10 Super Tiny Baby Green Steps You Can Take
October 27, 2008 by Jennifer
If you’re new to Tree Hugging Family or new to green living in general, you should know that no one (or at least me) expects you to rush out and buy a hybrid, attach solar panels, or cut showers down to three minutes flat. Yeah, that’s all fine, but if you’re new to green, even small steps are good. EVEN super tiny baby green steps, such as…
- Forget the drinking straw at any and all restaurants.
- Step down one heat setting while washing clothes. Technically, you can wash everything on cold; but if you’re freaking about losing the heat, just use the warm instead of hot water setting.
- Use both sides of your paper when printing.
- Unplug your cell phone charger when it’s not charging. Bonus points if you step it up and unplug at least four more household electrical items.
- Buy a reusable coffee filter.
- Turn the heat cycle off on your dishwasher – just open the door and allow dishes to air dry.
- Next time you go out for ice cream, try a cone vs. a throw away cup and spoon.
- Buy three organic food items the next time you go shopping. Three valuable organic food items to try are organic milk, organic apples, and organic cheese.
- This week buy less stuff. You know, at the mall you think you need this and that. Well, this week put one item back. Create a smaller footprint for yourself and save some $.
- Teach your child, best friend, sister, grandpa, or whoever, about one of the green steps above.
Do you do any of these already? OR will you commit to trying one or two? Let me know in the comments.
[image via stock.xchng]
I already do most of those things. I hate not using straws at restaurants though. I’m get all weird about germs and just worry about restaurant stuff. But I do wash all my laundry on cold. I read somewhere that none of the settings are hot enough to kill germs so it doesn’t really matter. I could also try working on opening the dishwasher. I don’t always remember it’s going.
A couple more baby steps:
Get some cloth napkins for home and start using them once in a while, working up to using them daily.
Put a hanky in your bag or pocket instead of a packet of Kleenex.
Hey Kamber – if you eat with their silverware, and off their plates it seems like no straw would be ok. You get a pass though, because we know you’re working hard at the green living
Kathe – good ones. I’ve used cloth napkins since birth pretty much (or my mom did) imagine all the money and paper saved. The hanky issue is like Kamber’s straw issue for me. I like the idea, but with a little kid, cloth hankies always seem so messy. I think Kleenex is the one paper item that’s an extra that we buy.
Well, I’ve been in hiding for a while so I thought I’d respond to this one =)
not so much. I try but it’s really hard to find good organic produce around here! We got a CSA veggie box this summer and that was awesome! But we are traveling close to 60 miles for organic selection of most produce now and sometimes we just skip it. The kids need fruit!
1) don’t do it. I have a big fear of spilling on myself! So dumb, and embarrassing to admit, but we just got a bunch of (insert rockin’ awesome brand name here!) um, canteens so I’ve been drinking out of that a lot more.
2) done.
3)done – we use a lot of scrap paper which we recycle, too.
4) We are still working on this and those vampire lights!
5) Don’t drink coffee – trying to absorb energy from the kids =)
6) done.
7) done. We buy a lot of ice cream pails instead of going out. We use the pails for compost…
9) done – it is amazing what you can live w/o!
10) Trying…sometimes people like my grandpa teach me a few things!! Yesterday my friend and I took apart a pillow to make our own. People like that inspire me to try new things and then tell others about them…