More green resolutions

Still haven't found the right new year's resolutions for you this year? Skim through this article from Low Impact Living. They've divided their list into two categories: light green "aspiring Jedi" (beginning steps) and green Jedi (slightly more challenging ones, to aim for after completing the light green ones). Yeah, it's nerdy. Gotta love it. Plus, it is full of links to tons of other resources to help you on your journey to sustainability.

Green New Year's Resolutions for 2009

Posted by Jessica Jensen

For the Light Green, Aspiring Jedi (May the Force be with you!)

1. Put your outdoor lights on motion sensors. Do you need to light the night and burn all of that electricity? No, but you do want safety. Motion sensors are the answer. You’ll save energy and money, too. And if you want to go a step beyond this, you can get LED lights—which are ultra-efficient. Check LED lighting out here.

2. Wash your laundry in cold water. We swear it works! Washing machines are major power hogs in our homes and using cold water is a great, easy way to reduce your energy use. (If you want to go a step beyond this you can even start to air dry your laundry. This will help your clothes last longer and save even more energy. Find great drying racks here.)

3. Take reusable grocery bags to the store. This one is so easy and I still can’t believe how few people do it! Reusable bags will cut down on the use of over 500 plastic bags per person per year (and don’t forget plastic is made from petroleum) or save a slightly lesser number of paper bags. One 15-year-old tree only yields 700 paper bags! You can find reusable bags here.

4. Start using renewable energy at home. There are several ways you can get on board with green power. Many utilities now offer green power alternatives for a nominal monthly fee. Check with your local utility to see if this is an option. Click here to learn more about buying green power from your utility.

5. Make sure you’ve swapped out all of your light bulbs for energy-efficient models. Most people don’t realize that lighting accounts for 15-20 percent of a home’s energy use. So there’s a major opportunity to save money and electricity with better bulbs. Compact fluorescents use 1/4 of the energy and last up to 10 times as long as normal bulbs. And LED lights are 2-3 times as efficient as compact fluorescents. And they come in all shapes, sizes and colors–find them here.

For the Green Jedi

1. Join a CSA or plant an organic vegetable garden. Why not make this the year that you decide to eat the freshest, healthiest, most local produce you can? You can either join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and get your produce from a local farmer, or you can go a step further and grow your own! Planting a vegetable garden will fill your kitchen with yummy produce and cut down on the carbon emissions from transporting the vegetables you normally buy. Click here to read our useful guide to starting an organic garden of your own.

2. Read your newspapers online. Or just convert to online for your weekday editions and keep your weekend papers to enjoy with your Sunday coffee. You’ll save trees, energy, and money! If only 10 million people in the US cancelled their Monday-Friday newspapers, we’d save almost 50,000 trees each year.

3. Find a way to drive and fly less and cut your carbon emissions this year. Can you bike to the grocery store? Can you walk to the bank? Can you talk your boss into letting you telecommute once a week? Better yet perhaps you can talk your boss into creating a telecommuting plan for your whole department? Or propose that you have meetings via teleconference rather than flying. Remember that the emissions from flying are a major contributor to global warming. Click here to learn about other ways to spread the good green word at work– Learn more about how to green your office.

4. Install a programmable thermostat. These nifty devices allow you to micro-control your home’s heating and cooling. One of these can help you shave 15% off of your energy consumption (and save you money!). It’s really quite simple to install—will take you only 45 minutes. Find programmable thermostats here, and learn how to install them here.

5. Really investigate solar and wind energy options for your home. Many of us have told ourselves that we simply can’t afford solar or wind energy. (And this certainly may be true.) But incentives have gotten much better in some parts of the country and costs have also come down. If a full solar electric system is too expensive, consider a solar hot water system—which can be $4-6K to install and reduce your home energy use by 20-30%. Learn more about solar hot water here. And to get a quote on installation costs, you can find solar installers near you here and wind system installers here.

...and what is that pink thing?

In France, my host family used an intricate system of pulleys, hangers, and clothes pins to dry clothes in over their only bathtub. I was really impressed with the whole get-up. But my favorite part was a circular, collapsible, clothes pin hanger. Perfect for socks, underwear, and bras.

Imagine my surprise when, in little ol' West Melbourne, Florida, I found a hanger similar hanger. Where? At the flea market! For how much? $1.50. And the best part? It came in pink (or blue or green or yellow...but I like the pink one!)

I would highly recommend everybody has one. Even if you don't air dry all your clothing, it's perfect for the occasional lingerie or even daily bras that can't be put through the dryer.

We apparently hate bathtubs...

Where do we do our air drying of our clothes? In an unused bathtub, of course! Specifically, the rarely used guest bathroom tub.

If you don't have an free tub, foldaway drying racks can go practically anywhere easily. Try placing yours at the foot of your bed, in the middle of your home office, or in your (come on, admit it) mostly unused formal dining room.

Back porches are also excellent drying locations, as are backyards. We choose to dry our clothes inside because of the frequency of thunder storms here in Florida. Our clothes, if hung outside, would never get a chance to dry before getting rained on again!

We don't need no stinkin' dryer!

When we moved into our new house, we had to make some appliance decisions. It didn't come with a washer and/or dryer, so we got to do our own research and make purchases that were good for our lifestyle and the environment.

After reading lots of Consumer Report articles and online reviews, we chose to buy a Frigidaire Gallery series FTFB2940F washer. It was one of the best washers in our price range (under $700) and was highly water and energy efficient. The first few times we ran it, we went to go check on it multiple times to make sure it was still running because it was so quiet.

When we purchased the washer, we decided to have a short trial of life without a dryer. I, for one, felt confident that I didn't want or need a dryer in my life. I have studied abroad in Europe multiple times and, each time, witnessed how my roommates in Italy or my host family in France do not use and never need a dryer. I mean, millions of people the world over live just fine without dryers. Yet, when we told Ben's mom we weren't going to get a dryer, she was highly concerned. To so many suburban Americans, especially baby boomers, the thought of living without a household machine (even one that had become a staple just one generation ago) was nearly unfathomable.

Exacerbating many baby boomers' reservations about living sans dryer is their experience with washing machines. The majority of baby boomers still use top loading machines that produce clothing that is soaking wet at the end of the cycle. Today's front loaders, on the other hand, have excellent spin features at the end of the wash that leave your laundry all but dry. Just hanging your underwear for a couple of hours leaves it dry enough to wear. Thicker items like jeans only require over-night airing. Not a tragedy by a long shot.

Yes, your clothes do feel a little stiffer. But after one load, you won't notice it. At first, Ben was unhappy with the way his shirts were wrinkling after being washed. We experimented and quickly found that putting his wet shirts on hanger to dry, instead of using a drying rack, resulted in no–iron-needed clothing once again. To be honest, it is a little bit of a trick to figure out where you can air-dry a full load of sheets, but one drying rack and the shower rod perform just fine for us.

As you may have guessed, our short dryer-less trial quickly turned into a whole-hearted decision not to own a dryer. And I don't think we ever will.