AttemptGreen.com

So the weather has gotten much warmer here in Cleveland over the past week or two.  This makes me want to do some serious cleaning, mostly cleaning out.  I wanted to highlight here what I’ve been doing over this past weekend pertaining to my spring cleaning. 

1. Donated my old computer – I got a new laptop a few months ago and finally got rid of my old desktop.  I did this as part of April being Cuyahoga County’s Computer Round-up month.  I loaded my computer (and any spare parts I could find that I don’t need any more) into my trunk.  The way they had it setup was so nice.  I drove into this building, popped my trunk and two guys came right over and unloaded my trunk for me and put the parts in their organized piles.  Cuyahoga County will take a look at my equipment, refurbish what they can and donate it to local schools.
2. Recycled magazines – We don’t get many magazines, but the one we love is The Family Handyman.  These accumulate over time in the bathroom.  So I had my husband go through these and get rid of as many as he could part with.  Unfortunately magazines aren’t part of our curbside recycling.  However, there are tons of bins throughout the town to put all kinds of paper into.  So while I was running over to donate the computer, I stopped at a bin and recycled all the magazines.
3. Clothing donations – I went through my closet and dresser and purged a lot of clothes.  I had sweaters in there that I haven’t worn in years.  No sense in having it clutter my closet if I’m not going to wear it.  Between the clothes and some blankets in the guest bedroom closet, I filled 2 garbage bags full.  There are also tons of bins around the city (just like for paper and magazine recycling) where the bags will get dumped into and the clothes will go towards helping people that need them. 

Getting rid of these items has really helped get my house cleaned up.  I always feel better when I come home to a clean house.

So the other day we needed more ink for our printer.  Now I would typically forgo the printing all together but my husband works from home and needs to print and mail things for work, like expense reports and receipts. Before running out and buying a new ink cartridge, he asked me if there was something special he should be doing with the ink cartridge.  Things like if the cartridge is refillable or if he could/how to recycle the cartridge.  I was both surprised and please that he asked this.

Turns out we didn’t have a refillable cartridge, so he took the dried out cartridge to Staples for recycling and picked up a new one.  Now if you have a Staples card, I do believe you get a $3 coupon (to perhaps apply to the new cartridge).  Being good to the environment and saving money, you can’t beat that.  Next time you run out of ink, remember to take it with you to the store for recycling.

So I finally decided to do something with the two old bikes that have been sitting in my garage for the past 5 years! They needed a bit of work (that I wasn’t willing to do) but I didn’t want to just throw them out.  Now I know biking places is more green than driving my car, but I just haven’t gotten into it yet.  I would also get discouraged with the current bikes with the amount of work that needed done on them.  So getting back to the point, what do to do with the old bikes?

I found this great organization called Ohio City Bicycle Co-op (OCBC).  They are a non-profit with the purpose of increasing bicycle use.  They teach both adults and children safety and repair classes and get people excited about biking.  They encourage bicycling as a mode of transportation (very green!) and add a social aspect with having things like a social ride every Saturday.

If you are into biking and live in the Cleveland area, check them out.  If you don’t live in the Cleveland area, check around. There might be a similar group where you live, or start one!  However, if you are like me and just have old bicycles and equipment that isn’t being used (maybe that bike your kids have grown out of), go ahead and donate them. 

What are they going to do with the bikes I donated?  They are going to refurbish them (that work I didn’t want to do). Then either will be earned by volunteers or sold or traded to support their cause. I almost forgot, they even gave me a tax donation form.

The other day I had to go out and buy more dishwasher soap.  I stood there in the aisle at the grocery store reading all kinds of labels, but forgot to do the research about what I was looking for before I went.  I used to use Cascade Gel and it seemed to work, but never really branched out into other cleaners.  With reading the labels and no clue what it was that I was really reading, I bought a product from Palmolive.  Palmolive Eco+ is a Phosphate free product, which is supposed to be better for lakes and streams.  Living so close to Lake Erie, I thought this was pretty important.

I got home and started doing research.  Most websites I found say you should try to stay away from two things when it comes to dishwasher detergent, phosphates and bleach. I experienced one of those “duh” moments.  Of course, bleach is such a harsh chemical.  So I looked at my new bottle of Palmolive Eco+ and guess what.  It contains bleach, so much for the “eco” part of Palmolive.   It certainly is a step in the right direction though.

Next time I need to buy more dishwasher detergent, I’m going to read the labels for bleach as well.  Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyers brands are pretty well known, and talked about a lot, in the green community.  Maybe I’ll give one of those a try.

Union of Concerned Scientists and Nature Moms have some decent background information on the chemicals and why you should avoid them.

So I’ve been going around my house and finding things that I can either unplug or rearrange to cut back on even more “vampire” charges.  Let’s say you turn your television off, in theory it stops using energy, right? Unfortunately not.  Many televisions these days will have a little light at the On/Off switch that glows when the television is off, and that little light take energy. 

When I was in the guest bedroom the other day, I looked at the clock to see what time it was.  Then I wondered why I had a clock in there and on all the time, when majority of the time no one goes in there.  So I unplugged it.  Next time I have a guest come over, I’ll plug it back in but there is no sense in having it plugged in now.

I also rearranged how all my computer equipment is plugged in. I now have all my peripherals plugged into one power strip on the floor (conveniently located so my toe can easily switch it on and off).  If I’m at my computer and need something, like sound, I’ll turn on the power strip.  Otherwise everything is off and not even allowed power because of the power strip.

My next really cool thing I want to put in place involves getting a neat new toy.  This happens to be a new kind of power strip.  This power strip has one (or perhaps two) plugs that are always on.  The rest of the plugs detect if that main plug has a device plugged in and on.   This is being marketed mostly involving computers.  So you would plug in your computer to the always on plug and the rest of your accessories for your computer into the rest of the plugs and the power strip would turn off the rest of the power strip when your computer was turned off.  Pretty cool stuff.  I actually don’t want it for my computer though.  I want it for my television.  Plug the television into the main plug and the DVD player, WII, Playstation, and all the other stuff into the rest of the plugs.  I won’t ever need to have my DVD player on if my television isn’t on.  So why have it suck energy just to be off all the time.

I’ve found two manufacturers of this style of power strip.  One is by a company called WattStopper and the other is by Smart Strip (which you can also buy at Amazon).