Slow Steps for Greening Our Lives

So we've been in the slow process of greening our lives. One of the big problems stems from our living in an old apartment in an old city: there's already so much built-in inefficiency that we can't do anything about.

Maybe this then gives us greater imperative to do what little we can to reduce our impact. And so here I'll catalog the steps that we've found to be feasible given our lifestyles and housing circumstances.

Install CFLs. CFLs are cheap enough these days and easy to get. We even get brighter light with a lower wattage. For example, I replaced the 60 W incandescents in our standing lamps with 23 W or 25 W CFLs--equivalent to 100 W incandescents. They're brighter and now use less than half the electricity.

Insulate, weatherstrip. Insulate for all seasons. In the summer, it keeps the cool in; in the winter, it keeps the cold out.

Use less water. I filled three 20 oz. plastic Diet Coke bottles with water and placed them in the toilet tank. This reduces my water usage with each flush by half a gallon. Not so bad. We also follow the "if it's yellow (but not too yellow), let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down" rule. Turn off the faucet while your soaping your face or brushing your teeth. When doing dishes, I wet all the dishes, turn off the water, soap everything up, then rinse all the dishes at once.

Use more green cleaning products. I'm stil a bit wary of using non-Lysol-type cleaning products when cleaning up after cutting meats, etc. But for everything else, I use green cleaning spray.

Use dish rags instead of paper towels. Honestly, I use paper towels when I want, but I at least try to use the washable dish rags when I can--and when they're hygienic.

Use corn-based biodegradable poop bags. I know there are a lot of biodegradable poop bags out there--but when they all go into the landfill, there's not enough sun and water for the darn things to actually decompose. So I buy the corn-based ones: at least I'm not using oil to make plastic, and I'm supporting a company that implements eco-friendly production methods.

Unplug all power cords and switch off power strips when we leave for vacation.

Re-use paper. I always bring home and re-use any paper that's only printed on one side. I have an ink-jet, and that lets me use used paper. (Laser jets tend to have lots of trouble with used paper.) I also make little notepads by cutting used paper in quarters and eights and then stapling them into pads of 10-odd sheets for notes and to-do lists.

Use rechargeable batteries. I also have a Tivoli radio which runs on an internal rechargeable.

Buy organic and fair trade. Honestly, right now we only regularly buy organic eggs and coffee. When we can--financially--we'll buy other things organic and fair trade, but honestly it's tough when they're so much pricier.

Don't buy bottled water. Occasionally, we'll buy it out of convenience--for carrying, etc. But at home, we just use tap water, through a Brita filter.

Replace your shower head. I screwed off the old shower head and replaced it with a more efficient shower head that uses less water. Not a big deal. And then when we move out, I take it with me. Neat.

Ideas for Things to Do:

Have more house plants. These clean the air. Then I can also collect rain water or gray water to water them. Occasionally, throw used coffee grounds in for fertilizer.