I’ve been part of Seventh Generation’s Challenge to live Greener for a month now and I am very excited about the changes that we’ve made. I just want to point out that living green isn’t just for hippies… being green is and should be for everyone! I’m an average everyday mom who just wants to give my family the best, on a budget, so if I can do this, everyone can. And, I’ll bet you’re already doing a bunch of green things unknowingly – because a lot of green things are frugal and just make good sense!
For example, here are some of the green things we were doing before the challenge that we’re frugal or just made sense to me… and what you know they were “green!”
- packing lunches in reusable containers
- recycling cardboard and soft drink cans
- reusing plastic bags and/or carrying reusable bags to the grocery store
- Buying fresh ingredients instead of pre-made/processed foods (less packaging)
- Filtering our water and carrying it in glass reusable bottles instead of buying bottled water
- Composting food scraps (vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, eggshells, etc)
- Reusing containers
- Reusing packaging paper for drawing paper
- Using CFL bulbs
- Hanging and reusing bath towels
- Rewearing clothes like jeans, dress pants, etc. that aren’t dirty before laundering
- Cloth diapering
- turning off the water when brushing teeth
- line drying some of our clothes
- Using a green laundry detergent (Charlie’s Soap)
- Use rechargeable batteries
- Use up stuff in the fridge and fresh foods so we’re not wasting food
I’ll bet you’re doing a lot of those things already too!
Here are the new things we started doing and it is so easy it hasn’t hurt us one bit!
- Recycling paper (junk mail, packaging, magazines, etc)
- Buying milk in glass returnable bottles
- Eliminated several harmful cleaning agents from our cleaning cabinet
- Making some of our own house cleaning agents
- Using cloth napkins
- Using green cleaners like Seventh Generations dish tabs and disinfectant
- Switched many of our personal care products to more natural products eliminated many products
- Replaced plastic for glass for reheating in (like leftovers and plates to-go for lunches)
- Being more mindful of using small appliances over larger ones when possible (like the toaster oven over the wall oven so as not to compete with the air conditioner and use unnecessary energy)
What other things are you doing that you can recommend?
Seventh Generation and Walmart challenged me to take a month and share the things I’m doing to make my home greener. You can see what other Walmart Moms are doing, too. Sheena from Sophistishe, Monica from MommyBrain Reports, Jenn from Frugal Upstate and Jenna of Green Your Decor are also participating. B
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Walmart Moms program. Seventh Generation has provided me with products. Walmart has provided me with compensation to blog about attempting a more sustainable household for a month. Participation in this program is voluntary. All opinions are my own.
