The very point of reusing items to take a once useful item and use it again to suit your new need – you’ll quickly see what I mean. It’s remarkably easy and extremely frugal. And if you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you know how much I love to save time AND money!

Before I go on, I must say that I have an obsessive love for Real Simple’s New Uses for Everyday Things column in their monthly magazine. I clip out these tidbits, scan them into my computer and then reuse the clips for packing paper in eBay sales and the like! That column has massively improved my creativity in repurposing the various items I come across into new useful items.

Newbie

1. Instant Tupperware. You know that glass spaghetti sauce jar you were about to throw away? Why not wash it and use it as instant Tupperware for that chicken soup you made for the sickie in your life? You already have it, it’s still perfectly good and if you’re giving it to your sick friend across town, you can tie a ribbon around it to make it more present like. Viola! Instant love.

2. Newspaper makes for a streak-free shine. That’s right – spray your mirrors and glass with a white vinegar and water mix, then wipe clean with regular black-and-white newspaper. I don’t know what it is – the ink or the paper’s consistency – but my glass is nice and shiny. Plus my Sunday paper is reused after reading!

3. Old t-shirts and pajamas make excellent bedding for dogs and cats. Take a large t-shirt, tie the sleeves and stuff with other old clothing or rags and toss in the kennel or crate. Not only does your smell stay and comfort them, but it’s soft and doesn’t cost you the exorbitant prices pet stores charge for pet bedding. And if the cloth gets ruined, it’s easily replaceable.

Amateur Environmentalist

1. Illuminate with repurposed lighting. Instead of purchasing costly candlesticks from Crate & Barrel, why not reuse some empty wine bottles for tapers or those mismatched martini glasses you inherited with some tea lights and sand? You’d be surprised what could be made into a lamp with a simple kit purchased at any hardware store – an old saxophone, a seasonal tin, or even an old inherited silver candlestick!

2. Rethink your packaging. This one I use all the time for eBay sales and gift containers. Old cereal boxes are great for shipping books or gifting a sweater or t-shirt. Instead of buying bubble wrap, I use the plastic bags that seals the cereal in the box as well as magazine clippings I’ve already scanned into my computer to save and the wrapping from popcorn packets. Old maps make great gift-wrapping for kids too!

3. Fancy indulgences can be practical. I am a candle nut and will occasionally splurge on a few expensive candles like White Barn New York’s Cinnamon & Clove Buds or even a spa essential like a good foot soak. The only way I can justify these purchases is that I later reuse the containers for toiletry items. Apothecary jars like the ones the candle and the foot soak come in often sell at more than what the candle and soak cost – so I get my pampering AND some fancy decor out of the deal!

Certified Tree-Hugger

1. Shop at thrift stores, Freecycle and Craigslist before hitting up the chain stores. When you’re looking for a new piece of furniture, be willing to go cheap and repurpose an old item. For example, when we moved last year my Mom had a microwave stand similar to this one that she no longer had room for. I was in desperate need of a good printer stand and cabinet for my home office supplies. A little paint and ta-da! I have a repurposed printer stand with cabinet and all it cost me was $10 for paint.

2. Think outside the cabinet. Old silverware makes fun coat and towel hooks, old plates can be painted and reused as chargers for candles or pieces of art, broken dishes can be used as bits in art projects or aerators at the bottom of the soil in your potted plants.

3. Before tossing, consider a giving the item second or third life. Have an old book that you’ll never read but love the way it looks? Make it into a secret stash for cash by cutting out the middle. How about that toothbrush caddy that is painted olive green from the ’70s? A bit of paint and you can use it as a small vase, using the toothbrush holes to perfectly line up the flowers. An old bookcase can easily become a storage cabinet, a locker with the addition of a few old cabinet fronts, a trophy display case and if deep enough, a dresser with the use of canvas boxes.

Essentially, the fun in reusing is to be creative and see what life you can give the items you already have. Waste not, want not my friends!

