Posted on

Zero Waste and the Johnsons

I came across this video at JetsonGreen and just had to share it.

I first heard of the Johnsons via a friend sharing the link to her zero waste home blog and was intrigued by Bea’s take on the three Rs. Before you ever get to reduce, reuse or recycle, you should refuse, refuse, refuse. This is a concept I can completely support. I’ve often shared how we are such a consumer-driven society that we buy, buy, buy and really need to be stepping back and evaluating our lifestyles. That’s part of what I’ve tried to share here at thesimpleHOUSE.

I’m encouraged and humbled by the Bea and Scott. This gives me even more to strive for.

Posted on

Project Homeless Connect and Perspective

Saint Patrick’s Day, 2011. The day of the fifth annual Project Homeless Connect (PHC) in Lane County, Oregon. Simply “ordinary people finding extraordinary solutions to end homelessness.”

If you’re wondering here what aspect of living a simple, sustainable lifestyle this addresses, it falls squarely into the triple bottom line leg of social equity. This was the third year my wife and I helped. She helped with greeting and I was a restroom monitor (more on that later).

So what, exactly, is PHC?

“In any given night in Lane County, over 3,467 people are homeless or living in temporary shelters. 11,513 individuals in 9,134 households were homeless and received services from our local continuum of care last year. Hundreds more families are “hidden away” moving between family and friends, living in cars or facing imminent threat of eviction. It is difficult for people to feel safe, access health care or mental health treatment, find and maintain a job, resolve legal problems or keep their children in school while trying to manage their housing crisis or keep their families sheltered. People who are homeless struggle daily with the repercussions of unmet basic human needs for safety, stability and shelter.

Project Homeless Connect is a nationwide movement to increase access to services for homeless people and to engage local communities in finding a solution for homelessness. By convening a one-day, “one-stop shop” event, Project Homeless Connect offers assistance with housing, health care, legal issues, benefits enrollment, treatment and other basic needs to people who are homeless.”

This year, over 850 volunteers from our community served right at 1,600 guests. Homeless, near homeless people at risk. I love the restroom monitor slot. The first year I signed us up, we procrastinated and the only available slots were restroom monitors. My wife’s first reaction was something like, “you signed us up for what?” But we served and in doing that, we discovered that the people coming to the event were so respectful of the facility and the volunteers, that restroom monitor really meant hang out in the lobby and chat with people (and occasionally check on the restrooms).

And that’s where our perspective shifted. We met some fascinating people. Today, I met a man in a wheelchair with a service dog named Mr. Ed. I remember the Mr. Ed TV show. And so did he. Perspective.

Then there was Robert, who just needed help carrying his large trash bag of stuff and backpack to the bag check area. Robert walked slowly and haltingly with a cane. The bag check was at the other end of the lobby. I apologized for having to make him walk all the way across the lobby. His response? “It’s good exercise.” Perspective.

Or Matthew, who needed help for his diabetes because he needed insulin and his feet were going numb. Or James who simply wanted a sleeping bag.

It’s opportunities like this that encourage me to live with less stuff. I mean, how many shirts do I need? Simple, sustainable lifestyle. I met Doug, who helps with the Egan Warming Centers in our town. And I was reminded of Mary S. who I wrote about a while back. And I thought I need to volunteer there, too. Perspective.

Then I went through a fast food drive thru for my lunch, they messed up my order and I had to wait while they redid it, apologizing all over themselves. And I was able to say, “No problem. Really.” Perspective. After all, I had money to buy a burger and fries and a car to go through the drive thru and I could eat and not be hungry.

I can’t wait for Project Homeless Connect 2012.

Posted on

Junk Mail

So last time I talked about phone books. Today I’d like to talk about junk mail. No one gets junk mail do we? Oh, really? You do?

Our recycle bin at home is dominated by the junk mail that comes to us in the snail mail. I think that’s the dominant form of paper we recycle. Some, we don’t even open or look at. It simply goes from mail box to recycle bin to making more junk mail.

