Electricity, Electricity

In the afternoons on the weekends, I've been trying to open the curtains up in the living room and library. When we first started renting the house, we loved the amount of light coming in from the downstairs windows. It made the place feel so open. We quickly found out that all that sun was a killer in the afternoons, and you couldn't see the TV at all. Well, the TV is gone, because we didn't watch that one much anyway, and we didn't want Ian running into it. And as long as I close the curtains sometime between between 3 and 4 pm, it doesn't get so hot. Ian loves to rest his forearms on the windowsills and look out at the birds.

We used to always leave the computer on, albeit in sleep mode. What's the point of turning off your computer when your monitor, external DVD burner, and external hard drive all stay on? Recently, we got a new serge protector that shuts off peripherals when you shut off your main device. You plug your computer into a certain socket, and when you shut it off, it cuts power to the other outlets on the strip. There are three outlets that don't ever have the power cut so you can plug in your modem and router. Now we're turning off the computer at night, and saving money! We've also got the cable to the modem protected as well; it wasn't before.

New Recruit!

Our loyal follower, Tiffany, has begun to bring some of her recyclables over to our house. Yay! She lives in an apartment; trying to recycle in an apartment is a nightmare. Boo!

Stay Green, Baby!

A new baby in the house has a big impact on, well, everything.

Where to begin? First off, I exclusively breastfed. Not only is breastfeeding better for the child (get sick less often even after weening, have fewer allergies, are better socially adjusted children and have more self-confidence, and are not getting corn syrup solids), not only is it cheaper (it's free! ...as opposed to about $2000 the first year), but it's also better for the environment because you're producing the food, not a company, and there's nothing to throw away. I really do not understand why anyone would chose not to breastfeed. I understand it if when you go back to work and you just can't pump (BTW, my pump cost $220 and I sold it for $100).

When you breastfeed, you probably want nursing pads. They're about 50 cents a pair. I some days, I went through 5 pair. That's a fair bit of change over a year (probably over $200) and a lot of waste. I spent $30 on 10 pair of cotton pads at milkdiapers.com, and they work great! I don't need to do any extra laundry, because I can just throw them in the wash when I'm doing a load.

I tried using biodegradable diapers (they looked like Taco Bell napkins!), but after we weren't waking Ian up every two hours to eat, we weren't changing him enough at night, and they leaked all over the place. And then he started getting diaper rash. So it was back to Huggies. I could use cotton diapers, but I think the same thing would happen, and they don't let you use anything but disposable at daycare. Environmentally, I think they're about the same, when you factor in the whole life-span of the product. Do I feel guilty? A little.

I made almost all of Ian's baby food, and probably spent less than half the amount I would have if I would have bought it from Gerber or BeechNut. And that includes the $45 we spent on the Good Grips food mill. It was fun to make; every four weeks or so, I'd take four or five hours and make a bunch of food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then I'd pop them out, and put them in a bag or reusable container. The food was fresher, healthier (so many Gerber foods are made from concentrate -- yeah, I don't understand either), much, much tastier, and there weren't any glass jars or plastic containers to recycle. I did buy most meat in a jar, and some exotic fruits for him to try, but almost all of it I made myself.

Finally, a couple of simple changes I made. I stopped using paper towels to wipe Ian up after meals. Instead I use an old baby washcloth. Also, we've started buying used toddler clothes and shoes. both of these saves money and resources.

Reuse Sighting

There was a car in the parking lot at work that had a sunscreen in the window made from a dog-food bag. It was one of those big fifty pound bags made from plastic-coated canvas. They had cut it open so it lay flat (and washed it I assume) and had it spread open covering their from windshield.

Green Cleaning

Cleaning product are often full of nasty chemicals, made from petroleum, and are toxic. The first thing we changed was our dish soap, followed shortly after by changing our toilet cleaner and shower cleaner. We use Seventh Generation products for all of these, and they clean just as well as the older name brands that we used to use, but are not made from petroleum. We really like the dish soap -- it smells so good! Later, we started using their laundry detergent because we couldn't find Era for sale anywhere in San Antonio, and no one could get it for us. I prefer the Free & Clear to the scented, but they both work just as well.

We had been using Bounce dryer sheets for some time. Again, we used their fragrance free variety, but it was often hard to find. About two months ago, we got Nellie's Dryer Balls from Gaiam. Dryer sheets have carcinogens in them. What I hate about them is how many you have to just throw away. These dryer balls do the trick, as long as you put them in separately, and while your loading your dryer, not just thrown in on top. I find less lint and that the drying time is reduced by a couple of minutes.

Just a few weeks ago, we replaced the Swiffer. Swiffer was great -- it was the difference of me cleaning my floors vs. not. But I was sad about the amount of "dry cloths" I was throwing away. Again, from Gaiam I bought something very similar, but with cloth attachments that you can wash. It seems to pick up dirt and dust even better than the Swiffer, and the handle is both longer and adjustable. I think this is really the way to go. I was thinking of selling the Swiffer broom at my next garage sale, but I think I might hang onto it until I can find a better way to mop. Again, it's Swiffer, or it's me not mopping.

I want to hang the sheets and towels outside to dry. It's been over 100°F here for three weeks, with hardly any rain. I know they'd fade, but let's face it -- they're old anyway. I'm just worried about bird poop.

