Share good ideas for conserving resources?

[umarider]

I've been following several threads recently discussing global warming, consumerism, wasteful excess, etc. I thought it might be nice to see what everyone does to make the world a little better.

So here is my little contribution:

My favorite item for saving resources would have to be my "Environsax". It is a great set of 5 reusable shopping bags that comes in a neat pouch. I can toss the pouch into my handbag and take it to the store, no problem! The bags roll up really small, so I can keep at least one of them in my purse all the time. And they are pretty and VERY strong! I get lots of compliments on the looks of the bags alone! And I get to know that I am making a "good" choice environmentally.

I know what members of my family will be getting next Christmas!:D

[Kelli in TN]

I googled them and those are snazzy! I carry my Kroger reusable totes but they are flimsy and unattractive.

I use my Kroger cloth bags and I request paper sacks from Kroger. I recycle all paper products (this is good in two ways, it does not go into the landfill and the proceeds for selling the paper go to our 4H club.) I used to make laundry detergent, but I am looking for an affordable one to buy, we just don't like the smell of Fels Naptha. During the growing season I shop my local farmer's market. I try to combine trips as much as possible to save gas and I keep my house pretty cool (the kids complain,but that is what slippers and robes are for, right?)

[mcconnellboys]

Oh, wow! I LOVE these! Thanks!

Regena

[*anj*]

I reuse 90% of the jars that I get. I use them for leftovers or for storing dry goods in my cabinets. This means that I don't need (as many) plastic containers, and it takes me forever to go through a roll of plastic wrap.

I hang my clothes to dry. This started out as a necessity because our dryer died and we couldn't afford a new one yet. Now we have the money for a new one, but I love the idea of not paying to dry my clothes.

I combine the bones of several chickens in a freezer bag and make homemade stock for pennies.

I try to use vinegar and baking soda for cleaning as much as possible.

Those are the ones that popped into my head. I'll add more if I think of them.

[kdeno]

The last thread about conserving really spoke to me. I thought I was doing a passable job because most of our clothing and toys comes from the thrift store (eliminates packaging waste), I try to use cloth towels, diapers etc, cook a lot from scratch using bulk purchased supplies from Dutch Valley but wow~ I was so convicted by the last thread.

Thank you,

Kari

[KristineIN]

I use a Moon cup (http://www.mooncup.co.uk/) for my monthly cycles, best thing that I've ever found! I garden, recycle, shop at thrift stores, freecycle. I know I do more, but just can't think right now.

Kristine

[*anj*]

Yes, I use a Diva cup (similar to the Moon Cup) during my period, and I use cloth pantliners along with it. I've used the same ones for nearly three years and they still have a lot of life in them. I love it that I can walk past the "feminine hygiene" aisle in the store without plunking down $5/pack for things that I will wrap in even more paper and throw away.

[Miss Peregrine]

What is the other thread you all are referencing?I love getting new ideas

What we do:

Kleen Kanteen instead of water bottles.

We reuse glass jars

Cloth mama pads(this helps me in physical ways, too)

No paper goods except TP

Homemade cleaners

Cloth grocery bags.

[Amy loves Bud]

Off the top of my head....

Make my own household cleaners from vinegar and baking soda.

Make my own baby food.

Use gDiapers.

Use cloth shopping bags.

Have switched to CFLs wherever we can.

Drive as little as possible (I average about 400 miles per month on my van).

Buy used clothes for the kids (not so much for myself, but I don't buy many clothes anyway).

Buy locally grown, organic produce when it's available.

Buy grassfed beef and chicken from a local farm.

Recycle as much as we can in our community (which is probably average in what they do).

ETA:

Use Seventh Generation paper products, but try to use anything paper sparingly.

Use cloth napkins.

Does breastfeeding count?

Where we are bad: we have three refrigerators - two full size and one under-counter job. We intentionally went back to a top-loader washing machine after a nightmare experience with an Asko frontloader. We have an in-ground swimming pool. I'm sure there are plenty of other areas, but those are the ones that really stick out to me.





