Mom Goes Green

At the start of every summer, as the temperature rises, my husband and I seem to have the same discussion… when to turn on the air conditioning!

This is never an easy discussion (okay! read: argument!) as this is the man who wears shorts and t-shirts around the house when it is 19 degrees outside in the dead of winter.

I prefer the open windows and doors, and want to breathe the fresh air.  To this my husband responds “Babe, it ceases to be fresh as soon as it’s 86 degrees with 70% humidity!”  Well, it’s still fresh but I guess it does cease to be RE-freshing!

Just like heating your house in the winter and whether you do or don’t choose to crank the AC, there are ways to keep your house cooler, stop some of the cool air loss and use less energy in the process:

• Close blinds or curtains in various windows throughout the day to prevent the sun shining in.  If it’s coming in, so is the heat.
• Use ceiling fans. They circulate the cool air and don’t use a lot of energy.
• Program your thermostat.  No need to keep it blasting in the evening or when you aren’t even home.
• When it’s cool outside at night, shut off the air, open the windows and take advantage.
• 74 degrees is all you need.  This is a bearable temperature, and if you can tolerate it higher, do it!  Each degree saves 3-4% on your cooling expenses.
• Don’t worry about unused rooms.  Close the windows, doors and vents in these rooms, and block the bottom of the door if they aren’t frequently occupied.
• Run appliances at night.  This includes dryers & dish washers that give off heat. Avoid using your oven… give it a rest and grill instead!  And if you do use the stovetop, be sure to use the exhaust fan to take away the heat.
• Turn off unneeded lights, TVs, computers, etc. when you aren’t using them.  They all generate heat too.
• Keep heat generating appliances away from the thermostat (TVs, lamps, etc.).  They’ll make the thermostat think it’s hotter than it really is.
• Don’t chop down trees that shade your house.  They simply keep a house cooler.  And even plant strategically.  Shaded AC units run more efficiently, but just be sure not to block the airflow.

I do try to take my own advice.  It’s not always easy (living with my husband who compensates by turning up the ceiling fans to “jet speed”) but it’s a compromise we always seem to manage when it all “boils down”!

Well, NOW I’ve done it! I made a change that made my husband call a foul!

I switched our cushy Cottonelle Ultra toilet paper to an eco-friendly recycled brand and he is not happy.  So much that it prompted him to blog about it and tell the world that he’s putting his foot down for the first time!

I think in the back of my brain I thought I could make the switcheroo and he might not notice, but in reality, I knew this might be his limit.  And alas, it is.

I picked up some Seventh Generation toilet paper, and sure, it’s definitely nowhere near as thick and soft as the popular brands, but hey… I felt like saving some trees! I recently learned that if every US household would replace just one 500-sheet roll of regular TP with one recycled roll, it would save nearly 425,000 trees annually.  Seventh Generation is made from 100% recycled paper (with a minimum of 80% post-consumer) but I guess some would argue that paper “with a previous life” should never go near these “regions”.

If you have a better recommendation, PLEASE, let me know.  I can feel like I am staying true to my green mission, and maybe my husband will go along… with no ifs, ands or “butts” about it!

Daddy’s big day is just around the corner.  Maybe, if you’re like our family, you go light on the gifts (or request no gifts at all!) but if you’re still hard-pressed for that perfect eco-gift, there is still time.

Don’t panic! Here are some great ideas!:

• Buy a tree to plant – I bought a beautiful Japanese Cherry tree for my husband on his first Father’s Day.  Seven years later it has grown tremendously and we look forward to the spring blooms every year!
• Make a gift – this falls into that beloved “reuse” category.  Search your house and garage and you’re sure to find plenty of supplies to “build the perfect gift” or unique piece of art!
• Electronics solar charger – self-explanatory… free power from the sun… imagine that!
• Golf accessories – now, more than ever, pro-shops are carrying bags and accessories made of recycled materials and even golf balls that biodegrade in days (after those unfortunate sinkers in the water hazard!).
• Bamboo knives or grilling set – bamboo is incredible and every dad loves to be the king of the grill.
• Organic brew – what dad doesn’t love a nice “cold one” (or five!) to keep him company while he “mans” the grill!
• Reusable water bottle – for sports, workouts or whenever he’s taking water with him, reusable and BPA-free stainless steel bottles always have a use.
• iTunes - CDs are so passe, right?  Remember that statistic about 45 tons of CDs winding up in landfills monthly… sheesh!
• Solar powered landscaping lights – if he’s a man who loves his yard, yet another way for a little extra flare with free energy from the sun.
• “Give your time” – whether it’s a hike in nature, a picnic at a local park or a family cookout under the trees in your own backyard, he loves your time!

