Part 2: Keeping Things Clean

In Part 1 of this 3-part series I listed some basic ingredients to purchase that can do double or triple duty in your home cleaning, disinfecting and treating small first aid issues while saving you big money and at the same time NOT polluting your home or our collective environment.

In this part of the series I’ll list some easy recipes for mixing your basic ingredients into useful household products. This doesn’t take a lot of time or heavy effort, and can be done on a weekend afternoon easily once every month or two (as they get used up), or mixed on the spot for particular jobs.

In The Laundry Room: Everybody must do laundry. Whether or not you’ve got an infant in diapers (cloth is best!) or small children who love to make mud pies, or older kids who sweat a lot, or just working adults who must wear good clothes or uniforms daily in their jobs, you’re going to have to wash clothes. And while the price of food and gasoline keeps rising out of sight, most people already know that good laundry products are a significant chunk of change out of the budget.

I mentioned in Part 1 how to make liquid soap out of the dregs of bars that melt all over your tub and sink by just putting them in a container with water and letting them dissolve. That’s good hand soap that can be put into a dispenser, but can also provide the basis of laundry soap if you’ve enough of it. I have a friend who must travel for her job, and who collects those little motel soaps through the year, gifting them to me at Christmas so I’ve got sizeable baskets of rock-hard teeny-soaps still in their wrappers. I use these to make liquid soap, and liquid soap to make laundry soap. Alternatively, you can use Fels Naptha laundry soap bars, which are inexpensive and go quite far. The three bar package can make about 6 gallons of laundry soap, which should get most households through at least that many months even if there’s a lot of laundry to do! Ivory soap bars or flakes work very well for baby laundry, and is still among the least expensive of basic soaps you can buy.

Recipe: 2 gallons liquid laundry soap

1.5 cups liquid soap or 1 cup grated bar soap
6 cups water
3/4 cup baking soda
1/2 cup borax

Mix water and soap in a large pot. Stir in soda and borax. Heat over low medium stirring with a wooden spoon until everything is well dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil slowly for 15 minutes. Remove from heat (it should have the general consistency of honey). In a bucket with tight-fitting lid add 1 quart of hot water, then add the soap mixture and mix well. Add enough cold water to make 2 full gallons and blend the ingredients thoroughly. After 24 hours this mixture should set to a light gel. Store the bucket next to the washer, stir it with a wooden slat or spoon before each use, use 1/2 cup per full laundry load.

It doesn’t really have to be a gel, a liquid will work fine. It also won’t suds up in the wash, but that’s okay. The ingredients will all do their jobs. This laundry soap costs about 50¢ a gallon, which is many dollars cheaper than a gallon of liquid detergent at the grocery store!

Recipe: 2 cups dry laundry soap

Some people simply prefer a dry laundry soap to a liquid. This is also easy enough to make.

1 cup grated bar soap
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup baking soda

Put these into a quart size jar and shake well. Use 2-3 tablespoons per laundry load (depending on size and soil). This mixture takes up less room that a bucket of liquid, and works quite well.

* If you have a baby in diapers, you may wish to use Arm & Hammer laundry soda instead of regular baking soda, as it will absorb more acid than the regular. But for general laundry needs, the cheaper baking soda works fine.

Recipe: stain remover spray

1/3 cup tap water
1/3 cup household ammonia
1/3 cup rubbing (denatured) alcohol

Mix ingredients into a clean spray bottle, shake to mix and use as needed to pre-treat stains on clothing (particularly good on collar and underarm stains).

Recipe: fabric softener

2 cups white vinegar
2 cups baking soda
4 cups hot water

Mix the vinegar and water, then carefully mix in the soda (slowly… or it will foam like you won’t believe!). Add about 20 drops of essential oil (lavender is nice, so is cedarwood, rose, whatever you like). This recipe will make about a gallon, you can put it into a cleaned-out gallon plastic jug. Shake gently before using.

You can also put some of this in a spray bottle and use it as a freshener like Febreeze.

Recipe: starch

If you like your shirts crisp or work in a uniform that needs starch, you can make your own by simply mixing a tablespoon of corn starch in a quart of water. Put it in a spray bottle and keep it near the iron.

In The Kitchen and Bath

The most important household products you’ll be using in the kitchen and bath are scouring powders and disinfectants of some variety. These of course will do double duty, so you’ll want to keep a spray bottle of disinfectant separately in those rooms, along with a jar of powder.

Recipe: surface disinfectant

1/4 cup ammonia
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup water

Mix these ingredients together and put into spray bottles to store in the kitchen and bath. It cuts grease and kills bacteria, can be used to clean countertops, sinks, tubs, showers and toilets.

* Remember… NEVER mix ammonia and bleach! None of these recipes use bleach, but don’t get careless!

