| Living Green with a Large Family
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Are you green? Have you gone green? A few years ago most people would have cocked their head and responded that the only green guy they knew was the Green Giant. Nowadays you’d have to live in a cave to not know that “green-living” means doing things to help conserve the resources of the world and to help preserve our planet.
This article is not intended to start a debate about whether large families are ecologically irresponsible for having more children. We have covered that issue in our FAQ and stand by our comments there. Traditionally large families have been “living green” for decades, simply because they must. Recycling and reuse is a necessity. Still, even though this is a common practice, many large families continue to look for ways to help the environment. Below are a collection of many things that the large families at Lotsofkids.com do to help save the planet, as well as save money.
Laundry
- Use tin foil balls instead of dryer sheets in the dryer. They help keep more garbage out of the landfill, keep clothing soft and reusable, and don't add harmful chemicals to clothing.
- Hand-me-downs. Now I know most people do this, but I actually do it to a fault. I mend clothes constantly. Holey knees get patches, if they are too bad they get turned into shorts. Badly stained shirts get dyed a dark color or have appliques sewn on. If clothes are really ratty, they are used as "weekend clothes" when we are scrubbing the house. When any article of clothes gets retired (i.e. in the trashcan) it is threadbare and has all the life sucked out of it!
- Sniff Test. While the kids are pretty hard on their clothes dirt-wise for other things in the house I use the sniff test. If it is not soiled and smells okay, I have another wear before we wear. The same goes with blankets and sheets. If there is a small stain, I'll spot wash and give it a spray of Febreeze instead of throwing it in the wash.
- Wash in cold as often as we can. If an item needs hot water, I will soak it in the sink in hot water, then wash regularly in cold.
- During summer months, I wash diapers in cold water then hang in the hot sun to sanitize. It saves money on the hot water, as well as the fact it generally takes longer for diapers to dry in the dryer.
- I exclusively line-dry. During the warm months I have several lines strung across my yard. In the winter, I hand items up in the bathroom and other areas of the house. I also had my husband install a retractable clothesline in the basement which I use for towels and linens.
- I donate clothing no longer needed to an area charity here that helps local families.
- I make my own laundry detergent. It's easy on the pocketbook and easy on my family's clothes.
Food/Groceries
- Purchase locally grown organic food as much as possible. If possible, you can purchase meat locally as well.
- I only buy fair-trade coffee. It's a little more money, but is helps support for farmers who grown the coffee and promotes less industrialized processing of foods.
- My husband and I raise our own animals for food. We have chickens which provide lots of egg and meat. We raise pigs, rabbits, and goats. My husband also hunts and we have deer meat.
- We cook mostly from scratch. We buy very little convenience food. Not only is it healthier for us but there is less waste. It is also good for the environment since there is less packaging that ends up in the landfills.
- I breastfeed my babies exclusively. This safe on the cost of formula and early baby foods. It also helps the environment because there are no bottles or nipples used.
- Once baby is ready for solid food, they eat our food, nothing purchased in little tiny bottles.
- I have a veggie garden and grow quite a bit of our produce (organically) from seed. I freeze/preserve a lot for winter. I compost food waste/peelings/eggshells, etc. I make all our bread from wheat I grind myself.
- Cloth grocery bags. I keep them in the van so I won't forget to take them in. They hold a lot!
- Whenever possible, I try to buy in bulk. It means less frequent trips to the store. There is also a lot less packaging when you buy a jumbo size rather than 4-5 smaller sizes.
Waste/Trash
- I have a compost pile for scraps and yard waste. That goes on my garden.
- I recycle everything I can. I have even taught my little ones what can go in the recycle bin.
- I invested in reusable containers instead of depending on disposable freezer bags and other luxuries. I still use plastic wrap on occasion, but if possible I use cheesecloth and other reusable items for food storage.
- We do not rake up grass clippings after mowing the lawn. We usually leave them on the lawn or we rake them up and put them in the compost.
- We created an animal habitat in a secluded place on our property. We gathered branches and leaves and clippings and put them in a big pile. It provides a safe place for local small animals like rabbits and squirrels to live.
- We save stale bread for the birds. The kids love to throw the bread out in the morning and watch the birds come. It teaches them not to waste and teaches them to help the wildlife.
Cloth and Paper
- Cloth diapers. Enough said. Wish I had switched years ago.
- 90% of clothing (children & adults) we purchase is “recycled” aka from thrift store/garage sale.
- Limited paper products. We don't use paper towels and napkins. I purchase kitchen rags and use old cut-up towels and flannel sheets to make napkins and rags. When towels have been used a couple of times after showers, instead of going directly into the wash, they are put in a basket and used for cleaning up big spills and such. This has saved us a ton of money, not to mention that cloth works better than paper for clean-ups.
