Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

One Small Step: Solve One Green Sin (At Least Partially)

by Jennifer on May 12th, 2008

One of our green sins in the poll has taken a strong lead…

That’s right, clearly the sin of, “I leave unused appliances and chargers plugged in all day” is something many of us do. All appliances from your chargers to your lamp suck up energy even when they’re turned off, so long as they’re plugged in.

I don’t unplug everything. The things I don’t unplug include the TV, because it’s got some funky, “If you unplug me you’ll have to reprogram me” deal going on, and I’m not TV savvy enough to figure out why. I also don’t unplug my computer. I turn it off of course, when I’m not on it - when is that again? But I don’t unplug it.

I actually only own three appliances; my beloved coffee pot, the toaster, and blender, and then two chargers. We don’t even have alarm clocks, and we only own two lamps, so it’s easy for me to remember to unplug everything. Oh, wait we have a popcorn popper too, but that’s almost never plugged in.

If you don’t live all crazy sparse like me, and you own appliances and many chargers, I’ve got a tip that might help you to remember to unplug them.

Steps:

• Choose 3 appliances for the week. Why three? It’s an easy start. Also, if I can unplug three so can you.
• Grab one of the following: Duct tape, clear tape AND recycled colored paper, or colored sticky notes. Why you should not have sticky notes is a whole other green issue, but I’ll let it slide for the sake of this small step.
• Grab a thick black marker.
• Wrap a piece of duct tape around the cord of each appliance (where you can see it please). Close to the appliance, not the wall, is a good bet.
• Write PLEASE UNPLUG ME! on the tape with your marker.

If you’re using clear tape and paper or stickies, do the same.

Visual cues work for all sorts of things; they’ll work for this. Really. When I’m stressed I’ve been known to write “Chill out” on my hand in ink, and it never fails. Visual cues rock.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you. This is a pretty big sin, in that a bunch of us do it, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing more posts on getting unplugged before the month is over.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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POSTED IN: One Small Step, Sins