Because I am staying with my mother for the next few days as she recovers from a recent hospital stay, I thought I would rerun some of my favorite posts that pay tribute to what my mom has taught me about green and frugal living. Here is one from just about one year ago. Some of this may be old news for many of you, but it’s news that’s worth repeating.

Recently, I posted about how I equate picking up litter on the side of road with my mother, Judy, and considered it a WWJD (What Would Judy Do) moment. Well, now that I’ve embraced this whole green and frugal thing, I’m having a lot more WWJD moments–some spontaneous, others because I’ve called her to ask a green question.For example, yesterday I called to ask if I could compost those little pink packets of sweetener that I put in my coffee every morning. Turns out I can and so can you.

Because these packets are made from paper, they will break down in the compost, and I can treat them just like coffee filters and paper towels–all of which I’m composting now. My mom also filled me in on other things I can toss in the compost, including shredded paper and hair.

As far as plain-old recycling/reusing goes, my mom let me know that she’ll often donate clothes to her local high school’s drama department so that the students can use them as costumes. Another great recipient of donated clothes is a battered women’s shelter, since women often arrive with just the clothes on their backs. The Women’s Center of Rhode Island advertises the need for clothing donations right on its website. (You may want to check if you can donate children’s clothing, too.)

Beyond clothing you can donate your used glasses to the Lions Club, through a local vision store or optician, which reuses the glasses and gives them to folks living in poverty who can’t afford to pay for glasses. Considering I’ve worn glasses since the 2nd grade, you can bet I’ve got a ton of old and useless glasses lying around upstairs, including those awful oversized, tortoise-shell preppy frames that were all the rage in the 1980s (check out Annie Potts glasses from “Ghostbusters” in this link). Blech.

Another important item to donate rather than toss–your cell phone. Not only do you want to keep cell phones out of landfills for toxicity reasons but also your used phone can help someone else–whether it be victims of domestic abuse or soldiers fighting in Iraq. Some organizations that take used cell phones include Collective Good and The Wireless Foundation. Here’s a Charity Guide article that provides extensive details on how donated cell phones do good and what you need to know to donate yours.

So let’s see: we’ve just cleaned out some of our clutter, kept items out of the trash that could be composted or recycled, and possibly helped those in need with our donations. Not bad for a day’s work.