Mom Goes Green

Ahh… laundry day.  It’s looming in the MGG household and it happens to be one of my least favorite of mom-duties. (I’m fine with the washing/drying part but I deeply dislike the putting-away part!)

Anyhow, I digress… so, today I just want to share one little tidbit about how to be a bit more energy efficient with the duty, aside from the long list of ways to green your laundry that I’ve shared in the past.

• Fact:  The average American household spends $150 in energy consumption each year to simply dry their laundry.
• Fact: ONE SIMPLE way to avoid 30% excess usage of energy – CLEAN YOUR LINT TRAP!

Yes, that’s it! That pesky, yet necessary, lint trap can actually dramatically increase the energy usage of your dryer.  The screen should be checked and cleaned after every load.

You should also occasionally “deep clean” the screen, the trap and the tubing.  Scrub the screen with a soft brush, mild soap and water (because there is build-up, I assure you, even if you’ve removed the fuzzy!).  Use your vacuum cleaner extension tool or long skinny brush to give a good cleaning inside the trap area.  And don’t forget the vent tube… remove it from the back of the dryer and clean out any lint or obstruction.  After you’ve done this, run the dryer on air fluff for about 10 minutes to clear out anything that remains.

You’ll be amazed at the decrease in drying time after you’ve done this simple task… and you will use less energy as a result.  Now, I’ll make you a deal… I’ll do the “task” if you do my laundry!

Some people find comfort in ironing… I happen not to be one of those people. But who hasn’t pulled something out of a closet or drawer and thought “okay, if I wear this ‘as is’, someone will think I slept in it!”

Well, electric irons happen to use an extraordinary amount of energy to power, but I have a simple way to never plug-in an electric iron again… all you need is a simple sprayer bottle filled with water.

Depending on the garment or item all you need to do is the following:

• Place the item on top of a flat surface, mist each side with water, smooth with your hands and give it about 15 minutes to dry. You can also hang the item and do the exact same.  On the fly, I’ve actually done this while WEARING the item!
• For really stubborn wrinkles, saturate the area with water a bit more than a simple mist, smooth with your hands and give a bit more time to dry… and voila, goodbye wrinkles!
• (For items that must be dry cleaned, remember these tips, but this will safely work even for dry cleaned items that get some wrinkles!)

Sure, it won’t save the planet, but truly, give it a try… it WILL save energy and you, too, may never plug-in another electric iron again!

Summertime is the perfect time to enjoy fabulous, fresh produce. Whether you’re raiding your local farmer’s market or buying the usual organics from your grocery store, you want to make sure you get the “most” out of everything you buy.

Sadly, the nutritional content of today’s conventionally-grown produce is believed to be dramatically decreased from 30 years ago (the vitamins, minerals and proteins are dwindling, due in part of the use of synthetic fertilizers that make them grow faster and inhibits the absorption of nutrients!) so this is another little testimonials for “going organic” too.

But whether your produce is conventionally-grown (afterall, the “Clean 15” is often considered) or you go 100% organic, there are a few helpful tips to get the “most” out of your produce:

• “Fresher is better” – all produce begins to lose nutrients are soon as it’s harvested, so consume it as soon as possible after you buy it. The rule of thumb should be one week maximum (plus, you must consider where your produce “originated”), so plan for what you need and don’t overbuy, even if it will “keep”.
• “Bigger isn’t better!” – choose smaller pieces of fruits and vegetables instead of the largest ones in the bunch.  Plants have limited amounts of nutrients to pass on, so if the produce is smaller the nutrients are more concentrated.
• “Keep it together, people!” – while pre-washed, pre-cut, and pre-prepped fruits and veggies may sound appealing (and convenient!), skip them… this causes them to lose nutrients as well.  And don’t do a lot a prep, cleaning, chopping or cutting at home until you actually need to consumer them either… no need to set those nutrients loose!

My kids have always been great eaters when it comes to a variety of fruits and veggies, but whether for us or our kids we all know every bit matters, so use these tips to make the “most” of every precious bite!

While my family and I have been enjoying the weekly produce from our CSA, I have also made my fair share of refrigerator snafus over the weeks.  (Note to self: an overloaded fridge will freeze mustard greens and kaboko cabbage faster than you can SAY mustard greens and kaboko cabbage!)

