Prioritizing NFL concerns ~ Help!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

How do you all do it? I’m having a very difficult time prioritizing all the NFL issues that I read about. Ideally, I would like to prioritize based on the impact on my family and the environment but there are so many more factors to consider…ease, impact, practicality, reality, cost, time…

Here are some of the things rattling around in my head:

Driving
Home energy and water consumption
Organic vs. buying locally / seasonal produce
Packaged and Imported foods ~ general food consumption
Cooking and eating surfaces
Trying to be a frugal and conscious consumer ~ consumerism in general
Supporting local businesses / online shopping
Using paper products / Disposable products
Cleaning supplies
Recycling/Reusing/Waste/Donating

So, please feel free to add to this list and share with me how you prioritize these issues.

[srain]

Due to being very low income, we can't do the most expensive things all the time. However, many things related to natural living save money, and honestly once they become habits they really don't take any more time. We buy mostly whole foods (cheaper than processed) but can't always spring for organic produce; the only disposable products we use are toilet paper and my husband's razor blades; the main thing we clean with is water, with vinegar and washing soda as rarely-used backups; we keep the house cold in the winter and shower rarely; we only have one car and try not to use it more than twice a week (not doing well with that)-

but these are the things that are really easy for US to do, but might be much harder for you depending on your circumstances. It also depends on your main goals- if improving family health is the main goal, then using paper towels is fairly irrelevant to that; while if environmental concerns are your main focus, replacing your cookie sheets with stoneware is irrelevant.

[PikkuMyy]

Originally Posted by IdentityCrisisMama

How do you all do it? I’m having a very difficult time prioritizing all the NFL issues that I read about. Ideally, I would like to prioritize based on the impact on my family and the environment but there are so many more factors to consider…ease, impact, practicality, reality, cost, time…

Here are some of the things rattling around in my head:

Driving
Home energy and water consumption
Organic vs. buying locally / seasonal produce
Packaged and Imported foods ~ general food consumption
Cooking and eating surfaces
Trying to be a frugal and conscious consumer ~ consumerism in general
Supporting local businesses / online shopping
Using paper products / Disposable products
Cleaning supplies
Recycling/Reusing/Waste/Donating

So, please feel free to add to this list and share with me how you prioritize these issues.

Well, I guess we prioritize by what we're able to do as everyday actions to help the environment and our health, with money being less of an issue although many of these things save you money.

We buy only organic stuff. That is a big priority for us and we stick to it except for going out to eat and things that are inavailable organic.

Cleaning supplies - really cheap to do naturally and really easy. I don't mix up my own batches with various essential oils, etc. like some people here. I'm too lazy for that. I buy the orange oil concentrate and dilute it in a bottle. I use white vinegar, peroxide, and bon ami from the container.

Paper products - we're NOT cloth TP people. But we buy recycled paper TP. Cloth napkins save tons of money and we use them for everything - paper towels, napkins, dish cloths, etc. I bought ours at the Global Exchange store for $3.50 each - all cotton and not made with slave labor.

Home energy and water - we have compact flourescent lights in all our lamps except the reading lamps. Uses very little energy (and although they can be expensive, they're very cheap at Ikea.) and so if you forget to turn one off (like DH always does) it's not a big deal. We don't pay for our water but since we live in CA and our concerned about the use of the Colorado river and it's dwindling supply, we do the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" and only run full washes. I have a tub for doing the dishes so I use very little water and we reuse as much as possible. Again, pretty easy and saves water and electricity. When we bought our TV we bought the kind that doesn't use electricity all the time so it takes about 5 seconds to warm up each time we turn it on. Which isn't often.

Cooking and eating surfaces - we got rid of plastic tupperware and replaced with inexpensive glass from Crate and Barrel. We did dole out a big bunch of cash for our bamboo cutting board but we had already gone through 3 so if we had bought it to begin with, we would have saved that much money. And bamboo is a very sustainable resource and lasts practically forever.

General consumerism (I think several of your categories fit into this) - We buy locally when possible but don't knock ourselves out for it. It's not practical some of the time. We try to buy from smaller companies. We only buy used clothing or stuff off eBay so we're not contributing to that whole cycle. Our main posessions are good hardcover books and CDs.

It seems to me like most of these things are really easy to do and don't need to be itemized or prioritized. But perhaps that's because I'm in the habit of doing them all.

