For this year’s Blog Action Day, I’ve been reading up on water.org. The statistics are staggering and inspire me to use less if for no other reason than I otherwise feel helpless in the developing world’s plight for access to clean drinking water & I shouldn’t be plundering my good fortune.

I found a water calculator http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html that can help track our family’s water use. Right now it looks like we use just under 90 gallons again, but that’s just a guess. You read it here first that I’m going t do some record keeping and research and get a more accurate count in November. I’m hoping that by checking in there every so often, we can reduce the amount of water we use. Strikes we have against us is that the fixtures in our home are all 20 years old, and we have a top-loading washing machine. I supposed we if don’t sell our home soon, we could start replacing these water-guzzlers with newer, low-flow models.

Poke around the “facts” pages at Blog Action Day and at water.org and you may be inspired to do the same thing. Water.org has several ways to spread the word and show your support, if you scroll down to the bottom of the “women’s issue” page.

Let me leave you with the video below (from water.org) and some things to think about (from blogactionday.change.org) :

More people in the world have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet.

38,000 children die each week due to dirty drinking water and unsanitary conditions.

One in eight people on the planet don’t have access to safe drinking water.

Women can’t do anything from water.org on Vimeo.

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Blog Action day is now run by Change.org and the idea is that  bloggers across the globe all write a post on the same social-issue topic on the same day — thus spreading awareness.

In my 2007 post, I listed 5 things I was doing to help lessen my environmental impact — and  I thought today was appropriate to report how I’v been doing on these five things:

1. Reusable shopping bags: OMG, my collection is legendary. Checkers at Trader Joe’s compliment me on the fact that I have so.many.bags that I don’t need any paper bags when I shop. I only get my meat bagged in plastic, and we are to the point at my house that we really have to look for a random plastic bag when we need one. This makes me happy!

2. The powdered detergent: I have to say, I’ve started alternating between powder and liquid–the powder was gunking up my washing machine and not rinsing well. Any tips in this department are appreciated!

3. Using the dishwasher to conserve water: It still washes just as much as always, and I love it. Go Earth!

4. Bringing my own mug to the coffee shop: The reusable mug kick is largely over for me- I tend NOT to bring one with me these days. Reading my post on this was a good reminder that it’s easy and it does make a difference. Now if I can only remember….

5. Not buying bottled water: I’ve kept up the practice of rarely buying bottled water. We use reusable water bottles, which is no big deal and SO MUCH BETTER for the Earth I can’t hardly stand it! Sure there’s the occasional impulse/unprepared buy, and I’d rather buy water than anything else to drink, but it’s minimal.

One other thing we’ve started doing since that blog post was sign up for curbside recycling. We do pay a small fee, but we recycle so much more because we have one of those huge wheeled bins to fill. Also, when we signed up, we were one of the only families on our street to do so. Since then, it seems like every pick up day there’s another big blue bin on the curbside. It’s not the greatest recycling program (typical contents, except it only takes plastics #1 & #2) , but it’s better than nothing.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post – this year’s theme is WATER.

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Tonight I took advantage of my first “second chance” offer….a seller offered me the BUM Genius diapers I have been furiously bidding on for the price I wanted, and I said yes! Am I crazy? Is there no going back now?

What will probably save me is that I am a bargain shopper at heart. Said diapers retail for $17.95 each. Since I would obviously only order them from a store with free shipping, my price limit was a few bucks below $17.95 per diaper. I stayed within my budget on the purchase. Honest.

Are you still carefully re-reading the words “BUM Genius diapers”? Have I lost my ever-loving mind? Maybe. But I’m going to give this cloth diaper thing a shot. MAM is down to just a diaper at nap and one at night–if they could be washable, I’d have a whole month before going back on the wheel of 24/7 diapers.

When MAM came along, the idea of the laundry and the bodily functions in the diapers grossed me out. I even threw out the occasional onesie that was victim to a blow out diaper. Now, afte having weathered nearly the first three years, daily laundry and bodily functions no longer overwhelm me. So I’m going to give it the old college try. I promise to keep you posted.

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Today I cleaned the 1/2 bathroom (a miracle in itself, really) using entirely green, home-made concoctions and it was easy-breezy.

Here’s the low-down:

The mirror: 1:2 solution of vinegar/water in a spray bottle, wiped down with newspaper (no streaks!)

The sink/toilet: the green multipurpose cleaner listed below in a spray bottle, wiped down with a cloth rag. It works really, really well.

The toilet bowl: I was too lazy to search for a specific recipe, so I just squirted some multi-purpose cleaner and then used the bowl-brush, and wa-la–it’s clean!