Besides keeping the door closed as much as possible (unlike this photo!), here are three simple ways to keep it as energy efficient as possible:

1. Keep it filled up but NOT overcrowded (yea, that freezing issue!) – if it starts to look a little empty, a few covered pitchers of water will do wonders.
2. Cover EVERYTHING – anything that is uncovered will release moisture and make the refrigerator work overtime to keep the contents cold.
3. “Give it some space” – while you might be tempted to buy the largest fridge on the planet, it truly needs about 2 inches of space on all sides for proper air circulation and you especially don’t want anything that “heats” (dishwasher, stove, oven, etc.) nearby because it again makes it work harder than it needs to.

There you have it… 1, 2, 3… may your refrigerator runneth over with healthy (unfrozen) produce!

This weekend’s weather in Cleveland was sweltering… fortunately we didn’t reach the magnitude of the forecast a few months ago but 89 degrees and tropical levels of humidity do not make for a comfortable home.

It became obvious that it was going to be a central air conditioning day (we were having family over and it wasn’t feeling very pleasant).  Well, as the story often goes… were we getting cold air? Oh, of course we weren’t.

We suffered through for a bit, and my husband even installed a new thermostat, but it was the wisdom of my father-in-law that taught us quite a lesson, and the answer came from this one simple question:

“Have you changed your filter lately?”

I’m embarrassed to say that we hadn’t… since “I don’t know when!”… so when we took a look, it was like something out of a horror film.  I can’t even imagine that air could have filtered through that thing, so it’s no wonder our house never cooled down… until we replaced it, and then we were cool and comfortable.

The reason for the story?  Because one seemingly small oversight has caused us to be horribly energy INefficient.  That dirty filter slowed the flow of air and made the system work incredibly hard and, in turn, wasted energy. I’m sure it was doing the same thing to our furnace just a few months ago too.

The rule of thumb: replace it at least every three months, or more frequently in heavy usage months.

So there’s my confession, but the calendar is marked and I can now guarantee that Mom Goes Green will NOT miss the next replacement.

Each and every day, I “cook up some love” in the kitchen by way of plenty of home cooked meals.  While they may not be gourmet, they are loving prepared to keep my family healthy and nourished.

But there are also some very simple ways to cook up some conservation too… by way of not overconsuming energy and resources.  At first glance it may not seem like much, but add it up over time and you’ve also cooked up some conservation!  Give these simple tips a try:

• Skip preheating the oven – if you are roasting, broiling or baking for an hour or more, don’t preheat.  It simply isn’t necessary.  You can also shut off the oven 5 minutes before your cooktime is complete… the oven still holds the heat and keeps on cookin’!

• Use the right size pots and pans – small pots and pans on large burners waste energy and resources.

• Use lids – yes, a covered pot of water does reach boiling quicker than one that is uncovered.  And crank it up (as long as the flames aren’t escaping the sides). Water doesn’t need to slowly reach a boil, so get it rollin’!

• Use the microwave – whenever a microwave can be used for cooking or to do the early steps, use it!  Microwaves use 4-5 times less energy than your oven.

• Prepare only what you need – while cooking up a tremendous batch of whatever you’re serving may sound like a good idea at the time, make sure it will actually get consumed instead of eventually winding up in the trash or disposal.  If not, food obviously goes to waste but all of the resources to produce that food got wasted as well.

See… simple! Happy cooking and conserving!…

Every spring my family and I spend a weekend cleaning the yard (an activity that can be made fun if you just try!) and planting flowers to make everything nice and cheery.

I’ve never given much thought to what I plant other than selecting what I think is “cute” and my “color choice” for the season, but I’ve also made some poor selections when they’ve required a lot of water to keep them bright, cheery… and alive!

Whether you’re planting flowers, trees, shrubbery or an entire lawn, make sure that your choices are native to your area. Despite having favorites that you’d like to see in your own yard, it’s wiser to choose something that will naturally thrive without watering and excess water use, and will eliminate your need for nasty fertilizers and pesticides.

This concept even has its own term, known as xeriscaping… (make sure you throw that one into a sentence today, to impress your family and friends! And oooh… I need to make an addition to my A to Z list, don’t I?).  Check out PlantNative.org for lists of native plants by state, local nurseries and organizations too!  All of them can help you make the smartest choices.  Eartheasy also has great tricks, tips and ideas that get as green as they come.

Remember that vinegar and water is a great natural weed killer too.  Just be sure to have good aim and a quality sprayer because vinegar is NOT selective and will destroy whatever it comes in contact with.

