Saturday, September 6, 2008

Greenifying my green house

I was reading a friend's blog today & got inspired to take a few more steps toward becoming more green at home. I consider myself to be greener than the average person already, mainly because whenever I read any tips or take any quizzes on the subject, I've already done the majority of the things they suggest. I cycle commute or take transit to work, use recycled TP, eat mainly organic produce, recycle all the plastic, paper & metal that I can, use my own fabric shopping bags, subscribe to newspapers digitally, use CFLs, wash my clothes cold in phosphate-free detergent, replaced my old furnace with a 96% efficient one, got a new flow-through hot water tank... there's probably more, but this post is really about what I still need to do... I started a mental audit of my household & discovered a few things that the green me had suppressed thinking about. Here's a list of my goals:
  1. Stop using paper towel: use reusable cloths to deal with spills, cat barf, etc.
  2. Use up my disposable antibacterial wipes & don't buy any more!
  3. Stop using disposable duster & sweeper cloths.
  4. Get a clothesline in the back yard & drying rack for the house so I can stop drying virtually all my clothes in the dryer.
  5. Install CFLs & LED lighting in all fixtures in the house as the incandescents & halogens burn out.
  6. Stop drafts in the house with weatherstripping & sealing up holes in the siding before winter.
  7. Get more sweaters & woolly slippers & keep the heat down during the winter.
  8. Replace the crap single-pane windows downstairs with energy efficient ones.
  9. Look into adding insulation to the external walls upstairs.
  10. Get my plastic bag usage down to zero.
  11. Eat less meat & choose organic/free range when I eat it.
  12. Grow more food.
  13. Make more of our own beer & wine.
  14. Sell the car & go back to using Cooperative Auto Network vehicles exclusively.
  15. Try to buy local more often.
  16. Buy products with less packaging.
  17. Try to buy clothing made with greener fabrics.
  18. Start carrying a good travel mug so I can stop using disposable cups when I buy hot drinks out.
  19. Bring my lunch to work at least four times a week to avoid the packaging that eating out always entails.
  20. Cut my shower time down to 5 minutes a day.
So, there's a fairly exhaustive list of things yet to be done. Let me know if you can think of any others. What have you done lately to be more green? Got any plans/goals? Please comment!