The floor: I have a Swiffer mop, but ran out of Swiffer cloths long ago. So I just attached a microfiber cloth and swept away. You still get that “ew! look what was on the floor!” satisfaction, but get the throw the cloth in the washer instead of the trash.

Multipurpose Cleaner from Healthy Child, Healthy World
1/2 tsp washing soda (I used baking soda, you can also use Borax)
1/2 tsp castile soap (available at Trader Joe’s)
2 c. warm water

Honestly, this stuff works just as well as my 409, and it’s basically FREE to make, and non-toxic.

So that was my foray into green cleaning, and I think it shall continue. I’ve got several bottles of Windex around the house (one for each bathroon, one in the kitchen, one in the garage) and as they are used up, I’m reusing the bottle to hold the vinegar/water solution. The HC/HW book even says you can do a 50-50 concoction with a little essential oil to do walls, floors and cut soap scum.

I’ve also followed Heather’s advice from her comment on the HC/HW post, and I’ve added vinegar in the dishwasher’s rinse aid compartment. My glassware is now BLINDING. I kid you not. As soon as I’m done with my current d/w soap, I’ll be switching to the Borax/baking soda duo.

Are there any other easy, cheap concoctions out there that can encourage the green cleaning I’m trying to implement?

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Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, by Christopher Gavigan is a book I will refer to again and again. In a nutshell, it outlines a variety of environmental dangers and how to avoid/minimize them. There are recipes for homemade cleaners, guideline for buying baby gear, and the reasoning behind making sound ecological choices.

Many of the topics have been in the news lately-lead in children’s toys, toxic baby bottles and the dangers in our food supply are just a few recent headlines that come to mind. This book goes deeper than a three-minute segment on the evening news, and explains why each of these things are a danger, and more importantly, what to do about it. There are short essays by a few Hollywood types, including Brooke Shields and Tom Hanks, covering a range of green topics. The book also includes a lengthy “healthy resources” section, which includes sources for products as well as websites for further information.

For awhile now, I’ve been bringing my own grocery bags to the store for shopping trips, and I’ve been toting my own travel mug to the coffee shop. The price of gas keeps me fairly close to home and not foolishly driving my car around for fun. This book, challenges me to do more, and to do it for the sake of my child.

A major theme throughout each section of the book is how assorted toxic exposure obviously isn’t good for anyone, but that it is particularly bad for children. Children roll around on the floor, put things in their mouths and their smaller body mass means that chemicals they are exposed to stay more concentrated in their bloodstreams. The thought that the anti-bacterial kitchen cleaner I use might actually leave behind a residue that may make my daughter ill makes me eager to try something less toxic. Now that I know that half of our lifetime exposure to pesticides occurs in the first five years of life, I’m more motivated to seek out organic, regional produce for my fruit maniac.

I could go on and on–I have learned so much from this simple, easy-to-read, 300 page book. At the beginning, there is a sort of warning–not to be too overwhelmed by the information presented. To tackle a few things at a time, and that once something becomes a habit, conquer the next thing you’d like to change.

So as a result of this book, I am declaring here that I am not going to be buying any more toxic household cleaners. And I will divert the money I’ll be saving (face it, vinegar, Castille soap and baking soda are cheap) and put it toward organic produce (which is not cheap). Those are the two things I will be starting with this month. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

See what other reviewers are saying at Mothertalk.com!

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But that’s not really what today’s post is about. Today I’m posting about bringing my own bags to the grocery store to cut down my use of those insane plastic shopping bags. Seriously, on a typically weekly shopping trip, I could easily come home with 10-15 bags.

Anyway,what works for me is to bring my own bags to the store. Many stores these days sell reusable shopping bags. I bought several from the store I frequent most, and store them in a larger tote bag. I also throw in two sturdy plastic bags for frozen foods. I keep these in my trunk so I have them whenever the shopping urge strikes. Here’s the thing–those big box stores just installed those stupid carousels that hold plastic bags so that the overworked cashier is now her own bagger as well. And reusable totes (even those sold by said big box store) don’t fit on those carousels. So in order to use my own bags, I have to be willing to work a little.

1) I arrange the order on the belt so that items can be scanned and bagged in the order they are on the belt (putting packaged goods on first, all the meat together, all the frozen stuff together, etc). I find it’s good to get behind a larger order so that I have a little time to organize.

2) I have all coupons ready to go so that I can hold the bags open for the cashier. It goes faster this way and it keeps the cashier in a good mood.

3) I don’t bag the bigger/heavier items–a tray of clementines, a pack of paper towels, gallons of milk, ets, just get stacked on the bottom of the cart.

All said, with a little practice, it’s not that big of a deal. And of course, at places like Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s, it’s a little easier than at a big box store.

