Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thirteen Simple Green Things We Now Do

  1. Use the new fluorescent light bulbs. (Note: some of these contain mercury so be very careful not to break them and to dispose of them properly.)
  2. Changed to cloth napkins.
  3. Purchased reusable Meijer grocery bags. (I love these. The handles make them easier to carry and they hold way more than the plastic bags.)
  4. Reuse the plastic bags we do get as trash bags for small bed and bath wastebaskets.
  5. Placed a bag (card store size) with the new batteries so old/dead ones can be placed in the bag for safe disposal.
  6. Made a habit of lowering the thermostat in areas of the house not being used.
  7. Made a habit of opening blinds & curtains to let sunlight in during the day and closing them in the evening to keep heat in.
  8. Unplugged cell phone chargers and only plug them in when charging a phone.
  9. Mark water bottles with our names and refill them rather than buying more.
  10. Wash almost all laundry in cold water.
  11. Open dishwasher to allow dishes to air dry rather than running the dry cycle.
  12. Have a bin for recycling cans. These are donated to a local charity that collects them.
  13. Starting to shop for a more green vehicle to replace the "formerly known as HHR". (Not in a big hurry on this one as my instinct is still to want to buy a nice, safe Army tank.)

Check back next Thursday for some wreck/insurance/etc. tips and pictures of the "formerly known as HHR".

3 comments:

Sherck said...

I just wandered over from the Thursday 13 website. Good tips you've got there. One thing I recently heard about but won't get the chance to apply for several months now is during the winter to set containers of water outside to freeze and then put them in your fridge--let Mother Nature keep your food cold instead of having electricity do so much of the work!

Mrs. Brownstone @ XBOX Wife said...

This is a really great list! I blogged once about some of the things we are doing to be more green! You have some really awesome tips here!

Cindy Swanson said...

Great list! These are some really practical things you're doing. You're setting a great example!