After the birth of our daughter, my husband and I were horrified at the amount of waste we were creating with diapers. I decided to only take the trash out every other week. This forced us to recycle more than we trashed. I started buying products with little packaging or packaged with recyclable materials. We also use “green” trash bags made of corn products that are biodegradable. We plan to potty train my daughter as soon as possible in order to cut down on waste. Just being concious of the waste your family creates is a first step.
This post was submitted by Casey .
Buy reusable grocery bags and keep some in your car and your house. I’ve found so many uses for them other than groceries. And for those times when you forget or have too many groceries, collect the plastic bags and reuse them. An easy way to make a dispenser is to cut the leg or sleeve off an old piece of clothing. Sew elastic into the opening on one end and a drawstring on the other. Hang it by the drawstring, stuff bags in on top and pull them out from the bottom as you need them.
This post was submitted by Michelle.
Clothes dryers use a lot of energy! What could be simpler than drying on a clothesline?!? At least when the weather is good, and at least for larger and thicker items like sheets & jeans.
For permanent press items, it helps to tumble them on air dry (no heat) for several minutes before hanging out.
For those who object to the stiffer texture of line dried items, you can briefly tumble them on air (no heat) after they’re dry.
This post was submitted by Alan.
All across the US there is a group called “Freecycle”. They are online, and you can usually only join for your local area.
They work by you offering things that are still usable but no longer need or want. This has been great in our area. I’ve given away a printer, reclyner and a treadmill (which we obtained from another freecycle member).
This realy lets you get the whole use out of items, and keeps them out of the landfill. I’ve seen people give away old tires, cardboard boxes, lots of things.
This post was submitted by kevin.
I actually got this idea after reading Amy Tan’s discussion of her trip to China. She described that they didn’t fill the bathtubs very deep. I’ve started doing that, using a wash cloth and a cup to wash with. I use the cup to pour water over myself. But, sometimes I want to really have a good soak and I’ll fill the tub up. It takes less time too, to fill the tub.
This post was submitted by dippi.
We gave up TV (owning a set and all!) over 6 years ago! Our entertainment has changed from all TV to reading, watching DVDs on our computer and hanging out as a family and with friends!
Has been a wonderful time ever since. We play more and do more outdoor activities with out 4 yr old like playgrounds, hiking, picnicing and to top it all he is not exposed to all the commercial selling aimed at kids, the violence in the shows etc etc!!
We also, gave up all other media coming into the house in the form of newspapers, magazines and other paper related products that we controlled. Stopped buying “new” books and now request all and any we need from the library! Also, switched to audiobooks for lifestyle reasons!
This has made our lives healthier emotionally too since we are not bombarded by constant “bad” news and when the news is big enough for us to be concerned …. we hear about it, since it is important enough for people we know and interact with to be discussing!
This season, I did not put on the AC at all. Opened the windows, draped the over sunny windows and used the ceiling fans when it got HOT… I got my husband to install one in all rooms that we use regularly. Life is much cooler now than with the AC and it means a lot more money in my pocket than last year!!!!!!
Overall, “going simple” has made our lives as a family more fulfilling and meaningful.
This post was submitted by Ashita.
Hang washed clothes outdoors whenever possible, mainly summer in our neck of the woods. In winter, hang them on wooden clothes’ horses in front of our wood stove or in front of our little Eden Pure heater (which saves us money too). Only use the dryer to fluff wrinkles out of “permanent press”, 20 minutes on low setting, but take out before “cooling” which can reset some wrinkles. Ironing in our little house with many animals is an impossibly complicated affair, so I’ve worked out the above formula for as little impact as possible on the environment while still looking presentable (at least in our rural community!).
This post was submitted by Kathy Butler.
Our focus is on reducing household waste to landfill. Although we do other things such as growing our own food and using a solar panel for lighting, the focus of our site is on reducing waste.
18 months ago we put out 100-150 litres of waste per week. Now we put out less than 100gms which I can hold in the palm of my hand.
It’s been a fascinating journey and next week we are celebrating with our second ‘National zero waste week’.
In addition to saving the landfill, it saves money too – for example growing and making your own food, reusing things rather than buying new, using reusable products rather than disposable – the savings add up!
This post was submitted by Mrs Green.
Gather up all those little hotel soaps and the too-thin-to-grab soap ends and one of those mesh plastic bags used for garlic from the supermarket. If it has a sharp metal clip on one end, turn it inside out. Dump all those tiny soap bits in the bag, twist the top and fold it over, then secure the whole works with a couple of rubber bands. Now you have a really good self-lathering scrubber. I keep one hanging by the hose faucet in the garden, as well as at the kitchen sink.
This post was submitted by Irene Bensinger .
Give all things you don’t need anymore to someone who need them. As you buy clothes from second hand, when you don’t need your stuff, don’t throw them away, give them to others who are missing them.
This post was submitted by iulia.