Is it easy being green?

Oprah says it is. Last week I caught a rerun about Being Green and it did get me thinking, "What can I do? What can I change?" After about 10 different segments, though, I started to feel that it's not so easy, and that if I don't do everything they talked about I am letting the world down. Luckily my perspective has settled down after a few days, and I've been taking mental stock. I already have a few environmentally sound habits. I could try to pick up a few more.

One of Oprah's guests was Elizabeth Rogers, author of The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time. Sometimes I'm a sucker for a good how-to guide, but not this one. I don't need the simple steps like using fewer paper napkins and refusing ATM receipts. True, I could do those, but I still need to do some glaring basics. I already know I should avoid styrofoam and use the back of printer paper. I know I'm late to the game and I'm proceeding in baby steps, but I think I can do a little more. Besides, there's plenty on the internet and that doesn't use paper like a book...

Here's my mental stock -

Already doing:

• For big shopping trips I bring my own fabric tote bags. I've been doing this for years so it's second nature to grab a pile of them on my way out the door. The other advantage to using these is they hold more and have long handles. This is handy for hauling groceries across a parking lot, down several blocks, through a series of locked doors, and up several flights of stairs. I don't know what it is to park in a driveway (or garage, even!) right by my front door.
• Recycle plastic, glass, paper and metal
• Reuse ziploc and plastic shopping bags
  
• Use refillable water bottle from home instead of buying bottled water
• More as a consequence of our location and forced lifestyle than as any effort we're making, we use very little gas for the car, and walk or use public transportation for the most part. But hey, I can still claim we do that.
  

Ready to try:

• Non-toxic household cleaners - I ordered Shaklee's Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate and some spray bottles. If I like the clean it produces I'm definitely willing to switch. We haven't had any problems with more mainstream chemical cleaners, but I know I'll feel better using non-toxic products, both for my family's health and the good of the environment.
• Eco-friendly detergent - I still have 1/2 a bottle of Tide I'm going to use up, but then I'm willing to try a new natural detergent like Charlie's, Seventh Generation, Allen's, etc.
  
• Non-chlorine diapers - I'm a Pampers fan myself but I just ordered a package of Seventh Generation non-chlorine diapers to try out. I found it leaked in the overnight trial but works great for daytime (shorter time span.) These are notably more expensive than other diapers, but I will continue to buy them when I can and maybe alternate with cheaper ones. Of course cloth diapers are the ultimate way to go green here, but I'm not quite there yet (at least not until I have my own washer/dryer.)
• This is kind of a general one, but I'm ready to consciously buy more organic food and maybe even clothes. I know it can be better for my family and the environment, and I want to support organic growers. Again, weighing the cost, and keeping practical. But I am looking forward to living near a Whole Foods again!
  
• Use fewer paper towels - I admit I use them a lot. But I've started more consciously keeping dish towels around the kitchen and on the table to wipe hands on, and old baby washcloths to clean faces and hands after meals.
  

Maybe someday:

• Cloth diapers - I feel like this could be my ultimate green contribution to the environment, considering how many millions of diapers our family uses. And they have come a long way since even Hazel was born - they are very user friendly these days. I just can't face it until I've got my own laundry, but that is only 6 months away. I should also consider cloth wipes.
  
• On Oprah's show, a family had their energy company come do an energy audit of their home, resulting in energy-saving suggestions like outlet gaskets, low-flow showerheads, and window weatherstripping. This seems like a great place to start conserving energy and energy bills...when I have a home.
• Energy saving light bulbs - I saw an Oprah a few years ago with Leonardo DiCaprio pushing these bulbs. It sounded reasonable so I got some for our living room. I kept them in for 6 months but couldn't stand the life-sucking flourescent light and switched back to energy-sucking incandescents. I don't know, I'm very particular about my mood lighting. That living room didn't have any windows (cheap dungeon basement apartment), so the light bulbs really affected things. However, I would use these bulbs in places like laundry room, porch light, garage, home office. I just don't have any of those rooms right now.
  
• Hybrid car - why wouldn't I? Our clunker is not getting any younger so we will be in the market for a new car, possibly two, in the next few years. There are several makes and models of hybrid cars and it's a smart and responsible way to go if you can find one to fit all your safety and other needs. A glaring gap in the market is a hybrid minivan, but apparently it's on the way. That's what I'm waiting for.

