I promised myself that this would be the year of composting. It’s really quite simple and it offers huge benefits to your environment and your own yard and/or garden.
But, it’s already nearly February and I have yet to get started.
Frustrated as I might be, I’ve found that living an eco-friendly lifestyle is not a static decision. It comes with highs and lows, new discoveries, changing habits, and most of all, finding balance. Sometimes that means you’re leaving a tiny carbon foot print one day. And on others, it might be bigger than you’d like to admit.
For me, living a greener lifestyle has a lot to do with state of mind.
A Cool Mom Picks reader recently wrote to me complaining about these new disposable bibs we featured, sort of ironically along with a new book on greening up your baby nursery.
Cool Mom Picks (my other blog) is not a “green” blog per se’, but we do tend to feature greener, natural, and more organic items than not. The truth is, while we might have all breastfed our kids, and for the most part are flaming Democrats, we try to keep as “non-partisan” as possible; it’s part of appealing to the “cool” masses.
We feature bottles and breastfeeding gear, we feature items that appeal to the yogis and the metro moms, and yes, we do feature some items that aren’t considered completely “green.”
I don’t expect everyone to adhere to a completely organic and green lifestyle. I certainly don’t, and while I might not use disposable bibs, I do use disposable diapers. I might not use plastic grocery bags, but I do use plastic sandwich sacks every now and then.
I’m not sure it completely evens out in the end, but when it comes down to it, you’ve got to find your own eco balance – in your life, in your home, and in your family – and then challenge yourself to go further. We are parents, after all, and it’s not just about us. There’s a fine line between living a green lifestyle and maintaining your sanity.
So I’m asking you, “What can you do to go greener this month without setting your life completely out of whack?”
Check out BOCA’s Balanced Living blog – and learn how you can win $5000 just for sharing what you’re going to do to find and live a balanced life.google.
[This post was written by Kristen Chase.]
Composting is easy. If you’re not fussy about looks – we keep an old small bucket in the kitchen that we take out to the composter every so often. My newest thing is not to replace the paper towels. People use them if you have them, but find other things like rags for clean up if you don’t. I need to find cloth napkins for the table next.
Hard to compost when you live in a NYC apartment with no outdoor space. But I’ve decided we’re washing out every can of cat food for our new kitties and recycling it. Sounds obvious, but (gulp) it’s something I didn’t do with my old cat. We’re also trying to buy things like kids yogurt in larger containers to cut down on packaging, but it’s tough when your kids are smitten with those stupid little baby pictures on the individual packs.