April was a busy month. We put our house on the market and bought an RV (more on that at a later date)!
A couple of you have been bugging me to post something (thanks for the gentle prodding), so I thought I would share a quick list of some of the initial stuff that we did when we first started to adjust our habits and become more “green.”
See if you can do all of these things in the month of May, you will be surprised how easy it is to make small changes and how big of an impact those small changes can make.
- Challenge yourself to reduce your weekly trash by half. Recycle, repurpose or reuse everything that you can. If it seems too much to ask to get the whole family to reduce your trash at home, start with your waste basket at work. When you go home on Friday, see if you can leave only a half full trash can behind.
- Use the backs of envelopes that you receive in the mail to make to-do lists, grocery lists and to keep score in card games. Never be lacking for scrap paper again.
- Reduce the amount of hot water that you use. Do you really need hot water to wash your hands? It takes so long for the water in our bathroom sink to get hot, that I don’t even try turning it on any more. I will save the hot water for my 6 minute shower.
- Speaking of showers… take shorter ones. Time yourself. Pretend that showering efficiently is an Olympic sport!! See if you can shave a few seconds or even minutes from your routine.
- Ponder the plastic packaging. Many plastics used to protect merchandise cannot be easily recycled, even when they have one of those cute little numbered triangles on their undersides. Look for packaging with numbers 1, 2 or 4. These are the easiest to recycle and are the most widely accepted numbers at local recycling centers. Compare products that you like and let the packaging help guide you to the one that you want to buy. For example, I love to drink hot tea. When buying tea bags, I make sure that they are not individually wrapped in little plastic wrappers. That is just extra plastic that I don’t need to deal with. Or I can buy my tea in bulk, loose leaves. Buying in bulk or buying products with minimal, recyclable packaging is easy if we just pay attention.
- Compost. Come on, you know you want to… . There are many ways to do this from no cost to high cost. You can start a pile in your backyard or buy a fancy piece of equipment like this. Saving coffee grounds, veggie scraps and egg shells in a small bowl underneath your sink is a great way to get started.
- Invest in a set of glass lunch containers with plastic lids (or very sturdy plastic-just don’t microwave in it if you can help it). Pac k your lunch in these containers and stop using throwaway plastic baggies.
- If you haven’t purchased a reusable shopping bag, do it! They are very inexpensive, in fact, many places are giving them away for free. A home show or county fair is a great place to get a free reusable bag or two from local banks or utility companies. Try to accumulate a few of these bags. Bring them with you, keep one or two in each car. We play a little game where we try to avoid bringing any ‘throwaway’ plastic or paper bags into the house. I think I am winning, but I bet that Bryan thinks he is winning too.
- Switch to cloth napkins. (Even if you have kids) You can find nice, inexpensive and good looking napkins, bar towels or dish clothes that can be used. Use them, throw them in the wash and use them again. They are absorbent and can handle a lot. It is easy to figure out how many you need. For example, I like to do laundry once a week if possible, so for the two of us, we need 14 cloth napkins to make it through the week. This is plenty, because we don’t eat at home every night and so we always have clean extras available when company comes over. We do save the occasional paper napkins that come into our lives through restaurants, so we always have a little stash of paper napkins if needed. We haven’t needed to buy paper napkins for about three years.
- Try growing some of your own food. It might be one container of cherry tomatoes. (Yummy!) Or if might be a 1/2 acre garden in your backyard. By growing and eating your own food, you reap better health, better tasting food and eliminate the carbon emissions brought on my commercial agriculture. Plus, it is really fun. Grow something that you like to eat and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
- Kick the coffee habit! Did I just say that? Well at least bring your own mug. Think of all of the paper cups and “coffee collars” that you throw in the trash each day. It is the same with Big Gulps, Polar Pops, Cat Pows, Slurpies etc.
- Share your magazine subscriptions with a friend. Or cancel your subscriptions and read them at the library for free. Take a long hard look at those beautiful, glossy catalogs that you get each month. If you haven’t ordered something from the company in over a year, get on the phone and cancel them. Companies usually have copies of their catalogs available online anyway. Who needs eight copies of “The Sharper Image?”
- Stop buying so many books. This one took some getting used to for us. We were very used to spending a Sunday afternoon browsing the local book store or chain and buying lots and lots of books. I was a Buy 2, Get 1 Free junkie. Then we got library cards and our whole world changed. We saved almost $800 in 2008 when we stopped buying books and started borrowing them from the library. Saving money and saving the planet. That is what it is all about.
- Try making your own general purpose housecleaner with things that you already have around the house like lemon, white vinegar and baking soda. Try googling “homemade cleaners.” It is amazing. Your home will smell fresh and be just as clean as ever. And you will save a ton of money making cleaners at home.
- Drive less, drive smarter. I live about 14 miles from work. The place that I work is located right off of a highway, so public transportation and even biking to work are not super viable options for me. Calm, easy driving helps me to save gas. I rarely go above the posted speed limit and I have seen a 2-3 mile per gallon increase in my fuel economy. Think about it as burning rubber equals burning gas. Carpooling and grouping errands together also work very well.
- Buy recycled toilet paper. No, it isn’t always quilt-y soft. But it is still very nice and it gets the job done. Seventh Generation is a great choice.
- Shop Mom and Pop. Buy local whenever you can, it really does make a difference. Really. If you have a local hardware store, buy your tomato plants, your s-hooks and your compact florescent light bulbs there instead of the big box stores. It might cost a small amount more, but you are helping to keep these businesses in business. That feels good!
- Use both sides of your printer paper. Print the Paula Deen pound cake recipe on one side and the Self magazine guide to weight loss on the other.
- Buy compact florescent light bulbs. If you haven’t done this already, please start. They really do work.
Thanks for reading the whole list. I bet you already do many of these things! It is easy and fun to make these changes. If you have kids or reluctant spouses/partners, try making a game or challenge out of it .
I would love to hear your ideas/comments on this thread!