1.  Hang it Out to Dry- Air drying your clothes can save 700 lbs. of CO2 and $ 75.00 per person per year. Plus, clothes last longer and won’t pill or fade as much.

2.  Install a Drying Rack- If you don’t want to take your laundry outside, install a drying rack over the tub.

3.  Lose the Lint - Improve your dryer’s efficiency by thoroughly cleaning out the lint trap after each load.

4.  Rinse, Repeat, Rinse, Repeat - Dedicate one day to do all of your laundry and be diligent.  By doing your loads back to back, you’ll maximize your dryer’s efficiency because a hot dryer will dry clothes much more effectively than a cold one.

5.  Wash on the Cold Cycle - You’ll save precious energy wasted to heat the hot water heater.  Worried your clothes won’t get as clean?  Purchase cold water detergent.

6.  Use Free & Clear Detergent - Minimize the amount of dyes and perfumes that make their way into the water system.

7.  Forgo the Bleach - 3%  Hydrogen Peroxide can be an alternative to bleach in your washer to whiten and brighten. Simply add 1 cup to your wash cycle, avoiding use on wool, silk and dry cleaning only clothing.

8.  Skip the Softener and Use Baking Soda - Also, another bleach alternative; use ½ cup per load to help whiten, soften, and remove odors from clothes.

9.  Toss Your Dryer - Not literally!  Add a few tennis balls or dryer balls (available at Target, CVS, Walmart) to your dryer load to help speed dry time and minimize wrinkles (yay! less ironing later).

10.  Wash in Full Loads - Always wash in full loads.

11. Choose Concentrated Laundry Detergents - Reduced packaging means less waste.

12.  Wear More than Once - Obviously, we aren’t talking socks and underwear here… but if your clothes aren’t soiled or smelly, wear ‘em again.

Don’t you think this bureaucracy has gotten ridiculous?

Why, and how, have we “progressed” to the state we are in?  Everything is disposable.  No one has time for anything.  Time is the comodity we cherish.  I remember when the computer age was emerging.  People would say “this will save time,”  “we will only need to work four days a week,” “computers will make our life easy.”

I am saying you to harken back  to your simpler time, slow down, take time to enjoy the ride.

Here’s my list of nagging little things that I resented then but VALUE now:

- constant nagging about turning out the lights (I was going right back in that room in a few minutes, dad!)
- Shari rewashing plastic Solo cups
- my sisters 70’s-something brown Merecedes
- lectures on not wasting so much toilet paper
- rinsing out Ziploc bags if there wasn’t “anything bad” in them
- refilling water bottles
- shopping at consignment sales for clothing and toys
- reusing bookbags from year to year (all the cool kids got a new EastPak every year!)
- leftovers!
- my dad patching his jeans to a point of no return (silly iron-on patches)

It took me 28 years, but I have finally realized maybe they DID know a thing or two.  It is not always how much money you make and spend, but how much money you keep and the value of the items you have.

- use some for the front of the basement fireplace
- make pathways
-  crush them up to use in natural areas. (I am looking for any ideas on how to get this done other than a sledge hammer)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

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… Don’t have many ideas inside the house for “green” but here’s a couple for outside.

1. Reclaimed water for watering - big here in Florida.  Not exactly sure how it works, but probably worth looking into for your place.  We’re currently on watering restrictions (drought) in Florida and the only people that aren’t affected are watering with reclaimed water.

2.  Naturalscape as opposed to landscape.  Use the existing natural trees, bushes, grasses, etc. vs. trying to make a traditional turf and bed lawn.  Low maintenance also.

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Great idea Doug… sounds like more golf, less mowing!

Shari is researching a “pretty solution” for runoff water storage.  The word from her is that none of the options out there are very pretty.  Here are a few that we’ve researched so far:

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/whisky-barrel.html

http://www.tank-depot.com/productdetails.aspx?part=NINO-STD&ref=base

http://shop.bhg.com/show_product/437106/?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=datafeed&utm_term=437106

Most of these options are about $150-$300, so we are trying to figure out if there’s a good way to do it ourselves.  Need to think about hose hookups and make sure that we have a covered solution to prevent mold, mosquitoes and algae from building up.

I’ve always had the mentality to buy the best tools that I could afford at the time and to take care of them so that I’d enjoy them over time.  There’s always been a reason why quality items cost more.  My wife will buy a screw driver at the Dollar Store.  I still have, like many of you, tools that were handed down from my father.   There’s a reason why they’ve lasted as long as they had.  Its understandable to think that buying a screw driver at the Dollar Store might save a few bucks in the immediate future, over time Shari will have spent more to replace that Dollar Store screw driver 10 times and I still have my original.

The current level of production(emissions) from fossil fuel producing power plants is mandated to be reduced by 14% be 2020 and 83% by 2050.  What does this mean? It means that as demand increases and supply decreases the price goes up. Power companies are currently deciding how to accomplish this task. One way is to purchase power from other sources not capped (solar, hydro, nuclear, wind). It seems that this administration is serious about reducing emissions and increasing our use of renewables.

TRADE

The verdict is still out on the best way to handle the (penalties,tariff, tax) imposed for exceeding the cap.  The administration proposes that businesses buy allowances or permits for $13 to $20 per ton of carbon emitted.  Power companies are mandated as a public utility to provide service.  This will no doubt be as  easy for the US to sell to Chin and India as our debt.  The first thought is to increase prices as costs increase.  Forcing the public to either consume less, or pay more. I believe the power companies will want to purchase/trade for energy as opposed to paying the tax. This means that smaller independent producers, (solar,wind, hydro) not having or reaching their cap will ramp up. I purposely did not include Nuclear in this thought (I don’t know of an independent or small Nuclear plant). It appears the administration’s desire to reduce emissions, while well intentioned, will again be funded by the public.