It’s now been about a year since we’ve started our “green journey.” Read how it all began here. So I thought I’d ‘outline’ all the changes we’ve made this past year. Really for my own benefit – as a source of encouragement that we can keep doing this – after we see how far we’ve come! And some changes aren’t just “green” but also “simplified” as we learn to simplify our life.
Disposables/Reusables
- No disposable plates/cups/bowls/utensils
- No disposable napkins/papertowels (cloth napkins & rags instead)
- No disposable cooking pans (honestly, I used disposable for everything!)
- Reusuable Shopping Bags only
- No more disposable water bottles…reusable water bottles only!
- No more plastic bags…reuse bread bags or use containers instead
Mean Green Cleaning
- All Natural Cleaners (got rid/gave away all bad cleaners)
- Homemade natural cleaners
- Wash clothes on cold cycle only
- Hang dry most laundry (exceptions of sheets/blankets)
Saving Water
- Turn off water when brushing our teeth!
- Only run dishwasher when full (doesn’t take long though…)
- Save water from water bottles, glasses, etc. to water plants
- Use napkins multiple times before washing
- Installed an aerator on the kitchen faucet
Conserving Energy/Reducing Pollution
- Keep the heat at 65-68
- Use space heater in bedroom, to turn heat way down at night, use heater to heat up room right before bed time, then turn off while we sleep
- air conditioner to minimum or 78-80 – or OFF!
- NO TV – Got rid of all TVs
- Got rid of 2 computers (now only have 3)
- Started unplugging items…ie putting on powerstrips, turning off when at work, etc.
- Switch to CFL Lightbulbs
- Turn off Lights…use natural light whenever possible
- Conscious of oven use…use in stages or use toaster oven/crock pot instead
- When down to 1 energy-efficient car (used to have 2)
- Checking tire pressure regularly for fuel efficiency
- Don’t idle the car anymore (used to a lot!)
- Use public transportation (I take bus to school, would be a 30 min. ‘driving’ commute, every day)
- Bike! or Walk! as much as we can
Food Habits: Eating/Shopping/Cooking
- No soda
- No Kool-aid/sugary juice drinks
- Buy local
- Buy organic
- Shop at Farmer’s Market
- Buy in bulk (reduce packaging)
- Learning how to bake from scratch (ie no more cake mixes, from scratch only)
- Make own granola bars
- No individually packaged items (ie granola bars, pop tarts)
- Reducing amount of meat we’re eating
- No more Teflon
- Reducing plastics we cook with (ie plastic spoons, etc.)
- Cook in big batches = freezer meals!
- Regular meal plans each week
- Black thumb…tried to grow some garden plants…will try again next summer!
Shopping Habits: Used
- Buy all & only used – clothing, books, furniture, small appliances, etc.
- Shop used before buying anything new…and look for a few months before giving in and buying used
- Go to the library… a lot!…so we don’t buy the book, magazine, etc.
- No more Wal-Mart
Greening the Bathroom
- Switched to buying toilet paper made from recycled products
- No makeup for me…well, only mascara now, got rid of beauty products
- Eco-friendly bath products (ie shampoo, shaving cream, etc.)
- No more perfumes
Cleaning (out the) House (of junk, chemicals and toxins)
- Switch to all soy or eco-friendly candles…better for the environment and better for my asthma!
- Downsized my closet…considerably!
- Reduced material possession literally in half
- Recycle! (didn’t care much before, half-tried)
Misc.
- Conscious of gift wrapping (either from thrift stores, use up what I have or use reusable items – ie a thrifted cookie tin) – I used to go crazy with gift wrapping!
- Reducing junk mail (canceling magazines, catalogs, etc.)
- Reducing paper bills (switched to all online banking)
- Sticking to the budget
- Keeping a Sabbath each Saturday
Whew! Seems like the list should be longer, but I didn’t expand on some topics. You’ll just have to keep reading to find out what we’ll do next!
What have you done in the last year?
PS – Currently Reading has been update!
Flickr Image Via
carrie said,
October 15, 2007 @ 1:50 pm
Megan,
This is a very inspiring post. I should make a list of green goals for our household and put it in a visible place. I aspire to much of what you mentioned. Thanks for sharing!
Jason said,
October 15, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
I have been reading your blog for about 6 months now and I “stumbled” upon it by a link from Charlie Dean’s blog. This is my first time commenting because I wanted to say, “wow” after reading that list. I have been working on simplifying my life over the past 2 years and have about half as many accomplishments as you do. You mentioned that you posted this list to help encourage yourself, but I wanted to take the time to thank you because it encourages me as well. The two things I am working on now are “sticking” to a budget (I put sticking in quotes because I have a budget I just don’t follow it as well as I must) and going to the Library. I currently have my own and it doesn’t need to get bigger.
Thanks again. Jason . . .