My rant: we live in fairly dense suburb, with elementary schools all over the place. No one lives more than about 3/4 mile from their school. But by golly, every mother is sitting in the "carpool" line up of our neighborhood elementary by 3:20 everyday with the SUV motor idling. Can these kids not walk? This is Texas for goodness sake - the weather is usually tolerable and those kids will probably ride the half-mile trip home just to run outside and play football with their friends. Make the kids walk to school! Geez-o-pete.

[Mekanamom]

Reuseable shopping bags
Diva cup/cloth liners
Cloth diapers in days gone by (which does use a lot of water for laundry if you wash at home; diaper services are a little more efficient with water, maybe a little more wasteful in fuel for the delivery trucks, though.)
Cloth napkins
Household cleaner is 50% white vinegar, 50% water with a drop or two of tea-tree essential oil in a reuseable squirt bottle (best cleaner I've ever used, especially for glass!)
Chickens (they eat any kitchen scraps and give us fresh eggs)
Earth Boxes (http://www.earthbox.com) for my garden. They really do conserve water. (I tried two boxes out last year and was impressed enough to order more for this year to have a full garden.)
Concentrated laundry detergent; cuts down on packaging a bit (never did find a good recipe to make my own)
Water conserving showerheads
Energy efficient lightbulbs
Insulated curtains for the windows
We re-use what we can, recycle what we can... but I must admit that shopping at Costco does not do much at all to reduce packaging. We usually have a LOT of packaging to recycle.


And things I do as hobbies that are also pretty earth friendly:

Shear my own sheep and spin their wool (I can use some natural things for dye, but a lot of it is toxic, so with young children around we usually use Kool-Aid... very pretty and color fast!)
Along with that, we usually do sun-dyeing, where we put the wool in large glass jars with the dye and just set them out in a sunny spot for about a week in the summer. We re-use the jars every year, don't need to use the stove, and it's great for us lazy people who like the spread the job out over a few days instead of setting aside a whole day or two devoted to it.
Disclaimer to the above: This doesn't stop me from buying yarn from the store! Alas!
Training my mini horse to pull the manure spreader so we don't have to use the lawn tractor every day. It should save fuel, gives the little guy a job & exercise... and it's fun! (Disclaimer, he isn't fully trained to drive yet, but we're making progress!)
I guess it counts that we hardly ever use commercial fertilizers since we have a lot of manure? The one bummer about the Earth Boxes is that prepared fertilizer is more convenient to use than compost. But I do intend to get organic fertilizer at least. Maybe I'll use compost as fertilizer in one box this year as a test.
Sometimes I do home canning with garden produce instead of buying from the store... it's been a couple years, though.
Occasionally make my own soap... I usually make bars as gifts and keep the rejects for household use. Been a couple years on that too, but we still have a few left.


And things I'd love to do but are financially out of reach at this time:

Solar Panels
Wood stove for heat (our area is banning them anyway because of the particulate matter)
Windmill (We actually have a windmill base on our property that used to support the windmill that pumped the well... the windmill is gone and the base is over 100 years old... but it was apparently a good location for one!)
Hybrid/electric car (though I hear they impact the environment negatively in their manufacturing and battery disposal... I don't know the facts on this cuz I can't afford one anyway!)
Better house insulation/window insulation
Root cellar for home preserves


And things I am bad about:

I don't reuse ziplock bags anymore
I don't dry my clothes on the line anymore because we're in an area with a lot of dust during most of the dry season
I buy the liquid hand soaps from Trader Joes instead of refilling my own dispensers OR using my own soap exclusively (and feel a tad guilty about that)
I buy bagged veggies in the winter instead of going to the farmer's market ...for shame... really, we have an awesome farmer's market too & I should frequent it much more
we have the land to raise our own meat, but I put horses on it instead!

[umarider]

My rant: we live in fairly dense suburb, with elementary schools all over the place. No one lives more than about 3/4 mile from their school. But by golly, every mother is sitting in the "carpool" line up of our neighborhood elementary by 3:20 everyday with the SUV motor idling. Can these kids not walk? This is Texas for goodness sake - the weather is usually tolerable and those kids will probably ride the half-mile trip home just to run outside and play football with their friends. Make the kids walk to school! Geez-o-pete.