Recipe: scouring powder

We all need some good scouring powder on occasion to get tough stains off sinks, tubs and toilets. Mix equal parts baking soda and borax, put into a lidded jar and keep where it’s needed. Shake it a bit and shake onto a wet surface, scrub with a sponge, rag or brush.

* Always be sure to label your home made cleaning products when you make them. You can use printer labels and a Sharpee (waterproof ink). That way nobody makes mistakes!

Around The House

There are other cleaning, deodorizing and disinfecting jobs to do around the house. Here’s some hints on those…

Stains and odors

Salt works great for getting serious stains out of carpet. Wet the stain and shake salt on it amply, let it sit overnight before vacuuming.

Carpet odors (pet or baby urine, general funk) are well absorbed by plain baking soda. Shake it onto the carpet and allow to sit for at least an hour, then vacuum.

Urine stains on kid’s mattresses can be sprayed with a borax and water mixture, allowed to dry, then vacuumed with the brush attachment. You can add a little soda too, it won’t hurt and will absorb even more odor.

Mildew anywhere in the home is best cleaned with a mixture of salt and enough lemon juice to make a paste.

To deodorize plumbing drains pour a cup of white vinegar down it once a week. Let stand for half an hour and flush with cold water. If your drain is slow due to hair/grease clog, pour a handful of baking soda down the drain and then add 1/2 cup vinegar. Rinse with hot water, the clog should dissolve.

If your dishes from the meal are greasy, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the soapy wash water. Vinegar also cleans dishwashers, steam irons and coffee makers well, just run some vinegar through once a month. Wash microwave ovens with vinegar and water.

In the third part of this series we’ll look at some recipes for first aid and insect repellants that will come in handy over the summer months, using these same cheap ingredients. See you then!

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: List of Ingredients
Part 2: Recipes
Part 3: Bugs & First Aid

Part 1: The List of Ingredients

Now that it’s late May, it’s time to stock up for the summer – and our many summer visitors – on things like bug repellant (we really do live in the Deep Woods), anti-itch solution, insect sting remedies, poison ivy treatments, cut and scrape treatments, etc. The basic summertime First Aid Kit, all ingredients of which will be used as regularly as the usual household cleaners, deodorizers, detergents, polishes and disinfectants get used all year round.

Might as well get items that do double or triple duty as household cleansers and disinfectants as well as personal skin and hair care products too. I’ll use this post to make the basic list of things to buy, and later posts will give specific recipes and hints on how to use them to best advantage. And the best thing about these products? They’re Green and Eco-Friendly to boot!

Baking Soda: It all starts with good old baking soda. You can purchase generic or the primary name brand we recognize (Arm and Hammer). It’s cheap either way, and the same product though generic will tend to clump and solidify quicker and easier. Compared against the multitude of specialty chemicalized products you could be buying to do many of the same tasks, you could save hundreds of dollars a year with a cleaner, fresher house and a healthier family to show for it!

Baking soda is a good deodorizer for carpets and upholstery (even effective against pet and human urine odors), disinfectant, anti-fungal, a surface-safe scouring powder, cockroach insecticide, drain unclogger, silver and copper polish, laundry aid and pH equalizer for things like pool water. It is used medicinally as an anti-itch wash, insect sting treatment, toothpaste, mouthwash, gargle for sore throats poison ivy neutralizer, soothing treatment for athlete’s foot, an antacid, deodorant and anti-acne scrub. Given that it doesn’t cost much – particularly in 4-5 pound boxes – it can save you a bundle on all these sort of products that cost several dollars apiece.

Borax: Our list of necessary household basics continues with another sodium product, borax. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, while borax is sodium borate decahydrate. It’s a laundry booster (improves detergent action, natural colorsafe bleach), a water softener, multipurpose cleaner, fungicide, preservative, insecticide, herbicide, disinfectant and dessicant.

Plain Salt: The final sodium product on the list of must-haves is salt. You should always keep a one-pound box of plain (Kosher, iodine-free) salt on hand for non-table uses. This can be fine grain or coarse, basic sodium chloride purified from a mine rather than more expensive sea salt (which comes with quite a few extra minerals and chemicals than even iodized table salt). Salt has many general household and medicinal uses, such as water (and skin) softener in bath water, soothing soak for sore muscles and arthritic joints, anti-microbial mouthwash for gum disease, sore throat gargle, nasal decongestant spray (with soda in water) and eyewash.

Vinegar: Next on the list is your basic gallon jug of white vinegar. Vinegar is also a good disinfectant, a strong degreaser, streak-free glass cleaner, no-wax floor cleaner, stain remover from carpets and upholstery, wood furniture polish and ring remover (with olive oil), garbage disposal and drain deodorizer, brass polish, ant deterrent, stainless steel cleaner, bathroom water and soap deposit scrub, faucet and shower head unclogger and in the yard, an effective weed and grass killer (spray directly).

