Living Green

Top Ten Green Living Tips

"Living green," that is, living with care for the environment in mind, sometimes saves money and at other times may cost a bit more. For example, making your own cleaning supplies can be a great project with friends and will save you real cash over commercially made products, while an organic cotton sweatshirt can cost you more than one you could buy at the local discount retail store.

The idea is that this earth was given to us by a loving God and we are to be faithful stewards of all of the earth. We should all feel encouraged to do what we can as we continue to learn of all the things that we can do to be both faithful stewards and aware consumers.

Your Home

In your house, live healthier with wood, bamboo, real linoleum (not vinyl), real cork, or recycled rubber floors. From a health standpoint, vinyl is one of the worst things to have in your house because vinyl is toxic throughout its life.

When painting interiors with water-based, latex, or oil-based paints, that smell is the off-gassing of petrochemical solvents; it takes at least six weeks for paints to fully dry and off-gas. Ventilate your painted area well.

Purchase "green" cleaning products; they are easily found in most stores. Or make your own.

Use chlorine-free scouring powders, washing soda, or baking soda.

Use two tablespoons of white vinegar with one quart of water to clean glass. Bump up the vinegar for tougher cleaning jobs.

Lavender, thyme, clove, tea tree oils, and grapefruit seed extract are all mold-killing disinfectants (20 drops of pure essential oil to one cup of water in a clean spray bottle). Along with any home-mixed cleaning formula, these should be stored out of the reach of children.

Next to heating and cooling, the hot water heater is the home's largest energy user. If you can't afford to replace your conventional water heater with a tankless water heater or a heat water pump unit, wrap your existing heater with an insulating blanket and make sure it is set for no higher than 120 degrees.

Don't waste water. Don't run water while brushing your teeth or run the shower while you dawdle. Repair dripping faucets, leaking pipes, or running toilets.

Recycle plastic, glass, and paper.

"Think outside the box" for reusing things; then, if you must toss, recycle rather than trash. Recycling may include finding new uses, using as lawn art, taking the item to a swap meet or garage sale, or donating.

Be careful to dispose of cleaning agents, solvents, household chemicals, batteries, furniture refinishes, and paints in environmentally safe ways. You can call your local municipality for advice on how to do this safely. Never flush or pour any of these things down any drain.

Use the organic ice melter, alfalfa meal, a totally natural fertilizer that contains nitrogen to promote ice melting and has a texture to provide traction while it works. Other traction helpers include wood ashes, coal cinders, sand, and cat litter.

Install a programmable set-back thermostat. This way it can turn the heat up as you get up in the morning and automatically go down as you crawl under the covers.

Try setting your thermostat two degrees lower this year than you did last year; you can wear sweaters in your own house as well as cozy up your couches and chairs with pillows and individual throws (lap blankets).

Those plastic window cover kits really do save energy in the winter. Insulating drapes and even layer of curtains also help provide an air lock which can keep your house cooler in the summer as well as warmer in the winter. Also, locked windows provide a tighter seal than unlocked windows.

Replacing your incandescent lamps with compact fluorescents is the best way to save lighting energy in the average home. Use task lighting rather than full-room lighting wherever you can.

Turn off lights and air-conditioning (window unit) when you leave a room.

Take your shoes off when you enter your house and you will eliminate tracking in all kinds of unhealthy substances. Provide yourself and your guests with soft knit slippers to wear in your house — the ones with little grip strips on the soles.

Your body

Buy organic food to steer clear of genetically modified organisms (which can be found in everything from candy bars to canned soup to commercial dry cereal to black bean burgers). Current legislation does not require disclosure of the fact that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be found in six out of ten processed foods at the supermarket.

Buy locally-grown food. Food that traveled 20 miles from the field to your kitchen is "more green" than food that has traveled two thousand miles.

If you shop around the edges of your supermarket and ignore the middle you will likely end up with a "greener" diet.

Strive for a healthy weight. Even if you are at your desired weight, treat your body to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times a week.

Ever wonder why so many people have allergies to fragrances these days? Well, there was a time when perfume and fragranced products actually used flower, herbal, and spice essences; today’s fragrances are a complex mixture of more than 4,000 chemicals, 84 percent of which have never been tested for safety. This explains allergic reactions to fragrances these days, doesn’t it? So, you may want to rethink using fragrances.

Use zinc oxide- and titanium oxide-based sunscreens — avoid chemical-based sunscreens that absorb ultraviolet (UV) light.

Detoxify in a warm bath with 3 cups of cider vinegar and 3 cups of Epsom salts — this is a soak tub not a scrub tub.

Natural fibers are not new age; natural fibers are what all people wore before synthetics (artificial fibers) became common. Wear cotton, wool, hemp, silk, and flax. These can cost more but please consider how sweatshop labor is a large part of providing the United States market with inexpensive clothing. Still can’t afford natural fibers? Consider shopping at second-hand shops and you will still limit your contribution to sweat shop labor.

( www.womenoftheelca.org)