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This inspired me to write this series of posts, which I’m calling “Back to Basics”. Our basics of green living are “reduce, reuse, recycle and don’t pollute!” This post will cover “reduce” in the classic Green Your Apartment way, according to your personal level of green commitment with 3 tips at each level. The great thing about reducing your consumables is it’s remarkably easy, really does just take a bit more forethought instead of actual “work” and is easily the most effective way to – you guessed it – reduce your ecological footprint!

Newbie

1. Look for ways to group your outings. Don’t take a trip to the corner store in your car to pick up milk this morning, go out and get your hair cut this afternoon and then head across town to pick up a book you special ordered at the bookstore. Instead, plan out your trip – haircut, book and milk on the way home. You probably saved yourself not only an extra forty minutes of commuting time but also easily a gallon or two of gas.

2 . Look for reduced packaging. Those 100 calorie packs which are suddenly the big marketing ploy are a packaging nightmare. You can do the same thing by purchasing a regular package of the food and separating them out yourself at home in reusable containers. Save yourself the money and the packaging!

3. Buy in bulk when it makes sense. Bulk buys tend to use less packaging, but please use your discretion on this as there are definitely exceptions. With that in mind, remember that the idea is to reduce your packaging and use, not go to excess.

Amateur Environmentalist

1. Turn off the lights. People don’t realize how often they over-brighten their homes in the evening and then wonder why they have a hard time winding down for bed! Our biology reflects the solar day, so minimize the amount of lighting you have at night. I’m not saying you should eat dinner in the dark, but do you really need the dining room light, the kitchen light and the living room lamp on to eat dinner? Didn’t think so.

2. Be aware of your water usage. Scrape off your plate and put it in the dishwasher, don’t rinse throughly and then place in the dishwasher – that’s like double-dipping to your water use! Replace your shower head with a low-flow shower head to reduce your water usage there, but make sure to keep the old one around for when your lease is up – you’ll want to take your handy-dandy low-flow shower head with you anyway!

3. Minimize the plastic bags. If you haven’t taken up my suggestion to be a bag-person, then I suggest when you do shop, minimize the bags you do use. Use that giant bag you got at Target to also hold the earrings you purchased at the Mom n’ Pop shop next door as well as the shoes you picked up at Payless. Not only will you save your arm the deadly five-line circulation cut-off, but you just cut your plastic bag use by two thirds!

Certified Tree-Hugger

1. Two words: public transportation. At least twice a week you can swap out your car (even those great Prius’) for the bus, subway or light-rail and instantly reduce your carbon emissions. Plus less miles on your car means less up-keep, cheaper car insurance rates and less stress in traffic.

2. Go vegetarian for two dinners a week. This reduces your impact on the environment since it takes an estimated 3 times the fossil fuels to raise animals for meat and over a whopping 30 times the water! If just twice a week you forgo the chicken, beef, lamb or pork for, say, eggplant parmesan with spaghetti marinara (sounds good, huh?) you’re helping reduce the impact of over-consumption.

3. Stop watching television. I’m not saying entertainment is bad, I’m saying advertising on television is insane. The whole marketing industry is designed to make you think you aren’t <-insert adjective here-> enough so you need THIS product! Being that I write about the entertainment industry and my Husband would kill me if he couldn’t watch NHL Center Ice, we’ve decided to pay a bit extra for DVR. This reduces waste in our lives by 1) reducing the amount of wasted time because we only watch the shows we want to watch when we wish to watch them; 2) our electricity usage from the television is cut by one third since it only takes 18-20 minutes to watch the actual show versus the 30 minutes with commercials; and 3) our desire to consume, consume, consume! is vastly reduced since we don’t watch commercials. It’s amazing how much more time we have and how much more satisfied with our little home and our “stuff” we are since we “unplugged” the marketing industry from our brains.

The next installment of the “Back to Basics” series will cover “reuse”, one of my favorite creative pastimes!

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It started with a question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?

The answer: Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

I am asking you to participate in this global statement. On March 29th, 2008 at 8 pm in your local time zone, turn off all the lights and electrical equipment for one hour. Encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same and see what a difference the flick of a switch and one hour can make.

To declare your participation, go to EarthHour.org.

Do you?

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First let’s set up the order of importance in purchasing these items.