Olive Oil, Light Safflower Oil: These are of course useful for maintaining leather and wood furniture, and in certain recipes can be substituted for liquid soaps (they also provide fats for homemade soaps). But you’ll want these primarily for skin and hair care products and bath oils and such. Buy basic 12-ounce bottles for these purposes and keep them separate from the oils you use normally for cooking and baking.

Lemon Juice, Rubbing Alcohol, Liquid Soap: Lemon juice and rubbing alcohol are household and medicinal necessities to keep on hand for a number of uses, along with liquid soap. If you save the dregs of your soap bars (those annoying left-overs that end up melted all over your sink or tub holder) in a pump jar with a little water (shake occasionally), you’ll be surprised at how much normally gets thrown away. Or, if you’re really enterprising, you can make your own soaps!

All told, I could go to the store today and bring home ample supplies of all these items for about $20, knowing they’ll last through the crowded summer and some will last through the rest of the year. If you were to do an inventory of all the specialized products you buy – furniture polish, drain opener, toilet bowl cleaner, bathtub and sink scrubs, spray-on spot removers, laundry additives, bath, skin care and beauty products, insect repellants, first aid sprays and creams and gargles and washes, etc., etc., etc., you’d find yourself spending hundreds over the next six months. Sometimes the best products are the old-fashioned (still cheap) ones!

Below are links to some basic uses on the web that readers may find useful. I’ll provide more specific recipes in my next post for household cleaning and disinfecting. Then I’ll list specifics on the first aid and medicinal recipes and uses. Later in this series we’ll look at personal care basics and how you can save a whole lot of money not buying fancy facial masks, skin treatments, moisturizers, wrinkle creams, bath treatments and skin soothers. So please stay tuned to put all this together!

Links:

Vinegar Institute: Uses & Tips
64 Uses for Vinegar
Uncommon Household Uses for Salt
Top 6 Uses for Borax
20 Mule Team Borax: Many Household Uses [pdf document]
FAQs: Arm & Hammer

Posts to This Series:

Part 1: List of Ingredients
Part 2: Recipes
Part 3: Bugs & First Aid

Perhaps many readers have become aware of the looming worldwide food shortage, there was a story on NPR’s The World just Monday night (March 31) about rising tensions in the bread lines of Egypt. London’s Guardian reported this past November that the crisis can be attributed to climate change (crop failures and ag diversion of rice and wheat crops) and fuel shortages – both the increasing price of petroleum fuels for transportation and agriculture as well as the diversion of staple food crops like soybeans and corn toward biofuels production.

Soaring grain prices are now exploding into full-fledged food riots in many corners of the planet, while Americans are stunned by rising prices every time they go to the grocery store. As of December, 2007 the UN Food and Agricultural Organization reported that 37 countries face immediate food crises, and 20 nations had imposed some form of food-price controls. Reuters lays additional blame on panicked speculators trading on global futures markets in the wake of recession fears fueled by the increasing defaults among Wall Street’s investment banks and stock market gamblers.

But there is hope on the horizon, particularly for those of us who were smart enough to purchase diesel powered vehicles, despite the ruinous and increasing costs of gasoline. That hope is a new source for producing biodiesel (which can run the entirety of our transportation system, including passenger cars if GM can be persuaded to come off their new diesel they’ve been sitting on in joint patent with the EPA).

Ride Lust reports that a new process to produce biodiesel from algae – thus leaving staple food crops for people who eat staple foods – may be ready to hit the market. Green Fuel Technologies has begun construction on a “Closed Water Algae” bioreactor facility that will feed from the smoke stacks of a local power plant. PetroSun has also announced that their many acres of algae ponds will be going commercial today – April 1st!

The Closed Water System technology uses energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from industrial smoke stacks to feed the algae growth, thereby ‘closing’ the carbon dioxide loop from fuel use to fuel production. This is an exciting development. Biodiesel is readily available in my locale because the nearest city requires all its mass transit and truck fleets to run on biodiesel, thus it’s available from several area stations. The problem is that it’s still more expensive than regular diesel, and goes up at the same rate as petro-diesel. That is mostly due to greed, of course, since I’m not dumb enough to believe any producers or dealers are actually pouring the excess profits into greater R&D or production. But one day soon regulators will step in, producers will recognize the gold mine doesn’t need seeding, and distributors will remember that they’ve plenty of underground tanks at truck stops that could fuel the shipping fleets. And the price will go down.

If biodiesel development can be made to go with switchgrass, algae and agricultural green-waste instead of actual food humans need to survive, basic staple food prices should go down too. Even if the financial sector goes into deep depression, you can’t have bread lines when there’s no bread. And nobody can make a market killing if nobody’s got any money to spend. So in addition to growing your Victory Garden this year to supplement your own family’s food supply, we should all be cheering these alternative biodiesel sources and technologies, helping to support production and getting in line for demand. Governments aren’t going to fix our problems. We’ll have to do it!

