apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

What a good idea!

Composting, perhaps? Not sure of your living situation.You could get an envirocycle (http://www.125west.com/Envirocycle_Composter.html)

I plan to ask for one for my birthday.

Kudos on your commendable and easy to keep resolution style.

How about adjusting the thermostat a couple degrees cooler in winter and a couple warmer in the summer (better yet, open the windows if you are in a mild climate)?

oh good one. you could get a programmable thermostat and set it to cool down at the times no one is home.

Hullo, this is Jessica, also known as sciencegeek. And I really am lazy. I've found over the years that if I have lofty goals, they'd better be easy to achieve or I'm going to stop implementing them in a couple of weeks. So far I've been lucky to find fairly easy things to do - shopping totes, Brita filter, and CFLs.

I'm asking this question both for myself as well as for anyone else who wants a quick fix way to do something good.

Thoughts I've had: eat vegetarian a couple of days a week, set up electronics to be on surge protectors that I can turn off while I'm not using them (this may be difficult due to exciting wiring in my apartment - there are only two usable three prong sockets in the entire place), promising to bike to work at least three days a week during the non-winter months, and no more using the elevator at work for less than five floors.

The thermostat and composter ideas are great examples of this sort of thing but I live in a big apartment building where the heat is "controlled" centrally and I have neither a balcony nor a yard.

Install a low-flow shower head.

Along with showerheads, kitchen and bathroom sinks can be easily modified to reduce water usage. Particularly in terms of resolutions you can spread around to other "envirosloths," turning of the "heated dry" segment and lowering the maximum water temp on your dishwasher can make a big difference and only require you to actually do something once (besides every time you have to wait a few minutes longer or open the door of the dishwater while the dishes are drying). Being more conscious of what clothes can and should be washed on cold or warm instead of hot, or switching to handwashing instead of the delicates cycle, can also be a fairly easy if more ongoing green change. Switching to green and biodegradable products like cleaning supplies (or skipping them altogether in favor of natural solutions using things like lemon, vinegar, and baking soda) can also be an easy one to convince others to do now that they are coming down in price, especially if your friends have children or pets and would be happy to avoid unnecessary chemicals in the house.

For the surge protector idea, you could invest in a smart strip. They have 10 outlets that automatically shut off some of your electronics when you haven't used them for a period of time.

My latest favorite is using cloth napkins with meals. We have greatly cut back on using paper napkins and our meals seem a little fancier now - even if it is just a PB&J. We are also trying to use cloths to clean up spills & messes more often so we hardly ever use paper towels.

A big winner if you are lazy is to set your hot water heater to a lower temperature. It is recommended to set it to 120 degrees as that is the hottest you should ever need it. I had my father set ours (it only took a few minutes) and the water is still hot enough for my boyfriend who likes long, hot showers. Just set it and forget it!

That's easy, Go Vegan!

You live in an apartment so a lot of the suggestions won't work. This one should: resolve to pick up at least one piece of garbage outside every day. Even if you are lazy, one piece should be no big deal, right?

also, check this out: http://green.cbc.ca/

A Canadian TV host is trying to get people to commit 1 Million acts of green - you'll find lots of ideas on simple things everyone can do, and you can sign up and contribute to the initiative if you like.

@GO-Vegan

So I have this issue with being vegan. I refuse to subscribe to any diet that prohibits chocolate chip cookies. And before you start talking about delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies, I'd like to point out that they aren't. No, I have tried lots of kinds. They're not chocolate chip cookies.

Yes, I'm a horrible selfish person.

One of the points I was trying to make with this question was that if you can come up with easy ways to do something good more people are more likely to actually do them.

Let's say you talk to 100 people and tell them about the joys and virtues of being vegan. Maybe one will actually become vegan. More realistically, one will try out being vegan and then subside into being vegetarian. One out of a thousand will become vegan.

