What Have You Done to Go "Green"?

D.,
I have always recycled.
I also use Shaklee's Get Clean nontoxic cleaning and laundry products. Shaklee is the world leader in this area. They had the very first "green" building (better than the Leeds certification.)
Victoria

Great advice from all the mom (organic, non GMO prod, vinegar to clean, public transportation...) in addition I found one little think to help lowering the amount of water we use. I put a bottle water (the big one) in my toilet tank. So when we flush we don't use as much and we save $. One flush in US equals the amount of water that some kids in poor countries get in a week!
Glad to see that there are other families who care :)
Great post, thanks!

For us this was an issue too...so a few things we have found that help:

*Washing clothing on a cold-water cycle instead of hot
*we will buy a regular bottle of detergent and cut in half with water..lasts much longer and our clothes get just as clean
*use vinegar as a cleaning agent. i have found it works for everything..cutting through grease, scrubbing counters, washing windows, etc. its safe around and pets, is more natural than many commercial cleaners, and also quite a bit cheaper.
*if you have a computer you leave running 24/7 that will give off alot of heat, and also increase electricity bills
*if you havent done so yet, switch to compact fluorescent bulbs..they cost a bit more, but last longer and dont use near as much energy.
*something that helps with going green, and even lowing bills is buying clothes second hand. many people are opposed to it but as long as the item is in decent shape and you wash it first i dont think it will be an issue.
*buying generic foods (but be sure to check prices. I have found that they aren't always cheaper)..there are some things alot of people dont buy in generic version..but in all honesty most foods in generic form are just as good as the brand names.

Well i hope it helps..it did help us quite a bit! good luck!

I now own about 15 of the cloth grocery bags... I keep about 5 in my car so I remember to take them into the store with me. I no longer put veggies into plastic bags while at the produce section unless they are "wet". I've learned to drink my tap water witha squeeze of lemon to remove other flavors from the ever changing chemical treatments. I buy one ply toilet paper and have learned to use it sparingly. I have many hand towels hanging about in the ktchen to eliminate using too many paper towels. I drive a Honda so I get decent gas mileage and supposedly not too much fumes for the ozone layer. I make sure the lights are off when not needed.
That's about it for now.

My adult daughter is MUCH more into being "green" than I am...I think it may be true that it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks because I am slow on the uptake on somethings!!!

She uses vinegar to do a TON of the cleaning in her kitchen and other areas of the house.
She puts all of her laundry out on the line when the weather permits...and she has lines down in the basement for those times that the weather is not cooperating.
We put an attic fan in her house that has really helped them cut down on cooling costs this summer.
Her family uses very VERY little toilet paper...she has made reusable cloth wipes ( http://codenamemama.com/2009/11/19/cloth-wipes/ ) that her family uses for everything but the "messiest" of times in the bath room.
She only used cloth diapers on her now almost 3 year old son
She shops garage sales, and thrift stores for a LOT of their clothes and she is involved in several groups that host quarterly "swap meets"...they bring all of their unwanted things to one central location...and after socializing and having dinner they all go out and dig through everyone elses' cast offs for new "treasures" for their house.
She tries to avoid plastic toys for her son...not only are wooden ones much more durable but they also do not have certain chemicals in them that she is trying to avoid in the plastic ones.
She has a garden in her back yard and also visits the local farmers market on a frequent basis.
In her chest type deep freeze she fills up the empty spaces with gallons of water ....they help keep the food cold in case of an energy loss and it also saves money because there is less "air" in the freezer for it to keep cool.
Their family do not automatically turn on a light when they go into a room..it is very common for them to have NO lights on in the house during the daylight hours. I must admit I am bad about this..maybe it is just that my 62 year old eyes WANT more light to be able to see well!!!
I will be interested to see what other ideas some of our Mama's come up with!! Thank you for posing this question!!

We keep the house at 68 in the winter and 76 during the summer.
We cloth diaper most of the time.
I exclusively breastfeed and make almost all my babies food.
I buy local and organic when I can afford it.
We recycle almost everything possible.
We compost.
We have a veggie and herb garden in the spring/summer/fall.
We bought fuel-efficient cars that were no bigger than we needed.

Those are the things off the top of my head...