The Beauty and Style site List Maven has posted a linky article entitled…

35 Accessories Made From Recycled Materials

It’s truly imaginative. I particularly like the crocheted plastic grocery bag necklace, though I use my plastic grocery bags as trash basket liners if I forget to take my many forever re-usable canvas bags to the store with me. And I’ll definitely have to make my grandson those computer key cuff links for the prom, since he’s determined to win the Duck brand Scholarship for best Duct Tape tuxedo…

Age Counseling Youth

Once Upon a Christmas… my Mother-in-Law gifted my children with some thickly quilted fuzzy slippers to put on in the morning when the wood stove in our little cabin had gone out and the water in the dog dish was more often than not frozen solid. Unfortunately both of the pairs of slippers she’d bought consisted of two right feet. So off she went right after Christmas to the store where she’d bought them, and let the kids pick out new pairs that they could wear on both their feet.

The saleslady remembered when Mom had bought them, and the story she told about the kids living in the cold mountains without automatic heat. She asked the kids how they could stand living in a house with no heat. The kids looked at her quizzically, my daughter answered that of course we had heat, we just didn’t have electricity. That really threw the young woman for a loop, so she just had to ask…

If you’ve no electricity, how can you have heat? Daughter smiled. “Fire,” she answered calmly. “Fire is hot.”

We lived in that little cabin for less than two years, but it was certainly an adventure in learning the difference between desire and necessity. Much older now, I do admit to liking electricity and indoor plumbing even though I know I can live without. Through the years I have encountered people out in the broader world who, when hearing that we don’t have television, are quite simply at a loss to understand what in the world we find to DO with ourselves. As if parking your butt on a couch to volunteer for hypnosis designed to make you buy things you don’t need for more money than you’ve got qualifies as some sort of art, education or sport. Very strange.

I guess I’ve always had a fairly quirky personality. What other people do with their time and money has never much affected what I do with my time and money. Keeping up with the Joneses always seemed like a total waste of life to me, but then again, I don’t know anyone named Jones. I’d much rather keep up with me, my own friends and my own family.

It was probably inevitable that I missed the point in history when being sensibly frugal and confidently self sufficient became hopelessly un-hip, and conspicuous consumption – fueled by ever increasing debt and complete cluelessness about how to live any other way – became the standard way of life. Judging from the number of shoppers at the mall any given Saturday, it seems like nobody believes the old adage “The Best Things in Life Are Free” anymore.

I’d begun to wonder if there are any people under the age of 50 in this country who really grasp the connection between their wasteful, materialistic lifestyles and things like global warming, air, water and soil pollution, disappearing natural resources and the crushing poverty that afflicts the vast majority of human beings on this planet. I’ve wondered how so many people got fooled into believing that “stuff” and “happiness” are synonymous.

So it was with great relief and a renewed sense of hope that I found some very good articles by young(er than me) bloggers out there in interland who not only understand the connections, but write about living frugally as if it were something to be proud of! As we collectively move into the deep recession that cannot be averted by going deeper into debt, I hope to see more young people coming out the other side of it with a better understanding of life and meaning, as well as a new respect for the very real connections between how we choose to live and the wellbeing of the entire planet. Being ‘Green’ is more than driving a Prius, buying $20 bags of forest-grown coffee beans for the expresso machine, and doing lunch at the organic bistro instead of the steak house buffet.

Check out some of these cool blog articles and let yourself begin to hope! Why, it might one day turn out that Americans remember what they forgot to learn… the best things in life really might be free!

Links:

Does My Frugal Life Make Me Miserable?

Don’t Buy It!

Stop Buying Crap

Staying Frugal in the Age of the iPhone

How to Buy Nothing

Way, way back in 2004 Grist Magazine published an article entitled Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now about a cool new environmentally friendly idea called “Freecycling.” Begun in 2003 by Deron Beal, a recycling program worker in Tucson, Arizona, freecycling is a network of people with ‘stuff’ they don’t want to throw away to take up landfill space, but don’t want to keep either. It’s a way of getting rid of stuff by giving it to someone who wants it, and you’d be surprised at some of the great stuff there is to be had for free!

Beal’s listserve is The Freecycle Network and it’s really taken off in the last few years. The network’s main page is minimal, offering a simple search field into which you type your locality, and which returns the address of the freecycle group closest to you. Currently the network boasts 4,226 groups with 4,338,000 members all over the world. It’s a totally grassroots non-profit movement of people exchanging stuff for free with their neighbors. Groups have been springing up on their own too, and stuff moves quickly.

