I now walk the two miles round trip to work along with biking to the ymca (6 miles round trip), the grocery store (3 miles round trip) and Barnes & Noble (13 miles round trip). My kids go along with my husband and I. As of today, Sunday, our cars have not moved since Thursday. Our goal is to make every trip we can via foot or car.
This post was submitted by Kelly O'Brien-Fairley.
I ride my bicycle everywhere I can. If it’s too far or I have to get there in a hurry I ride a motor scooter. While I’m out doing that I look for glass bottles on the side of the road and pick them up before they get smashed and then I recycle them. I also pick up other recyclables if possible. I have chased down plastic bags to keep them from getting in the ocean where they might kill a sea turtle.
This post was submitted by Susan Fladager.
Use your cell-phone like a land-line. Don’t answer your phone when you are spending time with your friends or family unless it is an emergency or your were expecting the call. In fact, don’t carry your phone with you throughout the day if you’re not anticipating a crisis of some kind. Turn your phone off at night. Make designated times for phone conversation with people you care about. Stop sending text messages. De-activate this function from your phone, both outgoing in incoming. It takes an incredible amount of energy and electricity to power your cell phone - and all the information it exchanges. Control the way you use technology! This goes for email too - try checking your email once a week, or once a day, if once a week is impossible. Then, set aside one chunk of time to respond to emails, instead of multiple times throughout the day. This will allow for more time for other (more physical) activities. Also, your eyes will appreciate it! And again, you will save power from not using your computer and the internet so often.
Thanks!
This post was submitted by charlotte sullivan.
Every morning my wife and I take a shower together to save on our water consumption and electric bill. It is a great opportunity to share with each other what is happening for the day before we start our morning routine. Plus, you cannot help but start your day off on a high note when every morning you get to see your spouse in the buff.
This post was submitted by Chris.
We use two compost toilets. We also have a regular flush toilet. We had it removed, but then replaced it when we realized that some of our guests would leave early to avoid using our humanure toilet, which is admittedly a fancy name for a bucket with sawdust. They just don’t know what they are missing!
Maybe it’s just a whacky fascination on my part, but I think the sawdust toilet is actually quite fun to use. Here are some advantages: it will never overflow when your child uses too much toilet paper, no noise when you tinkle (no tinkle) or “flush”, no water used except the small amount to rinse the bucket. It was extremely easy to make and it returns nutrients to the soil and relieves our septic tank of excessive burden. In fact, we’ll probably never need the septic pumped again as it is essentially a large underground greywater tank now. The biggest disadvantage? Convincing your guests that you aren’t crazy and they really should give it a try. We’ve posted a sign and instructions near our toilets so that people can understand the reasoning behind it and how to use it properly.
C’mon, don’t be squeamish, composting can be enlightening and there really is no issues with smell at all! Try it!
This post was submitted by Gaia .
So much is compostable - egg shells, coffee grounds, bread, all fruit and veggie scraps, leaves, grass clippings, tea bags, etc. When mixed together, either outside, or inside with worms, a very nice organic soil is produced, which can be used outside for a garden, or inside for potted herbs. There is a science to composting so a little research may be required…
This is a fun activity which incorporates health and the elimination of more waste going to the landfills. Not to mention the cash savings from eating your own produce.
This post was submitted by Angie Kroening.
Spend time with your friends or family by sharing stories that you’ve either made up or heard. You can also have story reading time with your family by taking turns reading the book aloud. Aside from being fun this saves money, allows you to spend quality time with your family, and can be very educational. If you run out of stories you can always get a library card.
This post was submitted by Clayton Green.
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.
Successful local eating starts with seeing what’s at the market or in your CSA box then finding a recipe for it. We have to let go of the tendency to pick a recipe and buy according to that. Keep a library of cookbooks or just find recipes online when you have a pile of local meat and veggies waiting to be eaten.
This post was submitted by Kim.