Green Organization

Being organized at home has never been one of our strong suits, both as a couple and as individuals. I tend to be a little better than Jesse, but I think that has more to do with my gender than anything else. Jesse's desk is actually reasonably clean in this photo, only because I happened to clean up the pop cans yesterday so I could take the recycling out.


I find my lack of organization at home ironic because at work I'm hyper organized. If my workspace becomes cluttered or jumbled it makes me crazy. At home I can handle it.



Unfortunately, I had to organize our papers and whatnot so that I know where everything is when we meet with the mortgage guy later this month. This process was sort of fun, but only because I found these:



Everything there is made from at least 70% recycled paper, and it's pretty, too! Our old file box had filing folders in it, but I had been using and reusing them for probably 5-6 years and they were becoming so ratty that I couldn't take it anymore. At least I recycled them.

I was also extremely excited to find these Post-it notes, which are made from recycled paper! I love that the colors aren't OH MY GOD LOOK AT ME neon. In fact the deep rich orange looks nice against the white of my desk.



Here is what our work space looks like now, although keep in mind that it won't stay this neat for long. At least I know that our important files are neat and ready to go when we need them!

Drinking Green

This week I'm going to try buying my pop (or SODA, as some oddball parts of the nation call it) in two liter bottles instead of the 12 pack of cans.

Yes, we recycle, but it still costs energy to recycle. I figure lessening the amount I'm sending to be recycled helps, even if it's just a little bit.

The challenge to this is that Jesse doesn't want to drink pop from a glass. Personally I think this is related to the chugging of said drink (they make wide mouth pop cans for a reason), but he claims it's because the pop goes flat too fast.

I'll try to keep you updated on this process throughout the coming week, and we'll see who wins the battle.

Green Media

We have vampires living in our house. In fact, several of them I don't think we could live without. I know that Jesse, in particular, would probably die from asphyxiation if I took them away.

I'm talking about our electronics. The plasma TV, both of our PC's, the DirecTV boxes, the Playstation and Wii (yes, he's spoiled). Even when turned off, they're really in standby mode, and they're sucking electricity right out of the wall. According to this study (link is in the article), approximately 13% of the average American household's electricity use is due to these "vampire" devices.

Even your cell phone charger sucks power when it's not charging your phone!

Jesse and I are tackling this one by plugging our energy suckers into power strips, which we're keeping turned off if we're not using the devices. So far our PC's, the bedroom TV, and paper shredder all set up. The entertainment center is going to take some tweaking, but it should be set up this weekend.

Now the hard part: remembering to turn them OFF!

Nursing Green

This weekend I'm weaning Evan, which so far has been extremely uncomfortable - for me at least. Evan doesn't seem to care one way or the other, as long as he gets his bottle.

When Evan was a newborn and we were still getting the hang of the whole nursing thing I used disposable nursing pads to deal with embarrassing leakage issues. Nothing more lovely than having little wet circles on your shirt at work! I probably went through two or three large boxes before my body got the rhythm of feedings and I didn't need them anymore.

Now that I have to wait for my supply to go away, I've decided these are much more practical:

They are machine washable, but I have a feeling I may have to hand wash them since there's only six in a box. They are also extremely economical, since a box of 30 disposable ones costs around $4.99, and these were $2.49. Instead of spending five bucks every 15 days (since you use two at a time), I'm spending $2.50 once!

More importantly, they aren't going to end up in a landfill somewhere. When I'm done with them they're going into storage with the clothes that don't fit Evan anymore, to await the arrival of our next baby in a few years.

Going green is pretty easy sometimes!

Genesis

When I was pregnant I knew what kind of parents we would be. We weren't going to be super strict or insanely lenient. We had no intention of over-analyzing the day to day of being parents, we just knew that somehow it would get done. The first week Evan was home we went through a whole package of diapers, a box of wipes, and probably 3 rolls of paper towels. And that's just what I can remember off hand.

Over the past eight months we've slowly been coming to the realization that we need to start focusing on how we can raise our kids while respecting our surroundings and leaving as little a footprint as possible. In turn I hope they are able to absorb that respect from us, and continue to practice it as they grow older.

Is it easier to pretend that things aren't getting bad? Of course. Is it easier as parents to just grab a Clorox wipe and toss the mess? You bet. Is it responsible? No! Our generation has the mindset that everything is disposable, nothing old is worth keeping, and what we throw away just disappears without a trace.

Starting this week we're taking baby steps towards becoming more conscious of these things, and hopefully as our family grows we'll all learn to leave things the way we found them. This space is meant to share our ideas, get some input from others, and document what we do to keep us honest!