Green is my favorite color

Since I started this blog, and started reading blogs by other mommies, I have been taking small steps to make our household more eco-friendly. Many of the things I do now were inspired by other mommy bloggers.

Before blogging, I had reusable grocery bags, but forgot to take them more often than not. Now I take them every week.

I have recycled what I can locally for years, but now I have added #5 plastic as well, since I learned that Whole Foods stores accept them as part of a "Gimme 5" program.

I compost, and use the compost in a small garden to grow at least SOME of our own food. I have a brown thumb, though. I'm trying to "green" that up too! ;)

I buy local food as much as possible. I'd love to buy more organic, but it's hard to do when you're trying to keep your weekly grocery bill for a family of 4 to $100 or less.

I buy those twisty energy-saver lightbulbs.

We switched from paper napkins to cloth, and I'm in the process of switching to cloth diapers, baby wipes and feminine products. (Reviews pending. I'm in the testing process on a number of products)

I am trying to support more "little guys" like the work-at-home-moms on etsy who "upcycle" old sweaters into diaper covers, dryer balls and things like that. I LOVE etsy!

I'm working to switch to eco-friendly cleaning products such as soap nuts, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and other "greener" options.

We use re-usable sandwich containers and steel water bottles rather than plastic baggies and disposable bottles. I would like to eventually get all the plastic containers (Gladware, Tupperware, etc.) out of my cupboards and switch to glass/Pyrex.

Winter's coming and the heat is down. We keep it around 63 all winter. We don't have air conditioning in the summer.

Any unused water (left in teapot, left in drinking glasses, etc.) is used in the houseplants rather than dumped in the sink.

We are TRYING to have only one bag of garbage a week. We are usually pretty close, and cloth diapering should help.

I'm trying to teach my kids to take all the same steps, and why we do it. For example, my four year old is the one who sorts the recycling.

Just thought I'd share what I'm doing! Maybe you could take some of these steps too?