I LOVED reading all the answers! So glad you asked this question. Some of them brought me back to my child hood, where my father worked hard to instill in us respect for the enviornment- before it was 'cool'. Some things: We always had a garden and orchard and did alot of canning and freezing of our own food. Had our own 'family cow' for milk ...and eventually meat. Also always had chickens running around for fresh eggs...and chicken. (Not sure if this will help you in Fresno, but for those reading this who might have a few acres) We didn't have garbage collection. We burned all paper- since we bought only whole foods we didn't have alot of 'extra plastic'. We used the backs of all paper. I can remember my Father buying car parts and giving the 'garbage' back to the store. (Always a big hit! ;) We recycled all cardboard, plastic containers, and any light plastic we put in garbage bags and when it was summer and fall, my father had 'agreements' with suburbanites to drop of 1 bag of garbage on their garbage collection days, and pick up 2 bags of grass clippings or leaves in the fall. These went in our compost pile (he made sure they didn't spray), or on the garden to keep the weeds down.
Today, I buy almost all 2nd hand clothes for myself and my children (with the exception of underwear and socks), We haven't turned on the electric heat in our house for 2 years. We use only our wood stove. No extra lights. I also have made a smarter shopping decision and now shop online with a company that I know is environmentally responsible instead of supporting 'big industry' and their surface shows of 'green' to earn LEED points. I worked in the industry and know how corrupt it is! This allows me to save money, have less plastic waste, and also saves me a trip to the store(45 mins), where I am tempted to impulse buy. While I respect the people who are using vinegar and baking soda to clean, I am unable to use the vinegar- the smell makes me sick as well as my husband. But I am a fan of baking soda for so many uses. Grocery- I need to utilize the reusable bags like so many are suggesting. But I do re-use all of the plastic bags or recycle them to my parents health food store. Going green is a process, and everybody should be commended for every babystep they take in that direction. Remember it takes 21 days to make or break a habit! So just start incorporating little things in your life at a time until it becomes habit. I also try to unplug all chargers- we have 4 for phones and blue tooths- these pull electricity! .

We have not gone completely green; however, we have converted our homes to non-toxic products including personal care products and cleaners. They are safer for us and the environment. Because they are concentrated, it reduces waste. They also save us money!

Excellent question. I enjoyed the answers.

We garden. I've planted food plants among or instead of landscape plants. Example: strawberries do very well as low growing evergreen ground covers. They give you white flowers in the spring. Red fruit in the summer, and stay green all year. All of my shade trees also bear fruit or nuts. My bushes are blueberries or hazelnuts. To make my home less desirable to burglars I planted roses in front of the windows.

I compost and have drip irrigation.
I cook from scratch to use less packaging.
I refill my water bottles over and over rather than using them once.
My dog eats table scraps. Last year I used one ten pound bag of dog food.
When I eat out we always get a doggie bag and ask the waitress for an extra doggie bag for our dog.
I use the branches trimmed from our trees in my BBQ grill.
When we play games, I use the paper in junk mail (only printed on one side)to keep score and to let the kids draw on.
I've been to meetings where they give you paper and pencils or pens to take notes on. I usually gather up several pads of paper or pens or pencils so they don't end up in the trash. Then we use them at home or the kids take them to school for use at school.
When they put the new energy saver lights on sale at 4/$1 I bought enough to replace all the lights at home plus several replacements.
We had a new energy blanket installed in out attic.
We have an attic fan, sometimes called a whole house fan and use that almost all the time. We have used the a/c less than 12 times so far this year. We use the attic fan for a short period at night to cool the house down and then use ceiling fans to keep it comfortable where we are in the house. I replaced my single pane windows with double pane.
I planted trees and shrubs to shade the house on the south and west sides to make it cooler in the summer time.
I have a solar clothes dryer, although my wife doesn't like to use it . (Clothes line)

We had a natural gas water heater and a natural gas furnace when we moved in here. From April to November we often paid the minimum gas charge because we didn't use enough gas. I changed the electric double oven to a gas double oven and the four burner electric cook top to a five burner gas cook top. We now pay above the minimum on gas every month. We have dropped our gas and electricity bill together by about $20 to $25 per month.
When I use a crock pot I place a cloth hand towel over the glass lid. Then I can cook at the same temperature, but can have the temperature setting at medium or low instead of high. If I double the towel I can cook on the "warm" setting.
I cook the meals in the summer requiring the least amount of heat. I cook the warmest meals requiring a lot of heat in the winter.
When I cook on the cook top, I use pot lids that my DIL made insulated covers for. (They look like cloth hot pot holders and enable you to cook with less heat.)

