Friday, September 10, 2010

My slow turn to "green"

bumgenius diaper, the coolest ever
So one of the goals this year is to become a little more environmentally conscience.  So for I've accomplished the following: cloth diapering (thanks to Cotton Babies, who make a fantastic cloth diaper!), and recycling. Starting this weekend my garden gets up and running with a fall crop going in, and I hope to start composting.  At first my reasons for doing the above was all about money; either money saved (i.e. cloth diapering vs. disposable; eating fresh, organic CHEAP veggies) or money earned (turning in my glass and aluminum for cash back).  But now, I'm starting to see everything I do as a way to give back, or to avoid "trash".  I started thrifting, and using freecycle.org to find cool things (on a stay-at-home mom budget), and I dig the idea of using something used instead of buying new, which cuts down on the amount of waste I create!  Plus, using freecycle.org and other venues (i.e. craigslist or ebay) I can get rid of some of my used stuff too, giving it a good, new home!  I've even started looking at ebay.com as a way to find pre-owned, usually expensive items that will last me longer than the Target knockoff version.  I can't wait to score the Steve Madden boots I have my eye on!  
Also, I've been converting cool, vintage clothes that I find at the thrift store into things I can actually wear: the awesome shirt I found that is 4 sizes too large which I'm cutting down to fit, the amazing printed jacket that is way '80's ugly which I'm turning into an apron (not my idea, but a great one!) Oh, and eventually this idea of giving clothes a Second Chance will turn into my next business project...but that's another blog post altogether.   So as I told a dear friend once, I'm not green for the sake of "saving the earth" but for the kinder effect on my pocket (which I dubbed "teal")...but somewhere along the way, a shift has happened.  I'm started to turn green, or maybe just a cool verdigris.
 (Cottonbabies.com is running a contest, and this is an entry; pray I win the free pack of diapers!)

1 comment:

  1. Awesome! All of it! It feels good to know you are saving money AND doing something good for the planet. We are also teaching our little ones some very important lessons. Kudos!

    ReplyDelete