Eco Hippy

We're eco-hippies. Here's a list of the steps we've taken to help good ole mama earth:

-traded in our awesome, useful, survived-a-lightning-strike-on-the-highway-in-Arkansas, in need of lots-0 work '92 minivan (thanks Mom and Dad Fraley) for a Honda Civic

-use cloth bags instead of HEB plastic bags (soooo much easier to haul stuff)

-buy 7th generation paper towels

-keep our a/c off as much as possible in our super hot apartment

-Joe carpools w/ a co-worker several days a week to/from work, or to/from lunch

-wash clothes and dishes only with super big loads, and use regular settings (everything still comes out clean, no worries)

-bought energy star washer/dryer

-use dryer sheets to clean other stuff after they've done their dryer duty

-cook at home a lot more than we eat out

-buy modal or organic cotton products when available/cheap

-buy from half price books instead of new prints when available

-buy from goodwill for furniture, kitchen wares (and hello! $0.49 wisk, awesome!) and glass canisters

-keep glass jars to re-use for other things instead of buying plastic storage boxes and tossing it

- we're setting up a recycling system, though our apartment currently doesn't offer it (hopefully mom and dad won't mind when I haul stuff to their house... lol, still have to ask about this one)

-keep cardboard boxes (i know, i'm totally my mother's daughter. if you don't know what i'm talking about, go visit my parents and see how many of their storage devices are really just fancied up boxes)

-garage/estate sale hunt

-buy at outlets (yay pottery barn $19 scratch/dent hutch turned awesome bookcase; would've been thrown out if not for their outlet)

-use lots of hand-me-downs (aka... couch, 2 chairs, etertainment center, clothes, etc)

- try to buy in bulk to save $$ and packaging materials (cat food/litter especially)

-open blinds instead of turning on lights, until it gets too hot, then shut them to keep a/c off

-wash/re-use plastic bags

-use flock's eco browser

-play on freerice.com

-changed driving habits (we go slower, accelerate slower, combine trips, keep our tires inflated, etc)

-switched to cfl's

-buy recycled wrapping paper (Why chop down a tree to make something that's only thrown away?)


Those are the things I can think of right now. There are several other things we'd like to do, and are planning soon, so I will update this list later.

Most of the eco-friendly things we do also save us lots of money. And given that we're like any other family in America who needs $$ help with rising prices, living cheaper (or frugally if you prefer) is necessary. I wish more eco-hippy products like shoes, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc would hurry up and drop in price so we can expand our eco-hippy-ness, but for now, we just can't afford to spend three times as much for hippy-tastic dryer sheets. Soon though, we will be buying neat dryer balls we can use 500ish times!

My favorite eco-hippy shops, blogs, news:
Flock(eco)
Treehugger
Ecorazzi
Gaiam ($$$$ for lots of stuff, but great sale site... waiting on new $25 duvet cover)
Eco-Chick
Planet Green


For more $$ savings, use ebates. Ask me for a referral for free $$. It's real, awesome, and gaiam is one of the partner sites.

So that's our current save the world status. We still do plenty of harm to the world, and we need to slow our consumption, switch from bad-for-earth cleaning products to good ones, and do a whole lot more, but we're excited about the things we've done and our plans for future eco-hippy-ness. :)

-Steph