17 July 2008

Trying for a Smaller Footprint

My family and I have made more changes in our lives to reduce waste (in products and energy) and recycle (detoxing the home of unwanted stuff), etc. We picked up the coolest sporks last year at Backwoods for lunch at the office and school. I just adore the colors and the utility and reuse value... very handy for camping too!

And we used to buy cases of bottled water to take to the office, but after using a filtered water pitcher at home for the last several months, we decided to invest in a couple more for our offices. My pitcher (Brita Deluxe Water Pitcher ) forces me to drink more water than usual because of it's hugeness (holds "10 - 8 Ounce Glasses"). And my plants get a purified drink at the end of the day too.

Also, we have finally decided to repair the heavy duty T-Post clotheslines we have in the smaller (dogs') yard and hang dry clothes more often than use the dryer. I read that the dryer can account for up to 10% of your energy bill! And I usually have about 6 loads of laundry queued down in the basement - more so in the summer with the constant accumulation of wet pool towels. Will be nice to save a little money ... I can't believe we haven't thought of using the cool vintage clothes line before before, but I'm sure it has to do with the fact that we didn't really see the line that often before our fence blew down earlier this summer.

Things have changed since my mother hung out my clothes to dry when I was a child. Foam noodles can be used to hang dry stuff to keep them crease free. And if you don't have a big backyard (or a yard at all) you can still get the benefit of line drying with the D-Rack - we have something similar in the basement and it's always filled with soccer shorts and bras.

When school is back in session, we will resume our walking to school (Emi) and biking to work (me) routine in an effort to cut down on gasoline use and pollution (and stay fit). This summer her activities have her doglegging a few miles out of the way and while I am confident that I could handle the extra biking, Emi is not good for much over a mile and a half at present.... only another couple of weeks at that gig and then we can resume our walk/ride routine.

Greener...

Bathing Beauty

Loving the new swim cap, baby girl!