- I keep all of the misprints from my laser printer. I put them in a box and my kids use the backs when they want to draw or color. My husband will bring home misprints from his office so we can use them for the same purpose.
- I do not use Styrofoam peanuts for packing. I recycle the Pennysaver and other free papers I get. I save grocery bags and will use them to cushion packages I am sending.
- When trying to assess our eco-friendliness, I realized we used a lot of paper plates and plastic cups. Part of the problem was that we simply did not have enough dishes for more than one meal. If someone forget to load the dishwasher we wouldn’t have plates for the next meal and I would grab for the paper plates. I took the money I would have spent on paper products for a month and bought more dishes. We only use paper now for big parties.
Water
- Baths take up a lot of water. We installed a handheld shower hose in our bath. The older kids shower. We give the younger ones showers using the handheld hose. It’s easier to wash hair with the hose. We have save a lot of money on our water bill since doing this.
- It’s not always possible, but we try to use as much gray water as possible. If the kids are doing having a bath, we will use a bucket and flush the toilet a few times with it. If we need to wash the car, we’ll get a couple of buckets of bath water and save it for that.
- When I hand-wash dishes, I try not to fill the whole sink. I will take a large pot that needs to be washed and fill that, washing the dishes in small batches out of the pot. When done, I’ll pour that water into other pots/bowls that need to be washed.
- I buy Dawn Direct foam. It's ultra concentrated so it lasts longer. It's designed to save water. If you follow the directions on the bottle and do not run a sink full of water, you use a minimal amount of detergent and water. If I calculate approximately $5 per refill, and I buy one refill every 3-4 months that's approximately $15-20 per year on dish detergent.
Transportation
- Carpool. This is especially good for sport events. I have a group of moms and we take turn driving the kids to practice and events. This way it saves gas and no one is stuck doing all the driving.
- We drive very little – our vehicles are 10 & 11 yrs old and have only about 80,000 miles apiece on them. We plan to keep them til they die.
- I run more than one errand at a time when going anywhere to conserve gas.
- We have two vehicles. We need a large van to take the whole family place. We have a small economy car we use for trips to the store and around town. Unless we have to take everyone somewhere like church, we exclusively use the smaller car to save gas.
Energy
- I use the fans in our home as well as the whole house fan and open windows. Our electric/gas bill is less than some with half the size home we have.
- House is set at 65 in winter 80 in summer (we only have window unit).
- We use many rechargeable batteries (not exclusively though)
- We pay a local HVAC guy to come service our furnace every year. It costs money but it keeps our furnace running efficiently which saves us money and is means less energy use.
- Keep your appliances maintained. Even an energy-saver appliance will use more energy if you don’t keep it maintained.
- Turn it off. We made an effort to turn off the lights around the house when they are not being used and we saw a definite drop in our electricity bill.
- CFL light bulbs They cost more but they last longer and are much better for the environment.
- We used surge protectors for most electric appliances and computers. The ones we use don’t power the item unless you are using them, so you don’t pay for electricity for something that is not being used.
- We used to keep our computers on 24/7. It was more out of laziness than anything. Now we power them off every night.
Cleaners
- I cut my dish detergent half and half with water. I save an old bottle, pour in half the soap and fill up the rest with water. I do this with shampoo and shower soap too. You never notice the difference honest.
- We use only natural cleaning products to clean our home..ie: vinegar & water to wash mirrors & windows.
- I make my own laundry detergent and household cleaners. It means less harmful chemicals going into the environment. It’s easier on my family’s skin. I save a lot of money too.
Miscellaneous
- Re-Use (Almost) Everything. I try to always reuse what we have. That means everything, including furniture, storage containers, etc. I do have a policy if something is badly chipped or broken it gets thrown out. However, if it is in good shape, we try to utilize it or store it in the basement until it can come into use. If we ultimately end up not needed it, it is donated to Goodwill rather than thrown away.
- We recycle paper/cardboard, cans, plastic, glass. Take batteries, oil, etc to hazardous waste place.
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Article by: Michelle Lehmann
2009 - Lotsofkids.com
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I'd love to see your detergent recipe. Also, if you 'want' scented clothing, essential oils dripped on a rag & thrown in the dryer will smelly up the clothes & house very nicely during winter & you can put a drop of conditioner on a rag rub it in, toss it in the dryer & voila! soft, scented laundry! Vinegar in the rinse water will soften line dried clothing & will leave no scent.
HoneyNBenNKids AT aol DOT com