It’s even worse at my office; and with the economy the way it is, it seems to have ramped up. We get some of the trade magazines for free. And we get eight copies– one for each staff. Sometimes two or three per staff if they have multiple spellings of our names. One trade company I know was sending us 10 copies. I contacted them, said we really only need one (it’s still a good publication), they said they would get it down to one. We’re still getting 10 and it’s been over a year. Maybe I should publish their name here…

There is a company I discovered a few years ago and I will publish their name here. I discovered them when I was getting 3 copies a month of an Eddie Bauer mailing advertisement (when there isn’t an Eddie Bauer store within 100 miles of my home). It’s called Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org/). It’s free and it works. Think of the number of trees and water used simply to make and print the paper junk mail is sent to us on.

Like I mentioned with the phone books last time, it’s a way to opt-out of catalogues you don’t want to get. Or multiple catalogues to one address. It’s easy to use. And, since I originally joined, they have added an opt-in for electronic catalogs called iCatalog. The way it works is retailers really do want to target their mail ads. We really only want to get what we want to get. Catalog Choice puts that together in a database and viola! less junk mail. Retailers are happy, I’m happy, it’s a win win.

And, with diligence, it has made a difference. Our home junk mail has been probably cut 60 to 70%. Not all retailers participate, but many do. And there are more and more each month. Check it out; it’s a way to more the “halve” your junk mail.

Posted on

Saving Water

Water. Something we in the US take largely for granted. We go to the faucet, turn it on and don’t really think twice about it. For us it’s abundant, cheap and clean. And for those of us in the Pacific Northwest, it’s cool, refreshing and drinkable — right out of the tap.
But a lot of the world doesn’t have access to good, clean water. So why should I care? I should care because there is only so much water in the world. And being less wasteful is always a good thing. Americans use, on average almost 70 gallons of water per day per person. That’s a huge amount of water. And if we simply installed more water efficient fixtures and regularly checked for leaks, we could reduce that by about 35% to about 45 gallons per day. Not quite “half”, but darn close.
Most of the savings would come in more efficient toilets. I had a friend suggest taking the water bottles we throw away, filling them with water and putting them in our toilet tanks to reduce each flush. I remember a long time ago, they suggested doing a similar thing with bricks to displace the water, but it got brick gunk in the toilet and didn’t work too well.
So I wonder how this would work? We don’t use plastic water bottles, and I don’t want to buy them just to try this (I have one of those fundamental issues with water bottles), so here’s the challenge: give it a try and let me know how it works.
Some other ways to save water are to run the faucet when brushing your teeth only to get the toothbrush wet, then shut it off and only turn it back on when you go to rinse. Small step, but ask “would this be good if EVERYONE did it? I think so.
Shorter showers, only running full loads of dishes and clothes also would help. And, water efficient landscaping (another topic on another day), would be huge. Lawns are the number one irrigated crop in the world.
Posted on

Phantom Electricity

This handy little device is called “Kill A Watt”. I have one. It’s been very educational. You can buy them at most any hardware store and our local library will even check one out to you for free.
What is does is measure the amount of electricity flowing to any device: computer, TV, DVD player, stereo. You may or may not know this, but many devices draw electricity even when they are off. If you have a tv with a remote, it’s sucking electricity 24/7. All so you can have that “instant on” feature we absolutely can’t live without (forgive the sarcasm). This post meshes well with our thirty second rule I talked about earlier, only it could be almost a 24/7 rule.
It’s estimated that about 10% of our electricity use in our homes goes to phantom power. and that might not seem like much, but would you enjoy getting a check in the mail for 10% of your electricity use each month? I would.
Newer TVs and devices can get an Energy Star rating, and that’s better, but plug strips are becoming very popular. We have a TV/DVD/Apple TV in our bedroom. The TV and DVD are Energy Star and draw barely 1 to 3 watts while off (that’s not bad, but two devices x 3 watts x 24 hours x 365 days adds up). Plus, as big a fan as I am of Apple, our Apple TV (an older model, I’m an early adopter), was drawing 29 watts just sitting there!
So I got a plug strip. After, all, it’s not often we watch TV in bed, so even the 3 watts was more than we wanted to consume. Now, when we want to watch TV, I click on the plug strip. The down side is instead of instant on, I have to wait about 15 – 20 seconds. What’s unbelievable about this is that in our culture we would actually notice that. We should all just step back, take a deep breath and relax. We’d all be healthier for it.

