delara, interrupted

So, it seems I'm on an environmental kick lately. There's the bag thing, which seems to amuse a lot of people and inspire a few. There's the recycling thing, which is spreading among my partners at work - and that's cool. But there's so much MORE to do! It's very easy for me to understand how people can say, "What difference does it make? If I recycle and pay attention to the environment, it doesn't matter because everyone else is polluting it anyway." Sure--the number of people who "live green" are definitely the minority. BUT! Every footprint has impact, every effort to tread lightly helps, and I can't help but believe that the spirit of love for our world that is generated simply by caring for it will be a powerful force when the numbers are added up.

So, here are some other things we have started doing to tread more lightly.

We always do laundry with cold water and use the lowest water level setting possible. This saves on gas usage since none is used to heat the water. We also use an environmentally-friendly detergent (thank you, Trader Joe's!!) that has fabric softener in it, so we only put the clothes through one cycle instead of adding another rinse cycle for the fabric softener.

We take wire hangers back to the dry cleaners - and they LOVE that! We also choose to do business with a dry cleaning service that is big on recycling. They package as many clothes as possible in one plastic bag, for example, and if you ask, they'll leave the bag off altogether.

We take any styrofoam "popcorn" that arrives in shipped packages to the UPS Store across the street. They just add it to their supply.

As we receive catalogs that we don't want in the mail (or that are duplicate - doh!), I take 3 minutes to call the customer service number and ask to be removed from their mailing lists and any associated mailing lists. Aside from the fact that I have NO interest nor time to read through all those catalogs, I also have no interest in trees being used to send me something that I'm just going to recycle anyway. This helps. There is also an organization called GreenDimes that will prevent you from receiving junk mail for only 10 cents per day. That's $36.50 a year, in case math eludes you. And I can think of LOTS of other things on which we spend $36.50 a year without batting an eye. Or even an eyelash. (He he!)

We have gradually started replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs. If you haven't seen the new generation of these AWESOMELY environmentally friendly (AND cost-efficient!), then you're missing out. There are bulbs that hide the coil and look almost exactly like regular bulbs, and there are bulbs that are "soft light" bulbs - meaning, you don't have that "harsh" fluorescent discoloration in the space you are lighting.

We set our thermostat higher in the summer and as low as possible in the winter. This, however, is a point on which I often concede to Steve's preferences (or at least meet him more in the middle of our preferences) since he definitely needs it cooler than I do in the summer. Right now, he's out of town, and I have it set at 79 and it's PERFECT for me! He'd be sweating so badly at this temperature we'd have to wipe the floor down. :) So, when Steve is home it's more like 75/76. Still not too bad!

We unplug small appliances, lamps and laptop cords when we go out of town. This actually saves us about $10 a month in electricity, believe it or not! There is always a very small current of electricity that is flowing when something is plugged in--even if whatever is plugged in is "off". It's called an idle current, and it even runs into your cell phone charger when it's plugged into the wall outlet but not attached to your phone. So, we unplug all that stuff if we're going to be out of town for a few days. (My next step with all that is finding and purchasing a few good "smart power strips". Yes!)

We are gradually moving toward environment-friendly cleaning solutions in our home. This is a hard one for me, because (and yes, this is another one of those weird things about me) I really like the smell and "clean" of Windex and related products. But I'm learning to deal with things being a little less streak-free in exchange for knowing that what I'm spraying into the air in my home is much easier on my body, the air and the environment in general.

It seems like a lot of little things to have to worry about. And sometimes it feels that way. But other times, it just makes sense to me and feels completely natural. In fact, the more I do these things, the more it simply becomes the way I live. I don't even think about it anymore. It's second nature. That's pretty cool.

Steve is still learning the ropes with regard to living green. It's a fun process sometimes, and other times I think he may get annoyed by my reminders to set the cereal box aside for recycling or to separate the MILLIONS (ok, maybe just thousands) of plastic bottles (formerly filled with water) he goes through each month from his trash so we can recycle them. I am hoping that over time, these things will become second nature for him too and he'll feel happy about teaching our future children about the ways in which we tread lightly on our precious world.