Living green - things we're already doing

I first started thinking about going more "green" when I planned to get pregnant. My first goal was to create a healthier home for my family, but I also enjoy saving money and am all about helping the earth where I can too. I started contemplating ways to create a healthier home.  After a bit of research, I realized that we were already on the right path with several things we were doing in our home. Since that time, we've  tried some new ideas as well. These are some things that our family is already doing which are healthy and green and most of them save money too.

• Use a steam mop. These mops simply use steam to clean and sanitize floors. Since most of our home is hardwood or tile and we have a little rugrat, ours gets plenty of use. I love, love, LOVE our steam mop for a variety of reasons - there's no bucket to haul around, it's faster  than traditional mopping and, best of all, there's no chemicals! The only maintenance is washing the microfiber pad after each use. We have the Bissell Steam Mop (shown below) which I would highly recommend to anyone.

• Minimize paper towel usage. I've recently seen lots of buzz about "unpaper towels" such as these.  All of this buzz has made me wonder how many paper towels most people use and for what purposes?  We've always used lots of reusable alternatives in our home.  Some of these include the following:
• Kitchen towels and hand towels for hand-washing and drying dishes
• Flour sack towels for washing/drying produce and covering yeast breads
• Shop towels and old t-shirts for general cleaning
• Old bath towels for cleaning spills
• Microfiber towels for cleaning glass
• Baby washcloths for cleaning A's hands and face (especially after mealtimes)

We still use paper towels for a few things in our home, but they are pretty much relegated to really icky chores like cleaning up large pet messes, cleaning the toilets and cooking bacon.  We currently use less than 8 rolls a year which seems reasonable to me.

• Skip the dryer when you can. Get a basic clothesline (or make one) and dry your clothes outside.  The sun will work to sanitize and freshen your clothes and you'll save a little money.

• Eliminate unnecessary toxic chemicals from the home. We don't use air fresheners and don't burn candles very often. Sadly, these things bother my allergies too much to be used in our home  (I have to cheat with the occasional candle, though, because I genuinely enjoy them).  But in general, they are just unnecessary chemicals which compromise air quality. A far bigger elimination for us was no longer using fabric softeners. My original reason for eliminating fabric softener from our laundry routine was related to cloth diapering (see next bullet) and the fact that softeners can create problems with the diapers. After a bit more research, I was far more concerned about eliminating it for health reasons.  Commercial fabric softeners and dryer sheets contain chemicals which are linked to a growing list of health concerns from asthma and lung irritation to cancer. This was enough for us to go softener-free.  Oddly, we don't miss it at all as our clothes are just as soft without it. 
• We use cloth diapers. Cloth diapering means that our baby isn't exposed to the toxic chemicals in commercial disposables and he rarely gets rashes or has blowouts.  Plus, they're cute and they're very easy to use. We use a variety of brands and types, but the BumGenius 4.0 (shown below) diapers are among our favorites.

 





We still have a long way to go but I feel like we have a nice start.  My current focus (and the subject of a future post or two) is detoxifying our cleaning routine, which I know is completely unhealthy as it is. What is your family doing to be greener that works well?