The immediate pay off is that the big box I frequent gives you a 5 cent credit for each bag that you bring and use. Which is peanuts, but it’s like another 25-50 cent coupon, which I never sneeze at.

The bigger pay off? Few plastic bags get used, which is really the whole point.

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So I’ve taken on the task of saving the earth instead. Little choices add up to big changes. Today I brought my own mug to Panera. I also brought a shopping bag to the mall, and promptly filled it with a few fun things for me and MAM.

I’m getting lots of ideas from Beth at Fake Plastic Fish, and today she’s put up a great comprehensive post about all of the things she’s doing to make a difference. It’s rather incredible. I’m not ready to make my own rice milk yet (I’m sure I’d have to give up blogging to find the time for that), but I am researching composters and I think that we may get one once we have a yard that is ours and not ruled by a cranky Home Owners Association.

As I was talking to my mom about some this, she mentioned that she thought it would take a few generations to get people used to the idea of being green–just like it took a few generations for people to get used to disposables. That got me thinking about my fantastic 94 year old grandma–the way she and my grandpa lived in their house set a great example. I remember a compost can under the kitchen sink, glass jars organizing everything, and NOTHING ever going to waste. It’s a side effect of growing up through the Great Depression and WWII, I’m sure. Just before she sold her house and moved into an assisted living apartment, my mom had to secretly go into her kitchen and throw away the styrofoam trays (from raw meat purchases) she was re-using (that is one thing that probably shouldn’t reused).

Anyway, I think I’m going to keep a tally of how many coffee cups I save by bringing my own, just see how much of a difference it will make.

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With Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Walmart selling cheap CFL light bulbs and Starbucks giving away their coffee grounds for gardening, it seems like everyone wants in on the trendy “Save the Earth” theme. Sometimes it seems like going green is a tall bill–there are many things out there that contribute to pollution, wildlife endangerment and that what not, and all of that negatively effects the earth’s natural balance…the issues are huge, the solutions complicated. While the environment is an important issue for me, in my day-to-day life, I don’t have a lot of time for researching or debating the topic.

But I want to make good consumer choices that with minimal environmental impact. I want to leave the planet in decent shape for my daughter’s generation. I want to instill in her environmental thoughtfulness. As with everything else, when it comes down to it, I parent by example. So here are five things I have become comfortable with, that she will see me doing as she grows up, that I hope will make her thoughtful about her choices as well.

So here, in no particular order are things that I think will make a difference. I’ve gleaned them over the past few months–reading articles in assorted magazines, listening to tidbits on the news, and reading a blog called Fake Plastic Fish.

1. I bring my own shopping bags now, just about everywhere I go. Why is it cool and trendy to not give out bags at places like Costco and Sam’s Club, but people give you funny looks if you say you don’t need a bag at a store like Target? I have no idea. But, being a teacher, I have a fine collection of tote bags. I keep several in my car and use them as much as I can.

2. I’m buying powdered detergent. I read this somewhere recently–and it makes sense–that liquid detergents are mostly water, even the concentrated versions. You can buy a smaller package of powder and do the same amount of laundry. More truck fuel is used to ship liquid detergent, and you have the issue of the not-really-recyclable lid. Granted, it’s a little neater, but I’ve gotten used to it. The powder boxes are made out of cardboard, and take up less space. Granted, each comes with a plastic scoop, but I’m passing those onto my daughter for sand and water play.

3. I’m letting my dishwasher do 99% of the dishes. It’s true-a dishwasher uses less water than washing by hand (think taking a shower vs. taking a bath)…who am I to argue?? (I would also think the powder vs. liquid detergent would work here too)

4. I’m bringing my own mug to the coffee shop. Not only does brining my own mug save me 10 whopping cents, my latte or chai stays much warmer in my travel mug than it does in a disposable cup with plastic lid.

5. For the most part, I’ve stopped buying bottled water. Think about all of the plastic water bottles in the world today. Think about all of the energy used to “produce” water for bottling, the petroleum used to produce the bottles for bottling the water, truck fuel it takes to get to the store and to get it to your home. Think about how many bottles you recycle…..and how many you don’t. Think about all of the caps that will be here lon.g after you or I or anyone who drank bottled water this year will be around. Think about it, and the next time you are thirsty, you may find yourself walking over to your tap. I did. Read more about bottle vs. tap here at ThinkOutsidetheBottle.

So those are the things that I’ve made a habit that don’t cost any money (assuming you have tote bags, a dishwasher and a travel mug handy, and have to buy laundry soap anyway). It takes minor changes in daily living, but I think it will make an impact on the earth.

Do you have any easy no-thought environmentally friendly tips to share? Please do! And visit the other Blog Action Day Blogs for more ideas on how we can help to save our planet….after all, it’s the only one we’ve got.

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