I didn't even give a thought to the environment until high school when I first learned about recycling. My mom just didn't care and didn't teach us about it. Then a science teacher showed a video of landfills, oil spills and various ecological catastrophes and I began to give more thought to my habits.
Only thoughts, mind you. If there was a recycling bin nearby I threw my can in. That is as far as I got.
Then I married Josh. (You'll hear over and over in this blog how amazingly and completely Josh has changed my life!) His sister-in-law was raised eco-conscious and I started to get eco-curious. She recycles everything and uses reusable grocery bags. I had another friend that introduced me to cloth diapers. She honestly had me at "saved money."
The Greener I got, the more money I saved...
So does going green really save green? It can, it all depends on how you do it.
And I will unabashedly announces that I am more concerned with my money than the environment right now, but if I can do a good thing for the earth because I am saving money then that feels pretty darned good.
But I do have my limits. I will never be forest green.
I don't think I'll ever be able to do mama cloth, family cloth, diva cup, unpaper towels or buy 100% organic foods. I happen to like throwing away my "nasties" once a month and toilet paper...well...it would take a whole lot for me to give that up. As for the organic foods, I just can't afford it right now. Sadly, I am doing as good as I can buying more whole foods than boxed. Why is nasty MSG infested mac'n'cheese so freaking cheap? Lizzie loves it, I save money, it gets bought. Ugh...but I do try.
I think I am going to go a little greener with my cleaning products though. Again, the earth is benefiting from my broke-ness! I am learning so much about the joys of vinegar and baking soda (and not just how cool it is when they mix!) For example, my house had a case of that "what's that smell?" the other day. Josh mopped with vinegar and the smell was GONE. Not just covered up by vinegar, it was gone. No other floor cleaner has done that for me - cha ching!
So how green are you? Are the decisions you're making more ecoNOMY based or ecoLOGY based?
Either way I think teaching our children how to be good stewards of God's creation is a wonderful thing!
9 comments:
I'm just like you doing this a little at a time. I've discovered Baking soda and vinegar for quite awhile now and have stocked up on them! Gosh it's great not to have to use the nasties all the time, but for cleaning my toilet bowl...I'm buying that lysol poison.
Same with food...some are too expensive and others I am able to get. I never buy frozen foods or pizza etc so I save there when I buy more whole foods.
I've been wanting to recycle and have been looking into what my city is doing about that, so this should be interesting.
Clothes...well no. I get second hand clothes because we can't afford to just buy all the time and it works out just fine.
I have my eye on ECO Store USA to start buying their products for cleaning etc, so we'll see.
I am definitely learning and teaching my family to take this approach seriously at every possible chance we get.
I started cloth diapering for the cheapness factor, too. After doing it for a bit and being exposed to a lot of green mamas on Diaper Swappers, I started to green up a little. Again for the economic reasons, but also for health reasons. Cloth wipes, essential oils, vinegar, wool dryer balls, Diva cup, and mama cloth. Now I find myself trying to be greener for ecology based reasons. I use reusable grocery bags and just ordered an aluminum water bottle.
I'm glad I've made some changes, and will be trying to do more. Not only am I doing better for my family, I'm doing better for the planet! It feels good to be green!
I'm not very green. I use cloth diapers and green friendly cleaners. I've thought seriously about recycling. I am wanting to try the diva cup, but I'm so with you on using toilet paper and paper towels on certain things (esp cleaning the bathroom!).
I try to be green, but I'm not that great at it. That's sad to say, I really need to step it up!
Thanks for the comment :-)
Yes, I always take Ethan with me in the jogging stroller, but I actually ran the other day without him and I was surprised how much easier it was not pushing an extra 35? pounds. I'll have to take advantage of it when I can when my husband is home!
Hmmm...I'm semi-green...actually maybe more aqua - like you. I do mama cloth, cloth diapers, recycling (for the most part), have my own garden (the only way I can afford organic food!), etc. But yeah...it would take me a looooooong while to agree to give up toilet paper! haha.
Um, can I high five you on the Diva Cup? Every time I attempt to 'go there', something in my head says, "noooooooooo!". LOL! I can do green, but like you, not forest. ;-)
I'm not forest green. But I do have to say, I looooove Mama Cloth. I used it post-partum and it was sooooo much more comfier than regular pads. And since I'm washing diapers anyway it's not a big deal to throw those in too. Supposedly it can help make your period shorter too. But I haven't had one yet (yay breastfeeding!) so I can't test that.
I have been making my own cleaners forever--since before it was cool to be green--back then I was just strange.
Sadly, we have never recycled until this year! It's shameful, I know, but true. But now we are recycling pretty much everything and it makes me happy to hear my two year old say, "hey, we have to recycle this!"
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