This week is National Green Week!
So take a minute to think about a few things you could do to lessen your impact on our earth.
If you're in a neighborhood like ours it isn't easy! If we wanted recycling to be picked up at the curb we had to pay an extra $30 a month in addition to our trash pick-up to have it done, and that's not feasible in our budget- so instead we have to make weekly trips to the recycling collection trailer in the nearest town which is about a 15 minute drive. Hopefully you can just set yours out at the curb! :)
However we do a lot of things around here for the planet, beginning with cloth diapers- you can largely decrease the amount of things you attribute to a landfill by cloth diapering your baby, disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste, and no one knows how long it really takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years. Not only are they great for the environment, but they save a TON of money and they're SUPER cute. (Ok, so if you're like me and many of the mom's I know who CD you get sucked in to how cute they are) however, you can reuse them for more than one child. In the end, you'll still save money and do a huge part in not attributing to the $300 million spent annually just to dispose of disposable diapers. You can always sell them if you don't need them for more than one child, yes, people will buy your gently used cloth diapers!
Many other benefits include the lack of diaper rash, and lack of harmful chemicals on your baby's bottom.
Check out some great ways to try cloth diapers:
Try Cloth at Jillian's Drawers for $10
http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10
Or check out some other great cloth diapers retailers:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/
http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/
http://www.bumgenius.com/
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/
http://www.fuzzibunz.com/
http://www.drybees.com/
http://www.hyenacart.com/
I could go on and on...
A lot of people are worried about the laundry but it really isn't bad, it's an extra load maybe every 2 or 3 days, and our water bill hasn't risen at all. If you use disposables before you've had experience with blow outs and washing messy clothes- and we have yet to have a blow out in cloth diapers.
If cloth doesn't seem like your thing, perhaps a more "green" version of a disposable diaper sounds like it's something you would want to try Seventh Generation makes a more green version as well as G-diapers- it's more of a hybrid version of the two. Target also carries a "natural" version of a disposable diaper in some stores.
You can consider making your own baby food as well, - even better if it is from your own garden!
A lot of people seem to think 'going green' is a trend, and is costly, more more often than not it will SAVE you money. You can get tax credits for efficient appliances, save money on your energy bills, and often find coupons for new 'green' products that are put on the market.
Another thing we are big on is cleaners- I find Vinegar, or other natural cleaning products clean just as well, and smell even fresher!
Hang your laundry out on the line, turn the lights off when you're not in the room, we never have lights on in the house during the day, such simple things can make a huge difference.
This year our big GREEN purchase is going to be a "fake fireplace" heater, we aren't sure which we're going to go with yet, but a friend of the family had one last year and said they didn't even need to turn their heat on all winter and that it cut their electric bill dramatically- and that was in Wisconsin! I'll keep you posted as to which we go with and how it works out.
There were coupons recently in the Sunday newspaper for Marcal paper products, even for a FREE roll of toilet paper, napkins, etc. I wish I could get some to review, but they don't have them in any of our area stores. :(
Things can be very basic as well, sort your garbage, recycle, reuse wipe containers for storage boxes, buy refill bags instead of tubs, send toliet paper and paper towel rolls, kleenex boxes, empty milk jugs to your children's school or local elementary school for crafts. Consider sending all your child's 102 McDonald's toys as well! Recently we went through my scrapbooking stuff, my daughter's small 'happy meal' toys and everything that would be "trash" to us was sent to the school as little trinkets for their 'prize' boxes in the classroom. A lot of classrooms have wishlists- and rather than go out and spend money on items or donate cash be resourceful, everyone understands that budgets are tight, especially this time of year, and to be able to reuse on top of fulfill their needs is win-win situation!
We do a TON of coupon clipping in this house and before the old ads and paper scraps get recycled they are first put in a scrap box for my daughter, she paints, cuts, uses what she wants, and then her left overs are recycled- it beats paying $1.98 a pack for construction paper- and I think it stretches her imagination further!
Take a minute to think about a few simple things you can do to make your household a little greener.
happy hugging!
