I am making a conscious effort to think of ways to be more “GREEN” and in honor of Earth Day I’m planning on incorporating it in the blog this month (reviews of several great eco-products coming soon). When compared to a lot of Americans,  I think our family is fairly good but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. Just because we may be a little greener than most doesn’t mean we are any where near green enough! Its tough, I think I’ll make a green list and a needs improvement list to help me with this! Here is what I came up with so far, any suggestions welcome:

Green list:

• compared to our neighbors we seem to put out much less trash and missing a week putting out the garbage is no big deal for us
• we buy very little cleaning products and with the exception of a rare bottle of bleach I buy all eco- cleaners
• I use vinegar and baking soda to clean
• I switched to eco-friendly laundry detergent
• I use reusable grocery bags (almost every time)
• I compost in spring/summer
• we don’t eat a lot of meat
• I avoid snack sized treats for the kids to save money and waste. I buy regular sized snacks and put them in reusable containers instead of baggies
• we recycle and fortunately our area takes a big variety of recyclables
• I save all clean plastic bags to recycle at the grocery store in their grocery bag collection bin and I put in my bread bags, frozen vegetable bags and any plastic bag that is clean (I hope I’m not including any that wouldn’t be recyclable but I’m not sure where to find that out)
• we haven’t gotten the newspaper in years and read it online instead
• I save lots of things to reuse for art projects with the kids (bottle caps, empty food boxes, metal lids, string from packaging, misc plastic, cardboard from frozen pizza boxes, etc…)
• we have a garden (with the exception of my failed one last year)
• we have chickens to get our own eggs in spring/summer
• I don’t buy many clothes for our kids because we are given a lot of hand me down clothes for them (and we also give away their outgrown things)
• I have turned down free items to review on the blog that I thought were wasteful
• almost all our lights CFL now
• I collect other people’s bagged leaves at the curb in the fall to use as mulch on my next years garden (keeps the weeds minimal, is free and totally worth feeling weird when I stop to throw the bags in my car)

Room for improvement:

• I have been buying juice pouches recently to use when I am in a rush and haven’t washed or filled metal water bottles.
• I should try to compost all year
• I get coffee out at places that have disposable cups 1-2 times a week
• I try to think about the packaging waste when I buy things and if there is an item that uses less waste I take that into consideration when making decisions. Its a start but I’m putting this in room for improvement so I can work on this more
• John drinks lots of little soda bottles lately
• We use disposable diapers but we don’t have plans for that to change, some guilt but just can’t handle cloth
• I use paper towels more than I should
• we do not buy as many environmentally friendly products as we could because of they are often more expensive
• we could grow more produce in our garden
• the boys are horrible about leaving their bedroom light on
• we get too many gadgets?
• we don’t unplug enough electronics/appliances when they aren’t being used

I miss the garden we had 2 years ago, hope this year is a good one!

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