Sometimes it’s a gallon or two of paint leftover from someone who didn’t use all 5 gallons when painting the living room. Sometimes it’s furniture that’s either redundant or in need of a little repair. It could be a refrigerator, an ugly but serviceable car, gravel or fill dirt, computers, radios, CD players or old VCRs, bags of cement, unused exercise equipment, even yard sheds and occasional horses. Freecycling is a fun way to exchange pretty much anything that’s not quite junk but you don’t want any more. And while you’re on the list to put up your notice, you might well find something someone else is giving away that is just the thing you desire! There are even some teachers who use the network to collect stuff for projects or used books, even extra classroom supplies.

You can get rid of the last 20 years’ worth of National Geographics taking up space in the basement, but not the last 20 years’ worth of girlie magazines. There are some rules, freecycling networks are user friendly and safe for kids.

My local freecycle group – which I just joined – lists the basic rules clearly…

1. All posts to Freecycle must be for FREE TANGIBLE ITEMS ONLY. No info posts allowed. No offers to BUY or SELL items.

2. Keep it Free, Legal and Appropriate for all ages. If it requires a Prescription or a License then it is not allowed on Freecycle. No alcohol, firearms, pornography, etc.

3. All posts need to be headed properly in the subject line along with the item! There are 4 headings that should be used: Offer, Wanted, Taken or Received. Please do not use Pending or Needed.

4. Do not include any personal info such as: PHONE NUMBERS, ADDRESSES, FINANCIAL INFO, LIVING SITUATION, etc. in your posts. This is for safety reasons.

5. If you post a wanted you must wait 30 days before posting the same wanted again.

6. No politics, spam, money, proselytizing, personal attacks or business advertising. This includes signature lines.

7. Members cannot have Freecycle as any part of their ID or address.

8. No yard sale postings, ever. No “come and get it” type postings either.

Seems pretty simple, eh? Now that I’m official, what’s on my local list? Lots of wanteds, nothing much I can help with. So I look at the offers…

There’s an old teacher’s desk with 3 working drawers on the front, splitting veneer. A Wardrobe in “great” condition with dresser drawers. I could sure use one of those, but alas just several posts down… it’s taken. There’s a coffee table I don’t need and a puppy I sure don’t want. Two remote controls, a vacuum cleaner needing some repairs, some king size bedding and a mattress, 2 refrigerators and a stove. A rural mailbox with post, a baby gate, dog crate, 3 small chests of drawers, a kitchen table with 4 chairs, 2-drawer file cabinet, three mattress and box spring sets, some maternity and baby clothes, curtains, book bags, back packs, used books, several lunchboxes and a motorcycle. A working window air conditioner, some computer equipment, 2 ceiling fan/light units, a pair of vintage radios, bedframes and headboards, crutches and velcro braces, 6 doors plus some windows, a working dishwasher and several boxes of miscellaneous toys. Not to mention the sleeper sofa and the Jacuzzi (no pump or heater). And that was just the first 3 pages, from January 1 not quite through January 2!

I do believe I’ve found Thrifter’s Paradise!

Just last week The New York Times published about freecycling in an article entitled Unconsumption. As Steve Portigal, who founded a San Francisco freecycle group, said, “Getting something you need and getting rid of something you don’t need are both satisfying as problems solved.” Not to mention that in our consumerist society most people have way more stuff than they need, and lots of them pay money every month just to keep excess stuff in storage units where nobody’s using it at all!

If Freecycling looks like a great idea to you, check out your area’s group and start playing the give/get game!

Links:

Unconsumption

Freecycling groups spurn the landfill and spawn goodwill

The Freecycle Network

Don’t Dump That!

Here are some of the best ways to conserve energy and water that are being touted at present. Some of you can put to good use right now, and some of you will want to seriously consider through the coming year as your income allows you to replace things or renovate for a more efficient lifestyle. If you can save a couple thousand dollars a year on your electric and water bills, you’ll have that much more money to spend or save! Check ‘em out…

1. Time Your Energy Usage. It may surprise some people, but the time of day that you use energy has a significant effect on the costs you pay for the privilege. What you want to avoid is using energy during “peak” hours, when drains on the grid are highest. Whenever peak usage goes beyond what can be provided by your local utility, that utility is forced to purchase excess energy from other utilities at a premium. Do a little research on your local utility’s web site by searching “usage” and “peak,” time your laundry, bathing and baking to when demand is lowest.

2. Downsize Your Appliances. Do your laundry loads not take up enough room to justify the water anymore? Get a smaller, more energy-efficient washer! Consider hanging laundry outside to dry if you can, or use in-utility room drying racks for dress clothes, delicates and sweaters. Dryers are notorious energy-hogs.

