Baby Step Your Way To a Greener 2008

April 14, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Written by guest blogger Carrie Lauth of Natural Moms Talk Radio.

Earth Day is coming up on April 22. This is a great time to start baby stepping your way to a more eco friendly lifestyle. All the magazines on the newsstand this month are full of articles with helpful tips, products, websites and other resources to help you along. But don’t get the impression that “going green” means buying a bunch of stuff or spending a lot of money, regardless of what some of the marketers who are engaging in a bit of “greenwashing” try to sell you.

Many people get discouraged when they start thinking of making changes in their day. We moms are already busy and many of us stressed out and tired. The thought of adding something new to the routine is overwhelming. That, coupled with discouraging reports from the media that claim it all doesn’t matter anyway, can cause many a mom to just give up. Yet I think most of us have a nagging sense that we’re going to be forced to change at some point in the future. We’re all concerned about what kind of air, soil and water our kids are going to inherit.

My feelings on the matter are this: Baby Step it. There are plenty of changes you can implement, one at a time that add up to a big difference over time. One would be washing all your clothes in cold water. That doesn’t cost me one iota of extra time or work. There are many changes like that - they’re so easy to do. And the changes build on themselves. Isn’t it true that once we start a new routine, it seems like a big deal at first, but then we hardly notice it?

Here are some ideas of things you can do right now to Baby Step your way to a greener life. I’ll borrow from the Three R’s to illustrate.

1) Replace

As I mentioned, going green doesn’t mean going out and buying all new stuff. While organic hemp T shirts are all well and good, throwing out your kid’s wardrobe isn’t exactly eco friendly. Neither is selling your perfectly good car to buy a hybrid. Think in terms of replacing stuff as it wears out with a better alternative. As an example, I had family in town last week and with the hustle and bustle and extra bodies, I managed to lose the charger to my cellphone. Instead of replacing it with another plug in charger, I’m buying a solar charger. As your lightbulbs die out, replace them with CFLs or LEDs. The next time you have to repaint your home, choose No VOC paints. When your favorite cleaning product wears out, keep the bottles and buy the all purpose dilutable cleaner from the Clorox Green Works line. It’s inexpensive and very effective. I use it for everything from kitchen counters and toilets to mopping the floor.

2) Remind

Gary Hillery of The Green Path Company (http://www.thegreenpathcompany.com) came up with an idea I thought was pretty clever: Put reminders on your calender to force yourself to do things you might put off that you know are good for the environment. For example, write “check tire pressure” on your calendar once a month. You’ll burn less gas and save money too. What about reminding yourself to make a once a week trip to the recycling center instead of letting your recyclables pile up, tempting you to toss them instead? You can also do a yearly check up of your home: see if any of your toilets or faucets are leaking water, and check the seals on your refrigerator. Gary has a downloadable pdf on his site with some wonderful ideas.

You can also remind your family members in creative ways. Put a sticky note on the lightswitches or near faucets in the house with a happy face on it. Even the little ones can be taught to turn off lights and “never let the water run”. Make it a contest to see how often they can do it. How about this: Turn on your shower faucets to the perfect shower or bath temperature. Then paint red nail polish at 12 o’clock on the knobs so no one has to waste a lot of water to get it to the right temperature every day. All they have to do is turn the faucets so the red spots are straight up.

3) Rethink

Part of going green is giving a little more mindfulness about your day to day decisions, especially about what you bring into your home. For instance, if you’re planning a party, do you have to buy disposable plates and napkins? Why not use cloth napkins and real plates instead? They’re far more elegant. And as for the cleanup, well this idea that the host has to do everything is silly. When I lived in Ireland, all the women would help the host of a party clean up. It was a big girl party in the kitchen afterwards, and some of the best conversation happened then anyway!

When your computer wears out, instead of just tossing it, take it to Staples and have them recycle it. Or have a tech savvy teenager sell the parts on eBay. I did this once and made almost as much money on the parts as the computer cost new! This is creative recycling. How about rethinking how much you print? Getting your bills and bank statements online instead of snail mail? How about reading that book or testing that CD or DVD from the public library (a highly underrated but very eco friendly resource!) instead of automatically buying it?

Challenge yourself this month to start one new habit. It’s amazing how after a time, you’ll simply not think about it anymore. As an example, I stopped using the dryer several months ago. At first it seemed like extra work to hang laundry on the clothesline or an indoor drying rack. But this past week I used the dryer a couple of times (got behind on laundry - those visiting relatives again!) and it felt so strange. I even felt a little twinge of the eco conscience.

Carrie Lauth is the host of Natural Moms Talk Radio who is doing her best to respect the earth. Come listen as she interviews green living experts and authors this month.

Keep up with what’s happening at Mom’s Talk Network, by clicking here.

Posted by Christina | Filed Under Green Living 

Add to Technorati Favorites

Similar Posts

Comments

2 Responses to “Baby Step Your Way To a Greener 2008”

  1. Mom’s Talk News » Blog Archive » Mom’s Talk Network Updates for Monday, April 14 on April 14th, 2008 2:27 pm

    [...] outdoor life that comes with springtime, Carrie Lauth from Natural Moms Talk Radio shows us how to Baby Step Your Way to a Greener 2008. Discover a few simple changes we can make in our lives that can help preserve our [...]

  2. Green Living Made Easy : Moms Talk Network on May 21st, 2008 5:16 am

    [...] Making the switch to green living all at once might scare most people away from implementing those earth-friendly changes. There are many ways to ease into this practice and still help save the earth’s environment. [...]

Got something to say?