Obviously there's always more a person can do. I'm sure most of you are doing more than I am, but we all start somewhere.

What do you do? What products or activities have you embraced in an effort to treat the earth right? What other suggestions do you have for me?

Mom Tip: Washing Stuffed Animals

Now updated with picture of the real (and real clean) Cosmo!

Hi guys. Please don't write me off for my recent lapse in posts, nor for my occasional domestic expositions, like this one. Different things come up at different times in life.

Hazel has a favorite stuffed animal, a teddy bear named Cosmo. (I name all of her dolls and animals from our list of baby names that will realistically never make the cut.) Sadly, Cosmo has never been washed in his 27 months with us. Disgusting, I know, but his tag says "surface clean only", which I've never bothered with, and I was afraid of ruining him in the washer. Bad, bad news if Cosmo got ruined (no back-up.) But last night I realized Cosmo was so gross it was worth the risk of losing him - none of us could go on with him in our lives that dirty.

I read a tip in some parent magazine about washing stuffed animals. Those parent magazines hunt me down, I get 3 or 4 of them and I've never paid for a subscription. I do like to read some of the features, though - they always make me realize my experiences that seem earth-shattering are actually universal, and I'm on par with the good and the bad of other mothers. Anyway, the tip was to put the bear in a pillowcase and knot it, then run it through the washer and dryer. I looked it up on the internet just to see if that same tip was out there, and it was on several sites.

Cosmo came out perfect, and several shades lighter, I might add. I never knew he was light brown, and now he just smells like Dreft, and not kid sweat. So thumbs up on the pillowcase technique - it really works.

Quarterly Addendum

I never did get back to the bank to cash those rolls of quarters back in, and it's just as well. My sister Tona's family of six just came to visit for a few days and they needed $30 in quarters to take the express bus into the city their first day here. If I hadn't had my stash they would have had to take the subway, a much less convenient commute.

They paid me back in bills, which I will apply to my laundry card.

A Quarter of Irony

An ongoing theme you may find here on my blog is what a hassle life in New York City is. Take laundry for example. Most urbanites have three options: 1) send it out if you can justify or afford it, 2) schlep it to the laundromat, or 3) if you are lucky enough to have a laundry room in your building, do it yourself down there. That's what I do. There are three machines and two dryers (don't ask me why, I ask myself every time I'm down there.) And each one takes $1.50 per load, in quarters only. With a growing family we have 4-6 loads per week so that comes out to $50-60 per month. In quarters only.

Quarters play a big part in my life here, being the currency of both laundry and parking. Parking in NYC is, you guessed it, a hassle. That is definitely a topic for another essay, perhaps a series. But between laundry and parking I find myself always desperate for quarters, hoarding them, saving them in a special pocket of my wallet separate from the other change. Rolls seem to disappear into thin air. And listen, obtaining a roll is no small feat. It involves loading the kids into the double stroller and heading out to a bank, waiting in line, sometimes two. Then inevitably the teller is put out at how many rolls I need and has to get the manager to come open a safe or vault or something so they can get more. Then one or both kids start fussing, needs a snack, dropped a toy, etc. Once I tried getting quarters at the customer service desk at the grocery store but it wasn't much easier, and it definitely took longer.

And don't even think for a second that it's an option to throw the kids in the car and just breeze through a bank drive-thru. This is NYC. Don't even think banks have parking lots, much less drive-thru's. No, any errands, from the post office to the library to the bank, are done on foot (or on public transportation but double strollers are not so welcome on buses.) See future article on parking. I just seem to always be in need of quarters, and never have enough to do laundry when I need to. One of the best gifts I received at the time of Ginger's birth was my Dad showing up with a huge pile of quarter rolls. Got me through a month without having to go to the bank.

So when our tax refund arrived I decided to finally get smart and take control of the quarter situation that plagues my life. I went to the bank and got $200 in quarters - that's 20 rolls. I was so happy and proud to have saved myself all the work and hassle of being constantly short on quarters. Now I could go months on that supply!

Then just last week there was a sign on the elevator door, informing tenants that the laundry room has installed a new "Smart Card" system - you use a refillable card, like a credit card, with the machines instead of quarters. No problem, I thought, I'll just put all my quarters in the machine that puts money on the Smart Card. But you guessed it, didn't you? I went down to check out the card machine and it only takes: bills.

So I'll be going back to the bank after all...