[GoodWillHunter]

I have to say that we are making major stirdes in this area. I use only baking soda and vinegar to clean, I make my own laundry soap (with a little help from bean tree soap), eat organic (as much as possible), eat whole foods, drive as little as possible (although, for DH this is difficult as his job requires him to drive ) shop at resale shops, very rarely buy new clothing (although, shoes, socks and underwear are always new). I would like to switch to glass storage containers. That's a work in progress. I'm also trying to buy things that are packaged in recyclable containers. Our city only recycles 1 and 2 plastic, so I try to buy things only in that if I have to buy something in plastic, KWIM?

We are a work in progress...

[Delight]

I'm so glad you posted this because I have been struggling with this too! I have a little problem with getting really passionate about certain natural home/family issues, and then not following through completely. I want to prioritize, as you say, and really take the time to do it right so that these changes will stick!

Currently, we eat mostly organic, use cloth grocery bags, mama cloth, recycle, natural cleansers (working on that now!)...

I think there are probably more, but my brain is tired. Anyway, I just feel so overwhelmed with everything that I WANT to do. I want to do it all at once, but can't.

Here's to taking it one step at a time...and being glad that we are actually taking steps!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Thanks, everyone but…

This isn’t exactly what I’m getting at. I do many of the things suggested here. I guess I’m wondering *mostly* about impact vs. all the other factors. This came up partially while thinking that acting in my own home was great and all but there are much greater problems…

Someone on MDC made a joke about needing to use our cloth diapers to help soak up the Glaciers.

Another person mentioned the importance of encouraging sustainable economies and agriculture. I’ve done some of my own research on this when it comes to imported organic vs. local conventional foods. I’m also struggling with supporting my local economy with other issues like being frugal, buying used instead of new (ebay),
A sustainable community is something that I see the need for ~ just 60 years ago my home (a Villa in Heidelberg) had its garden dug up for agriculture because the community was in such dire need.

I also wonder about things like reducing paper products. This is actually not that difficult for me ~ although it does increase my laundry and is a pain sometimes. Then, I my reusable coffee thing got moldy so I used some paper filters that I had for an art project. Anyhoo, paper coffee filters are FAB! And, we have municipal compost, which takes many paper products so they get composted. This got me thinking about the realistic impact of paper products and whether or not my energy could be better spent elsewhere.

I guess I’m hoping for a list of things that make the biggest impact ~ reducing driving, turning the heat on a month later…are there some big wasters that are a better focus than some small things that I’ve been using my brain and time on?

Perfect example…someone on MDC also made a statement about celebrities using those energy efficient cars AND maintaining huge homes, which are air-conditioned and etc. I’m no knocking a celeb for whatever they can do but I agree that the relationship between these two things seems strange…

Gotta go…RegA festival!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I invited some people from another thread on Global Warming over here. I hope they make it because I wanted to discuss another issue ~ the impact of being politically active for our environment. Perhaps we could also discuss other public service and how this relates.

I guess I’ve just come to a place where I realize I can’t do everything. I’m not getting pessimistic though. I just want to consolidate so that I’m making doing my best ~ I just don’t know how or where to begin.

[Persephone]

One person can only do so much. I think every little thing you do has an impact. If you think about how many diapers/grocery bags/ gallons of gas/ whatever you save in a year, it becomes easier to see. I say, start off with the easiest things, and work your way up. We are all works in progress, on a continuum of sustainable living. Even the tiniest thing adds up in the long run. I just wish more people would start thinking about this stuff.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

So, I'm thinking of going off and doing some research.

I've done some on the organic / sustainable agriculture here:

"Even "in season," a local organic product may not always be on the shelf. So shoppers are often faced with the dilemma of which to buy - organic or local. I have concluded buying local supports our NOFA values (support of our endangered local agricultural base, movement toward sustainability) more than buying non-regional organic."

(check food miles for imported as well)

http://www.nofamass.org/news/12990300.php

http://www.ifoam.org/orgagri/regionalseasonal.html

http://www.consciouschoice.com/issu...rganic1510.html

I know every bit that I can do counts ~~ I guess we've just maxed out what we can do, for now and I wonder if I shouldn't re-evaluate my focus.

I felt so much better when we were able to volunteer in our community. Working at the recycling drop off center in Baltimore county in the late 80's was wonderful because we could really see an impact. Now, most people in that area recycle but I don't know if there was/is any new NFL issue being talked about in that area ~ it's certainly not reducing driving or consumerism and all the houses seem to have installed air conditioning.

I would love to know the areas with the biggest household environmental impact.

For instance, I didn't know that computer waste was a huge problem (actually, I think I do remember that now but I had forgotten because my focus was on other things). We haven't actually thrown anything away ~ DH tends to make use of everything. But, this is a place where he could do his part.

I also didn't realize that home size and style was such a huge consideration (having never had a choice until recently). This is important information to my demographic because many of us are buying homes ~ or wishing, anyway.