Trying!

When I lived in Ireland, it was shocking how little trash (ahem, "rubbish") we produced. First, we recycled everything. We reused as much as we could, too. I was always impressed at how inventive people were about finding new uses for junk. Compost was a big deal.
Remember, this was a working farm, so we always had a place to put the compost. And then there was the pig bucket. When I first arrived at Ballytobin, I thought "pig bucket" was a metaphor of some sort. Nope. I fed the pigs every day. They'd eat anything! Except orange peels. I don't know why, but they hated them. Because of all this, we only took out the trash every couple of weeks. It was nice.

I've been trying to live a more ecologically responsible lifestyle. Bob and I recycle like crazy, so this is nothing new. We've started using reusable grocery bags. I love these. They have a nice flat bottom and are really tough. I've also bought reusable produce bags. And darn it, I don't have a yard or a farm, but I miss composting. So countertop composting it will be!

Now, this next one I feel a little guilty about, because I don't use it exactly for the right reasons. Yes, I'm talking Mrs. Meyers. Specifically, I'm talking their lavender stuff. I LOVE the way it smells. To make myself a little less superficial, I also use Shaklee's Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate. It doesn't smell like much, but it lasts forever and it works. Oh, and we avoid paper towels and napkins and use microfiber cloths and cloth napkins instead.

I also recently bought the least ugly door draft stopper I could find. These tend to be atrocious, but my front door definitely makes my house lose heat.

There are still things I need to work on. Most of our house stuff is plugged into power strips, but I always forget to turn them off during the day. I haven't switched to CFLs yet. Well, this isn't completely true. I bought a bunch, but the light was sickly and blue. So as quickly as they were put in, I took them out. There's a wider range of CFLs available now, though, so I need to go buy a bunch. I also know I should switch to a low-flow showerhead, but I LOVE my shower's water pressure. I find it very hard to rinse my hair in low-flow showers. Still, I might try this one. For twelve bucks, it's worth a try.

Finally, Martha Stewart Living did an article about reducing junk mail. It took a few minutes, but I opted out from as much as I could. Here are the links:

www.optoutprescreen.com (credit card offers)
www.dmachoice.org/MPS (mailing lists)
www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm (those pesky Valpaks)
www.catalogchoice.org/ (this one killed, because I love catalogs, but I can browse online instead)

So, I'm trying. I'm not doing this to be trendy. I'm doing it because it's easy and right.