Ecominded Mama

A year of ecomindedness

I've been blogging about my efforts to be more ecominded for a year now, and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of the changes I've made. I certainly could be more ecominded in my actions (I've been wanting to buy a compost bin for at least a year, for example, but still haven't bought one), but all in all I'm doing a lot better than I was when I started this blog. I committed to changing my habits and my spending patterns whenever I could, and for the most part I've been satisfied and even incredibly surprised at how easy those changes were: I turn off my car when I think I'll be idling for more than 10 seconds, my dryer goes largely unused because I dry most of my family's laundry on clothes racks if the weather isn't amenable to me drying them outside on my clothesline, I pack snacks and leftovers in reusable containers, we fill our Klean Kanteen and Sigg bottles with water at home instead of buying bottled water (my 5-year-old did not lose her school Klean Kanteen bottle for even a DAY this year!), we unplug appliances we aren't using, and minimize our entertainment center's phantom load by hooking everything up to the Smart Strip. Am I singlehandedly saving the planet with these small changes? No. But I am making a difference, and that's something to celebrate. 

10 Easy Changes to Make Today, Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, here's my list of the easiest ecominded changes to make.

1. Change traditional incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent ones.

2. Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store, mall, farmers market, pet store, take-out restaurant... anywhere you'd normally be given a bag to carry your purchase.

3. Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.

4. Recycle.

5. Reuse things whenever possible: donate unwanted clothes to charity or have a clothing swap, use empty jam jars to store beauty supplies or buttons, buy used things rather than new ones.

6. Buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging required.

7. Lower your thermostat during the winter; raise it during the summer.

8. Only run full dishwasher and clothes washer loads.

9. Walk or use public transportation rather than drive.

10. Use just a little bit less of... everything.

The term of the day: eco-anxiety

I just read a post by Risa Green on Mommy Track'd that's focused on her "eco-anxiety" (which Plenty magazine describes as "a chronic fear of the environmental future," but which Risa describes more along the lines of guilt related to doing things she knows are detrimental to the environment). I'd never heard the term before, but I can certainly relate -- my own eco-anxiety is why I started trying to be more environmentally conscious in my daily life and it's why I started this blog (when I discovered that it's not really that difficult to be more eco-friendly, I wanted to share what I'd learned).

Anxiety in general is not good, of course, but eco-anxiety can be a good thing. It prompted me to start making simple changes -- and they really are simple changes. They take a little extra time to do, yes. In the grand scheme of things, though, I'm talking a few extra minutes, not hours. Not even quarter-hours. I'm catching up on laundry now after being away for four days, and I hung up some clothes on my clothesline and put the rest on my drying rack, which is one of the most time-intensive things I do for environmental reasons on a regular basis. It took me about 10 minutes to do both things. 10 minutes! I feel great that I'm not using my dryer for non-environmental reasons, too:

• Air-drying is saving me money on my electric bill, which is astronomical

• The heat from the dryer isn't heating up the house, which means that I can continue to leave the windows wide open and the air conditioner off

See, my eco-anxiety has its upsides!

My criteria for buying eco-friendly products

Products must be:

• Affordable -- I'm willing to pay extra for products that are gentler to the environment, but not a lot extra. It varies by product, but I'd say my maximum is about 20% more than conventional brands.

• Effective -- I'll buy a product once, but if it doesn't work I won't buy it again instead of a conventional product just because it's eco friendly. What's the point of buying laundry soap that doesn't clean clothes or shampoo that leaves my hair looking like straw?

• Available locally -- I used to order a few products online, but (a) I was spending a ton of money on shipping, and (b) the whole shipping process must negate some of the environmental benefits of the product. I was incredibly pleased to discover that I can buy Mrs. Meyer's, Seventh Generation, and many other eco brands (some I've heard of and some I haven't) at my local grocery store, at Target, and at Bed, Bath & Beyond, so I've stopped ordering products online.

• Necessary -- This is two-pronged: I have to use up the product I previously bought if it's effective (being wasteful isn't good for the environment, either) and I have to really need the product (stainless steel surface cleaner is neat, for example, but is it really necessary? I bought some, then realized that it's not... for me, at least. Lesson learned.).

