April 1st, 2005 - What’s green in my life?
Cheryl asks this question and here’s my answer–part of it at least!
- Participate in city recycling–paper (including junk mail, office, catalogs, newspaper, cardboard, paperboard), plastics (#1, #2, narrow neck only), glass, metal
- Pick up free woodchips from city
- Three houseplants (would have more, but my husband doesn’t really like them and our pets love them so we can only have small, out of the way ones. There’s one room that would be perfect to use–it’s the guest room so Eric’s rarely in there and the pets are allowed…except it’s on the north side of the house so it’s the worst place for plants)
- Have a vegetable garden, flowers, bushes around the yard (unfortunately, just one tree and no good spot for others)
- I walk or bike to work 99% of the time
- I use cloth bags when shopping, but rarely. I could do a whole lot better here
- We wash all clothes in cold water, except the diapers we use to clean the dogs (good chance of poop on them so like to get them as clean as possible).
- We don’t use fabric softener and only use bleach on the dog diapers.
- I rarely buy books, preferring to use the library.
- We keep the heat turned down at night, and under 69 during the day. The opposite with AC.
- We open the windows when possible for cooling during the spring/summer/fall.
- We have cellular shades on every window; we keep them up during the winter days and close them as soon as dusk hits. In the summer, we close them as the sun hits them and open them up again in the evening (or just enough for windows to open for the breeze).
- We buy truly premium dog and cat food (Canidae/Felidae) so that our pets stay healthy (no fillers, additives, etc.). They eat better than we do! And none has been sick since the cats got over their shelter illnesses.
- I compost food scaps, even during winter.
- We have a front loading washing machine.
- We have a dishwasher. Because of the way Eric did the dishes, this reduced our water bill.
- I rarely take hot showers.
- I don’t leave water running.
- I defrost food in the fridge.
- I use a minimal number of cleaning products, prefering water, vinegar, baking soda.
- I drive at or under the speed limit.
- I bake my own breakfast food (most of the time) as well as bread for my lunch.
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