Our electric bill has hit $60 one month and never over $100 for a 2200 sq ft home. Good luck to you and yours.

We are still working on converting all the old bulbs to the energy savers. I use a lot of AA batteries for my flash on my cameras, which heat up and I then dump them and reload with fresh batteries, using about 8 batteries in one session. They still have some power left, but they are used so I mark them with a sharpie with one line for still a little power left and 2 lines for dead. I keep them in a bag and reuse them in our remote controls and cordless stuff. They still have months of use left in them. Then I take them to Best Buy or Office Depot to dispose of them. Nothing has ever been compromised due to using used batteries.

I use the reusable grocery bags, but from time to time I need the plastic store bags for the dog mess. So when I need more, I use the stores disposable bags.

Print on two sides of paper, even if I have to respond on the back side of a letter from my recipient. I do this at work too. I no longer purchase sticky notes or pads, I use scraps of trash and a paperclip. I haven't used a sticky note in about a year now. As well, print less.

I buy thinner trash liners, they are cheaper and will disintegrate faster. I find they work just fine even in the kitchen.

And last but not least...a catchers mitt is not needed in the restroom, just enough to do the job.

*We shred our cereal boxes and any cardboard to put in our compost. Living in San Diego, the "brown" stuff is hard to come by.
*Kleen Kanteens in lunches and for work plus reusable bags and containers PBA-free
*Grow lots of fruit, veggies and herbs
*Go to library instead of buying books
*Use my daughter's art for wrapping paper
*Collect water in barrels from downspouts for watering garden
*Collect water from washing machine when it drains for garden
*Line dry
*Catch water in bucket when waiting for water to warm up in shower
*Sweep, don't use blower
*Have plants in home to promote cleaner air
*Try to buy local or at least read labels and consider how far food has traveled
*Avoid plastic packaging
*Bought Prius, but unfortunately have to drive a lot. Walk to the store though
*Save old clothes, sheets, socks, etc for art supplies.

Love this post!!

We've always turned off all unused lights and appliances, and open blinds and curtains wide during the day so we don't have to turn lights on. Most of our lighting is now the newer high efficiency fluorescent lighting that looks pleasant and natural. (Some of the older "daylight" fluorescents gave a cold, grey color rendering, and I couldn't stand them.)

We layer our clothing – adding or subtracting as needed. Heat doesn't come on during the day unless temp drops under 65, or under 60 at night. No cooling unless we're actually dripping sweat, around 80 degrees, depending on humidity. We installed a heat pump several years ago – very efficient for both heating and cooling.

We don't drive unless absolutely necessary, and combine a number of errands into one trip. We carefully maintain our older compact car. With almost 300,000 miles, it still gets almost 40 m.p.h.

We don't use power tools where hand tools will do the job, although aging has brought some loss of strength, so I use an electric lawnmower now.

I hang laundry to dry when weather allows. I've discovered that when bath towels get to dry quickly after use, they can go for a week or even longer before they begin to sour. And they last longer with less laundering.

Vinegar or baking soda clean almost everything well. No synthetic chemicals in my home, ever. I've suffered from chemical sensitivities for over 20 years now, and do everything in my power not to add chemicals to the environment that other people's children will have to share. I've met far too many chemically-challenged young kids, and know how limited their lives are. There are few "safe" places to go – even at church, parishoners tend to show up wafting perfume.

Recyclable grocery bags are great. Cloth (I have a few) or paper (I've got some that have been used at least 50 times).

This probably sounds like a lot, but I worked myself into most of it over a 2-3 year period, and have made only gradual changes since then. It seems like a pretty easy lifestyle, over all. New habits are as easy to maintain as old habits.

I've virtually eliminated the use of paper towels in our home. Instead, I stocked up on simple cotton dish towels and we toss them in a garbage can expressly for this use. It adds about one load of laundry every 2-3 weeks.