Homemaking Links (10-16-07) said,
October 16, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
[...] One Year – Greeniversary!, Megan Crow’s one year “green [...]
dd said,
October 17, 2007 @ 6:13 am
This is a really awesome post. It really should be published and seen by more people. You have a knack of writing so well, organized, clear, concise, and especially explaining how to do something, whether it’s being more green or managing a budget. In a way that I think other people (and I mean regular people, not just extreme environmentalists) could really implement. There are a lot of green sites out there but they seem to end up being more theoretical or just reading material, because people have a hard time actually implementing behavior and lifestyle changes.
carrie said,
October 17, 2007 @ 8:32 am
Megan,
I have been thinking more about this list and wanted to ask a couple questions.
Since we also live in a cold environment, how do you dry your clothes in the winter?
Beauty products/toiletries: I don’t wear any makeup, but am curious–do you not use many products anymore or did you just replace them all with natural (lotion, deodorant, etc.)?
Thanks.
Megan said,
October 17, 2007 @ 9:15 am
Carrie – Great questions! I love questions, I always want people to ask more and more if they need to…because when I first started this I had SO MANY questions and with no one to ask them.
We live in an apt. and our apt. complex permits us hanging anything outside. So this means all of our laundry hangs in our living room.
The only thing we don’t hang dry is sheets/towels and sometimes jeans because we’re in a hurry and they take 2 days to dry! We can’t hang sheets/bath towels because we don’t have room – but I do hang all washclothes/hand towels/kitchen towels/napkins (ie smaller towels).
I have 4 large drying racks and 1 small. I just put more in my Christmas list – and am always searching thrift stores for them! All but 2 were bought at thrift stores. On laundry ‘day’ I have a system of how I hang all the items in our living room. Some hanging items (such as button down shirts) get hung on any random chair/door knob. I do my laundry in the evening – and just have to make sure I don’t do too many loads at once – then usually by the next evening (when we’re home from school/work) the clothes are dry. I put away everything that is dry and consolidate everything else to 1 drying rack. If companies coming over, I can always stash that 1 drying rack in the extra bath tub to finish drying – and no one knows it’s there
Whew! I should’ve just done a post about this
For beauty products…I do still use mascara (not natural, just cheapest I can find), and chapstick. I recently am trying to switch to Burt’s Bees for chapstick…but it will take a while!
I also use Burt’s Bees Blemish Stick. But got rid of all other special ‘face potions’ (ie I had lotions for redness, wipes for acne, etc.)
For Shampoo/Conditioner/Body Wash/Soap we have switched to all natural products.
I haven’t switched face lotion/face wash yet because I’ve been using up what I had left. Even before this I used products for my face/body that had no dyes/perfumes because I have sensitive skin. Right now I am still using up Cetaphil (or the off-brand Walgreen’s brand) for my moisturizer and face wash – I really love it, it works the best. So I’m not sure when i finish if I’ll switch or not. It’s hard to find ‘natural’ lotions that don’t seperate all the time.
So my morning is:
Shampoo – Burt’s Bees (still trying out different brands)
Conditioner – can’t remember the brand! but all ‘natural’
Face Wash – Cetaphil
Shaving Cream – Kiss My Face – no fragrance cream
Soap – Kiss My Face bar of soap
Mascara – I think it’s Maybelline right now, 2 for 1 on sale!
Deodorant – Secret – I used to buy in bulk, so still using up what I have – will try a natural brand next (probably Kiss My Face)
Burt’s Bees Blemish Stick – if needed
Moisturizer/Lotion – Cetaphil
Blowdryer and sometimes straightener
Hairspray – Matrix Freeze Tricks, still using up a HUGE bottle I have, but use small amounts
And chapstick is always with me…but trying to slowly switch to Burt’s Bees.
Does this help at all?? I should do a blog post about it…its amazing how even 1 year later I’m still ‘using up’ what I had from before…so switching to organic is a process, cause I wont just throw out everything I had before (thats redundant!), so I use it up, then switch.
carrie said,
October 22, 2007 @ 9:16 am
Megan,
Thanks for responding to this–and so thoroughly. It’s really helpful. Good plan–use things up and make the switch. I think I can swing that with toiletries, but I’m planning to just freecycle our cleaning products. When my husband I got married, we ended up with way too many bottles. I’d like to get rid of them and only use non-toxic!
Angst: A Blogging Hiatus « That’s Swell said,
October 23, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
[...] ‘ask questions’ to – so feel free to ask me any questions – if you saw something on our Greeniversary that you’re curious about, etc. just let me [...]
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November 20, 2007 @ 10:22 am
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From the Comments: Green Beauty Products « That’s Swell said,
January 6, 2008 @ 8:09 am
[...] few months ago, in response to my One Year- Greeniversary post, Carrie asked a question about the beauty products/toiletries we use: I don’t wear any [...]
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February 20, 2008 @ 10:45 am
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