You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their recycling...

Well sure, you could probably learn even more about someone by looking at their trash.  But 1) that is creepy, 2) that is dirty and 3) that is just not right.  But here in our neighborhood, Monday is recycling day. And so bright and early Monday morning, bags and bins of recycling line the streets waiting for the recycling guys to come and get them.

When I was home on maternity leave, I would walk the boys to their summer camp in the mornings and we'd walk past the recycling and I remember first thinking how much you could tell, or assume, or at least imagine about people just by what was sitting out on the curb.

As time has gone on, Brian and I have had funny in-passing conversations when a new neighbor moves in and we walk by their recycling.  They might go something like this:

Brian: Hey, these guys have Summit Beer bottles.  Good taste in beer...

Molly: Yup, and diaper boxes in size 4, must have a kid about Eli's age.

You know life is full of first impressions.  And while we work to manage (and sometimes suppress) them, they are there.  For instance, for the people who don't recycle around here (and yes it's free and yes it comes every Monday) I admit, it makes me roll my eyes and elevates my blood pressure just a bit.  And if I am in an already less than stellar mode, I might just assume they don't care as much as the next guy.

So, were you to walk by my recycling here is what you could learn about me.

We drink bottled beer.  But we keep the non-twist-off bottles to reuse when we brew our own.

I drink my fair share of Diet Coke but I always pull the tabs off and save them for Ronald McDonald House Charities.  All of my General Mills boxes have little rectangles missing, too.  Because, I also clip Box Tops for Education for the boys' school.

I buy a lot of stuff at ALDI.  Most of it, in fact.

Eli loves cereal bars.

We must have a little one, as we have both skim milk and whole milk.

We only get the weekend Star Tribune and I clip the coupons.

Our boys like canned green beans.

We like red wine.

I recycle everything I can.  And that includes bills and statements that get put out, shredded, once a month.

I am also a Target shopper and go about once a month without my own tote bags so I can get paper bags just to put my recycling in.

I am not brand loyal to any shampoo or hair conditioner.  But Brian is.

We get various optometric magazines, Real Simple, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Lucky (I have no idea why, I never subscribed, but it keeps showing up), Minnesota Monthly (and from that you can deduce that Brian is a MPR listener), National Geographic Kids and Boys Life.

And someone around here loves apple sauce (Caleb).

So there you have it.  Like I said, it's just interesting to think about the little wealth of information we all (or at least most of us around here) put out on the sidewalk every Monday morning.