Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day!

Nothing crafty to share this AM, Little J and I went to town on Tuesday to see Grandpa and Grandma. Little J had a fun time chasing the Easter Bunny out of Grandpa's garden and down the block. ACK, she would still be running if she had not tripped over a driveway. (She was not hurt but she stayed down til I caught up to her.) Grandma got to visit a neighbors house she had never been in before because Little J wanted to see the cats.

We are going green today with the reclamation of some railroad ties to line the new drive with a flower bed. Grandma gave us some flower bulbs to plant and the weather is going to be great here this afternoon. FINALLY ;)

Want to find some ways for your family to go green visit...
WWW.treehugger.com

This past year here are some of the steps we have taken to green up around our home.

1) More cold water washes Tide for Cold water really works great with our rural water. I do still wash towels and linens in HOT water.

2) Wash one load of clothes per day, there is five of us in the house it got the girls to cut back on what was considered dirty and now they wear a hoodie two or three times before it hits the laundry basket, jeans maybe a couple of times.

3) DH bought a water cooler for the house so we don't purchase as much bottled water. Instead we recycle plastic bottles or use drinking glasses well at home.

4) We have replaced all the old fashioned bulbs in our home.

5) I clean less with bleach now after little J decided to drink some last fall. Now I clean with baking soda and vinegar you will be surprised how well the combo really does clean. I did break down and purchase one bottle of bleach this past month but one bottle compared to one a week that is a huge change.

Some plans for the upcoming year...
1) Clothes Line for the backyard

2) Homemade Laundry soap
Powdered Detergent
2 cups finely grated soap
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1. Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
2. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.


3) This is big for me drink less Mt. Dew that will save us cans, bottles and the all the packaging. Not to mention the wear on my teeth and the addition of body weight.

4) Another biggie for us switch the way we carry groceries home. We still use the bad way of plastic bags ( I know, I know) we really need to stop this. When we shop we shop for the month, I think it is time to bring back some cardboard boxes instead of using the plastic or start replacing with some of the reusable bags now available.

5) Cut back on our weekly output of garbage by doing more recycling of everything from clothes, shoes, plastic, glass etc. I now save all our pickle, spaghetti sauce glass etc to etch and turn into little treat jars for gift giving.

Bottom line is there are changes to be made all around us from simple to more advanced. If we all start with something simple a huge difference can be made.

Happy Earth Day!

2 comments:

Amy said...

Great ideas Sara, and great job working towards being more green. We recycle, use cloth bags and the flourescent light bulbs. We too are washing more in cold water, except sheets, towels and undies. Most people I know are doing more of that--every little bit helps!

Wanda said...

Such great advice Sara. I have not tried the homemade laundry soap but I have a GREAT recipe for window cleaner that makes a gallon and it REALLY cleans the windows well. They look like they are "new glass" when you are done!! And the best part is it works even better with a squeegee (less cleaning for you) And a tip with the window cleaning. Clean inside in one direction and outside in another and you will know which side the streak is on!!! I'll email you the recipe when I find it!!