Greening My Family

Over the past several years I have become more eco-friendly, more environmentally driven.  While I always considered myself and environmentalist I didn't have a clear picture of what that really meant to my life and how I live each day.  It wasn't really until moving to Colorado and starting my own family that I really began to define myself as "green."  Parenting has become the perfect forum for being green because so many things surrounding a baby are so harmful to the environment, especially diapering.  During my pregnancy I began researching things that I could do to be a more natural, environmentally friendly parent and citizen of the world. Here's just a few of the things we do on an every day basis to help save the planet for future generations.


Cloth diapering-This to me was a no brainer.  I was going to use cloth and no one could tell me otherwise.  Now I do use the occasional disposable, when on vacation, or sometimes even, gasp, in the name of convenience, but 98% of the time I use cloth.  It's really not that hard, people.  It may seem scary at first, which is why in the beginning we used a diaper service so the extent of what we had to do with the diapers was remember to put the bag outside the front door once a week, but now I wash them myself and it's easy as pie (and saves boatloads of money).  On top of cloth diapering we do elimination communication, so even when we use disposables, we use less because my son uses the potty a lot of the time and has rarely produced a poopy diaper since he was about 6 months old.  


Clothing and baby items-I have yet to buy my son any new clothes except for some Gators and Rockies stuff.  All his clothing is either hand me downs from our neighbors, found on Freecycle, or second hand from Once Upon A Child (also great places for toys).  With how quickly children grow out of things it seems to be a huge waste of resources and money to buy new.  3 or 4 kids could get use out of one outfit before it wears out.  As for baby accessories, Craigslist is my addiction.  I have gotten 3 different types of baby carriers, and a bike trailer all for less than 1/2 of what I would have paid retail and all in like new condition.  Also, before my son was born, I decided, with the history of asthma in my family, that he would have an organic wool mattress and organic cotton bedding since the synthetics have been linked with childhood asthma and cotton is one of the most pesticide laden crops.


Energy conservation-We have always been very good about turning off lights when we leave a room.  No light in our house is ever on when we aren't physically in the room.  We don't have air conditioning, instead we have a swamp cooler which is great in dry climates like ours for cooling down the house and humidifying the air, while using little more energy than a ceiling fan.  In the winter our furnace is gas and we've installed a programmable thermostat, so we can change the temps for the times we aren't home.  As we are replacing our appliances they are all energy efficient and water conserving and we've replaced the windows in our house with energy efficient ones.  


Cleaning Products and Recycling-This one has been a little slower to evolve.  I have been changing over to "green" cleaning products and trying to use things like vinegar more for cleaning.  The biggest obstacle I'm trying to overcome is using paper towels.  I use a washcloth or sponge for most cleaning, but still gravitate towards the paper towels for certain tasks, but I have significantly cut down.  When we remodeled our basement, we painted with all no-VOC paint and will continue to do so as we paint other rooms in the house.  We also recycle everything we can and compost food waste so we produce, as a household, less than one bag of garbage in a typical week.


Food-I always ate some organic things, but my feelings on food have definitely changed.  I am becoming more and more off-put by unnatural ingredients in my food.  I try to use as much whole food as I can, organics for dairy and more the traditionally more chemically treated produce, and read labels of processed foods to see if I recognized all the ingredients.  I was shocked recently when looking at two different packages of whole wheat bread, how one consisted of the normal ingredients in bread; flour, yeast, sugar, etc. and the other had so many chemical preservatives the list went on and on.  This is where I spend my money I save by cloth diapering and second hand clothing and toys.  To me, with cancer becoming more prevalent as we are exposed to more and more environmental toxins in our day to day lives, I will do whatever is necessary to decrease exposure for my family.  


So this is just a little of what we do to help our planet and ourselves.  There is always room for improvement.  Our goal, as a family, is to go off the grid by utilizing solar, wind, or a combination.  It probably won't happen in the house we are in now, but it will definitely be a consideration when we move on from here.  In the words of Henry Miller "Example moves the world more than doctrine."  The best way to get our children to be inspired to do what's right for the planet is to do it ourselves.  Don't dictate it has to be, explain why it has to be.