Green Living And Our Simpler Life

We strongly believe in doing what is good for the environment and the concept of living green, conserving, and recycling. Sometimes it’s difficult to do all we should, but here are some of the things we do on a regular basis:

• We recycle. It takes a bit longer to rinse and sort, but it has become a habit that now seems like second nature. If we needed added incentive, our local landfill’s two dollar charge for each bag of regular trash would help. We also recycle paper items and cardboard. These days we have very little “trash”.
• We compost. I keep a small covered bucket under the sink and each night when we check on the outside animals we empty the bucket into the current compost pile. My husband keeps several compost piles active so we always have rich black compost for our gardens. Each fall he grinds up the leaves we rake and composts them, too. It is quite amazing to see the thermometer in the center of a pile of composting leaves registering over a hundred degrees when the outside temperature is below zero!
• About a year and a half ago we changed all of the light bulbs in the house over to compact fluorescent bulbs… the kind that use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. The compact fluorescent bulbs are more expensive to buy than the incandescent kind, but we like knowing that four of them use only the same amount of energy as one regular 60-watt bulb… and they are guaranteed to last for twelve years.
• We have installed ceiling fans in every room. They circulate the heat downward from the ceiling in winter and keep the rooms cool in summer. We have not figured savings, but we definitely use less heat each winter.
• We have heavily insulated our attic and walls, which has greatly reduced our winter heating bills. We have installed an insulating blanket on our water heater. Another thing we do consistently is to turn the water heater OFF in the evening and leave it off until morning. This leaves us with a ready supply of hot water (unless someone forgets to turn the water heater back on) while reducing the electric bill.
• Some years ago I sewed about twenty washable canvas bags from sturdy inexpensive painter’s drop cloths. We use them every time we go shopping for groceries. The bags have held up well, and using cloth means not using a lot of plastic.
• We try to buy organic produce and products if possible. We have a garden each year and do not use chemicals or pesticides. We also do not use pesticides or herbicides on the lawn. When home remedies don’t work, as in the problem with slugs and hostas, we use a non-toxic product that is environmentally safe and harmless around pets and the garden wildlife.
• I use natural cleaners whenever possible, and make my own laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent. They’re not only less expensive, the non-toxic, non-chemical aspect is important to me.
• We have uninterruptible power supplies for all of our electronics, and we turn the power off when we aren’t using the items. We have such frequent power outages and power surges, the uninterruptible power supplies are a necessity. We learned this the hard way after a fax machine and three computer modems were ruined by power surges. Another benefit… I have read that unplugging only one computer or television when you aren’t using it can save six to seven dollars of electricity a month. Multiply that by several items, and it’s a habit worth starting.
• We use rechargeable batteries in everything we have that uses batteries… and we use a solar battery charger to recharge them! I have read that rechargeable batteries can be reused for up to two years, but we have had batteries that lasted for up to fifteen years. Our current batch of rechargeable batteries was purchased in 1999 and except for two, they are still going strong.

I know there is more we could do… and living green is a habit that gets easier and easier. We’re still working on this one!

Written by Shirley | Filed Under Green Living, Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity

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