3. Save Water! Municipal water supplies are under increasing pressure as droughts become longer and more serious, to the point where wasteful water usage is becoming an environmental ‘sin’. Ways to conserve are many. Take shorter showers, turn the water off while soaping. Get rain barrels and put your gutter rainspouts into them. You can drain from the top to make sure they don’t overflow, install a spigot at the bottom to which you can attach a hose. Use this water for your garden, lawn or car washing. Install low-flow toilets, and pressure-increasing shower heads. Wash and rinse clothes in cold water, as full as your machine allows. Naturalize your lawn space with low-water plants native to your area or rock gardens – saves on mowing too!

4. Turn Your Electronic Gizmos OFF at Night. That’s computers, VCRs, DVD players, stereo/radios, any gizmo that has a red light showing it’s really ‘on’ when you aren’t using it. Even in ‘sleep’ mode they consume electricity, and there’s no good reason for it. Turn off bathroom space heaters when you’re not bathing – you can use the toilet when it’s a bit chilly, it won’t hurt you!

5. Keep Your Thermostat Settings Reasonable. No more than 68º in the winter, no less than 75º in the summer. Humans can handle both temperatures just fine. Wear a sweater when it’s cold and very little when it’s hot. Keep the air moving with fans and your house will seem cooler/warmer at these temperatures by eliminating cold and hot spots.

6. Consider Alternative Heating and Cooling Technologies. If you live in an area with less than 75% relative humidity, an Evaporative Cooler (water cooler) can keep your home comfortable while saving you lots of money on air conditioning. If you have to air condition in order to sleep at night, consider a window unit in the bedroom. If your house traps heat in the upper story, install window or attic vent fans to blow the hot air out while pulling cool air in from the slab or basement. Moving air (ceiling fans, vent fans, floor fans) will make your house more comfortable in all seasons.

7. Replace Light Bulbs With Compact Fluorescent or LED Bulbs. The cost is reasonable because these bulbs last a year or more and use much less electricity than standard incandescent bulbs. New LED technology is on the way too, which will likely end up conserving a vast amount of energy every year.

8. Make Good Use of Drapes and Blinds. These can prevent heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Plan your lighting to make up the difference, or think about installing skylights in rooms where a lot of light is desirable. Heat rises, so a good insulated skylight won’t let too much heat in and won’t allow too much heat to escape in winter.

9. Insulation and Weatherstripping! Adding extra insulation to the attic and making sure your doors and windows are well-sealed helps a lot to save heat and cooling costs. This is old advice, still as good as it was 20 years ago. Be sure to have your home tested for radon first, particularly if it’s a masonry home on a slab.

10. Ignore That Fireplace! A cozy fire can make you feel warmer psychologically, but most fireplaces waste way more heat than they provide. An open flue sucks heat right out of your home, and leaves cold spots you’ll be tempted to compensate for by turning the thermostat up. Resist! If that fireplace takes up a whole wall (as mine does) consider decorating with a mirror where the opening used to be, a nice collection of scented candles in front that you can light for effect.

11. Replace Old Appliances With Energy Efficient Models. High energy efficient models are now becoming more readily available on the second-hand market, as they have been increasingly marketed to new buyers for some years. If you can buy new, get the one with the highest rating possible, and don’t buy more than you need – do you really need that double-door monstrosity of a fridge, or can you make do with a smaller one and get an efficient chest freezer. Learn to use ice trays or a standard ice maker, they work just fine.

12. Replace Your Old Cookware. For range top use, pots and pans that readily conduct heat will save minutes every time you turn on the burner. There are some really good, naturally non-stick sets available now that will serve well for many years. Also keep your range top drip pans clean. Use the reflective (not-enameled) variety, they will reflect more heat to the pan. Use the right size pan for the burner. If your oven is self-cleaning, don’t clean it very often.

13. Turn the Hot Water Temperature Down! The temperature of your hot water straight out of the tank should not scald you (or anyone else). 120º is as hot as it needs to be for any task. If you have to compensate too-hot water with cold water, your thermostat’s set too high.

14. Get a Tankless “Instant” Water Heater. Heating water as you use it is more energy efficient than keeping a 30 or 50 gallon tank full of water hot. There are some good models available, and even some microwave in-line heaters in development. Big energy savings!

15. Use Small Appliances When You Can. Making a big pot of soup or beans-from-dry in a crock pot instead of on the electric stovetop saves electricity. Baking a few muffins, a loaf of bread or some biscuits in a toaster oven instead of in your oven big enough for two turkeys saves a lot too. If you’ve an energy efficient microwave, use it for heating single or double servings of leftovers instead of your regular oven or stovetop. A microwave uses 75% less energy than a range oven.

Useful Links:

Brighter LED Lights Could Replace Household Light Bulbs Within Three Years

Aquabarrel Rain Collection Systems

Suburban Links: The Water Page

Rainwater Harvesting Guide

In-Line Water Heaters on ThomasNet

Tankless and Instant Water Heaters

Energy Saving Appliances (Heating and Cooling)

Consumer Energy Center: Small Appliances Save Energy

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been much of a good consumer as that designation has come to signify in and out of recessions in this capitalist-based economy. I don’t “shop ’til I drop,” I don’t buy much of anything new, and whenever friends or sisters try to talk me into tagging along for a bout of binge buying at the mall I come up with every excuse in the book to beg out of it.

