the pile waiting for me on my desk when I finally got back to work.

I'm already feeling stretched so thin and today's fun includes dragging Bolt back to the hospital to have blood work and confirm his infection has cleared up. I can see the fight already; what kid likes a 'poke'?

When asked how I was doing at work this week, I answered simply, good-ish.  My friend laughed and told 

me she was going to steal the phrase because her life is in the midst of different, but equally draining, turmoil.

But it begs the question, when does good-ish become not good enough?