1. Local always surpasses organic -there’s less tax on the environment as a whole. Plus with local foods, most of them are from smaller farms that don’t douse their produce with ridiculous amounts of chemicals so a good washing in a plant-based produce wash will do fine.
2. Next comes organic. This means you are eliminating the pesticides and chemicals you are not only ingesting but voting for use with your dollar. And if you can get local and organic, then double-kudos to you!
3. Now comes fair-trade. For those of you new to the lingo, fair-trade items are part of “an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods” (thank you, Wikipedia). This comes third because you want to try and stay as local as possible to minimize the shipping, etc.

Knowing these priorities, how is one supposed to eat well and still be green? Here are a few tips to help you along your way.

Newbie
Cost: will generally save you money
Time: a longer trip to your local “health food” store versus the corner market
Energy to do this: minimal to moderate

Shop at your local health food store. I’m a big fan of Henry’s and Trader Joe’s (I hail from Southern California so these are my local stores) but you can definitely find your local stores by searching in your area. Not only are organic and local produce offered at these stores, but I found when I started shopping at Trader Joe’s that my grocery bill was easily cut by 40% though I was buying the same amount of stuff. At Henry’s, I search their weekly flyer (available by email!) for sales on bulk items and such so I can stock up and save.

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: you’ll save money on produce and spend a bit extra on gas depending on location
Time: an extra half hour to hour a week
Energy to do this: minimal to moderate

Get to know your local farmer’s market! Most cities have them once a week where you can purchase locally grown, in-season foods. In-season is important because for one, it really means it’s local and for two, you are reducing the need to ship in out of season foods from tropical locations like Chile and Ecuador. We have a local grower that has stands all over the city by his crops and he has the best organic strawberries I’ve ever tasted!

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: $20-50 a week according to my quick research
Time: ranges from minutes to pick up the produce from your front door (for the delivery-based CSA’s) to 1-3 hours a week to go and harvest your produce
Energy to do this: minimal to significant

So you are dedicated, REALLY dedicated to locally-grown, organic produce. Good for you! Join a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture project. Basically, you pay a certain amount per month or growing season to have your share of the produce grown on that patch of land either boxed for pick-up, delivered to your door or for you really green-thumb types, to harvest yourselves! To find out where you can participate, check out sites like Local Harvest and the US Department of Agriculture’s site on CSAs.

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Excellent post — I too am trying as hard as possible to get into the comprehensive habit of ALWAYS having a bag with me. Maybe a post about how to establish some new habits with regard to that?

As promised, I have some great tips to get this green habit going.

Mostly, becoming eco-friendly comes down to thinking ahead as we humans tend to be creatures of habit despite what we think. As a long time subscriber to the KISS method (thanks, Dad!) the key is to think about what you normally do, where you normally do it and adjust your routine with those two things in mind.

How to Establish the “Bag-Person” Habit
Cost: Depends – if you have enough reusable bags, then nothing; if you don’t, it’s time to invest in some (think $5-100, depending on what you need and what you’re willing to spend)
Time: about 10 minutes to think/plan, 30 minutes if you need to shop, approx. 20 minutes to execute
Energy to do this: Moderate – requires some thinking and some planting of materials around your spaces.

Step 1: Analyze your habits
Think about when you personally end up using bags. Do you plan regular weekly trips to the grocery store or do you tend to randomly hit up the market a few times a week as you run out of milk or bread? Can you not pass a bookstore or a mall or a <insert your shopping weakness here> without purchasing something? Are you a a book addict like I am? Then a bag that is small and can fit in your pocket, purse, backpack or diaper bag is what you need since you never really plan when you’re going.

After thinking about it, I want you to make this list:

Column 1: Where I shop (list “the mall”, “Borders”, “grocery store”, “Old Navy”, etc.)
Column 2: Planned or spur of the moment
Column 3: Type of bag needed (list “heavy-duty”, “compact but holds a lot”, “small and light”, etc.)
Column 4: Placement – list where a bag would be easiest and most convenient for you to remember to use it again and again

Step 2: Get the supplies you need
Now that you know what kind of shopper you are and have narrowed down what kinds of bags you need from filling out your list, you need to make sure you have them on hand.