Ideal Bite also has a great list of eco-gifts (time is running short, and you might have to pay a bit to get them there on time, but you might just locate a “must have”!).

All of that “suggested”, I just want to wish my wonderful husband and daddy of our two amazing kids a wonderful Father’s Day.  I think I have the most incredible husband in the world because he deals with all of my green stuff, does the very best he can and actually gets sad and frustrated when work keeps him from doing the ‘fun stuff’ with me and the kids.  Who doesn’t love a husband that respects his wife and a daddy that LOVES to be with his family… we love you, honey!

Okay, enough of the mushies to make everyone choke…

Happy Father’s Day to every awesome dad out there. From Mom Goes Green to every dad that loves his fam, embraces “going green” or does the best he can, you rock!  Have a fabulous day!

Recently, my husband was away at a conference for 6 days.  He was really missed by all of us, but it also opened my eyes…

Less husband = less trash.

That sounds like a real dig at him, but I don’t mean for it to be.  The reason this nasty equation came to mind is because, in his absence, I realized that we really do create less trash.

Maybe it’s because one less body means less waste.  Maybe the things he uses are really over packaged.  Or maybe it means that my well-meaning husband is sometimes forgetting the fundamentals of recycling.  It only occurred to me because during his hiatus, the rest of us only created one bag of trash in 6 days, and this wasn’t a large bag either.  Our under-sink trash can (which is actually only an 22 quart wastebasket) is relatively small compared to some in-home trash cans.

He was really proud to come home and tell me about all of the recycling efforts at the conference, but I wonder if I’m so busy telling others how to ‘go green’ that I’m missing something here at home that I should be doing to make it easier for him, and all of us for that matter.

It’s time for me (and maybe you also!) to assess our homes and our recycling practices.  I think simplicity and ease is the key.  And I might need to look closer at what I’m buying, what he’s using and what he’s trashing.  Or maybe he just needs a good “list!”

New mission… one bag per week!  Whoa, we’ve got a long way to go!

My husband, Jim (www.jimkukral.com), is a great guy, great husband, great dad…he works hard to support our family, he goes places and does things that most husbands/dads would refuse to even consider and he adores all of us. However…HOWEVER….he violates every green rule in the book. Okay, maybe “every” is an exaggeration, but he’s still a rule breaker!

I usually call him “honey” but the next most frequent thing he hears from me sounds something like this: “(*big sigh*)…Jiiiiiiim!” My dear husband knows how green minded I am, yet each time I walk into his home office the trash can is overflowing with paper, junkmail, paper, cardboard FedEx envelopes, paper…and more PAPER! (All recyclable through our curbside pickup!) Last week, I actually found an empty plastic water bottle!!! AUGH!

I get tired of nagging, so I definitely know he is tired of my nagging! But somehow, the guidelines escaped from his long- (and short-) term memory. The idea that recyclable plastics are marked with numbers for convenience goes over his head because he can’t remember the numbers. He’s asked at least 20 times if he needs to recycle our organic milk containers. He will throw a cardboard box, wrapped with mega amounts of packaging tape and loaded with bubble-wrap, directly in the recycling can. He dislikes my cleaning products because they are green and don’t contain any perfumes (so they don’t SMELL clean!). Most of the time, I think he simply chooses to play “clueless” and leave things for me to figure out.

Despite all of that, he never really complains and he tolerates the nagging…and he’s the one who encouraged me to start this blog. And…he is trying …I think and that’s all I’m asking for.

Happy Father’s Day, honey! (Hold the ‘Jiiiiiiim!”)