A Little Bit Greener...

Many of our friends in Oklahoma accuse us of being crunchy, and I guess by "typical" Oklahoma standards, we waiver to the side of granola-y. Perhaps this media push to be "green" is suggesting something that we should be doing all along....using our resources, not wasting, being frugal, using renewable and natural elements. It cracks me up that it is now in vogue to be green.

I have learned that to better myself as a person, I must surround myself with goodness and positive people. Many of my daily practices are result of a myriad of influences from others. I think that as we change and evolve, we are pushing ourselves to challenge the mundane. So instead of the ordinary, Matt and I are thinking and practicing outside of "the box" to better our family and souls. It is amazing how lazy we can become and how quickly we can become creatures of habit. Why throw away perfectly good Ziplocs when you can rinse them in hot water, put them over a tall bottle to dry and reuse them (thanks Mom--I cannot make fun of you anymore!)

My hope for this post is that it will challenge you to examine your own daily practices and change to something better. Maybe by hearing what others are doing, you will re-think your methods to improve upon them and be a positive influence to someone else down the line. Or else don't do anything....

1. Homemade Laundry Detergent--Matt found a recipe and video for making laundry detergent, which costs pennies compared to the $17 bottle of Tide we were buying monthly. It was simple to make--took about ten minutes--and cleans the clothes and diapers well. Not so great at stains and does not have a scent (requires a paradigm shift as I was raised in the era of fragrance and softness=clean), but it does the job for a tiny fraction of the cost. See below for the cost breakdown. Pennies, I tell you! Recipe can be found here.

Cost analysis:
$2 borax
$2 ivory soap (12 pack)~ ab 17 cents per bar
$3 Arm & Hammer washing powder
$4 bucket with snap-on lid
Total ...$0.81 per load of laundry (total ingredient list makes about 8 batches of soap which lasted us for over a month, and we do a LOT of laundry)

2. Cloth Diapers--When you have two babies that go through at least 6-8 diapers per day, costing us $80 per month buying from Sam's, that was great motivation to use cloth. The process to change the diapers is nearly as simple as disposable diapers plus washing one additional load of laundry per day...it was easy for us to see the benefits quickly. I have to make sure the re-used Ziploc is in the diaper bag each time we leave the house, but other than that, it's simple. I won't even get into the benefits to decreasing the amount of diapers in our local landfill and how much better it is for G&A's skin to be in cloth. Plus, they are so darn cute in cloth!


3. Biking to church--we have started a family practice of trying to bike to church each Sunday. We live less than 2 miles from our church and McFarlin even has a bike rack under a shade tree. The babies are so cute riding in the bike trailer and we get a good quick workout. Although I will say it was a test of our new transportation to ride home in 101 degree heat yesterday...good thing the ride is short.

4. Driving slower--Matt did an experiment and learned that he could increase gas mileage by 5 miles to the gallon by driving 60mph to work. Good lesson to leave a few minutes early and SLOW DOWN---in all of life!

5. Cooking out on the Grill--Our new favorite method for cooking summer meals is on the grill. Our oven and stovetop heat up the kitchen and house soooooo much. Plus the grill cooks faster and we have a yummy meal in no time.

6. Diaper wipes--I tried an experiment to make our own wipes using a wipe solution recipe and paper towels. Needless to say, it did not work. Instead, we use the cheap baby washcloths and a spray bottle with water in it! Then we throw the wipes in the load of cloth diapers we are already doing each day...too easy. I still use commercial wipes for going out of the house because I haven't found another system to work well...but I'm open to suggestion.

7. Turning off lights, opening window blinds and running ceiling fans--we are able to set the house thermostat on 78 or 79 degrees and depending on the time of day, it saves on electricity. In contrast, we close the windows on the sunny side of the house at peak heat times.

8. Change bulbs to flourescent bulbs--we're not replacing light bulbs nearly as often now.

9. Growing a garden--still working on this one. Once the nearly 200 tomatoes that are on our vines turn red and are ready to pick, we plan to share produce with other friends who have gardens as well. Great for healthy eating and the twins love their daddy's squash!!


10. Decrease the amount of paper towels and napkins used--we try to use cloth napkins, towels and washcloths for kitchen use. Amazing how we can stretch out the time between bulk paper towel purchases.

11. Curbside Recycling--yay Norman! Finally we have curbside recycling! They pick up everything but cardboard, so we have a bin in the garage where we store cardboard and make our bi-monthly run to the recycling center (coupled with other errands of course!). It is AMAZING how much we have decreased our trash output by recycling everything we can.

12. Reuseable Grocery bags--or use the plastic or paper bags you get for other purposes--or take them back to the store with you to refill with more groceries.

13. Composting--still working on the system and waiting for our first batch to be ready to use, but paper scraps, as well as food scraps have lessened the amount of trash we are throwing away. Plus, the garden and lawn will love the extra nutrition from the compost.


We are certainly not extreme in our practices, but we have found that if we do a few simple things that take a wee-bit more effort (some of it does not require more effort, just planning ahead), the cost savings can be significant and it makes us feel a whole lot better about how we live. Pretty cool that George and Abigail are being raised knowing that recycling is just a way of life.

Please share things that you do in your household....we love to try new ideas!!