Party time is the perfect opportunity to practice the fine art of renewable-resource décor.

I am not sure why my parties (and pretty much everyone else’s that I know) quickly turn into a plethora of plastic and colored virgin paper so that I may simply show my  birthday person how loved they are, but it seems to go that way without much thought.

Fortunately, a lot of really great folks do think about this, so I am sharing some of their terrific ideas with you here.

If you truly do not want the kids (or your boozy neighbors) to trash your nice dishes or lose the silver in the garden, garage sales are a great way to find inexpensive dishes, service, tablecloths and napkins that you can use with panache and not worry too much over losing.

I know, I know, they will need washing. I get it.

Still, you will have to throw in a load by tomorrow anyway because laundry & dishes just happen like that. But since you are already such a savvy consumer, I know that you only wash full loads, in cold water with a miniscule amount of biodegradable soap and that everything line dries now since Spring is here.

Well, you won’t line dry the dishes, but the dishwasher does have a “no-heat dry”option if it was built somewhere in this century, so you are pretty good there too. Actually, a good dishwasher will save you water over sink washing, and get the water hot enough so that you won’t need to rinse the frosting off off the dishes prior to the load.

That’s what dogs are for. Just kidding, sugar makes them sick. They eat the pasta. My six year old licks the frosting.

If the party is outside by the pool and the whole idea of broken shards of glass in bare feet is just too much to contemplate, then I happen to love the ease and convenience of uber-renewable Bamboo plates and flatware. They even make them with beautiful patterns and decorative colors, so you probably won’t miss the Thomas the Train and Hello Kitty motif quite as much as you might think. I know I don’t miss them- ever. The nice thing too, is that since you may actually wish to have a grown-up party at some point in your parent -life, these will also look lovely for the backyard BBQ for your boss and her husband.

You will look so hip and smart. Much better than the leaky paper option. Remember those commercials? Ugh.

Rare is the person who sends paper invitations anymore. Don’t we mostly all use those free online services now? They have great style templates and easy “thank you” notes. I find it a much quicker way to keep the responses in order and the service even sends a gentle reminder to those who STILL have not replied the day before the party when you specifically needed a head count. You get to see who looks at the invitation but has not responded, as well as who just ignored you in the first place—hence saving you the trouble of needing to invite them again for your next event. See?

Conservation in action. A busy mom’s best friend.

I will save the Green Wedding Rehearsal Dinner Party and the Green St. Patrick’s Day party tips for another time. You can probably get started with these ideas here and work your way up.

In fact, I would love to hear first hand accounts of the first Green Bachelor party… But my guess is that the boys just forgot to take notes.

~Like elephant green on Facebook.~

~

Prepared by Jill Barth.