Being Green; Saving Green
Hmmmm….I’m not sure if you noticed or not, but my last post was sometime in June. I’ve decided not to beat myself up about it - I’ve been enjoying my summer thoroughly and keeping my computer time to the minimal essentials (barely). I’d rather call my time away from My Web of Life a sabbatical of sorts. It sounds so much more important and intellectual than just saying that I’ve been playing hooky.
However, when I saw what the topic was for this month’s APLS Carnival, my spidey senses started tingling and my fingers began to twitch for the feel of the keyboard. I knew that I needed to write. What would bring me back to my little corner of the house with the glowing screen? Two of my favorite topics merged into one great title: Green on the Cheap.
How could I resist that? I love to talk green and baby am I ever cheap!
I must confess that one of my biggest peeves as I struggle through my journey of going green (and it IS a journey and a definite struggle at times) is greenwashing. What is greenwashing? I have two definitions for it:
1. To pass off something that is not really ‘green’ as being ‘green’.
2. To charge WAY too much money for something that is ‘green’, whether it is or not.
Green does not need to be costly and shouldn’t be viewed as some fad that warrents jacked-up prices. I’m not talking about the genuine cost of an organic, fair-trade item. I am talking about gouging by greedy hypocrits. Make sure you do your homework before assuming that a costly product really is the green miracle that it says it is.
Although every once in awhile I come across a product that I just fall in love with and must have despite its hefty pricetag, for the most part I have been working to simplify and pare down to the basics. This has been my biggest source of money savings. I thought I would list out some of my favourite ways of doing this.
Thrift Stores. I have no qualms about purchasing previously worn/used items. I stick with basic thrift stores and avoid consignment boutiques like the plague. Paying more than $20 for something already worn is just absurd to me. I could give a rip about the label name. Although it often takes some sifting, I can usually find good quality clothing for everyone in my family. I still have some items in my closet that I bought 12 years ago. They are classic and I still get comments on them as if they were new.
Cleaning Supplies. This is simple really. I use borax, washing soda, vinegar, baking soda, peppermint soap and essential oils for scent and disinfection. I have also splurged on a few precious microfibre cloths that clean without the use of soap. The 3 brands that I have tried and like are Enjo, Norwex and E-Cloth. I am not dedicated to any particular brand and they all have very different price tags. My favourites are the window cloth and the toilet brush that can go in the washer. Because of my cloths, I really only use the other cleaning supplies for laundry, dishwashing and toilet freshening. Basically, I spend next to nothing to keep my house clean. Now if only I could get somebody to clean it…
Food. This one is really interesting. I spend more money on things like organic produce, but I notice that my grocery bill has remained the same or has even dropped on occasion. My only explanation is that I have been buying less packaged items and have begun to make more from scratch. I will admit that food is my weakest green link. I don’t enjoy spending huge amounts of time in the kitchen and I take a lot of shortcuts (like pre-made pie crust). But for the most part my family is eating healthful, nutritious meals that didn’t come out of a box. My kids go to school with lunches packed in reuseable containers. Paper towels have ceased to exist in our home (much to my parents’ dismay during their last visit)! It is an adjustment at first, but I’ve stopped missing the paper towels and excess cling wrap.
Utilities. I love the days of spring, summer and fall when I can hang the clothes out on the line. We have particularly old appliances in our home so I know the cost savings are significant when I can avoid using the dryer or oven. I have also gotten wiley and have begun using the water from our basement dehumidifier to help fill our washing machine. We also bought a rainbarrel this year and have been able to use that exclusively for any of our plant watering. This is the point where I should be honest and mention that this year I failed to plant any flower baskets and my tomato plants are barely living. However, this is not due to a lack of water on the part of my rainbarrel. Just a smidge of laziness on my part.
Shopping. What is my biggest way to stay green on the cheap? I’ve stopped shopping recreationally. After watching the Story of Stuff, I’ve become more conscious of where products are originating and what their true cost is. I will admit that I have lapses. My recent purchase of a backpack for my daughter was not a green choice. But it was a necessity at the moment. However, part of being green is being honest and conscious of the choices I am making. Basically, I am always working to improve. This year I plan to keep my eyes peeled in the thrift stores for some decent backpacks that I can keep stored in the closet. Hopefully I can avoid a similar purchase in the future and my daughter’s next backback will be both greener and cheaper.
Filed under Blog Carnivals, Cleaning and Organization, Easy Being Green, Saving Green | Comments (5)The Edge of Spring
As I’m writing this, rain is pouring down onto what is left of brown, sludgy snow and mud puddles the size of my entire backyard. The wind is whistling, and the panes of our storm windows rattle now and then. Luckily, I am snug and warm with a goose-down comforter tucked around my legs and a purring cat attempting to sneak on top of my keyboard.
This weekend it feels like winter has broken. I’m sure that there are still some flurries of snow between me and spring, but they will be weak. Warmer trends are prevailing. Squirrels are beginning to frolic, and this morning I woke to the sounds of birds for the first time in months.
They know.
‘Frolicking’ really isn’t the right word for what I saw those squirrels doing (no, not that word either). They were busy. They were hungry. They were cleaning. Leaves (and God knows what else) were haphazardly flying out of their dense clumps of nests up in the maple trees. There was a frenzy to their actions.
Which is a great analogy for way I have been feeling lately too. I get edgy this time of year. My husband will verify that little tidbit to anyone who asks. He may even argue that edgy is really too demure of a word for my mood as of late. This is the time of year that I want to fling open my doors and windows and get some fresh air into this place. I want to yank all of the bedding off and beat away any of those creepy dust mites. I want to haul bags of useless, broken toys and outgrown clothes to our local thrift store. I want to get on my hands and knees and SCRUB.
