It’s Easy Being Green, pt. 2

October 14th, 2009 → 11:03 am @ Maria

0


Today was laundry day in my house, which got me thinking about how to be more earth conscious when it came to the abhorred chore. In this post I will discuss some basic ways to not only help the planet but also cut down on your pg&e bill.

  1. Purchase a gas powered dryer: According to Blueegg.com, “A gas-powered dryer will almost certainly be the most economical and energy-efficient way to go. In simple terms, this is because it’s more efficient to burn the fuel yourself, when you need it, than to have a power plant burn the fuel, convert the resulting energy into electricity, and deliver that electricity to you for your use.” On top of that, most of these dryers come with a nice government rebate (such as our LG from Sears in CA). I have also seen a significant drop in our pg&e bill, which always makes going green easier.
  2. Use a high-efficient front loader: These washers use less water and less detergent while cleaning very large loads.
  3. Use cold water: Unless someone in your household has the flu and you need to sanitize your laundry, cold water works just as well to clean your clothes. This eliminates the energy it takes to heat water. I have switched to cold/cold and haven’t looked back.
  4. Air dry what you can: If you aren’t in a hurry (many a times I’ve forgotten I needed to dry my sheets right before bed, oops!), air drying is a great alternative to a dryer. Often it is actually better on your clothes’ quality to either line-dry or lay flat on a towel to dry.
  5. Stop using fabric softener: I have recently discovered that dryer sheets are filled with toxic chemicals. This saddens me because I love the smell of Bounce and the feeling it gives to my clothes. Fortunately I learned that by adding 1/2 cup white vinegar to the wash cycle works as a fabulous softener (though no “fresh breeze” scent, boo!). Do not use the vinegar if you are using bleach, this causes toxic fumes.

These are just a few tips on how to make the cleaning process a little greener. While some of them are a bit of an investment, in the end most of them will save significant amounts of cash along with keeping our planet and our bodies a little healthier.

~Maria

What I use: LG WM2101HW

What I use: LG WM2101HW

Random Posts