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DH is resisting...hard!
Sooo a little background... my husband and I are living apart for the moment (booo!) because I decided to return to grad school while were still young and spry (without kids and leaving me to look for a better job while the economy hopefully repairs a little) but were only 3 hours apart and about every-other week we spend about 3-4 days together.
I've always had my inner tree-hugger...and hes...absolutly not like that at all! Hes not American and comes from somewhere which has much less cultural-emphasis on pollution/environmental issues (and has less waste in the household) tied to his new found love for the disposable (ie why invest in a water filter and bottles when a case of water is $3/$4? why do extra laundry when papertowels and napkins are so cheap? etc) which is making it really hard because we can't even disagree on the same cultural level! lol
I told him...just wait until we're living together full time! But I sure don't want to push too much too soon!
Did you guys face resistance at home? How long did it take until the green lifestyle became second nature? Right now he uses too much cleaning products typically (laundry soap, dryer sheets for the few items we dry, loads of floor cleaner, etc) and I cant see him jumping on the vinegar bandwagon too easily! I also encouraged him to recycle to which his answer was " the environment" then he laughed. thats when I told him to 'just wait and see' when were together again!
Im trying to figure out how to encourage....without being pushy!
Re: DH is resisting...hard!
The only place there has been resistance in our house is paper towels. For everything else, knowing why the chosen option is better than the existing alternative has been motivation enough.
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I've been able to gradually change my husband's perspective on a lot of things, but it has taken time. I try not to nag but be informative and stress just because he may have always done things a certain way in the past doesn't mean there isn't a better way to do things.
Good luck
I'm just starting to make green changes at home too... and DH is going along with most of them pretty well, considering he's very anti-tree-hugger
Mostly, I've just been pointing out how much money we can save (using vinegar instead of buying all those cleaning products, investing in rags once instead of buying paper towels all the time, paying less for a smaller garbage can & recycling stuff to make up the difference in space, etc.). It also helps that DH is a science nerd... so we're going to end up with a garden, composting & solar panels.
If you're planning to have kids, maybe mention that you're trying to make the world a better place for them/ keep them healthier. Since you're in grad school, I'm assuming you're not incredibly wealthy, so definitely play the money card. And, if you're like me & buy most of the household products, just start making changes & he'll live with it once he realizes you're serious about this.
Cool :-) you're the first person on here I've found with this same situation...most people just tell us were crazy! Im studying for my masters in international politics (well, technically its Russian and East European Studies...but according to my brother that doesnt sound like a real degree lol)
Ive tried to pull the 'money' card but it hasnt worked! I got a resopnse of 'oh and a case of water is what, $3? $4? I think well manage. What can I say hes stubborn! I told him how it can leach chemicals and he said 'oh well' hahaha clearly hes not formed a strong opinion against it so Im just going to take the approach of slowly transitioning and have him "catch on"
Im soooo jealous of the pp who talked about their solar panels/garden/composter! We live in an apartment for now so I dream about having cool stuff one day! (other than a window herb 'garden' which I struggle to keep alive due to the weird angle of my apartment not letting in light!)
I lucked out, my DH is very understanding of my being green and has actually come up with a lot of good ideas himself. What I found that works with him is baby steps. I start one green initiative at a time, let's say recycling because we did that first, and do it myself for awhile, then he picks up on it, once we're both doing it for awhile I move on to the next one. For recycling, I started rinsing the recyclables and leaving them on the counter to dry. DH would ask what's going on, I would tell him I'm recycling and show him the picture on the side of the bin of what could be recycled and what couldn't. After a few weeks of him seeing me pulling recyclable items out of the trash after he chucked them, he started placing them on the counter, where I would rinse them and put them in the bin. Then he started rinsing them himself, and now he's doing the whole shebang.
I did the same process with removing paper towels. We used to go through 2 rolls a week, now it's 1 every other month (we only really use them for pet messes now). I bought some rags, and started using them for wiping up messes and cleaning instead of PT. I also hid the PT roll, which keep DH from grabbing it the way he always had. After awhile, he started using the rags and now we have a whole system of these rags are used for this, and these rags are used for that. That's $4 a week, $16 a month saved! I did the same process for composting, and we started gardening together.
For the most part he doesn't care if I switch us to a different product or start to make out own. Just as long as it works as good as what we were previously using.
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MH resists some things--paper towels and laundry soap. He also cannot justify spending more on happy eggs. But in a lot of ways he's on board. He's building a little green house for our garden, he always remembers to turn off the lights and he's getting his degree in conservation wildlife.
I think it's a balance with him.