I recommend you get or borrow a Kill A Watt and check out the phantom power in your home. It may be educational for you, too.
Posted on

White

If you’re following a recent wave on Facebook, you’ll have noticed women posting their bra color to raise awareness about breast cancer. Well, I had already planned this post, so thought it timely to go for it. I was originally going to call it “Halves and Doubles: Underwear”, but decided to change simply to “White”.
But what does this have to do with our desire to “halve it all”? Thanks for asking. Today’s post is actually about doubling. I have about 20 pair of briefs. There, I said it. TMI. But why does this even matter? Thanks for asking that, too.
If we adjust the amount of clothing we own so that we are able to run full loads of wash, not partial loads (and not even “almost full” loads), we will save water. So actually doubling the amount of underwear we own may ultimately save in the long run. So you see, it’s not just about doing with less, it’s about being smart about what we do.
I buy underwear that is well-made, all the same color (so they don’t need to be washed separately) and they last. Durability is a factor to consider, too, since that saves material, manufacturing, money, etc.
This can apply to clothing other than underwear, too, but a picture of a shirt here wouldn’t have been as eye-catching to you. And, just so you know, it was quite an experience Googling underwear images. THAT was truly TMI. It took me a very long time to find an image I felt was appropriate. Finally found this one on about page 24 of the search list.
Posted on

Grouping Your Trips

Depending on how you drive or get around, you might be able to “halve” your gasoline consumption. I used to think that riding my bike or the bus to work would save a majority of my gasoline consumption. But I recently learned that the majority of our VMTs (vehicle miles traveled) are NOT going to and from work. They are in the day-to-day trips to the grocery store, school, restaurants and the like.

Trips to and from work only account for about 30% to 40% of our VMTs. Now I’m not saying that riding my bike to work doesn’t have an impact or isn’t substantial, after all, 30% to 40% is still a pretty big chunk of consumption. What I’m saying is trips to and from work are kind of a given. Five days a week, same times of day and mostly incoming and outgoing with little variety or opportunity is more difficult to reduce than the trip to the grocery store, back home and, oops, I need to go here, then there.

Plan out your trips. If you need to go by the bank, try and group it with another trip in that general direction. If we only grouped two trips instead of just one, we would be well on our way to “halving” it all.

Posted on

Vinegar and Baking Soda

Household chemicals. Probably some of the most dangerous things we have around. Have you ever really looked at the labels on some of that stuff? My wife and I have a rule (seems like we have lots of rules, huh?) that relates to food and is making its way into many aspects of our lives. And that rule is we look at the ingredients in our food or in our cleaning supplies or household items such as toothpaste and if we can’t spell it or pronounce it, we try to avoid it.
This especially can apply to cleaning supplies. From window and countertop cleaners to scrubbing cleansers, we typically use products containing things such as ethylene glycol mono butyl ether (I think that’s just one ingredient with five words) and, here’s a good one: n-Alkyl dimethyl Benzyl ammonium chlorides. And, to top it all off, there are warning labels to seek medical attention if you get this in your eyes or on your skin.
And we’re cleaning our kitchen countertops with this stuff? The same countertop we prepare our food on? Does any of this seem even a little bit weird to you?
For several years, we have been using what I call “natural” cleaning supplies. And, no, we don’t buy the latest “green” cleaning product (although some are very good). For 99% of our cleaning, we have been using white vinegar in a 50-50 mix with water and baking soda.
We have cotton cleaning towels and we have an old spray bottle we’ve reused and filled with our vinegar solution. This works on bathroom and kitchen sinks, countertops, mirrors, pretty much everything. For scrubbing and more difficult areas (like our stainless steel sinks), we use baking soda and a little water, make a paste, get an old toothbrush and we’re set.
There have been few areas of our house that we haven’t been able to clean with these products. And the big advantages are they are cheap (A gallon of white vinegar costs just under $3 around here and a large box of baking soda is about the same), and we don’t worry using them around the kitchen counters and our food. In fact, there are some pretty good recipes using vinegar and others using baking soda. Hmmm…

