My farmers' market has a composting stand every Sunday. I got guidelines from them and drop off a small tub every week of food scraps and coffee grounds.
Do you own or rent? We had a company come out and spray insulation into our walls because there was none. Also we've replaced the few original windows.
Depending where you live, it might be too late for a garden. You may be able to plant soon though to get fall broccoli, lettuce or spinach. DH tilled up an area of land for me a few years ago and added a ton of top soil and then I just planted seeds. It grew! We compost (not a lot of garbage) mostly leaves and grass clippings in a pile at the back of our yard. Throw it in and occasionally turn it. If you live in a city, I think they have composting barrels you can buy.
Even if you can't garden more this year, you can still start the compost to be able to use next year. We don't do anything fancy, just a chicken wire bin in the corner of the yard.
We have a garden and cloth diaper, and we've used cloth napkins (which I made out of old sheets) for the past 3 years. I recently made us a bunch of "unpaper" towels, too- they snap together and roll up like paper towels. We generally only put the trash out for pick up every 2-3 weeks because it just doesn't get full enough every week.
Insulation is huge, and the attic is a pretty easy place to improve. The ROI on insulation is very high.
My local utility offers energy audits for free or cheap. They will come out and test your doors, windows, insulation, etc and make recommendations. You can save a lot on utility bills by implementing these things.
You can also convert to low energy light bulbs. You can get a Kill-A-Watt device to see which appliances/devices consume a lot of energy - we are much better about shutting off the PS3 now that we know how much energy it takes, lol. We also changed the way our server computer was set up so that it's not on all the time. Old refrigerators are a big consumer of electricity also and you should be able to figure out how much you'd save by modernizing using the kill-a-watt and energy ratings online.
Water heaters are a big sink too. Make sure the water heater is properly insulated and set to a manageable temperature. You can wash all clothes with cold water.
If you have sprinklers, you should check them to make sure they are spraying evenly and hitting only the desired areas, and you should run them at night to minimize evaporation (google sprinkler water conservation for more specific tips).
For composting, I'd go with a barrel due to being in a densely populated area. This place, and our previous place, they have a compost pick-up service, so we don't bother doing compost in our yard (if we owned, we might opt to compost ourselves, but municipal composting can compost things you can't compost readily at home). Your city/county might have free or subsidized compost barrels - I know a few folks that live in areas where they can buy a decent compost bin from the city for around $10...
Some veggies are easier than others. As others have mentioned, it's a bit late to start much this year, but you might be able to prepare your yard/garden for next year. Figure out what to plant where, prep the space, etc...
As for "greening" the house, others have hit the big points - insulation, water heater, etc.
There are some great recommendations here already, but I would also suggest planting native plants/flowers around the yard. Lots of areas have garden clubs that hold native plant sales. Someone in ours just suggested planting milkweed to help save the monarch butterfly.
so do you just gave a compost heap then? We have a yard but it is small, and our area is densely populated. The barrels sound like a good idea!
We do just have a heap. DH turns it occasionally. I throw bad garden stuff in there -plants that rotted, something the squirrels got, the end of the season garden cleans out of vines and plants. It's pretty easy to maintain but a barrel might be a good idea for a city. My broccoli starts didn't live once I put them in the garden.. So I wish you luck on that!
Oh and check your utility company for residential rebates. Ours has a program where you get a check back for installing programmable thermostats, insulation, energy efficient systems (HVAC or hot water heater) and they also pay you to take away your old fridge. Also the IRS and some states have tax credits. Not usually a ton of money but they help.
All the homes I have ever lived in have been older homes. My newest house was built in 1950. Check with your energy company about an energy audit. This service (sometimes free) will help you to find where the energy is going in your home and what improvements can be made. Replacing the old original picture window with insulated glass saved us $20 a month on heating costs during the winter.
Post by imojoebunny on Jul 21, 2014 20:02:29 GMT -5
The greenest thing you can do, is not to buy new stuff. I just laugh when people I know decide they want to be green and then spend $$$ buying all kinds of stuff. Nothing wrong with insulation, but a lot of other green moves don't require cash.
