Day 65- Stair Me Down

Today was a bit of a sad day for my family. Two years ago today my wonderful grandfather died. It was a very difficult time for everyone and I still struggle with it sometimes. Some of my family members decided to get together at my grandmother's condo today so that Grandma wouldn't be alone. She lives on the second floor of her building. My husband and I walked in and decided to use the stairs instead of the elevator. An elevator requires a lot of energy to power it. There's nothing wrong with my legs and no reason why I can't take the stairs!

As we were making our way up the stairs I said to my husband, "Hey! This is an eco friendly thing! I will blog about it". He very nearly turned back around to avoid listening to me babble about the environment, but in the end he stuck with me. So, that's my change of the day. When there is an option between elevator and stairs, the stairs will win.

It was a long day and we were at a fundrasier this evening that went quite late, so I didn't have a chance to do my weekly recap as I usually do on Saturday. Look for it tomorrow!

Day 64- Fully Loaded

I've already taken a few steps in making my clothes washing more eco friendly- I've started making my own laundry detergent, committed to removing clothes from the dryer immediately after drying to avoid wrinkling and having to iron them and more recently, washing all clothes in cold water. You may be getting tired of me airing my dirty laundry out on this challenge all the time, but because washing machines consume to much water, it is important to find ways to reduce the impact of laundering.
I get a bit hasty when it comes to laundry. I need clean clothes now, so I am going to wash now, regardless of whether there is enough to create a full load. Not anymore, my friends. Rather than wasting a bunch of water washing half loads, I will be only washing my clothes when I have enough to fill the washing machine. Everybody wins- less water is wasted, I get to do less laundry! Works for me.

Day 63- The Cold Hard Truth

I am the primary clothes washer in the family. I've never minded doing laundry, but it has recently come to my attention that I could be much greener in my clothes laundering. I always separate my clothes- lights/darks. Delicates/regular everyday clothes. The regular clothes get washed in cold, delicates in hot. I think the only reason I wash delicates in hot is out of habit. They get just as clean in cold, so I will not be wasting the energy required to heat the water anymore. All clothes will be washed in COLD water.

*Cloth diapers will be exempt from this change.

Day 62- Garbage Day

Yesterday I had made the decision to open up the blinds and let the heat of the sun warm my house instead of cranking up the furnace. I had mentioned in my post yesterday that anybody who knows me would probably be quite surprised to see my blinds open because they're always closed. So, I couldn't help but snicker when my husband got home from work, took off his shoes and came into the living room and before even saying "hello", he says, "You have the blinds open?? How come?".

Here in Langham, each house gets a portable garbage bin that you wheel to the front of the drive way on Wednesday mornings and a big garbage truck comes to collect all the garbage. I can't help but gasp when I see some people's bins overflowing on a weekly basis! Sometimes I'm not sure I should be allowed outside on Wednesdays when everyone's trash is out for the town to see. Anyways, I've decided on a goal- to only take my garbage out to the curb once each month. Obviously I will aim to have so little garbage that it needs to be taken to the curb less than that, but I will allow myself to bring it out once.

Day 61- Mr. Golden Sun

It seems like spring MIGHT be on its way! The past couple days have been sunny and as a result the streets have been nice and slushy. Maybe it won't be winter forever after all and I can come out from hibernation soon.
Though the sun was nice and warm today, there was still a chill from the wind. Thankfully, since I was in the house all day, I didn't have to feel the chill. I did, however, get the benefit of the suns warmth! I did something I never do. I opened up the blinds and curtains! Anybody who knows me is probably quite puzzled right now because I'm a bit of a vampire as far as sun goes, but something inspired me to lift up the blinds and part the curtains and am I ever glad I did. Do you realize how much warmer my living room was?? I had to go turn down the heat. Enter: my green change of the day. The weather is expected to be like this for the next little while- a bit too cold to turn off the furnace but sunny outside. Rather than wasting energy and powering my furnace, I will be turning down the thermostat and opening up the blinds on the warm sunny days and allowing the sun to heat my house!

Wishing you lots of happy, sunny days!

Free Reusable Shopping Bag

I just came across this online and wanted to spread the word. Ocean Spray is giving away a free reusable bag if you sign up here. Since I am no longer accepting plastic bags when I'm out shopping, this will be perfect because I don't have a ton of reusable bags.

I've also been meaning to show you what a friend of mine made for me the other week! We got together for coffee and since she knew I had cut out plastic bags, she made me an awesome cloth bag!

 And if folds up nice and compact!

 

Super cute, hey?? Have a great day.

Day 60- Produce-ing Less Waste

After a bit of a search, I have finally found what I was looking for, reusable produce bags! At first I was thinking it'd be nice and green of me to reuse the plastic produce bags from the grocery store, but there is a reason that "reduce" comes before "reuse"! Why not eliminate the need for the plastic bag altogether?

I just ordered a set of 5 produce bags from Flip & Tumble. I think I've taken my change from Day 51 very seriously and have had no problem with shopping online. Hopefully my husband isn't reading this- I think he is ready to take my credit card away.


P.S.- My brain is in a fog- help me think of something green to do tomorrow?