For example, I have half a dozen canvas backs and an insulated bag for my grocery shopping. But I need some of those handy-dandy mesh produce bags from ReusableBags.com that I mentioned in my previous post. I also need a reusable bag or two to put in my purse and later, the diaper bag (which looks like a normal backpack – God bless the evolution of baby supplies!). Well, that’s when a handy little bit like ReusableBags.com’s Mini Maxi shopper comes in handy. This kind of reusable bag comes in it’s own little zippered container, which means I throw it in my purse, backpack, messenger bag or even the diaper bag. Now, being my Husband tends to be out without me somewhat often, so I do need to consider a bag or two for him to keep in the car.

After putting this all in a shopping cart at ReusableBags.com, my bag purchases will come to about $70. I consider this a small price to pay considering these bags will last me years and just the spur of the moment purchases I made last week left me with one dozen new plastic bags in my home. Even if I did that once every other week or so, I could save the world use of 260 single-use plastic bags in one year. If every person in my apartment complex did this at the same rate, just over 250,000 plastic bags would be saved from use.

Now, obviously, you can get your reusable bags from anywhere you like – your local market, a second-hand store, EcoBags, or make your own! I just happen to like ReusableBags.com because it’s one-stop shopping – and I LOVE making things easy!

Step 3: Put the bags where they’ll be used
This is simply the execution of taking your supplies and putting them in the places you listed in Column 4 on your list.

If you regularly hit up the market, for example, you can keep all of your grocery bags in the kitchen so you can grab them after you get your list and keys. More the spur of the moment shopper? Stick the bags in your car: you can hang them off the back of your seat so when you are exiting the car, you remember to take a sack in with you or stick a few in the glove compartment if that’s easier. I’ll definitely have two of those Mini-Maxi shoppers in my messenger bag or the diaper bag so I’ll always have them with me for those random trips to Borders and the market. And for the Husband? A Mini-Maxi shopper in the center console of our sole vehicle as well as  this cool Mini-Maxi backpack for heavier loads and some manly pizzazz.

Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

My hope is that once people start taking responsibility and making reusable bags a daily habit, retailers will start to catch on and follow Whole Foods’ lead, eliminating plastic bag use altogether. It just takes some thinking to make your life a little more environmentally friendly without seriously hindering the convenience of modern life.

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In fact, I kind of freaked my Mom out. When I explained that yes, I would be using cloth diapers, I thought she was going to pass out.

“That’s a lot of work!” she protested.

“Yes,” I sighed. “Yes it is. But it’s been for the environment and our pocket book.”

“Not when you calculate in all that laundry!”

“Yes, even then – a savings of $3,000 over two years compared to disposable paper diapers. Besides, did you know that even with disposable paper diapers you are supposed to dump the poo in the toilet? Most people don’t do that so not only do we fill our landfills with piles of paper and plastic diapers, but with human excrement which eventually leaks into our drinking water…”

She made a face at me. “It’s still not worth it,” she said.

That night, she emailed me a link to GDiapers. What are gDiapers? According to their site,

gDiapers consist of a washable, cotton outer pant and a plastic free flushable refill. They are made of breathable material just like sports clothing. So, babies stay dry and happy and are far less likely to get diaper rash.

Can’t flush? It’s ok to toss flushable refills because they’re plastic-free. Or garden compost the wet ones. They’ll break down in 50-150 days.

Brilliant! Considering I am all for finding the middle ground (in this case, convenience and biodegradability!) I was thrilled with this little find.

So, for all you parents out there, here are my suggestions for the diaper issue, depending on your level of eco-dedication!

Newbie
Cost: about $0.275 per diaper versus $0.22 per conventional diaper
Time: seconds
Energy to do this: minimal

If you really must go with the disposable paper diaper, at least consider using products like chlorine-free diapers by Seventh Generation. It reduces cancer rates by reducing the amount of dioxin put into the environment during production. And according to their site, “If every household in the U.S. replaced just one 40-count package of size 3 conventional diapers with our chlorine-free diapers, we could avoid 133,000 pounds of pollution from entering the environment.”