I saw soooo much of that when we lived in SoCal. Arrrrgh!

[Renee in FL]

I saw soooo much of that when we lived in SoCal. Arrrrgh!

Are there sidewalks?

Elementary kids are not allowed to walk here, but there are no sidewalks and most of the roads are 55 mph zones on either side of the school zones.

[KristineIN]

I forgot about line drying, I do that, and we have a solar panel, but it doesn't heat the whole house or anything, just runs warm air to the downstairs when it's sunny out, it does help if it's in the 40's or so, but our furnace still funs if it's below that. It was already on roof, so I'm not going to complain. I'd rather have it than not!
Kristine

[Renthead Mommy]

It gives me great ideas!

With moving so often we only rent, so that makes some things harder, but we try.

Things we do/have done:

-taught 5 year old to turn off lights and not be a 'water waster'
-teaching 38 year old to turn off lights and not be a 'water waster'
-turn off the AC and open windows
-turn down the heat and open blinds
-use a reel lawn mower (no engine, just spinning blades)
-changed out as many light bulbs as we can, but most of lighting in base housing are the long tubes.
-unplug wall warts when not in use (big giant plug heads like on phone chargers)
-hang clothes on line to dry
-do most of wash in cold water
-recycle glass, cans, #1 plastic, paper styrofoam and plain cardboard (which means moving boxes yes, cereal boxes no)
-the base also has scrap metal, yard waste (which they turn into compost) and cooking oil recycling. We haven't needed any of that yet, but will use it if the need comes up.
-i make my cleaners
- I buy some things based on their packaging. Like dish soap. I can get non recyleable plastic bottle, or buy one in a cardboard box. We may not be able to recycle the coated cardboard, but it is still better than the plastic bottle.
-we use re-fillable containers for water over plastic water bottles.
-we buy very little processed/boxed food
-get eggs in cardboard containers over the clear plastic
-we garden and are trying to grow more of our own food (harder to do when you rent - can't always be digging up yards, and when the garden is set to go, it's time to leave!)
-I buy as much japanese grown veggies as I can, the others are shipped in from California and other places.
-I did use cloth diapers
-I did breastfeed
-I have a large collection of rags to be used in place of paper towels
-I have a drip bucket to collect rain water from off the roof to water the garden parts that are just too protected from teh overhang to get rained on in the lighter rains.
-in the states we composted everything
- here we can't compost, so we put all food scraps into a bokashi bucket
-use cloth grocery and produce bags
-make wrapping paper from plain paper instead of the high print/inked gift wrap
-I'm making cloth napkins

Things I wish we were better at/or don't have much choice about while living over here:

-the fact that I'm still teaching 38 year old to turn off lights and not be a 'water waster'
-better cars - they just tend to be old cars that people keep reselling. but on the plus side, they don't get much mileage so that helps (there is only so far to drive on a 70 mile long island!)
-less on line ordering - both for the miles put on shipping one item, but especially the packaging. My order the other day - 1 book - 1 inch wide, in a 5 inch tall box, filled with packing peanuts. A envelope would have been better!
-walking/biking places - the 5.5 yo isn't up for the distance needed to cover on either foot or his bike, yet feels he's too old for the jogger.


Plans for the future house we get when we finally retire in 20 years (Also known as "the plans that make my husband wonder if he can stay in for 30 years instead!" LOL!)

-raise chickens
-compost everything
-worm bed for the dog feces (for when we get a dog)
-solar panels
-massive garden
-rain collection for garden
-gray water sand trap for watering garden
-can things
-dehydrate things
-root cellar storage
-making sure everything in house is very insulated
-hopefully congratulate myself on finally teaching the then 58 yo to turn off lights and not be a 'water waster'!

[*anj*]

I am trying mightily to resist the urge to say "me too!" every time I read someone else's list and find several things that we do. Like for instance, the cloth napkins, I will try not to mention that we use them too. And several other things as well....