You can make a compost bin with leftover wood from construction sites. Gardens/yards with native plants that don't require a lot of water and can be found locally are good. No need to trade out serviceable counter tops for "green" recycled glass. Nothing wrong with that, but replacing something functional with something stylish, because it's hipster, is not green.
We have a garden and cloth diaper, and we've used cloth napkins (which I made out of old sheets) for the past 3 years. I recently made us a bunch of "unpaper" towels, too- they snap together and roll up like paper towels. We generally only put the trash out for pick up every 2-3 weeks because it just doesn't get full enough every week.
I purchased cloth napkins and cleaning rags from amazon about 3 months ago and it's amazing to see how little paper towels we use. Surprisingly DH was on board and I think we've gone through 1/2 roll of paper towels in 3 months when we used to go through 1 roll/week.
We have three kids, we live in a big house in an area with poor public transportation, and my H travels by plane for work often, so we are pretty much everything that is wrong with the world from an environmental standpoint. But we have made several improvements to our old-ish house to make it more energy efficient, including:
New insulation Replaced AC units (which were from 1975) with new high-efficiency ones Replaced one of the ancient hot water heaters with a tankless Replaced the front door (you could literally see daylight all around it) Had the sprinklers checked and some valves replaced so we aren't wasting water
We will replace the other hot water heater and the windows eventually.
In terms of other stuff, we:
Walk to the grocery Live close to the places we frequent (we're ~5 miles from H's office, 1-2 miles from school and most frequented retail, I work from home) Drive a hybrid (but it is a Highlander, so still not great) Use cloth napkins and rags instead of paper products Grow some vegetables (we should do more here, but I am not a great gardner) Buy local veggies from the farmers market Take reuseable bags to stores Unplug appliances when not in use Recycle Upcycle old furniture Hand down clothes through all three boys Eat vegetarian meals 25-50% of the time (should do this more) Only run the dishwasher when it's really full, wash all clothes on cold, keep the thermostat higher in the summer than most people I know My kids forget to flush a lot
I really should look into composting and grow more veggies.
Oh and check your utility company for residential rebates. Ours has a program where you get a check back for installing programmable thermostats, insulation, energy efficient systems (HVAC or hot water heater) and they also pay you to take away your old fridge. Also the IRS and some states have tax credits. Not usually a ton of money but they help.
I can't believe I forgot to mention programmable thermostat! That one is huge. This also reminded me about low-flow shower heads. My utility co has a program to provide them for free.
Just generally see what your utility offers, for people with AC mine also has a good discount if you let them install a switch that allows them to do AC brown outs (we have an evaporative cooler so don't qualify).
I purchased cloth napkins and cleaning rags from amazon about 3 months ago and it's amazing to see how little paper towels we use. Surprisingly DH was on board and I think we've gone through 1/2 roll of paper towels in 3 months when we used to go through 1 roll/week.
Agreed. We use cloth napkins, baby washcloths for cleaning DS' face/hands after meals, and unpaper towels.for cleaning kitchen messes (and rags like old socks, t-shirts, etc for cleaning) and go through a roll of paper towels maybe every 6-9 months. DH's parents have been to visit several times over the past 6 weeks and they've used like 3 rolls of paper towels - it drives me batty!
Where I live, water is increasingly at a premium. There are a bunch of water-wise landscaping tricks that can be worked in, to reduce your dependence on sprinklers. Big landscape beds with drought-tolerant grasses and perennials are great. They give such a punch with so little effort. I live in zone 4 (next door to siberia), and have had luck with daisies, cone flower, irises, all kinds of sedums, chicks and hens, Russian Sage, Bee Balm, Lemon Balmn, hollyhocks and a bunch of decorative grasses. I also love delphiniums.
My favorite (and the favorite of all the neighborhood kids) is how I've worked edibles into our landscape. Rather than a lilac hedge, we have a raspberry hedge. It's super simple to care for and once established produces a ton of fruit. I'm planning on putting blueberries across our back fence next year. They can be invasive (they spread by their roots and send up new shoots, like an aspen tree), so beware. I also tuck peppers and tomatoes in half-buried pots alongside our shrubs and perennials. Its a great way to take up space with something edible, and all the flowers attract bees, which helps with pollination. Sunflowers are fun too. And I love sweet peas!
