Streamlining Green
Posted on February 19, 2009 by
Well, I’ve suddenly gotten very busy. I have to shift my priorities around a bit and reorganize my days to give myself more time to write. So, I thought I’d take a look at what green habits I might need to change or give up in the interest of saving time.
The thing is, there aren’t many. Most of my green habits don’t take extra time. It doesn’t take any more time to wash my hair with a paraben-free shampoo, or use vingar and water in a spray bottle to wash my windows, than it would to use conventional products.
Using laundry detergent that’s safe for our waterways doesn’t take more time either. Wearing “play clothes” and not washing what isn’t dirty already saves me time. I throw rags in the wash with my towels, so using rags instead of paper towels doesn’t take any extra time either.
Right now, I’m using the clothes dryer, since we don’t have a good place to hang clothes inside and the weather outside won’t permit line drying. I have to admit that I’ll probably continue to do this as the weather improves if I’m still busy, because hanging all the clothes out on the line does take more time, and also requires the ability to time my laundry appropriately. Right now, I’m working during the day and doing housework in the evenings. I won’t be able to hang laundry out and maintain this schedule. I will, however, do back to back loads of laundry, and make sure our dryer is well-maintained.
I’ll probably go back to buying our bread from this great little bakery near the grocery store (they even make gluten-free bread!), since baking bread does take time, and handling wheat flour for J’s bread makes me feel kind of cruddy. And I’m going to have to start making more simple meals. Often, I’d start cooking dinner at 4PM, making elaborate dishes that required a lot of prep time. I think we’ll be sticking to rice and beans, salads, gluten-free pizza, and the occasional brinner. It’s funny, how meat-free meals are often the quickest way to go, isn’t it?
And Beth, over at Smart Family Tips just made shopping for personal care items easier, with her list of safer products that can be found in mainstream stores.
How do you cut corners and stay green?
When things get really busy for me, I usually cut back on food prep time. There’s a local, family owned bakery near my house where I buy my bread, rather than making it myself. I also go for quick-prep meals and try to plan meals better so I spend less time going to the store. Like you, I’ve found that the majority of my “green” practices don’t take any more time than non-green alternatives. I’ve also found that green saves me money, too.
Great post, and thanks for the link.
You don’t have any place inside to line-dry? We have three lines strung up right over the washer and dryer. I can usually get everything on them from one load, sometimes resorting to hanging a pair of pants or two on the shower curtain rod if I run out of space.
And that’s my tip for the day.
Hey Mickey – I do hang some stuff up in the shower, but our house is always kind of damp, and stuff starts to smell before it starts to dry. Even with the dehumidifier. Sigh.
My dedication to recycling usually is what suffers when I get busy. When I’m at home, my recycling piles up because I don’t have time to take it to the center and I end up throwing some stuff away because I run out of room. Most everything else I do is second nature now and doesn’t take extra time or thought.
Wheat-cruddy-ness aside, how much bread do you bake at one time? I put as many loaves in the oven as will fit, and then I freeze loaves. You can also put dough into the refrigerator once it’s risen for up to 24 hours. This still takes planning, but it might leave you able to bake bread and maintain a busy schedule.
Also, if you have a timer feature on the dryer, you can partially dry stuff in the dryer, and then hang it up to finish drying (or vice-versa). This would still save energy (green), but not the optimal amount (greenest). Another drying tip you could try is to plan your drying around when people are in the house. Since you’re probably turning the heat down when you leave and at night, these aren’t good times to be drying your clothes in a wet atmosphere like the NW.
I guess I understand your desire to fit “green living” into your schedule, but I also feel that it isn’t good to get into the habit of taking shortcuts.
Are you still going to make homemade cat litter?
The only thing I do that takes extra time is making homemade cat food. I feel good about it and the cats love it. I guess if I were super busy and just didn’t have enough time, I’d switch back to canned food. I just hate the waste. And dry food makes them sick.
Beth – I will still make my own kitty litter.
Danielle – I feel good about supporting my local bakery. Since they are able to buy their supplies in bulk, they are probably generating much less waste than I do by baking things at home, and supporting local businesses is important. So, I don’t consider this to be a “shortcut” in the negative sense of the word. And I will assure you that I have tried every different way of drying our clothes inside with non-optimal results. It’s not green if I have to wash our clothes twice because they smell musty.
[...] Well, I’ve suddenly gotten very busy. I have to shift my priorities around a bit and reorganize my days to give myself more time to write. So, I thought I’d take a look at what green habits I might need to change or give up in the interest of saving time. The thing is, there aren’t many. [...]
The only thing green that I do that seems to take up more time is the folding and putting away of our cloth napkins and cloth rags (in place of paper towels). So when I get overly busy (or lazy, it’s a toss up), the washed napkins stack up in piled baskets with clean laundry. Thankfully our laundry room is right next to the kitchen, so I can go and grab a few when I need them!
[...] week I mentioned needing to streamline my green lifestyle to accommodate a new project. Among other things, I talked about scaling back my garden a bit and [...]
Hmmm… I think that a celiac making wheat bread isn’t a very ‘green’ option health wise but even if you aren’t going to make your own gf bread anymore, could you share your favorite recipes? (We buy wheat bread and make our gf bread.)
Hi Mare – I have two mixes I’ve used for GF Bread. I’ll make sure to do a post about them.
I found that if I don’t have to use my electric dryer since I have a portable clothes line drying rack that is simple to move around the house. I just put it up in the morning in the bedroom. The evening load I dry overnight in the kitchen.