Ahem! Back to the new stuff.
We get our eggs from a Mennonite farmer who is happy to take the cartons back and reuse them. We've got many people from our co-op doing it, and it's a thing of beauty!

[kdeno]

How does your Reel lawnmower work? We thought of buying one from Leymans. Could an 8 year old safely operate it?

Thanks!

Kari

[Doran]

I just went in search of this thread, which disappeared before I had a chance to check it out. Many of mine are repeats.

What we do:

~ Bathe, launder, and flush less often
~ Don't water the lawn
~ Turn off water when brushing teeth~ Work jobs that don't require us to commute long distances
~ Walk and cycle for errands as we can
~ Consolidate trips
~ Buy food raised sustainably and from local sources
~ Turn off lights and use CFL bulbs
~ Turn down the heat and turn up the a/c temps
~ Carpool
~ Reuse containers, incl. Ziplocs, and esp. plastic water bottles which get rinsed and hung upside down to dry - we don't store water in them, just refill as needed
~ Use leftover water in travel bottles or from rinsing vegetables to pour on potted plants or shrubs
~ Pay attention to packaging before buying - avoid overpackaging and plastic, gravitate toward paperboard and glass
~ Recycle/Freecycle
~ Use warm and cold (not hot) washer settings and run only when full
~ Line dry clothes
~ Buy used products (yard sales, consignment, Craig's list, etc.)
~ Use cloth napkins and real dishes 99% of the time
~ Compost
~ Freeze and can foods (want to do more of this)
~ Use Homemade cleaners or earth friendly alternatives
~ Use recycled paper products
~ Use Cloth shopping bags (but I admit to being really, really LAME about remembering to bring them along or inside the store! Ugh.)
~ Grow food
~ Make do - use what we have rather than buying something new
~ Speak up -- this one is becoming more and more "a thing" for me. I want to let shop keepers and companies know how I feel about things like overpackaging, like not having a recycling bin, like switching to CFL bulbs, etc. I am growing more inclined, though the urge is still in its infancy yet, to tell companies that I'd like to see changes. Even if they don't do it right away, at least they've heard my bit.


What I wish I could or would do:

~ Install composting toilets
~ Afford a hybrid car (or even a newer more fuel efficient car)
~ Afford solor panels and a geothermal heat pump
~ Make a Diva cup work for me
~ Install rain barrels (this one's coming soon)
~ Afford more "green" materials to build our new home


I'm sure there are more things I could add to both lists, but this is plenty. I enjoyed reading everyone else's remarks here.

Doran

[Miss Peregrine]

I wish we could line dry our clothes. :sigh: Living in a National Forest isn't really conducive to that :rolleyes:

I, too, will but things based on the packaging like dishwasher detergent. Even if it is more $$$ I will buy the product in paper/cardboard rather than plastic.

[Renthead Mommy]

How does your Reel lawnmower work? We thought of buying one from Leymans. Could an 8 year old safely operate it?

Thanks!

Kari

Yes, an 8 yo can safely use it, my son would push it for awhile when he was only 4. But he could only push it so far. If you have hills, he may have a harder time. But safety wise, I'd think he should be fine. Tell him don't touch the blades while it's sitting there. And it's impossible to get your fingers/toes in it while you are pushing it. You just can't reach that far.

It works better on some grass then others. The kind that grows runners out and is very flat and low to the ground, I think that's Bermuda, is harder to cut. It just doesn't stick up to be grabbed by the reels. But regular grass it works great on.

[Tonia]

I used to make laundry detergent, but I am looking for an affordable one to buy, we just don't like the smell of Fels Naptha.

You don't need to use Fels Naptha - any bar soap that isn't heavily perfumed will work (we use ivory).

What we do: for shopping we use green boxes and reusable bags. I reuse what plastic bags I do get from the store. The only cleaning supplies in my cupboard - vinegar, baking soda, washing soda and borax. I'm hoping to make some cloth napkins soon. We keep our thermostat turned down and wear sweaters and slippers in the house. Freecyle. Trying to cut down on packaged foods.

