Organically Inclined

Get the first two chapters of Michelle’s new book, A Fine Mess: Living Simply With Children, for free! Michelle is the homeschooling mother of 7 children and has lots of humor, tips and hints for living with so many for much less. Want to try it out for nothing? Just email Michelle and put “free chapters” in the subject line.

• Bring your own bags – everywhere! This is so simple that it’s criminal that we don’t all do it already. I leave 4 or 5 canvas bags in my car at all times and just grab them when I go into a store. Have a bunch of plastic ones? Well, put them in your car and just reuse those! You don’t need to buy a fancy canvas bag like this one, from Organically Inclined! I wish that when I went to the store I wasn’t the only one around who answers “neither” when asked if they want paper or plastic.
• Don’t Buy Things! This is so simple even a baby can do it. Just don’t buy stuff. Don’t go to stores. Don’t buy things that have lots of packaging. If you must buy something – check out Craigslist.org, Freecycle.org or hit your local yard sales and thrift stores (bringing your own bags of course). You’d be amazed at how much money you’ll save by simply not purchasing things…and how kind you’ll be to the planet.
• Stay home. Don’t get in the car. Don’t drive away. Don’t go out to eat. Don’t go buy things (see above). Don’t do anything. Sit in a hammock in your backyard. Pick weeds. Do the laundry. Watch a movie. You’ll save gas, emissions and money all at the same time.
• Grow something. Anything. Get a packet of seeds – or two or three or more! Plant them. Water them occasionally (using the water from the rain barrel under your gutters, right?) and maybe in two or three months you’ll have some tomatoes, or peppers or lettuce. Maybe you’ll get the urge to plant more. Maybe not, but either way, you’ll be buying less, eating better and contributing to the world, rather than taking from it!
• Walk around your house before you go to bed and flip off every light switch and power strip (you might need to bring a small flashlight). Unplug every electronic device you have – DVD player, cable box, TV, computer (shut the computer down first).
• Take a walk. On one of those days you are staying home, grab a bag and walk around your neighborhood. Pick up the trash. When you fill up the bag – go home and sort it into recycling and trash. Wear a glove if you feel the need. You’ll be an example, you’ll be little tuckered out from walking (so you won’t want to go out again) and you’ll have cleaned up your neighborhood a bit!
• Surfing the Internet? Find a green-worthy cause and give them the $20 you would have spent had you been out and about and needed to buy lunch!
• Brew your own coffee. Take the money you would have spent on a coffee out and buy some great organic, fair trade coffee and brew it yourself. Then get a nice, safe travel mug and take the coffee out and about with you! Gonna need a second cup? Take a thermos full of coffee. My husband always fills a large thermos up for us before we head out on a road trip. Need a fast coffee maker? Our Bunn coffee maker brews a pot in three minutes…and there’s no waste like those new K-Cup style makers. We compost the grounds and the organic paper filter!
• Wear your jeans again. No, really. You could probably wear those jeans or pants two or three times before washing them – saving both water and effort.
• Hang your clothes. Most people don’t have nearly as many clothes as I do to hang out. So, get some clothesline – or one of those wooden clothes hangers and hang your clothes out. It’s green – and frugal. Why pay for something that the air will do for free?

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