-danielle
So take a minute to think about a few things you could do to lessen your impact on our earth.
If you're in a neighborhood like ours it isn't easy! If we wanted recycling to be picked up at the curb we had to pay an extra $30 a month in addition to our trash pick-up to have it done, and that's not feasible in our budget- so instead we have to make weekly trips to the recycling collection trailer in the nearest town which is about a 15 minute drive. Hopefully you can just set yours out at the curb! :)
However we do a lot of things around here for the planet, beginning with cloth diapers- you can largely decrease the amount of things you attribute to a landfill by cloth diapering your baby, disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste, and no one knows how long it really takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years. Not only are they great for the environment, but they save a TON of money and they're SUPER cute. (Ok, so if you're like me and many of the mom's I know who CD you get sucked in to how cute they are) however, you can reuse them for more than one child. In the end, you'll still save money and do a huge part in not attributing to the $300 million spent annually just to dispose of disposable diapers. You can always sell them if you don't need them for more than one child, yes, people will buy your gently used cloth diapers!
Many other benefits include the lack of diaper rash, and lack of harmful chemicals on your baby's bottom.
Check out some great ways to try cloth diapers:
Try Cloth at Jillian's Drawers for $10
http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10
Or check out some other great cloth diapers retailers:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/
http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/
http://www.bumgenius.com/
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/
http://www.fuzzibunz.com/
http://www.drybees.com/
http://www.hyenacart.com/
I could go on and on...
A lot of people are worried about the laundry but it really isn't bad, it's an extra load maybe every 2 or 3 days, and our water bill hasn't risen at all. If you use disposables before you've had experience with blow outs and washing messy clothes- and we have yet to have a blow out in cloth diapers.
If cloth doesn't seem like your thing, perhaps a more "green" version of a disposable diaper sounds like it's something you would want to try Seventh Generation makes a more green version as well as G-diapers- it's more of a hybrid version of the two. Target also carries a "natural" version of a disposable diaper in some stores.
You can consider making your own baby food as well, - even better if it is from your own garden!
A lot of people seem to think 'going green' is a trend, and is costly, more more often than not it will SAVE you money. You can get tax credits for efficient appliances, save money on your energy bills, and often find coupons for new 'green' products that are put on the market.
Another thing we are big on is cleaners- I find Vinegar, or other natural cleaning products clean just as well, and smell even fresher!
Hang your laundry out on the line, turn the lights off when you're not in the room, we never have lights on in the house during the day, such simple things can make a huge difference.
This year our big GREEN purchase is going to be a "fake fireplace" heater, we aren't sure which we're going to go with yet, but a friend of the family had one last year and said they didn't even need to turn their heat on all winter and that it cut their electric bill dramatically- and that was in Wisconsin! I'll keep you posted as to which we go with and how it works out.
There were coupons recently in the Sunday newspaper for Marcal paper products, even for a FREE roll of toilet paper, napkins, etc. I wish I could get some to review, but they don't have them in any of our area stores. :(
Things can be very basic as well, sort your garbage, recycle, reuse wipe containers for storage boxes, buy refill bags instead of tubs, send toliet paper and paper towel rolls, kleenex boxes, empty milk jugs to your children's school or local elementary school for crafts. Consider sending all your child's 102 McDonald's toys as well! Recently we went through my scrapbooking stuff, my daughter's small 'happy meal' toys and everything that would be "trash" to us was sent to the school as little trinkets for their 'prize' boxes in the classroom. A lot of classrooms have wishlists- and rather than go out and spend money on items or donate cash be resourceful, everyone understands that budgets are tight, especially this time of year, and to be able to reuse on top of fulfill their needs is win-win situation!
We do a TON of coupon clipping in this house and before the old ads and paper scraps get recycled they are first put in a scrap box for my daughter, she paints, cuts, uses what she wants, and then her left overs are recycled- it beats paying $1.98 a pack for construction paper- and I think it stretches her imagination further!
Take a minute to think about a few simple things you can do to make your household a little greener.
happy hugging!
-danielle
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