And now that I live on a mountain rather far from town (and any sort of mall), I’ve managed to keep from making friends who believe that frivolous spending of vast amounts of money is a competitive sport. I like that about the people here in the southern Appalachians – they’re not nearly so concerned conspicuous consumption as they are concerned about the quality of their natural habitats. Perhaps that’s true of rural areas all over the country, where people are simply not accustomed to spending money as an ingrained habit or mere way to pass the time of one’s life. When we lived in a city of a million-plus people in Florida, there seemed to be at least one strip mall for every household, and they were all making a living!

My little sisters were both given credit cards when my parents divorced, and never seemed to figure out that the money wasn’t free. When cleaning out one sister’s after she died last spring, I couldn’t count the number of shopping bags and boxes full of ‘stuff’ (basic junk) she’d bought at some point over the last decade and never even bothered to unpack once she got home. I’m convinced it’s a sickness, a symptom of how empty lives can be in our overcrowded, materialistically-minded cities. I couldn’t back out of going appliance shopping with my big sister a couple of years ago after her new lake house retirement home was built. I managed not to drop a dime, while she ended up spending nearly $16,000 in just 3 hours’ time – it was the most money I’d ever seen anybody spend in one outing that wasn’t a formal mortgage-signing! I could have lived pretty well for a year on that much.

Thus the first line of defense against peer pressure to go shopping for junk and stuff you don’t really want or need is to not live in an environment that supports the idea that this is a good thing. The second line of defense is to avoid hanging out with people who are shopaholics. And the third line of defense when you can’t avoid the pressure (because you’re related to the shopaholic) is to develop a convenient headache or offer to watch the kids while she does the shopping for herself.

I know the friend ‘filter’ sounds sort of callous, but once you’re into thrifting you’ll find other friends who are as into it as you are. Those shopping trips can be much more fun and exciting than any day at the mall, and more rewarding too. Thrifters tend to be crafty and creative, or they wouldn’t have developed an eye for bargains they can turn into income or wonderful gifts. Generally cooler people, for my own experience.

Lana Goodrich over at Wise Bread blog has a post outlining 5 Ways To Dodge Peer Pressure To Spend. It’s definitely worth a read, but I’ll go ahead and disagree here with her tip #3, which is Blame it on your values. I disagree because I don’t find it difficult in the least to just say “I can’t go because I don’t have the money.” She suggests a fib I don’t believe is necessary in most instances – though it might work well with in-laws or other family members whom you don’t wish to share your financial status with.

It’s not all that difficult to avoid spending money frivolously, especially if you’ve made a commitment in your own mind to living a certain way for all the right reasons. Recycling of anything – be it leftovers, cars, houses or knick-knacks – is an environmentally responsible commitment. Making money doing something you really like, for yourself, is very satisfying. Not spending money on things you don’t need is a moral commitment to avoid the notorious pitfalls of materialism and the dangers of a wasteful life. Thrifting for food – by gardening, joining a home gardening cooperative or buying crop shares in a farm, buying commodities in bulk at the regional farmer’s market, maybe even working trades with farmers in your area is a commitment to a healthier diet, non-support of factory farming cruelty, and a way of living much closer to nature and appreciating what it really takes to sustain a human being in this world.

I believe these are all good moral commitments to make, and more Americans should try it. It’s not as hard as quitting smoking, after all! Living in awareness of our footprints on the earth is good for us. If enough people were to choose to live that way the world situation wouldn’t be as desperate as it usually is. Our lives will be better for it, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. There’s more to life than shopping!

In the 21st century almost all of us are acutely aware of the challenges of global warming, unsustainable consumption habits, the real human costs of petroleum dependency and the ever-rising cost of all forms of energy. When it’s difficult for regular middle class city and suburban dwellers to maintain their few hours of home down-time due to rising costs, the burden on rural dwellers can easily be impossible to bear.

Anyone committed to sustainable and self-sufficient living should have already begun planning their energy strategies. There are many things to consider before investing in energy sources. One of the first things a homeowner needs to become aware of are the various federal and state incentive programs available to them if they choose to meet some or all of their own energy needs with ‘green’ sources. These incentives have been fluctuating at the same time the per-watt price of the technology has been steadily falling. In some places the cost trade-off – where the cost to install is paid for by the incentives and further energy is basically free-for-upkeep – is down to 3-5 years. Which is a point when someone planning to live the whole rest of their lives on their homestead has no really good excuse not to invest! The Database of State Incentives offers a clickable map with details for all 50 states and is updated as incentives are tweaked or changed.