You may not think you have a green thumb, but with a little effort you CAN have the “greenest” garden on the block!

Each year over THREE BILLION dry cell batteries are sold in the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of trash that will eventually end up in a landfill, adding toxic chemicals and metals to our ground, air and water.

Now, if you’re like me, you’ve priced rechargeable batteries and their initial cost looks frightful, but did you know that just four rechargeable batteries can replace approximately 100 regular alkaline batteries?!?!?

The cost of buying four rechargeable AA batteries (with its charger, mind you!) is equivalent to buying a 20-pack of single-use disposable AA batteries.  By my math calculations, you’ll be saving about $60 in the long run and that not only sounds eco-friendly, but also wallet-friendly to me!

Today’s alkaline batteries are much safer than they were prior to 1997, but they still can’t be recycled, but guess what?… rechargeable batteries CAN! As always, you can check out Earth911, drop them off at any Batteries Plus location near you or ask at your local home improvement/hardware store or drugstore.  Some will even accept alkaline, button cell and lithium batteries for proper disposal too.

Face it, many of us are parents with kids that have far too many electronics and toys that require mountains of batteries, but you can help reduce your corner of the mountain by investing in some rechargeables instead!

Organic foods are always a hot topic… everything from the controversy over the benefits of organic, to which fruits and veggies are organic ‘necessities’… the list goes on and on.

One thing I have been guilty of is putting organic products on a pedestal when they sometimes don’t deserve it. Now don’t get me wrong, I still recommend organics with my whole heart and soul, and will continue to buy organic produce and products, but my guilt comes from reading the word “organic” and making assumptions about the rest of the ingredients.

Case in point: While we were out-and-about, my kids asked for “a milk”.  I knew they were asking for a Horizon Organic Milk Box, so immediately my answer was, “Sure!”  I mean, why not?  It’s organic milk after all.  But then this caught my eye:

• Horizon Vanilla Reduced-Fat Organic Milk – Sugars: 29g (29 grams of sugar in an 8 oz. milk?!?!  Friends, that’s over 7 teaspoons* of sugar!!!)

So, I looked closer at some of my other purchases and here is what I found:

• Stonyfield Organic 6 oz. Fat-Free Peach Yogurt – Sugars:  25g (over 6 teaspoons* of sugar!)

• Cascadian Farm Organic Apricot Fruit Spread – Sugars: 10g (this is for “one tablespoon serving size”, so essentially… there are over 3 teaspoons* of sugar in a 1 tablespoon serving!)

This extra sugar is something NONE of us needs, so my point is this… always look beyond the “organic” label.  It’s not necessarily the perfect product just because it has the “magical ‘o’-word!”  Sometimes it has what you want, but sometimes there is an “extra” that you don’t.

Be a label reader and read beyond “organic”…

(* To compute the number of teaspoons of sugar in any food product simply divide the number of sugar grams by 4!)

Wouldn’t that be nice… purchase ONE gift and you’re done for the whole year??? Well, that’s not exactly what I meant but we can all dream, can’t we?!?!

Sincerely, I feel like I’m constantly purchasing gifts for some sort of occasion.  The problem is that we often feel pressured to fulfill someone’s wish list, but there is nothing wrong with fulfilling some of our own wishes too, so how about using gift-giving occasions as an opportunity for spreading a little green cheer.

Here’s is what I have in mind… right now, choose one green, environmental and/or eco-friendly item… and choose to buy it EVERY time you have a gift giving occasion. Sound impossible? Well, it’s really not. I’ll give you a couple of ideas to get you started:

• Reusable water bottles – it’s impossible to shop and NOT run into reusable water bottles, in every color and style possible, for everyone, of every age.
• Reusable bags/ totes – anything from shopping bags to fabric totes,  to sport packs and kids’ carry-alls (extra points for organic cottons, upcycled and reclaimed fabrics!).
• Books – every bookstore has a diverse supply of eco-themed books, regardless of interest or age.
• Movies – a quick search will turn up everything from Wall-e, to Planet Earth, to An Inconvenient Truth… there is something for everyone.
• Clothing – who doesn’t love a comfy tee?  Buy organic cotton with an earth-friendly message and the message will be spread even further than the recipient!

If your recipient has the technology to accommodate, you can also go another step greener and buy e-books or iTune gifts!

So, do you think you could do it? I bet’cha you could. Will I? You bet’cha, I will!