Photo credit:
jerine on flickr
Going green is not a fad, a whim or a passing fancy—it is the future. Going green is all about baby steps, putting one teeny-weeny green foot in front of the other.
For me it began with minimizing my trash output, recycling everything that my township will allow and repurposing whatever I can. I keep a squadron of green reusable bags in my car and tote them around for grocery shopping and into the mall when I buy books and shoes. They go with me to the pet shop and the garden center as well as the hardware store.
Baby steps. The world will not be reinvented in a day. Small steps like cleaning with simple baking soda, vinegar and lemons. Like not using my hairdryer on warm days, leaving lights off whenever I can, wearing that pair of jeans just one more day instead of tossing it in the washer. Like donating clothing, shoes and things that I do not wear or use anymore to Goodwill or a VNA rummage sale fundraiser. Paying bills online is a another big step that saves a bunch. Reducing junk mail by requesting online catalogs instead.
It was a huge relief for me not to use bottled water anymore—for the holidays my big Sis got us a two-stage PUR water filtration system which has made our tap water deliciously drinkable. I now carry a stainless steel bottle with me everywhere; what a load off my mind that is! Each simple step we take towards greening our lives becomes a massive accomplishment in the aggregate.
I’ll share two of my favorite Helen Keller quotes: “The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."
So try and really feel your feet on the ground, breathe into your day and remember that we really can pull this off if we each take small green steps for humankind and planet Earth.
How to green your detergent usage
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finding inspiration from each other, from the ideas on this website, and from the ones on our super eco flickr group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/supereco/ - that is what keeps me going. each day, i try to find something new to try, to give up, to work on. very inspiring indeed, lucy.
so over on the flickr group, i have a couple more questions. what to do with all those chopsticks i seem to have amassed over the years. and what to do with the many corks that have piled up. hopefully someone will be able to provide more inspiration for these questions.
Great suggestions here - We advise our homeowners to start with cloth shopping bags (we like Chico Bags) and then add cloth produce and bulk bags. We sell some nice ones sourced from reusablebags.com. Baby steps. Read more about eco-guides at www.eco-guides.us
Patricia--I have a project in mind where chopsticks are repurposed into beautiful shawl pins. Someday I'll get around to trying it out. I'm sure if you put them for sale on Etsy as a supply, somebody will grab them up for some project or other.
I can't help you with corks. I can't bear to throw them out, so we have bags of them and the 2 year old loves to dump them all over the kitchen floor and play with them for hours. I figure even if some of the wine was poor we're getting our money's worth in hours of play. :)