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Ok. So my husband has decided to not give up on the water based auto paint and ordered some more. So after a couple of days of peeling off the first go at it, we will try it again. May have been our overexcitement the first time and not letting it dry enough. I will post a picture when finished.
In addition to all of the conservation techniques (energy efficient devices, power management, bicycling, etc) I also even went so far as to begin purchasing a number of green/organic household products through Melvita--which apparently is huge in France and is getting a foothold here in the US as well. I never thought that wanting to save energy/money would eventually turn into a lifestyle unto itself. I was indeed wrong .
I went to the Melvita website to look at their stuff and was struck by all the tiny little tubes of plastic. It's incredibly frustrating today that plastic is so hard to remove from your life. I recently read that 80% of the plastic we consume is in our lives for less than five minutes, and I'm afraid I've become a bit obsessive about it. General department stores (e.g. Walmart, Target) are an absolute orgy of the stuff!
The value of plastic is its durability, which is why it's a major source of pollution. It doesn't break down, but recycling isn't the answer because the chemicals used to break down the stuff are also pollutants. It's enough to make my head explode!
Last edited by formercalifornian; 02-04-2010 at 05:20 PM..
* I make my own soda at home using the Soda Stream soda maker. The machine comes with a carbonator to get started, the bottles to store the soda, samples of different flavors. I don't waste on buying canned or bottled soda, just make it as I need it.
* Use reuseable bags at the grocery store or any other store I will need to shop at.
* Own cars that average 30 mpgs and other common tips that others have mentioned
* Green works glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, all purpose cleaner from Clorox. I always look for coupons!
Last edited by skeet09; 02-09-2010 at 01:51 PM..
Reason: Added some more
We do the same as we've always tried to do.... recycle, compost, cook from scratch, repurpose and reuse, reuse, reuse! We also buy in bulk and combine our shopping. In other words, we make a list, complete with all of the different stores we need to purchase things at. When we go to town shopping, we spend at least 1/2 a day doing it, so that we are not wasting gas making many trips to town or "the store". It takes a long time to unload the rig, but we've shopped for at least 2 weeks at a time, generally a months worth on many items. We also use wood heat, which is a renewable resource.
I wash my laundry by hand. wring it with a 1840s hand wringer and hang it out to dry, it dries even in the cold New England winters, just takes longer. as for using baking Soda and white vinegar to wash ones hair... How well does that work? It seems to work good on my linolieum floors, tables, cleaning my stovetop. and if the oven is hot. (but turned off) it does get the grunge off my oven.
Using cloth for TP... When I was a young girl we often had to that as my famliy were poor, we wiped our bottoms and rinsed the cloths out. YUK! but,... if I can clean a cat box with a pooper scooper... it isn't much worse. Providing you keep the cloths rinsed out.
Using a litter box pooper scooper with unclumping litter and seasoning the box with baking soda, as needed, one can get several weeks out of the same kitty litter. When it is beyond reuse. just use it to sand your sidewalk!
White Vinegar and underwear, just worn once between washings and not heavily soiled, seem to do a good job of cleaning windows and other hard surfaces. You have to wash those panties anyway so it does not matter if they get a little more dirty.
the baking soda and apple cider vinegar work great on my hair! i will not go back to shampoo. you actually have to wash it less. the reason hair starts to looks and feel dirty so fast with shampoo is because the chemicals are wearing off.
and for the cloth for tp i have lots of little "wipes" and after 1 use they get put in a wetbag that hangs in my bathroom, so they only get 1 use then they get washed with the diapers.
the baking soda and apple cider vinegar work great on my hair! i will not go back to shampoo. you actually have to wash it less. the reason hair starts to looks and feel dirty so fast with shampoo is because the chemicals are wearing off.
So I have read on several hair care forums that one can use white vinegar as well. It works good as a clarifier. However, how well does that work on bleached hair? I am getting my hair bleached next week to change it to pure white. I have read that some store brand shampoos contain products that can make a mess of dyed hair. eg: sulfates. Not sure what I should do with bleached white hair though.
* Green works glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, all purpose cleaner from Clorox. I always look for coupons!
Have you checked the ingredients on Clorox's green cleaning line? It's not very "green" after all... Plus, Clorox tests on animals which bothers me a lot. I much prefer using vinegar/water, Method, Mrs. Meyers or 7th Generation. I'm friends with a lot of green people and none of them use Green Works. Clorox came out with this line because they know that being green is in and they just want to make money. Their products aren't nearly as green as one would assume.
Hmmmm. What am I doing to "go green"? Let's see....
Absolutely nothing. The whole "green" thing is a ridicules fad that is already starting to fizzle out. Besides, all the recycling in the world isn't ever gonna undo the un-greenedness that this country as a whole is doing to the rest of the world with our idiotic wars and imperialistic ideals. Going out and buying a Prius isn't gonna make a damn bit of difference, other than the fact that you'll be driving an ugly, slow deathtrap. 60mpg doesn't really matter when you get chopped in half after an accident that you would've walked away from in a Tahoe or a Suburban.
Sometimes I think you Green Freaks won't be happy until everyone lives in cardboard boxes and grows gardens using their own poop as fertilizer. You hippies and your empty causes. Lol.
Well, you see, there is an immediate gain to many green practices. More and more science is confirming that many of our cancers and human tissue breakdown is directly related to the quantity of synthetic chemicals one exposes oneself to. I can't stop global warming or any other cyclic meterological function, but I can make a real effort to keep from getting liver cancer from petrochemicals in my home.
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