Green Living
hwalls87
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
We need your help!
in Green Living
My family will be moving into a larger apartment soon. This time around we are wanting to live more green. Any suggestions on where to start??
Any sites I should visit?
Thanks!
Re: We need your help!
My husband and I just moved into our first house after living in small apartments for the last 10 years. I know one of the best things we've done is focused on buying used furnishings as much as possible. It can take some strategic thinking, creativity, and patience, but not only will you save money but you won't have the added waste of packaging that frequently comes with new items and you'll keep rugs, furniture, kitchen gadgets, home decor, etc. out of landfills.
We also got a hold of wooden crates, used plastic totes, milk crates, etc. to use for moving. We tried to cut down on using cardboard boxes as much as possible. We couldn't completely avoid them, but we did take boxes that were going in the trash instead of buying special moving boxes.
You could also take this opportunity to throw out expired/unused cleaners or processed foods. It's easy to find the best way to get rid of chemical cleaners just by googling. You could start from scratch using EF cleaners or by making your own- again, google can help with that!
Good luck!!!
Check out your library! There are lots of books on being greener in different ways, and I really like the library (its green too!) because you can browse a lot of titles and try out a lot of books. Sometimes you get a book home and think, huh, this sucks! No big deal, check out a few!
To me there are two aspects to being green: one in what affects you, such as what you breathe or ingest, and second, in trying to make a lower impact on the world. Of course these often go together!
One way in which many of us do both is by using vinegar and water and other homemade solutions for cleaning. You could decide not to use any toxic products in your home, which is good for your family and the earth. There are great products out there like 7th Generation, ECOS laundry detergent, Lemi Shine dishwasher detergent or the girls here have lots of homemade recipes.
Speaking of 7th Generation, you could switch to their or another EF (environmentally-friendly) toilet paper. Regular toilet papers mean a lot of tree loss, even old growth trees!! SAD!! And very bad for the environment. This was a tough change for me to make, but the difference isn't all that noticeable (as far as the tp).
Speaking of paper, cut down your junk mail! Call the catalogues or go online and get off their lists.
And still on paper, ditch the paper towels. To start, put them out of reach, so you have to think before you get them, and get rags. Rags in the automotive section of stores like Costco are cheap and great for many uses, and then many of us have microfiber cloths for dusting.
Does your apartment complex offer recycling?
A big way to be environmental that people don't often think of, or realize how much it impacts, is in our food. Try to buy local as much as possible. The oil consumption per household is actually higher in our food transportation costs than by our vehicles. Also try to buy things with less packaging.
Welcome!!
A few more really simple and easy ways to start, if you haven't already:
Use CFL light bulbs and make sure that you don't leave lights on when you're not in the room, not home, etc.
Plug your electronics into a power strip and flip it off when you leave the house. We make this easy by plugging our power strip into an outlet that is controlled by a light switch. This keeps the electronics from pulling power to keep the screens or standby lights or whatever lit up while they're not actually in use.
Adjust your thermostat. We keep our house at 62-65 in the winter and use blankets, and keep it around 75 (80 if FI will let me!) in the summer. Last summer I even convinced him to go with out AC for the entire summer!
Find a low-flow shower head, maybe even one with a "pause" button so you can turn the water off temporarily (but keep the same temperature) while you're sudsing up or shaving or whatever.
Put a small brick or other dense item in the back of the toilet to displace some of the water. This fills the toilet with less water and uses less per flush.
Buy a few big canvas bags and don't go shopping without them! A lot of my local stores will give you a discount now for bringing your own shopping bags.