Our last poll was, “How will you green your holiday season,” in which 71 of you voted. Not bad. Many of you were trying to be nice and green this holiday season.

Here’s the break-down, with links if possible so that you can learn more about these topics…

3% of you planned to serve organic meals
10% of you bought fewer gifts
3% of you made recycled decor
3% of you skipped the X-mas tree
10% of you made homemade gifts
1% of you of all vote sent e-cards
3% of you are recycling your gift wrap
1% of you are using reusable …read more

I’ve got a new green holiday poll up. Check it out in the sidebar to your right – about halfway down the page.
I offered some basic choices for greening your holiday season, but of course I never think of everything. This is where you come in; leave an idea of your own, if you have one, so that everyone stopping by can learn even more ways to green their holiday.
I’m planning on leaving this poll up throughout November and December, so by New Year’s we should have oodles of great green holiday ideas.
Go ahead and vote! 
November current events at …read more

We asked, “How are you greening your Halloween?”
Here’s what you said:
42% Not celebrating at all
25% Making costumes or buying used
17% Composting pumpkins after the 31st
13% Natural decorations (like mums)
4% Organic candy and treats
It’s good so many of you are making your own costumes or buying used. Hope you have a great time.
If you need tips on composting pumpkins, visit Earth 911.
Do you have a way you’re greening your Halloween that’s not mentioned above?
Image via MorgueFile.
Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008.

Since we’ve been posting on greening your Halloween all month, you must be thinking about it already, right?
Please take our poll in the sidebar. If you don’t see an answer you like, add your own. We’ll take the poll down and discuss on Halloween.
Have you missed any Halloween-related posts? Here they are, just in case:
Organic Etsy Halloween Treats
Buy Nothing New Halloween

Thanks for participating in last month’s water conservation poll. We’ll have a new one in the sidebar soon.
What measures do you take to conserve water?
I’m not listing each answer, but here are some highlights:
• Most popular answer (aside from “At least 5 of the above”) was turn off water while washing dishes and brushing teeth with 15% of the vote.
• Eating little or no meat claimed 7% of the vote. It takes a lot of water to get a package of beef to the store. . .
• Compost instead of using the garbage disposal and wear clothes more than once …read more

Since July is almost over, we’ll be taking down the water poll in a couple of days. Please take it if you haven’t. It’s in the sidebar.
In glancing at the poll results, I’m a little surprised that only four voters have said that they wear clothes more than once before washing. But we did include that pesky “At least 5 of the above” answer, so maybe that accounts for part of it.
You know I’m curious though.
If you don’t wear your clothes more than once before washing, what are your reasons? Of course, many kids get their clothes too dirty to …read more

It’s the end of May and time for the unveiling of our Biggest Green Sin poll results! Thanks to all 89 of you who took the poll. It was fun to have so much participation. And have you ever noticed how much an electrical outlet has a surprised look?
From least to most popular green sin:
Recklessly use the printer — 2% of all votes
Don’t buy recycled office paper — 2% of all votes
Don’t recycle anything — 3% of all votes
Never buy organic foods — 3% of all votes
Still use detergents with phosphate — 3% of all votes
Don’t bother getting off junk …read more

Never buying organic food probably isn’t one of the 7 Deadly Green Sins, but it’s an important one. And it’s something we talk about a lot at Tree Hugging Family.
Ease into organic. If you never buy organic food, try adding at least one organic item per shopping trip. I’ve noticed that many popular brands are starting to go organic, so it’s not something just confined to the health food store or produce section anymore. For instance, you even find Kraft organic Macaroni & Cheese!
I understand how challenging it is to spend more on organic products, but if you build up …read more

In conjunction with our popular green sins poll in the sidebar, we’ve been discussing your green sins this month, and this particular green sin actually causes a green mess! However, only 4% of voters say they still use detergent with phosphate. Round of applause.
Makers of laundry detergent in the United States, Japan, Canada and some European countries no longer include phosphate as an ingredient. I know many people with clean clothes, so phosphate-free laundry detergent must be working.
Including phosphates in dishwasher detergent is still popular in the US and other countries. That doesn’t make sense to me. The practice was …read more

Or other bugs?
I don’t use it on other bugs, because all that scares me is spiders. In fact, I’m the one who added the ” Use Raid on spiders” category to the poll this month, but since others voted yes, we’ll discuss it a bit. Not much, because I’m sorry, no matter how eco-bad it is, I’m not giving up my Raid. I talked about why here.
People in the comments on the other Raid post had some interesting suggestions including a spider relocation device (OH NO) and a general consensus that one major green sin won’t kill me, so live …read more