Eco-Friendly Family
Checklist
Anyone know of a "checklist" type of thing that may help my family slowly turn "green?" We are just starting this transition and any help/suggestions would be great!
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Re: Checklist
Stop buying paper towels. Instead, put out a nice basket full of washcloths to use. Get a smaller trashcan and put it next to your regular trashcan for the dirty washcloths.
Stop buying chemical cleaners. Stock up on baking soda, vinegar, and a couple of spray bottles. You can clean almost anything with a 1:1 vinegar/water solution and the baking soda is great for scrubbing.
Recycle.
Find some nice, study shopping bags and buy a few. Try to take them shopping with you as much as possible. If there is an Aldis around you, I love their shopping bags.
Learn about the dirty dozen and try your best to replace often-eaten foods with organic versions.
GL! I actually started being green out of cheapness and although I still have a lot to work on, those steps were the first ones I took.
These are great starter recommendations! I would add, invest in some cloth napkins, and use them at every meal, not just special occasions. We have 16 for a family for 4 and that works out well. Stick with neutrals that you can mix and match in case you need to use them all at once (for guests).
Also, DH and I each have a water bottle we carry with us, as well as thermoses for hot coffee/tea. I have a giant insulated mug for iced tea as well that I take to work every day. That way you cut down on waste and save money.
I don't have a checklist, but that would be fun to see!
We started by avoiding foods with high fructose corn syrup, food dyes, and other additives. Learn about what the ingredients in your body products are and consider replacing with safer alternatives if necessary. Then we went to buying specific foods as organic until slowly we began to realize we were no longer eating any conventional fruits/veggies. We're working on replacing our meat and dairy sources. We've ordered from a few different farms trying to figure out what works best for us. Joining a CSA definitely throws you into a world of local healthy foods, but only join one if you think you'd be able to eat the new types of food. You can find a listing on Local Harvest or Eat Wild for CSAs/farms in your area. In the beginning I found that going to an alternative food store was much easier than navigating the entire grocery store to find the healthy stuff. Farmer's Markets, health food stores, etc. These are great places to shop and to meet like-minded people. Likewise, going on green forums, helps me feel connected to other people with my life style and inspires me to think more outside of the box than I might come up with on my own.
Other things you can do--cloth diapering, re-usable napkins, re-usable water bottles, mama cloth, home-cooking foods from scratch, reducing your trash pile/recycling/composting, starting a garden, avoiding plastics/BPA, buying recycled toilet paper/papertowels/paper, avoiding small containers of food when you have the option of buying larger bottles, using vinegar and baking soda cleansers, reducing electricity consumption, etc.
In my experience, people come to the "green" side for different reasons. Try to learn as much as you can about that area that most inspires/bothers you and go from there. If its just general health you're looking for I've found Food Inc and Omnivore's Dilemma to be incredibly eye opening.
Few other things to add to your list:
compost
rain barrels
repurpose/reuse/upcycle as much as possible
buy used
switch out cleaning and personal care product as you run out of the un-EF versions...same goes for food products like ketchup, baking powder, etc.
Big E (6) & Little E (2.5)