Happy Monday, everyone! I want to first of all say thank you to those of you who gave me so many ideas in the comments on Friday’s post – as well as so much encouragement. You guys are the best readers. I love that I now have a little better idea of what you all would like to read and learn more about here at Simple Organic, and I will definitely keep all your suggestions in mind for future posts!
Today, it’s time for a semiannual check-up. Six months ago, we set some goals together, goals for green living in our home life and in our personal life. So, now it’s time to ask: how’s it going? Have you been able to accomplish any of your goals yet? Are you still working on them?
In case you need a refresher, here’s a list of possible goals we looked at together for greener living in our home lives.
1. Natural, Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
- Here are some recipes for homemade cleaning products.
2. Reusable Shopping Bags
- Check out Eren’s tutorial for a Super Simple Market Bag.
- Make sure you know how to care for your reusable bags.
3. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
- Have you learned about CFLs, including proper disposal?
4. Recycle More
- Did you catch Megan’s recent post, “The 3 R’s Go Back to School“?
5. Reduce or Eliminate Plastic
- Many posts here touch on plastic usage, but make sure you know about plastic and BPA.
6. Reduce Paper Consumption
- Have you switched from paper to cloth in your home?
7. Reduce Energy Consumption
- Other than discussing CFLs and the tips I provided in the original goals list, we haven’t talked much more about this specific topic. More to come!
8. Plant a Garden
- Thanks to all of Simple Organic’s fabulous contributors, we have an entire Gardening 101 series.
9. Vehicles & Transportation Options
- In May, I shared about the benefits of biking as our family transitioned to one car.
Photo by Les Hutchins
Looking Ahead
Some of you also mentioned other goals, such as getting rid of toxic cookware and using more public transit. Now that six months have gone by, how are you doing on your goal?
Our family’s goal was to source more of our food locally. Whoops! That was our personal goal. Our green goal for our home life was to reduce the amount of plastic we use. I think we’ve done pretty well overall. We almost never purchase plastic bottled water or bring home plastic bags from the store anymore, and we rarely use plastic containers for food storage – but we do still own them. When we run out of glass containers, the plastic comes out. So, ideally, I’d like to get rid of all the plastic containers and replace them with glass. We still use plastic zip storage bags…I’m still looking for a good way to replace the gallon-size bags for many things. Baby steps!
On the other hand, one unexpected change for us was our family’s decision to sell one of our cars and become a one-car family. We bought a nice bike for my husband, with all the accompanying gear that he needs to make his rides work for him, and now he is a bike commuter. So, although this wasn’t one of our goals back in February, circumstances suddenly aligned so that it became an obvious and perfect decision.
Now it’s your turn. How are you doing on your green living goals for your home life? Have they changed, been achieved, been set aside? Let’s hear all about it!
About Katie
I feel I am doing well.
I’ve completely quit using paper napkins and I’ve reduced my plastic consumption. I did attempt a garden…but it kind of died (better luck next year!). Reusable bags wasn’t something I needed to work on, however since I’m moving in two weeks the bags have been packed away (set aside). I do refuse bags when I can.
Thanks so much for making me think about this. There’s so many times where it seems like I haven’t done a thing but reflecting helps to know how far you’ve come.
1. Natural, Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
Been trying to make my own but frustrated b/c they don’t always work. Still love the homemade laundry detergent, though. Using store-bought planet friendly ones for the time being.
2. Reusable Shopping Bags
Yup! Love saving $.03 at Kroger and $.05 at Target per bag!
3. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Using them as others burn out.
4. Recycle More
We are!
5. Reduce or Eliminate Plastic
Have now sold/given away all of my Tupperware (sadly enough, I had registered for the real stuff when we got married last year so all of mine was band new) and other kitchen plastics – cups, bowls, etc. We now use Pyrex for leftovers and reusing sauce jars in the cabinets for storing things like teabags, etc.
Would still like to eliminate plastic baggies but am working on it. Does anyone out there use the cloth reusables like snack taxi?
6. Reduce Paper Consumption
Doing pretty great. Got rid of paper napkins, paper towels, and am happily transitioning to cloth toilet paper (for me, not the DH) and cloth feminine products.
7. Reduce Energy Consumption
We have mostly CFLs but we don’t have any “smart” power strips or anything yet. We do have a programmable thermostat and we’ve set it to warmer temps when we won’t be home plus raised it a degree for when we are home.
I’ve slacked a bit with this one
8. Plant a Garden
Planting tomatoes and an herb garden next year!
9. Vehicles & Transportation Options
We never did that much but we’ve committed to just one car when one of ours dies.
I use reusable snack/sandwich bags. They tend to dry out bread and make crackers stale overnight, but if you pack them in the morning, then everything stays fresh by lunch.
We’ve been one step forward, two steps back at our house. Our diets are definitely better – more organic foods, more local foods, growing some of our own in the backyard.
But, with the busy summer (excuses, excuses) I’ve noticed our consumption of conveniences like paper towels, paper plates, and paper napkins sneaking back up. Not good.
Thanks for the reminder to check in with my goals and to get motivated to keep on the simple, organic path
S.O. ROCKS, Katie! thanks for all the work that you do here! You and your contributors have taught me so much already.
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Homemade laundry detergent??? can someone please share the recipe or the link?
We are doing ok; we use re-usable grocery bags; hang our laundry to dry; compost; use re-usable containers to pack lunches.
I usually grow a large garden but got wiped out by too musch rain this year. Am really missing home gorwn veggies!
Hi Katie,
I appreciate how you have shared your green goals with us and now your 6-month check in. It gives us all a possible model so we don’t have to start from scratch and so much encouragement.
I am making progress on all my goals, most notably I am having gradual success in my garden. I just harvested my first zucchini – which is not easy to grown in Hawai’ – and am also growing arugula, osaka purple mustard, malabar spinach and bok choy. Some parsley is starting to come up. It feels great to be composting! The gardening series here has helped me so much. I will be starting a new set of vegetables over the next few weeks. So it’s gradually, but a highly enjoyable process.
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We do really well with almost all of that (homemade cleaners for the most part, cloth shopping bags, local foods as much as possible, our own garden, CFL’s, recycling, etc.). We also reuse a lot, buy used a lot and do without a lot.
Our biggest challenge has been to reduce plastics. All of us drink tap water (flavored with fresh lime for me) but my husband still drinks bottled water. I talked him into a reusable bottle but he hates it and went back to the bottles, so we’ve bought him another one. It’s so much easier to change myself than to change him!
I think maybe I have him on board this time though.
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