As a resident of one of the nicer neighborhoods in a middle-class suburb, I would like to give kudos to my neighbors who not only maintain their own lawns, but also use a broom to clean up afterward. Whether they do it consciously or not, they are making the greener (and more economical) choice.
I despise leaf blowers. I do. Ask my husband. (He doesn’t own one, by the way, and never has.) If we are out walking, and come near a lawn where someone is using a leaf blower, I will cross the street, hold my breath for an entire block, then–when I get my breath back–have something not very nice to say about the person who invented the contraption.
When I was growing up, they didn’t even exist. (Okay, Wikipedia says they existed, but they didn’t become popular until I was around twenty years old.) Since I grew up in rural Minnesota and never witnessed a suburban lawn getting a professional cut, I can’t say for sure what lawn maintenance people used back then to clean the grass clippings and bush trimmings.
But my hunch is, a broom.
I like brooms. They don’t spew out pollution, increasing your risk of lung disease and organ dysfunction. They don’t make any noise. Their carbon footprint is on the negative scale. And if you choose to use a broom instead of an electric- or gas-powered machine, you get more fit.
And in case you were born a few years later than I and have hardly ever seen a broom in your life, may I kindly point out that cleaning up lawn trimmings isn’t the only use for a broom. It in fact has several uses that, for some reason or other, have been relegated to some machine or other. Off the top of my head:
- Sweeping the kitchen floor. Use a broom instead of a vacuum to clean the kitchen floor, and you’ll burn more calories, be able to reach under the bottoms of the cabinets, and save the environment while not taking hardly any more time for the job.
- Cleaning the garage floor. Yes, I understand that once in a while–twice a year, maybe?–hosing off the garage floor is necessary to get all the grime and dust off. However, a broom does just fine at getting the worst of the dirt and debris out of the garage on a regular basis.
- Sweeping cobwebs off the ceiling. I think using a broom for this job is actually easier than using a vacuum attachment, if the ceiling’s not too high. And you don’t have noise or use electricity.
- A pony. Or a giant sword. Or a dance partner… One of these days I’m going to go off on how most toys, even for babies and toddlers, require batteries these days. For the moment I will just point out that a child who still has an imagination because she hasn’t sat in front of the TV since the age of six months can find a broom to be a versatile toy.
As much as I dislike housework, I do like brooms. They are quiet, lightweight, and have no cords to yank around. They are the greenest (and cheapest!) choice in many cleaning situations. These humble tools deserve at least a little praise, don’t you think?
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