Remember to group things by their water use. Hosta and clematis go well together. Ferns and hosta and hydrangea go well together (in my climate). All of them need more water than not, and like to be in the shade in the afternoon.
It took us at least 3 years to really get our in-ground garden going. We rototilled in a ton of compost and peat moss (we have clay soil), and have to rototil it every year in order to grow decent carrots. I've learned to only plant the things we will eat. Carrots, pumpkins (for carving!), tons of different kinds of tomatoes, zucchini squash, potatoes and onions this year. I always lose peas to the gophers.
If you're at a total loss, contact the Ag School's agriculture extension office. For example, the Montana State University (my state college) Ag Extension website is a treasure trove of information about growing food, gardening, canning, etc.
Yes, totally agree with Poppy, the ,kill a watt is totally genius, we uses that to find and kill appliance vampires.
We have stopped using our clothes dryer, and line dry inside our spare room instead.
Compost and garden, yes, and when you create your garden, make sure you create elevated beds...check out "Square feet garden" resources / books online. Genius.
We have installed a timer for our water heater. It turns on in the evening should we shower at night, and usually in the mornings we shower at the gym.
If you have an unfinished basement, install DriCore subfloor yesterday! We just did this as part of our basement finishing work, and the DriCore adds some nice insulation, around 6 degrees F.
Finally, we are getting a wood stove. The energy use from the polar vortex winter was too insane, plus we love real fires, so we are putting one in our basement which will help us keep the house cozier.
Good luck, and definitely do an energy audit if you can. The Mr. money mustache website has some awesome resources on this topic, and the forumites also chat about this stuff quite a bit.
What about using a brick in your toilet tank to use less water per flush? And not flushing if it's just urine.
If you use dryer sheets, cut them in half.
In the winter, covering windows. I remember using some kind of plastic you seal with a hair dryer at a place I rented(?)
Change air filters monthly. Close the registers in rooms you don't use frequently.
I'm reaching here, but what about washing your hair less frequently? I only do it every three days or so because I'm too lazy to take the time to dry it. As a result I am using a lot less shampoo than I used to.
We have a garden and cloth diaper, and we've used cloth napkins (which I made out of old sheets) for the past 3 years. I recently made us a bunch of "unpaper" towels, too- they snap together and roll up like paper towels. We generally only put the trash out for pick up every 2-3 weeks because it just doesn't get full enough every week.
Woah! Unpaper towels? I wanna see!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using proboards
I made these for my mom (ours are in the wash, we've been doing lots of canning-messy!)
We have owned 2 older homes and have: insulated to the max replaced windows with energy efficient ones (one house - double pane, other house triple pane) energy efficient appliances (fridge, double oven and mostly use the smaller one, water heater, dishwaser - gas dryer, water heater and dual fuel range I use a clothes line during nice weather rather than my dryer All LED lighting High efficient furnace - no AC (but we don't really need it for the few days it really gets hot) Programable thermostat Low flow shower heads Location - we can walk to work and many other conveniences We own card with high MPG and put few miles per year on them compost recycle buy used items where possible/practical rather than new vegetarian diet - and use farmer's market in the summer and local co-op year round Use a water bottle Bring own shopping bags shop sales - avoid paying full price for everything
TBH, in an old house, things like extra wall, attic and crawl space insulation are really helpful, but so is just reusing everything. Like, you can have your windows re-glazed for energy efficiency, but replacing them 1) might compromise the integrity of the historic charm of the house (depending on the age, of course, and if they are original) and 2) wastes material, since you're just throwing out old windows, usually, and new vinyl windows are made from, well, vinyl, which is a petroleum product. Same with things like granite counter tops, which are not the most green product out there. Or refinishing floors vs. replacing wood floors. You'll have to compare the costs and environmental impact of getting new, energy star appliances vs. keeping old ones.
We did more wall insulation and attic insulation and we'll be sealing the crawl space soon. I want to start composting, too! We have hardy, zone-appropriate landscaping that doesn't need to be watered. We keep our water heater low (120, I think, vs 140). We keep our furnace low. We only have window AC units (energy star rated) and only in the 2 rooms we use the most (living room and master bedroom). We use curtains and blinds to insulate the house during the day and keep it cool in the summer.