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: about $0.44 per diaper change if you include the price of the covers
Time: seconds to click and order, having them brought to your door or a few extra minutes at Whole Foods
Energy to do this: minimal

Yes, it’s a bit more expensive, but you’re not dumping anything into the landfills and those handy little inserts are biodegradable, the wet inserts even compostable!

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: about $0.34 a diaper change, including washing
Time: a minute or two more per diaper change and at least an hour or two for the extra loads of laundry a week
Energy to do this: significant

While there is great argument over the true eco-friendliness of cloth diapers, organic cotton is best for your baby. And if you are dumping the poo into the toilet and washing the diapers correctly, the only thing that you really do increase is your water usage. But I do give mad props to those of you dedicated enough to do this – go you!

(Please note all prices are estimated from Diapers.com.)

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Laundry, to be honest, is a chore I can just never keep up with. It seems that as soon as the weekly wash is done, there is already another pile that needs washing.

But does that have to do with being nice to the environment? PLENTY.

Being in an apartment, you have three typical scenarios you are dealing with: a local laundromat, an apartment complex laundromat or (I’m jealous if you have this) your very own washer and dryer in-apartment. But, believe it or not, my tips will be the same for all these three scenarios!

Newbie
Cost: it will actually save you money!
Time: seconds
Energy to do this: minimal

My tip for you is to get used to doing only full loads of laundry in cold water. Why is this a green tip? First, because there is no need to wash half a load of laundry. Save yourself the trip to the laundromat and the quarters by waiting a few days until you have a full load. Second, by using even warm water in washing and cold in the rinse cycle can save over three times the energy of washing and rinsing with hot water! The best thing is using the cold/cold setting if the washer has it because at least 3/4 of the energy used in any washer is to heat the water – so go colder and your clothes will be just as clean.

Sidenote: I still wash my whites (a full load!) in hot water and rinse in cold water. If you were married to a hockey player, you would too!

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: about the same amount you would have used on conventional laundry detergents
Time: seconds to decide on the brand you want
Energy to do this: minimal

Switch from the detergents chock-full of petroleum-based (as in OIL), phosphates (water softeners that damage bodies of water) and “optical brighteners” (chemicals to make whites appear whiter which are toxic to aquatic life and not biodegradable) to an eco-friendly, plant-based laundry liquid or powder that will clean your clothes just as well. There are several brands out there – Seventh Generation, Eco-Cover and store brands at your local health food store. The great thing about these liquids in particular is you don’t need to use as much as with conventional detergents and the scents aren’t so nauseatingly perfume-like.

If you are really serious about being more eco-friendly, then consider replacing your older washer and dryer with a newer, Energy Star rated washer and dryer. However, this can be expensive, so if you do not have the budget to replace them, there is still a way to be green and clean without draining your wallet. Consider replacing the older, inefficient parts in your washer and/or dryer. A makeover for these appliances can help them and the resources last longer. General Electric, Kenmore, LG, Whirlpool, Samsung, and Maytag parts are all available for purchase at most hardware and appliance repair centers. A few tools and a do-it-yourself attitude are the only other things you will need for this job.

You can also nix those dryer sheets. Trader Joe’s (my store of choice, next to Henry’s) offer these great little sachets full of lavender. You throw them in the dryer with your clothes and they nix the static, lightly scent the clothes and help repel moths. After the 6 dryer trips I rip open the sachet, pour them over the carpet and vacuum them up 10 minutes later to refreshen the room.

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: this will save you money!
Time: actively – 30-45 minutes depending on how many clothes you washed, passively – an extra few hours compared to the dryer
Energy to do this: moderate

Hang-dry your clothes. Yes, it is an extra commitment time-wise, but the sheer energy you save is pretty amazing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this is how you calculate this:

(Wattage × Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption

A typical clothes dryer is measured at 1800-5000 watts. We’ll take the mean of this for our calculations, guessing at 2 loads of laundry per week done once per week per person.