Yet I can’t. Because it is still winter. And I am in Canada. It is still too cold to open up my home to the elements. It is still too volatile to get a decent enough day to hang out some bedding. Mud stomps its way into my home no matter how hard I try to keep it at bay.
So of course I get edgy. My husband gets edgy. My kids get edgy. And we bicker. I’m even ticked off with the cat right now. We’ve all been cooped up and staring at each other for too many days now. Sure we get outside. But there has certainly been a lot more time spent inside this winter. And now we can feel salvation coming in the form of a warm-ish breeze. But true spring days are still hopelessly beyond our reach. Mother Nature is teasing us with what she has hidden just around the corner. We’re not quite there yet. And that is frustrating as all hell. Or maybe Purgatory would be a more apt description.
So what is a pent-up mother to do?
Get on her hands and knees and SCRUB.
So that is my plan. Attack every godforsaken, cobwebby corner of the house. No need to wait for the sunshine of spring. Hopefully by the time it arrives, my cleaning will be done. I can open up the doors of my home and walk right out to soak it in.
**************************************
I scrub away my pent-up aggressions with a sudsy bucket of peppermint castile soap (Dr. Bronner’s is my favourite). Linseed oil also helps give them an extra shine. Vinegar and water with some splashes of essential oil make a great window cleaner (although a decent microfibre cloth will work with only a bit of water. Olive oil and lemon juice work well as furniture polish. I also make my own all-purpose cleaner that smells fantastic and works great.
This is my post for the Green Mom’s Carnival about spring cleaning, hosted this month by Jenn from Tiny Choices.
Filed under Blog Carnivals, Cleaning and Organization | Comments (13)The APLS Carnival of Nature
Go check out the Carnival of Nature hosted over at The Green Phone Booth this month. There are some fantastic posts to be found there from a great range of bloggers. I was blessed to be one of them. So grab yourself a coffee and go do some reading!!
Nurturing a Love of Nature
I am just about to dive into the book “The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder’ by Richard Louv. I have been anticipating this for months now. I finally have a break in my pile of ‘To Reads’ and this one is next in the queue. A friend and neighbor first brought this book to my attention last spring and I have been seeing reviews and posts raving about it. SimpleKids seems to be using the basic premise of the book as the foundation of many of her blog posts.
What is this book about? It addresses the fact that we are guilty of raising a generation of children who have a complete disconnect from the natural world. They know more about how to program a TiVo or play a game on Wii than they do about recognizing the call of a larkspur or identify a species of wildflower. Although kids are very aware of environmental issues such as global warming, the environment is actually a very abstract place to them. It is something to study from afar, not to experience or explore personally.
Why do we keep our children inside? I often hear people say that it is no longer safe to allow children to play alone outside the way that we used to do. But is this really true? I am listening to a series of CDs from Kim John Payne, a Waldorf instructor and psychologist who extols the virtues of a creating a simpler family life to aid with disorders such as ADD. In his talk, he mentions a study that compared crimes of violence against children 30 years ago compared to the present day. Surprisingly, the rates of child abduction and violence are statistically the same between these two eras. However, media coverage of these incidents increased dramatically. Another example is when 2002 had what was considered to be an epidemic of child abductions when the statistics revealed that there was no increase compared to previous years.
So basically, our children do not live in a more dangerous world today. We just perceive that they do.
The reality is that we live in an age of fear that is largely media driven. And because of this, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are doing our children a disservice by ‘protecting them’ from the dangers outside of our homes. Because when we do this, our houses are actually becoming their prisons. We have to be willing to let our children roam. Within reason, of course. There should be some supervision, especially for the very young- but they can be given a long leash. Make an effort to dedicate time to get the family out. This doesn’t need to be a marathon of hiking while dragging whiny, overtired children along behind you. It can be as simple as setting up base camp on a picnic blanket and allowing your children to satellite out and explore around you. Kids should be allowed to create their own agenda during this time. They can explore what worlds exist beneath the underbrush or within hollow logs. Or they can excitedly invite you to join them watch a squadron of ants attempt to jam a giant crumb into a tiny anthill. Then again, you may just wind up drowsily lying on the blanket and seeing what pictures the clouds make.
Remember that experiencing nature isn’t just reserved for balmy summer days. Walk the woods in winter and stop often so that they can see that there is life inside those tightly budded trees. Let them go out in the rain and dig in the mud with the worms. Let them stay up later on summer nights so that you can lie out in the yard to stare at the stars.
But be careful. Don’t turn every adventure into a ‘learning experience’. How dull is that? Kids go on plenty of field trips where a teacher relentlessly explains the circle of life that surrounds them. That is the teacher’s job, and it is good that your child is exposed to that. But your job is to allow your child go out, muck around, get filthy dirty, and learn to love their Earth. Not because it is something to be learned about as a science experiment. But because the natural world is fun, heartbreaking, exciting, nurturing, and life itself.
Our children and grandchildren are inheriting an Earth that they will need to fix. They are not going to want to do this simply because we tell them they should. They are going to do this only if they truly love and respect the planet that they are on. Although the Planet Earth DVDs are beautiful and awe-inspiring to watch, they are still only a screen that our children can stare at. Even though the images are beautiful and exotic, they are a far cry from the tactile experience of running your fingers through wheatgrass under a brilliantly blue sky. Or the tickle of an ant that made a slight detour over your leg as you nap in the warm sun. These moments aren’t really exotic or exciting. But unlike what we experience on our screens, they are real.
How do you share nature with your children?
This is my submission for the February APLS Carnival on “Nature and the Environment”. The carnival will be posted February 20th at The Green Phone Booth.
Filed under Blog Carnivals, Nature | Comments (14)
