Smile and Happiness Will Follow

I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today with a tip for staying motivated to live sustainably during the winter: Focus on the positive.

With those thoughts in mind, I want to do a little exercise. I'd like you to take a minute to note all the changes you've made since you started on your green journey. Don't just think about it...write them down - either here in the comments, on your own blog, or on a piece of paper.

Then when you get discouraged because you've gone back to using your dryer, your public transportation is a pain in the rear, or you had an impulse buy at Target, push aside the guilt and whip out your "List of Changes."

Yes, the winter is dreary, the root vegetables endless. Yes, the long, gravelly path to sustainability is the road less traveled. But, look how much we have done!

Read more...

Here's my list of changes:

• Use cloth bags and produce bags
• Use a reusable water bottle and thermos
• Use homemade or less toxic household cleaners
• Switched to recycled paper products or cloth
• Use cloth diapers 80 percent of the time
• Shop the bulk bins
• Switch to dried beans instead of canned
  
• Started a worm bin
• Husband and First Son pack lunches
• Use CFLs where possible
• Use cold water and line dry shirts and pants
  
• Use power strips
• Support a tiny bit of renewable energy as part of our power bill
• Husband and First Son walk to work/school about 2/3 of the time
• Try to buy used before new
  
• Joined a CSA
• Buy all organic
• Use less plastic
• Keep house warmer in summer and colder in winter
• Cook as much from scratch as we can

And still more to come as I keep working this year on The Conscious Shopper Challenge!

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You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.