(3400 Watts × 3 hours/day × 52 days/year) ÷ 1000
= 530.4 kWh × 8.5 cents/kWh
= $45.08/year

I don’t know about you, but that’s one month’s electric bill for my household! That’s a lot of energy to save.

A little tip: I’ve noticed when I hang dry my jeans and sweatshirts, they get a little tough. To correct this, I’ve used 1/2-1 cup of white vinegar in the wash as a natural clothes softener which also helps with color-fastness and odors.

Happy laundering!

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I have no idea what brought me to ReusableBags.com but I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

For example, I hate that I haven’t had many options to get rid of those horrible produce bags that even “health food” chains are using! What to do?

How about an organic netted cotton produce sack for a whopping $4? Brilliant!

Shopping bags are also an issue. In general you want something you can slip in your backpack or purse or, for you gents out there, slip in your pocket. Something with long enough handles to slide over your shoulder and strong enough to handle your shopping load – be it clothes from the mall, a few groceries to tide you through the end of the week or some office supplies from IKEA.

How about their Reisenthel – Mini Maxi Shopper with long handles? Zips up into a teeny-tiny bag with attachable hook! Again with the brilliant. I’m so getting two or three of these things…

But what about that trip to your local big box store like Costco or Sam’s Club? Then these Super Strong Canvas Messenger Bags are worth the $13!

What got me so excited about this website was the fact that they have fabulous products promoting sustainable sources, reuseable and recycled items at prices that the average Joe can afford.

Going “green” doesn’t have to be overwhelming or über-costly. Mostly going green means thinking about what you want to do and planning ahead of time to use what you have, reduce what you use and only bring into your life the things that give and sustain life instead of living a “throw-away” or “prepackaged” existence. Life should be fun and beautiful and the things you buy and use should support life continuing to be fun and beautiful.

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For my first tip, I’m going to recommend you start the New Year with less stress on your electric bill and the whole energy-making schematic by enlightening your life with energy-efficient lighting. It’s easy, cost-effective and has more impact than you think.

Newbie
Cost: about $20
Time: 30 minutes (run to the store and changing bulbs)
Energy to do this: minimal

Purchase one six-pack of Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs) to replace your most used lights. Because the CFLs use lower wattage to produce the same amount of light as standard bulbs (15 watts in a CFL is equal to a 60 watt regular bulb), the estimated savings on replacing just 6 lights in your house that you use up to 4 hours each day is $54 a year in your electric bill. That’s only $4.50 a month, but those bulbs will pay for themselves within 5 months!

The other impressive thing about this little change will keep an estimated 3 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the six-pack of bulbs. To get an idea of that kind of impact, you’d have to live car-free for a little over 7 months to get the same CO2 impact!

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: $20-$100 depending on how many lights you have
Time: 45 minutes (including run to the store and changing bulbs)
Energy to do this: minimal

Replace ALL your light bulbs with CFLs. It will cost you upfront, but if you’re like me, it’s worth it! We have 22 light bulbs in our apartment, which means it cost us about $80 to replace all the bulbs. But using the same calculations as above, we’re saving about $198 a year on our electricity bill – about $16.5 a month.

And in CO2 emissions, our change was the environmental equivalent living car-free for two years and two months! It has even been estimated that if every household in the U.S. replaced their lighting with energy-efficient lighting – like CFLs – we could comfortably retire 90 average sized power plants.

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: $0 – $121 + s/h
Time: Depends
Energy to do this: minimal

Despite all the wonders of those little compact fluorescents, there is a danger. CFLs contain the neurotoxin mercury, just like in all those warnings about contaminated fish you keep hearing about. This means dumping them in the trash when they eventually burn out is not a good option. The best thing to do is recycle your CFL bulbs. Depending on your situation, you have two options.

One: if you have an IKEA near you, you can recycle all your CFLs there for free! (See their site for more details.) It’s a lovely service provided by a fabulous company.

Two: if you don’t have an IKEA near you, you can purchase a CFL recycling kit here. Yes, it’s a little pricey but you don’t really want to dump mercury into our landfills which will leak into our drinking water now do you? I didn’t think so.

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