Making it Work at Work

Unfortunately, the university at which I work does not support recycling on satellite campuses. Never-mind the fact that there are four, large buildings on my campus, and that they're building an even bigger one right next to us. They just don't want to put recycling bins behind one of the buildings (that's what the administrator of my building told me). So I bring home cardboard boxes that I had food in. I also bring home small cardboard boxes from work, such as those binder clips come in. And it all goes in my recycling bins at home.

I also try to print everything double sided to save paper. This also save space in my filing cabinets and save the institute money on paper. When I can't print double sided, I use the back of the paper to make notes or to do calculations before I throw it out. (You can see it in the picture under the light on the right.) I've got a lot more waste paper than I have notes to make, so I bring it home sometimes to use as scratch paper. Jeff does the same.

I used to take bottled water to work, because the tap water in San Antonio is the nastiest I've ever encountered. There's sediment if you let your cup sit for awhile! I was bringing those bottles home to recycle, but about a two years ago, I started just getting water out of the cooler. It's on the other side of the building, but the walk is good for me. I'm also not contributing to the processes required to bottle water, get it too me, and recycle that bottle.

Save the Paper!

Something we did to reduce our paper usage awhile ago was to stop buying paper plates. I hated throwing them out all the time. Sure, you're not using water and soap to wash them, but if you use glass plates, you're not responsible for all the electricity and chemical usage in the manufacturing process as well as the trees used. And if you use a dishwasher, you'll probably have it full of glasses and flatware that need to be washed, so you just fill the rest up with plates.

And importantly, you're saving money. It's $45 for a pack of 1200 paper plates on Amazon. One of these packs is about what a family of four uses in one month if they each use a plate every morning for breakfast and for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. That's $540 per year. Many things that you can do to reduce and reuse actually save you money.

We often trade games through the mail. Sometimes we've bought a game, thinking that we're going to like it, but we really don't play it that much, or it's not what we thought it was going to be. So we find someone else who wants it and trade. We save the packing materials from these shipments, along with materials from online purchases, to box up our trades to send. I'm sure some of these packing materials have been used in many, many trades. We just keep everything organized in the closest in the office. Also, if we sell something on eBay, we can use the packing material to ship the item. Again, this is saving us money by reducing what we need to buy. Also, when we're done with a cereal box, I cut it up to use as backing to send pictures to family.

Just recently, we've started purchasing napkins made from recycled paper from Seventh Generation. They're a little thinner than what we were getting, but hold up just as well.

The Bag's the Hook

There were some things I did to reduce before, but what really got me hooked was reusable bags. I didn't like the idea of buying a little bag that cost $3, looked ugly, and I knew I would forget it. One day when we were at Half Price Books, we saw their b(eco)me green reusable bags for sale for a mere 98 cents! These things are large and sturdy. And you can put it over your shoulder, which helps when bringing them in from the car. And fewer bags means less fumbling getting the groceries in. We got five to put in Jeff's SUV and one to put in my car. And they're great. The grocery store we frequent gives 5 cent discounts for each bag you don't use, which is a nice bonus.

I was finding I was in places like Walgreens a lot, and didn't have my bag with me, either because I forgot it (which was usually the case), or it was too cumbersome to carry around with me. So I got three little ChicoBags ($7) that are the size of a plastic grocery bag, but fold up into a little bitty pouch. The little bag is attached to the inside of the bag, so you'll never lose it. And it's only about three inches in height, so it fits well in my purse. And they're machine washable and hold up to 25 pounds! And they can also attach to your key chain or belt.

It was very easy to buy some bags, and use them at the grocery store. The next easy step was to buy a few to carry around with me all the time.

The Beginning

I've always been annoyed at waste. I remember being a kid and thinking what a waste it was to package things the way they did at the grocery store. When Jeff and I got married, we recycled glass bottles, and we tried to recycle white paper, but it was hard to do much more than that while living in a tiny apartment. When we finally moved into a house (May 2006), we were able to do curb-side recycling, and we've been recycling as much as we possibly can. We recycle more than half of our solid waste.

Last night I started thinking about how much we've tried to "go green" since being in the house in San Antonio, and I realized how much we've done only in the last four to six months or so. Thus, I decided to start this blog as a sort of journal of where we've come from, and how we're trying to ever improve.

I hope this green kick that I'm on not only lasts for me, but also catches on with the population in this country. It's really not as hard as it seems. I realized recently that "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" doesn't just mean "Recycle." And I read somewhere that you're supposed to follow those instructions in the order given: recycling is the last part -- reduce and reuse first. It seems like so much is disposable nowadays that the first two Rs just go hand in hand.

After my first taste of reducing and reusing, I caught the bug, but I didn't know how to proceed. I got online in hopes of finding some pointers on easy ways to live green, but all I found were either things I was already doing, which I really didn't consider green living (i.e. don't waste food by buying too much because you went to the grocery store hungry) or ultra-hippie, and let's face it, I'm not going to stop using toilet paper. And I'm not going to use an old t-shirt as a diaper (yes, I did read that on treehugger.com, which I am now done with for all but humor).

All I did was to stop and think about what I was using and throwing away every day and how that would add up over the course of a year. Once I could identify the waste, it has been easy to correct it little by little so far. God wants us to take care of the Earth -- let's do it!