But probably one of the best compliments we’ve had, though, is when my mom called me the other day and asked what we used to clean our house, because “it always looks so nice”. Oh yeah.
Posted on

CFLs and LEDs

In addition to the thirty second rule, we went through our house and replaced quite a few of our light bulbs with CFLs (compact fluorescents) ad some LED (light emitting diodes). We started with the exterior porch lights. This was because we leave our porch lights on all night for security. And, since we live in a house that sits on a corner, with three bollard lights, two porch lights and four “over the door” lights, we had some serious wattage going on.
Originally, we had 60 watt bulbs in our three bollards, 100 watt bulbs in our two porch lights and 50 watt bulbs in our over the door lights. That was a total of 580 watts going all night!
Well, we changed out the 60s and 100s for 11 watt CFLs and the 50s for 3.7 watt LEDS. That dropped our wattage from 580 to just under 70 watts. Not only do they last longer, but they put out almost as much light (except for the LEDs — they’re quite a bit dimmer and they’re expen$ive!).
But they all work fine for security. And, based on this success, I’m going through the rest of the house and replacing bulbs where I can (we have a lot of recessed can incandescents on dimmers, so it’s slow going). I’ve started with closets and am working my way through the house.
Consider CFLs or LEDs where you can.
  
Posted on

The Thirty Second Rule

I want to dedicate this blog entry to my friend Levi. In a conversation he and I had a while back, he told me they have, what he calls, a “thirty second rule.” What that means is, if they are going to leave the room for more than thirty seconds, they turn off the lights. Simple, huh?
Yet this is such an easy habit to get into and it can make a difference. While I can’t say it will cut your electric bills in half (this is “halve it all”, after all), it can make a serious dent in your energy use.
My wife and I started being more diligent in turning off lights around our house. Since we currently have gas heat, most of our electric bills are lights and appliances. In just being careful: turning off lights when we’re not in the room, not turning on lights if we don’t need them (our house has wonderful natural light in most every room), and those sorts of things, we have been able to reduce our annual electric bills every year for the last three years. That’s pretty good.
There are a few additional things we’ve done to help with this, and I’ll talk about those in future blogs. But today, in addition to employing the thirty second rule, we installed timers on our bath fans.
One of the problems faced we are faced with in the Pacific Northwest is damp air. When we shower, we need to use the exhaust fan, but it usually doesn’t pull all of the moisture out of the air before we have to go to work. So what to do? We can turn off the fan and get SOME of the moisture out, we can leave the fan on all day while we’re at work and get ALL of the moisture out, as well as a significant amount of heated air.
OR, we can install timers. I remember in our first house we had the turn-the-dial timers on our bath fans. But those don’t look very good anymore and they fell into disuse (if they even make them anymore). But Leviton makes a multitude of nice timers. The one pictured here is what we installed on our bath fans. We set the timer for 60 minutes and the fan runs while we go to work, then turns off after an hour.
Leviton also makes a 24 hour programmable timer that we used for our exterior porch lights, too. But I’ll talk about our porch lights (CFL and LED as well as the 24 hour timer) next time.