Thursday, July 19, 2007

What have you done lately?

So over the past year or so I've really committed myself to going "green". This has the potential of being a huge undertaking, and once you find other like-minded and more devoted green-living folk...well, you begin to feel like you can never do enough! I find it inspiring to list the things I do do!

* Haven't bought paper towels for over 6 months. (Chris is another story...I'm working on him.)
* Phasing out chemical cleaners in favor of vinegar, water and baking soda. (The salad smell fades quickly!)
* Make our own bread (Most of the time, reduces waste and eliminates the purchase of one more item that has been shipped all over the country.)
* Buy used! (I did this with clothing before it was vogue and before I knew it was green!)
* Actually use the sewing kit I've had for years to get more mileage out of the clothes I have.
* Planted a (miserable failure of a) garden! Next year will be better.
* Wash all clothes, with very few exceptions, in cold water.
* Reuse my plastic bags at the grocery. (This probably isn't as good as cloth, but I think its warrants mention.)
* Use cloth breast pads. (I really encourage any Bfing moms to try these, they beat the pants off the disposable ones!)
* Breastfeeding! (Of course this is green...but shhhhhh...don't jinx it, its going much more smoothly than with my first daughter!)
* Our table scraps, instead of going in the disposal or trashcan, are tossed into our (miserable failure of a) garden.
* Stopped buying bananas. (This may not seem like much, but explain that to my toddler!)


So I think you can see that you're probably doing more than you realize that could be called green. Typically, the things you do in the name of frugality or health tend to have a parallel environmental benefit. So show me your list, however short!!