[kdeno]

Kari

[umarider]

Some things I didn't put in my original post:

I use a convection toaster oven instead of using my big oven. (We live in Base housing ie: the land of inefficient appliances!) Using the convection oven takes less time, less energy to run, and doesn't heat up the house causing the AC to kick on.

Only do full loads of laundry using warm or cold water.

We hang-dry and then reuse towels. I've encountered households that use towels once and get new ones each shower/bath. They end up doing a load of just towels every day.

I drive the more efficient sedan, and only use the larger vehicle when it is necessary.

I use enviro-friendly cleaners whenever possible.

We live in a very humid area, so AC is necessary or we get mold growing on our furniture, clothes, shoes, books, etc., but we turn off the LR unit at night, and keep both units set pretty high.

I know there are other things, and I have a LONG list of wanta-dos, starting w/ getting an HE Washer when we retire and stop moving every 3 years, followed by a Prius (already saving in my "Freedom" account for both of these!:D)

[mom4sons]

Do any of you have one of these systems? We are building a home. We moved to our hometown and bought 14 acres. We are considering a geothermal system; however, we are hearing numerous pros and cons.
Any opinions?

[GretaLynne]

.... but there are lots of great ideas here already -- both things we are doing and things we SHOULD be doing but aren't . . . yet.

We do have high-efficiency front-loading washer.

We are in the process of replacing our cheap crappy leaky windows with new efficient Pella windows. But hubby is doing the work himself (because it will save us thousands of dollars) so this is happening very slowly! ;)

Will be replacing an old crummy toilet with a new low-flow by the end of the summer.

I stopped buying frozen vegetables and started fermenting locally grown organic ones instead. (See Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon).

We have drastically reduced our driving. Hubby even bikes to work sometimes. DD and I sometimes walk to the grocery store. We live in Suburbia, so that's the only thing that's really within walking distance (3 mile round trip). My next home is either going to be an organic farm in the country, or a chic downtown apartment in a progressive city. I'm totally ashamed of being a Suburbanite!

[JennifersLost]

After my whiny post yesterday you all probably won't believe this, but I DO do many of the same green/thrifty things that are on all these lists.

I have two questions, though: We live in a rainforest climate, so drying clothes outside pretty much won't work. Does anyone dry clothes inside? When I mention it my dh has a fit - it's very easy to get mold here and he thinks drying clothes inside is just asking for trouble. Any ideas?

My other question is about cloth napkins. When you factor in the washing/drying of them, do you think they conserve resources? I've always wondered about that. If it does, it seems like an easy enough change we could make.

[Tammyla]

Does anyone dry clothes inside? When I mention it my dh has a fit - it's very easy to get mold here and he thinks drying clothes inside is just asking for trouble. Any ideas?
We have a line in the basement and use it during the colder months.

My other question is about cloth napkins. When you factor in the washing/drying of them, do you think they conserve resources? I've always wondered about that. If it does, it seems like an easy enough change we could make.[/QUOTE]
I think they are super easy and just wash them with the other kitchen towels. But...I use tons of kitchen towels, so washing is very regular around here.

[percytruffle]

After my whiny post yesterday you all probably won't believe this, but I DO do many of the same green/thrifty things that are on all these lists.

I have two questions, though: We live in a rainforest climate, so drying clothes outside pretty much won't work. Does anyone dry clothes inside? When I mention it my dh has a fit - it's very easy to get mold here and he thinks drying clothes inside is just asking for trouble. Any ideas?

My other question is about cloth napkins. When you factor in the washing/drying of them, do you think they conserve resources? I've always wondered about that. If it does, it seems like an easy enough change we could make.


In your situation I would not dry clothes inside. I think your dh is correct to be concerned about mold.

I am not a big believer in the cloth napkin idea either. I just keep a small bunch of paper napkins available in a basket on the table and if someone needs one they use it, otherwise we just go without. My kids are older and often don't use one at all.

We do use cloth for company.