Once you have a good idea of how much you can offset your costs with incentives and tax rebates, you’ll need to have a good idea of exactly how much electricity you use. Gather at least 6 months’ worth of electric bills – including the hottest and coldest months – and write down your actual kilowatt usage. If your bill includes a breakdown of peak usage include that in another column. Some utility companies don’t include that information on monthly bills, but will supply it if you ask them nicely. It is important for you to know your peak usage so you will be able to supply enough energy to cover that.

If your overall kilowatt usage over the months falls within a fairly small range of variation but your peak usage looks really high, you’ll need to figure out what is using the most energy of all your activities and appliances. There are significant ways to lower a homestead’s energy demands, both overall and peak, but that requires knowing what you use and a willingness to pare your usage wherever you can.

Decisions about heating system and appliances you’ll need to replace in order to consume less electricity will also have to consider whether your future plans include energy on-site in banks of batteries, or whether you’d choose to use the commercial grid to its own advantage as a supplier. Battery technology is getting better all the time, but no cheaper.

My plan is is to use the grid, as our electric company is required by regulatory law to provide us with a “backwards meter” if we ever install our own electrical generating capacity. The deal is that we purchase our energy from the utility the same way we always have for running our appliances, power tools, lights and such. At the same time, the electric company must purchase all the energy our system produces. If we’re producing more than we’re using, it goes back out on the grid for other people to use. That pays down the difference, and conceivably could bring our monthly bill down to less than $50, or have the power company paying us!

We have been slowly but surely replacing appliances over the years with more energy efficient models, and are keeping ultra low-use and pedal powered models in mind as they develop for our next computers, radio/stereo, TV/video replacements. And of course we’re buying nothing but low-watt flourescent bulbs for lighting, even while keeping a stash of mantle-type oil lamps on hand.

So start your homework by organizing your needs and understanding your usage, check out some of the links below to help. Stay tuned for the next installment!

Links:

The Economics of Going Off-Grid

Grid-Connected Solar or Wind Systems

Solar Power at Half the Cost

MSNBC: ‘off-grid’ community

Wholesale Solar

October 15 has been designated “Blog Action Day”, when bloggers are encouraged to write about our environment and things regular people can do to reduce their environmental footprint on the planet and help steward the environment we all depend upon to sustain our lives.

This is pretty easy to do if you’re living on a shoestring budget, as our previous excursions into bargain-hunting, recycling, thrifting and doing for yourself have demonstrated amply. Yet at a time when the Nobel Peace Prize can go to Al Gore for his crusade to educate the nations of the world about the threat of global warming and how our poor choices of lifestyle are contributing to it, this is a great time to do some thinking about how we live. Maybe earn a new appreciation not just for our cleverness in being able to get by on less, but for our wisdom in doing so. Even if we didn’t have to.

We have only one world. It has to nurture us and sustain us for as long as we live, and still have enough left to offer the same benefits to our children and grandchildren, on down the line. Politicians come and go, generations come and go, even nations come and go. Our world doesn’t have that kind of flexibility. It has what it has. Only so much water, only so much air, only so many resources. Once we’ve used it all up, this old world won’t be making more.

So the conscious choices we make about how we will live will affect generations of our descendents down the line. Living on the thrifty ‘fringe’ of this greedy, thoughtless, conspicuously consumptive American society can make us more aware of our responsibility to tread lightly on this earth. It can give us a source of real knowledge about how much our habits matter to the future. It can – and likely will before current economic tough times are over – turn more than a few of us into “rabid environmentalists” who will not only choose to keep on living consciously when easy money comes around again, but who will become effective evangelists for convincing others to live consciously.

It might just be that we’ll find ourselves enjoying a greater affinity with the 6+ billion other humans on this planet who aren’t conspicuous consumers, and motivate us to get involved in helping to make their lives better. It might be that we’ll find ourselves getting healthier and happier for the physical efforts we put into doing for ourselves, in the learning that the best things in life really ARE free.

Our children may happily learn that lesson too, finding that a week’s camping, fishing and hiking in the mountains is a greater adventure than a day at Disney World. Why, before we know it, those kids just might be collecting food and clothing for area charities, volunteering their time to tutor younger children, perhaps even volunteering compassionate caregiving to the old and sick in our communities who are too often shut away from the world like an embarrassment.

So on this Blog Action Day, I hope my readers will take just a moment from the worry and cares of daily life and the stress of having to make do with less, just to appreciate that by making do with less they are contributing much to a more sustainable world. Check out some of the great blogs linked below for good ideas on how to do even more. Congratulate yourselves! You’ve earned it…

Links:

Raising a Healthy Family: Going Green with the Kids

5 R’s For A Greener World

Are You Green?

How Can We Help Save The Earth?

Not Just Sun and Wind: Power from the seas