Pretty painless changes we've made

The following is a list of changes we've made that have had little or no negative impact on our lifestyle or pocketbook.

• Recycle -- Our town mandates that we recycle paper, plastic, and glass, but it's the easiest thing to do. We keep a small box under the kitchen sink for glass and plastic and a box in the dining room for paper -- we empty both every 2 or 3 days into big bins in the garage, and take the big bins to the curb on Friday mornings. I'm trying to be better about recycling mail and other small pieces of paper in addition to the newspaper and junk mail.

• Compact fluorescent bulbs -- We've changed about 90% of the bulbs in our house to CFLs (the others are odd-sized or incompatible with CFLs for some reason). There is a difference in the quality of light between regular incandescent bulbs and CFLs, but it's only something I noticed right when I changed from one bulb to the other. A few of our CFLs take a while to "warm up" (the light is dim at first but comes to full brightness in a minute or so), but I've read that bulbs now don't have that issue. I just read a general FAQ on GE's site about CFLs that's pretty informative.

• Canvas shopping bags -- We bought 4 standard size canvas bags at our local grocery store and they're great. I also bought a hot/cold bag at Whole Foods about two years ago that is fantastic for transporting ice cream home on hot days and keeping cold things cool in general. I take my shopping bags with me now when I go to the mall or to run errands, and I've found that having one bag full of stuff from multiple stores is easier to deal with, both while I'm shopping and when I bring in stuff from the car.

• Low thermostat in winter, high in the summer -- In general, the thermostat is set at 68 during the winter and 78 in the summer. That's not low or high enough for some environmental stars, but it's about our limit (to be honest, my husband prefers the A/C to be set at 74, and if he's sweating inside we turn it down). The heating is a little tricky at night because we've had a baby for the past two winters that kicked off her blanket (and that was only once she was old enough for it to be safe to use one at all), so we keep the main part of the house at about 64 at night. Our bedroom is on a separate thermostat, which we kept at 58. I am a serious wimp about the cold, but we have a down comforter that keeps me warm and toasty (really!). This change definitely saves us money. I'm convinced that our shades also help keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

• Cloth napkins and more dishtowels -- I wasn't sure this change would work for us. Switching to cloth napkins didn't seem that big of a deal, but I imagined that using dishtowels for the many spills I clean up every day would mean doing lots of extra laundry (and how environmentally friendly could that be?). As it turns out, I'm really not using more dishtowels in the course of the week than I used to. I don't understand why that is exactly, but maybe it's because most of the spills involve water on a table and I don't mind hanging the towel over the oven bar to dry and reuse. I do still use paper towels, but far, far fewer than I used to -- maybe one roll per week.

• Different beauty products -- I'm not that into beauty products in general, but I do wash my face and body and hair and wear make-up on occasion (rare occasion now that I have two kids!). I read an article about microbeads in exfoliating beauty products (which I had two of, one for my face and one for my body) and how they end up floating in the ocean (and will be there, like all plastic that makes it into the ocean, for approximately the next 1,000 years), so when I ran out of my facial cleanser I looked for one without microbeads. I went to the natural foods store in my town, which had a whopping selection of TWO kinds of exfoliating facial scrubs, both Queen Helene products. I bought the Oatmeal 'n Honey Scrub, and it's working great for me and my husband. I also switched my shampoo and conditioner, and now buy Burt's Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet shampoo and conditioner. I also use the Mama Bee Nourishing Body Oil on my skin and in my hair (yes, my hair!) to keep the frizzies at bay (and I have pretty frizzy hair -- it works amazingly well).

• Household cleaning products -- My favorites are the Mrs. Meyer's laundry soap, surface scrub, and (handwashing) dish soap in lavender; and the Seventh Generation all-purpose cleaner (no need to buy the window cleaner, too, as I did -- the surface cleaner works well on windows and mirrors).

• Full loads for the dishwasher and washing machine -- Another easy one. I was so relieved to learn that a dishwasher is more efficient than hand washing. I still do hand wash some pans and utensils, but I try to be diligent about turning off the water while I scrub.