These days, it's relatively easy to believe that unless we're riding in a Green Peace boat against the whalers, or eschewing our beloved vehicles for bikes or public transportation, we're personally responsible for drowning all the polar bears with our globally warming ways.
The other week, we reviewed 10 ways to live green for less, endeavoring to make living green seem less perfect, less intimidating, and less expensive.
Here are 10 more methods of accomplishing both savings and relief from eco-guilt:
1. Dark is good -
this seemed obvious only a generations ago, but we've lost the
knack of being careful with resources. By keeping lights off during
the day and turning them off as we leave rooms, we'll save on
electricity and conserve.
2. Running water hidden tooth brush - teaching my kids to turn off the water while they brush their teeth has gotten much easier now that I've kicked that bad habit. It's wasteful of water and
3. Sweet greens - Less meat, more greens is good for the pocketbook as well as the health of your family and the environment.
4. Weekly or bi-weekly grocery trips - It's so much easier to save money on groceries and plan health-conscious, less-processed, and therefore greener meals by making fewer trips to the grocery store. We've nearly kicked our thrice weekly runs by planning and making lists.
5. Fun with buses - Granted, taking the car from point A to point B makes the most sense in terms of efficiency as well as time. During the school year, particularly, it's not realistic for my family to use public transportation to get around. But this summer, we've taken the bus a few times as a novelty and the kids have a great time. This doesn't work when both parents work full-time, but if you have the time, it's fun to plant the idea of public transportation being an adventure rather than a chore.
6. Let's play box - My kids are bucket head kids. They seem to be able to have fun with rocks, strings, boxes, and other things mostly because they're relatively limited to their exposure to TV and oodles of toys. They played with a diaper box yesterday for an hour. And since less stuff seems a worthy goal in getting our familly greener, if my kids can entertain themselves without fancy and expensive toys, I'm proud.
7. Less righteous, more right - It's tempting to brag about our greener-than-thou ways, but by doing so, we're just promoting the dynamic that makes many of us just give up any efforts to make a difference.
8. Little baby foot prints - Everything has a footprint these days, even childbirth. Most of us are now well aware that Americans hog more of everything (food, water, consumables) than anyone else on the planet. By raising little people who are less wasteful maybe their footprint and those of our future grandchildren might be less obnoxious.
9. Throw away your mama - I'm so over all the single-use items for sale these days. Toilet cleaners, floor scrubbers, lunch boxes, tupperware, bibs. If you only use it once and throw it away, is it any wonder our landfills are full? And these single-use items are so much more expensive over time then their washable reusable counterparts.
10. Free is good - Is it possible that the best things in life are still free? If that seems like a revolutionary statement, that gives some very great indication of how far down the scale we've gone in our pursuit of happiness through consumerism. Does buying stuff bring long lasting happiness? Absolutely not.
