Day Thirty-Three - You Win Some, You Lose Some

Giving in on Reusable Coffee Filters

As most of you know, I'm married to a great guy, who is not always 100% enthused about the strange changes I'm making here around the house. He has been a great sport, occasionally applauding my efforts, but in general, just going with the flow and trying not to ask too many questions ;-) What can I say? He loves me and my green-ness.

But not at 5:00 am with bad coffee. You see, I was all prepared to run out of our sparkly-white, bleached, disposable coffee filters and replace them with my homemade, natural muslin filters. I figured I'd better do a "test run" though before D-Day to make sure it worked correctly. I usually make the coffee anyhow, so I figured if it didn't work, I could just destroy the evidence before he saw the mess and find another alternative.

I got up EXTRA early to tiptoe down to the coffee pot. I opened the top of the machine and slipped in my lovingly hand-sewn muslin filter, piled in some great-smelling, coffee-house roasted grounds, added the water and waited. And Waited. I got nervous. Maybe the fabric was too thick and the water wouldn't penetrate it. Maybe the side of the filter would cave in and I'd end up with crunchy coffee. Maybe I need to see someone about the nervous episodes -- after all, it's only coffee.

Lo and behold, it worked! I was so excited! I didn't say anything to hubby and, sure enough, he drank down half the pot. And this is where I messed up. I took the last cup and didn't make more. When he went to make a fresh brew, he saw my little handiwork and asked curiously "what the hell is this?". I explained to him my desire to save the planet by foregoing such luxuries as disposable coffee filters. He explained to me the importance of being able to make a pot of coffee without doing laundry first. We argued. He won.

We will now be switching to unbleached, biodegradeable coffee filters instead. Life is all about compromises, you know. Especially when you're married to a coffee-aholic. Besides, a smart woman knows to pick her battles and I'm holding out for a home compost station.

Savings:

None. Yet. I'm down, but I'm not out! Besides, I'm at least going to switch to unbleached filters and that's a step in the right direction. If YOU are feeling brave and want to try my stylish homemade, reusable coffee filters, drop me a note and I'll send you a couple. I'd love to know how they work out in the long run and how well they hold up. I only know how to make the basket style ones, though, so if you need cone ones, let me know so I can pick up a sample disposable one to model it after.


Difficulty Level - 2 out of 5

Making the filters was easy. Making the switch, as you can see, wasn't.