Light green

I'm not going to lie. I'm no environmentalist. I've been known to make fun of Birkenstock-wearing, braid-coiffed tree huggers on occasion. Discussions on global warming make me roll my eyes.

But you know, being green is cool now. I started thinking about some green things I've been doing for a while without even much effort. I realized that a lot of things I've been making habits of out for the sake of frugality are also making me a little greener. We'll call it "light green".

Here's my list so far:

*I use the new reusable shopping bags. I love them actually. They hold more, they are easier to carry into the house, and I don't feel like my jar of spaghetti sauce is going to shatter in the parking lot.
*I reuse Ziploc bags a few times before tossing (unless they held meat or something like that).
*I use cold water for most of my laundry. I notice no difference in the condition of our clothes.
*I only use about half the capful of detergent. Again, I don't see any difference.
*I hang a lot of clothes to dry on our little retractable line in the laundry room.
*I use vinegar for about half my cleaning. So effective and nothing is cheaper.
*I try to bake things back-to-back while the oven is hot (especially in the winter).
*I try to only bake early in the day in the summer.
*I save all paper with a blank side to be used as scratch paper or to print a grocery list. Who cares if it's on the back of the church program?
*I freecycle, thrift shop, and buy used items almost always.
*I have been making a few of our gifts instead of automatically buying. I have a lot of cute supplies already so it works out well.
*I limit the amount of bath water my kids fill the tub with. If it was up to them they would be in a swimming pool.
*Combine many errands into one trip.
*We have compact fluorescent bulbs in lots of places around the house.
*We use very very few paper towels. I buy them maybe once a year. All old or ripped t-shirts and the like are made into rags for cleaning.
*I buy local when the price is reasonable
*We have a small garden
*I use the county recycling program. This week is the first time our trash can has been full in a very long time (I think it's because of Jedi's birthday last week plus the yard and garden prep). More often than not our recycle can is fuller than the trash can.



So there you go. I might have more that I'm not thinking of right now. And while I'm not ready for weaving my own hemp clothing or making cloth menstrual pads (ewwww), it does feel good to be a bit more conscious of my carbon footprint.

Things I need to work on:

*composting
*decluttering
*overall not BUYING!

So how GREEN are you?