It’s the beginning of 2010, and I’ve gotta set my goals! Last year I gave up buying plastic water bottles, and it worked! I recommend it to everyone. We saved lots of money, and got attached to our water bottles and filtering system. It works just fine, and now we’ve got more room in the refrigerator for BEER! ☺

So here are the resolutions:

• More writing: journal every day, on paper. Some stuff didn’t get recorded last year because I didn’t want to share it with the world. So I need to organize my thoughts on paper first.
• More exercise: get in that gym, at least twice a week.
• More travel: including within DC. There are some great exhibits and museums that I need to see. Concerts and shows, too!
• Home improvement: continue to green my lifestyle, purge the junk and organize the good stuff.
• Taco night on Mondays: to simplify menu planning and because we like tacos. ☺

Wish me luck, and I wish you luck with your resolutions… if you’ve made them? If you haven’t yet, I hereby give you til the end of January to come up with some. We’ve got 11 months to go, folks. That’s a lot of time to pick something to improve on or have fun with.

Most importantly,

★  ♪ ♫   Happy New Year! ♪ ♫ ♪ ★

To celebrate Earth Day I’d like to share some of my favorite ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. These are tried and tested items, not just things that look pretty. I own and use these things every day, I promise!

1. English Retreads Large Model T Tote – This is one of my favorite tote bags. It’s absolutely indestructible, and polishes clean with Armor-All, as it’s made from the inner tubing of truck tires. HEAVY DUTY. Still 100% glamorous. I also have a smaller version for evenings.
2. Preserve Toothbrushes, Ultra Soft Bristles, 6-count package – These toothbrushes are made from those yogurt cups that many of us plow through every day. That plastic is harder to find a home for than other plastics, but this company has done wonders with it. These toothbrushes are fab, and colorful, too. Preserve will take them back when you’re done with them, too! Really. I buy them in dozens and give them to my family and friends at Christmas and Easter.
3. Real Deal Made in Brazil Tarp Hat – It’s recycled from Brazilian truck tarps, and made to last. Very durable, and hip for man or woman headed on a weekend camping trip or a month in the outback.
4. Washington, DC’s Metro system – This is my primary mode of transport, and it saves me about 84 miles of driving a week.

I hope you find these little things helpful. Perhaps you can weave them into your own life! Don’t want to spend any extra money? Just follow this link to the Rainforest Site where all you have to do is ‘Click to Give‘… Or join the Earth Day Network here. Thanks and happy Earth Day!

Three cheers to the three gals at TMI Weekly for a great redux on what to do with unwanted holiday gifts.

• FIRST – write a lovely thank you note about how thoughtful it was for your Aunt Flo to send you that fabulous sweater.
• SECOND – listen to Meghan and her friends run down all the ways you can find a way to find a happy home for the hideous thing.
• THIRD – give the sweater to someone who will wear it, and maybe you’ll end up with the video game you really wanted!

Check out this adorable episode and learn a thing or two about bartering!

TMI Weekly: Barter This

Three cheers to Penn State students working to ban the water bottle on campus.

If you’ve never been to Penn State’s main campus, let me assure you it’s a substantial operation. Making a change like this would make a significant impact. The campus is basically a small town of people under 25, supported by another small town of people interested in the University: professors, restaurants, bookstores, dorm-decorating shops, etc.

I’m really amazed by the extremes our culture has gone through with water. But the facts are out there. If you want super-filtered water, you can now easily filter it yourself with any number of products, and there’s no need to buy multiple individual bottles, which either need to be recycled, which costs money and energy; or which end up in landfills, which is flat-out pollution.

As a taxpayer, your money already goes to water purification plants, so there really should be more attention paid to how that water comes out and how the pipes are kept up.

More on the Penn State movement at Treehugger.

If you live in DC and are looking for green living resources, I’ve got a great place for you!

Eco-Green Living is jam-packed with resources for building and living green, especially if you are looking for ways to renovate your home. Stroll around downstairs and you’ll see natural paints and carpets, light bulbs, mattresses, even gifts and natural shampoos. But you’ll also notice there are samples of recycled tire flooring and maybe a few long boxes of bamboo flooring. This is just a hint.

Go on upstairs – you’ll find every color in the rainbow in sustainable countertops, flooring and tiles. Plus tankless hot water, eco-insulation, skylights and more.

These folks just keep taking in what they find to make it available for you, plus they have connections for installation services. It is really awesome to see how MUCH you can do, how many CHOICES you have while keeping green. Check it out.

Eco-Green Living is located a short walk from either the McPherson Square or U Street/Cardoza Metro stations, on Church Street between 14th & 15th Streets, one block over from the P Street Whole Foods.

http://eco-greenliving.com

It’s so easy! Check out Earth Hour 2008 – turn out the lights for one hour and see what a difference we can make, together!

http://www.earthhour.org/

This article really has a good point. Suppose you create a houseful of waste by throwing out everything you own and replacing it with new, “green” alternatives. Even if these alternatives are recyclable, from renewable resources, etcetera, you were doing the earth plenty less harm by using your old stuff until it had done its duty.

Of course, don’t give up on buying green when you need something new, but don’t go replacing when you have perfectly good stuff. (The article linked here says it much more eloquently.)