I use natural cleaning products (vinegar, baking soda) and microfiber cloths for cleaning. I have cloth napkins, too, to try to cut down on paper towel usage.
Buy aerators (they look like washers) for your faucets. They mix air with water, which maintains the water pressure, but reduces the amount of water you use.
We also, honestly, bought a house on the small side, so we're not heating/cooling/using more space than we need, and we won't be tempted to BUY more things like furniture and clothes than we need due to the space.
Insulation is huge, and the attic is a pretty easy place to improve. The ROI on insulation is very high.
My local utility offers energy audits for free or cheap. They will come out and test your doors, windows, insulation, etc and make recommendations. You can save a lot on utility bills by implementing these things.
You can also convert to low energy light bulbs. You can get a Kill-A-Watt device to see which appliances/devices consume a lot of energy - we are much better about shutting off the PS3 now that we know how much energy it takes, lol. We also changed the way our server computer was set up so that it's not on all the time. Old refrigerators are a big consumer of electricity also and you should be able to figure out how much you'd save by modernizing using the kill-a-watt and energy ratings online.
Water heaters are a big sink too. Make sure the water heater is properly insulated and set to a manageable temperature. You can wash all clothes with cold water.
If you have sprinklers, you should check them to make sure they are spraying evenly and hitting only the desired areas, and you should run them at night to minimize evaporation (google sprinkler water conservation for more specific tips).
This is a great list of easy things to do! I'd also add low flow shower heads decreasing the amount of water your toilet uses (google for easy ideas) aerators for faucets
I think it's all been said, but the ones we've done: -attic insulation (ours hadn't been touched since the house was built 50+ years ago and we were getting frost on the ceiling) -compost barrel (I did the pile thing and it really didn't work for us; I much prefer the barrel that can spin with kids in the yard) -square foot gardening (amazing - our natural soil is crap, this produces way more success) -retractable clothes line in backyard, drying racks in basement for winter -programmable thermostat -low-flow shower heads -don't use the "dry" on the dishwasher -don't use the giant TV as background noise -electric lawnmower (manual would be even better, but electric is way better than gas and we had to buy something when we bought the house)
I purchased cloth napkins and cleaning rags from amazon about 3 months ago and it's amazing to see how little paper towels we use. Surprisingly DH was on board and I think we've gone through 1/2 roll of paper towels in 3 months when we used to go through 1 roll/week.
Agreed. We use cloth napkins, baby washcloths for cleaning DS' face/hands after meals, and unpaper towels.for cleaning kitchen messes (and rags like old socks, t-shirts, etc for cleaning) and go through a roll of paper towels maybe every 6-9 months. DH's parents have been to visit several times over the past 6 weeks and they've used like 3 rolls of paper towels - it drives me batty!
Lol. My in-laws, bless their sweet souls just left yesterday after a visit and we've literally used more paper towels in the 4 days they were staying with us than the last 6 months. I actually had to buy paper towels just because I knew they were coming. I'm amazed at the great ROI we get from simple washcloths, or rags, or just regular dish towels.
Some other things that haven't been mentioned--whole house/attic fans, updating the fireplace (as long as you have a masonry fireplace, new wood burning fire places can be INCREDIBLY efficient), and possibly relocating your hot water heater--I know that can be $$ and not doable, but when we had our audit done they said the location of our hot water heater was a major factor in how efficient our house was. But really, the #1 thing we did for our 1950's ranch home was to replace all the original windows. They were big, numerous, and we could FEEL the drafts coming/going from the home, so that was a very high priority thing for us.
As for the composting--we have a barrel AND a pit. The pit is definitely easier, but it's not located well (not enough sun), but the barrel is a PITA (i have one that "spins"--in retrospect, we should have just gotten the tower and continued to turn manually.) While I've got a great garden, it rarely produces enough for us to eat solely from the garden in the summer. I've never been able to produce any broccoli, and this was the do or die year for eggplant (thankfully, I finally got some awesome fruit this year!) Also, we have a water barrel and keep a stash of old milk cartons filled with the run off water at our disposal for the garden--we live in NC so it can get HOT and we live in a pocket that sometimes goes through droughts in the summer. Native plants are also clutch. And while I know they can be hazardous as well as beneficial, our house is in the shade for about 1/2 the summers day, and that helps a lot.