Going just one or two degree warmer or cooler on your thermostat can yield big savings. Also, ensure that your filters are changed regularly and properly rated for your system. Some of the new "allergenic" filters can restrict air flow on older systems.

Some other things:
weather-stripping
composting
baking soda, vinegar, salt for cleaning--rubbing alcohol for extra disinfecting
buying staple like flour, rice, oatmeal, etc in the bulk aisle to save packaging
turn off and unplug devices that aren't used regularly
reusable water bottles and food storage

It only takes a little common sense and commitment. Nothing elaborate.

We no longer use plastic bags for the kids' school lunches. Their lunches are packed in these really great BPA-free plastic containers that we bought at Whole Foods. They are the perfect size compartments for sandwiches, fruit slices and chips, and fit perfectly in my children's lunch boxes.

To save on electricity, we are just very mindful of turning off and unplugging things that we are not using. People sometimes don't realize it but even if you are not using the toaster or the coffee pot, if you keep them plugged in, they are still drawing electricity from the outlet.

As far as green cleaners go, we use a lot of vinegar, baking soda and borax around our house. They are friendlier for the environment and not as costly as the stuff that you are able to buy with a coupon at the grocery store.

What a great question to ask! I can't wait to see what other posters have to say on this issue.

we dont eat meat, we use those incandescant bulbs, i walk or rollerblade more than i drive and i try to reduce and reuse many things

Recycling is always a good way to start. I also like the re-use idea as well. I have taken shirts and made pants/shorts for my toddler. I also put old clothes in a fabric box to use later for quilts, clothing, toys, doll clothes, etc. I am a beginner seamstress but I am learning. Our daughter loves to take 20 oz bottles and use them like bowling pins.
As for utility bills, we have found that gas is less than electric so we have a gas heater/electric a/c. Definitely a lot cheaper in the winter. Depending on where you live, fans are cheaper than a/c. We did this a lot this past summer. During good weather, hanging clothes out on a line is definitely a cheaper alternative than using the dryer.
Hope these help and I applaud your efforts to be a green family. <3

I shop online for products that are highly concentrated thus not filling up the landfill plus they are not toxic so they do not pollute the air. S.

In addition to some of the things already mentioned:
We only have one neighbor, so we only mow our grass about every 3 weeks in the summer. Most of our yard (we have 3 acres) is left wild with the exception of a couple of paths I mow occasionally. (The deer seem to like it.) No a/c, heat stays at 63. Closing the curtains to keep the heat or cold out, depending on the season. Teaching my kids the meaning of waste and to be respectful of the work and energy that goes into producing the things we use (but they still can't remember to flick that light switch when they leave the room!). We also supplement with a wood stove since we have an abundence of firewood. Thanks, emerald ash borer! I also try to make sure that if I have to use the oven, I have two things to put in it. I hate using all that energy for one little thing.

my family have been recycling glass cans and plastic bottles, we recycle for money and save the money in a jar and put it into our kids savings account. We also use reusable bags everytime we go grocery shopping, and open the window whn its cooler outside. Also since we live very close to the grocery store we walk to get groceries rather than drive our car, it helps keep the air clean and we save gas! Me and my two yr old will plant little plants flowers, small little trees and whatnots in our front yard, its good for the ecosystem and also nice little activity to do with ur kids. I hope some of these helped.

Mother of 2 yr old, 5 mnth old

intuitively i think this helps although i can't be sure: open the dishwasher just as it gets to the dry cycle and let the dishes air dry. oh and only run a dishwasher when its full.

I use toilet paper made from recycled paper and ALWAYS bring bags to the grocery store. I also use cloth produce bags. I turn off my computer when not using it and do not leave my cell phone charger plugged in when it is not charging my phone. I line dry some of my laundry. Good-luck.

compost! if you don't have a yard you can use a worm bin; some cities are now composting all residents' kitchen scraps.

Hi D.
I use my own bags at the grocery store.
I recycle everything that I can.
I use "green" household cleaners and detergents.
I wash most of my laundry on a cold/cold wash (I only wash towels on a hot/cold wash) and I do not have a dryer, I line dry my laundry.
I ma constantly following people around my house to turn out lights in unoccupied rooms.
I also have "black-out" foil lined blinds so that in the cold months they help to keep in the warmth, and they also help keep the house cool in the hotter months.
Good luck in doing your part :)