Green Bean Machine

I’m really excited. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to replace our household cleaners with greener, healthier substitutes. We’ve done it at work, and “The Green Team” listed their recipes for cleaning solutions on the company blog.

Last week, my friends Joshua and Mandy spoke to their friend’s class on how they’ve made everyday changes to green their life. They streamed it á la Internet, and I found it oh so inspiring. We’ve been doing a lot already—recycling everything, buying less, eating at home, only having one car, and biking/bussing/walking as much as possible. I bought baking soda and white vinegar and made a half-butt attempt to switch to natural cleaning, but never really got there. But now I’m on a mission!

Here are the things I’m working on in the next couple weeks:

1. I’m replacing our shampoo/conditioner/body soap with Dr. Bronner’s and switching to Preserve toothbrushes and razors. Burt’s Bees and a washcloth for facial cleanser and exfoliating.
2. I’m going to be good and only use baking soda and white vinegar for cleaning. (One of the tricks I heard from work is to sprinkle baking soda on the bathroom sink and use half a lemon as a sponge. Lemony-fresh and no icky rags!)
3. Mrs Meyers will be the dish soap of choice again…it’s worth the extra dollars.
4. We’re going to develop a habit of unplugging all appliances (minus the fridge) when not in use.

And next year, here are some plans:

1. Initiate composting and a communal garden in the back yard (there’s two other tenants on the property). 
2. Bike to work when the weather is decent. (It should be here soon…)
3. Invest in better clothes that will last longer and can be recycled when they become too worn (cotton, wool, silk).
4. Buy produce from Farmer’s Market more regularly.

So that is the plan. I’m feeling like this is all very attainable as long as I set reasonable goals for myself. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 7:23 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.