Yesterday morning I watched Z run out to the curb begging his daddy to let him help carry the recycling container back inside. They each had one end while Z struggled to keep up his end of the big green bin. Then in the afternoon after we opened up some of our creekey old windows to let the breeze flow through the house so that we wouldn’t need to turn on the AC. At night I was cleaning up from the weekends camping trip and emptied out some plastic bags that I had used to carry some of our stuff around, I went ahead and reused the bags a second time by lining the bathroom trash cans. These little mental snapshots are what come to mind when I think of just some of the subconscious ways my family is in the habit of doing our part to go green. This Friday is earth day, so I thought it would be appropriate to do a top ten list of some of the things I try to do for our little earth.
1. We use filtered water and reusable water bottles instead of plastic.
2. We buy our cars, computers, MOST of our clothes, and furniture all USED.
3. We have gradual increased the amount of home grown ingredients we consume, but this year we have two big gardens and I am SO excited to eat all the goodies we’ve planted together as a family.
4. I made a new years resolution to use “green” shopping bags back in 2009 and I have them EXCLUSIVELY done so ever since then. J even installed hooks in the kitchen just for that purpose.
5. Cloth diapers are super frugal, but believe it or not it was listening to a podcast about the harmful impact of disposables on landfills that got me started with the reusable diapers.
6. Hanging clothes on the line is therapeutic for me. The clothes smell good, the sun removes stains from whites, and of course it saves energy.
7. My parents just bought a hybrid
and while I may not be able to compete with 60 miles to the gallon I try to carpool, walk, and drive in a way that reduces my carbon footprint.
8. Our kitchen is run off of energy efficient appliances and maybe some day our laundry room will be too!
9. My husband is a tree hugger in the sense that he literally loves trees and we have planted and transplanted many of them every year.
10. This last one is a surprise that I will share later, but I will give you a hint they hatched today!
You are an inspiration. I do many of these but I could do better. Good job!
N.L.W.
I am also moving toward more sustainable living and love to see how others are handling it.
Really enjoyed your post and cant wait to see what hatched!
I need to do a MUCH better job with my grocery bags. I just have such a hard time remembering them! Ugh! Nice list & good job being GREEN! (found you on Oh Amanda!)
Oh my goodness, you are super green in my opinion! We also buy lots used, use cloth diapers, use reusable water bottles and reusable shopping bags (LOVE the hooks). I aspire to gardening, hanging a clothes line, and gathering eggs out of my backyard! Can't wait to hear all about that last one.
4 reusable cups and bottles, all in a row–that could be MY kitchen counter!
I love my reusable bags but keeping them organized is a major pain. They're so bulky! Any ideas?
We are planting a garden this year for the first time in an effort to be more self sustainable.
Good for you for finding so many easy ways to be green.
Wow! That is fantastic!!
Ohhh, can't see what's hatched later!!!
You are doing awesome! I have an Earth Day post coming up this week, too, though it'll mainly be bragging on my sweet boy! 🙂
Those are some great Earth Day tips:)
Before I make this thing sound bigger than what it is I should clarify that when I say I hang clothes on the line that does NOT mean every load and I certainly don't walk everywhere. However I enjoy these things when I do them and I feel like I am helping the environment at the same time. 🙂