If you talked to those same 100 people and suggested that they choose one day a week to eat vegetarian and explained the joys and the virtues of this, I suspect that you might be able to get fifteen people to go for it. These fifteen people would probably make a greater difference than your one vegan in terms of the ecological benefits of not eating animal derived products. In fact, those fifteen people might mention how easy it is to their friends and the number might increase.

Last night I ended up making a vegetarian dinner for myself and my boyfriend (I think it might have even been vegan come to think of it) which we're eating today for lunch as leftovers. He's not a big fan of veggie things, but I can persuade him to do this one night a week and one lunch the next day.

I hope I'm not coming across as being mean about this because that is not my intention. I am just realistic about my commitment level. And I think my commitment level is probably higher than that of the majority of the population. I'm interested in small, easy steps for people who don't think of themselves as green, or environmentally conscious, or liberal, or as some of my less politically correct friends might say, "stinky hippies." Think of suggestions that your parents, or grandparents, or aunt would be willing to implement.

This is such a great thread. I totally get the easy eco thing. It would be great to go full-out green, but not all of us have the time, money, or, frankly, the energy!

Here are my suggestions:
- If you pay for your own power, getting power strips that can be turned off isn't just green, it saves $. We estimate we save a minimum of $10 a month, and also noticed that our place was significantly cooler in the summer without our electronics silently powered on. Getting three prong strips will maximize your options for plugging in, too.
- Put a brick in your toilet's tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush (only a good option if you have a more modern system and can give up the extra pressure.)
- Pick the eco option when you're shopping for clothes. Tons of companies like Gap, Levi, H&M, and Walmart are now offering organic cotton clothing, often at similar prices to non-organic options.

If I think of more, I'll come back and post. I'm sure there a ton of easy little things we've started doing that have become so much second nature that I no longer remember them. But then, those are the perfect eco interventions, right?

Stop using paper towels. We haven't bought a roll in more than a year, and I don't miss them even a bit.

Do your laundry at off-peak hours, and only use hot water when you really, really need to.

Keep a large bowl near the kitchen sink. Put it under the faucet while you're waiting for the water to heat up. Water something (or use this time to fill up the Brita).

Use vinegar to clean just about everything.

Stop using dryer sheets or detergent with color boosters.

Re-use humus containers.

Make your own yogurt.

If you go out to eat, take your own reusable containers for leftovers. Much better than icky styrofoam!

The Green Guide - "One Green Year: What You Can Do Today"

The link to the Canadian television program site that ange lune posted is great.

They have a good list of easy things to do many of which I can see doing. I think after work today I'll go home and clean my refrigerator coils. I have never done this before. I'm sort of scared to find out what scary stuff lives behind the fridge.

chartreusechic - and everyone else... The brick in the toilet tank is not a good thing - the brick can decompose and plug up your plumbing. You can do something similar with a plastic milk or juice jug filled with water and put that in your tank instead.

I agree about the surge protectors, but they're not always appropriate for the middle of the living room. In the UK, they have these switches built into the sockets that let you turn the whole thing off, so there's no need for a bulky power strip. They're cheap and easy to use. Has anyone seen them in the US?
http://www.wickes.co.uk/Sockets Control-Units/13A-Slimline-Switched-Socket-2-Gang/invt/711327

Here's an effortless little water saver: when you turn on the water for a shower, catch a gallon's worth in a recycled jug while you're waiting for the water to warm up. I use the reserved water to rinse out the tub and sink and to water my plants.

I am trying to eliminate products that are mostly water. Canned beans, stock, green beans, corn, etc and have switched to either using dried beans or frozen products. I am still looking for good cleaning products that come concentrated that I could dilute when I bring them home but so far no luck. The fuel used to transport the cans of mostly water and emissions emitted are the main reasons I would prefer to switch.

1. If you menstruate, stop using disposable menstrual products. Try a Diva cup or menstrual pads (you can even make your own. (Judging, perhaps unfairly, from your emphatic response against veganism I'm guessing you might respond that it's too "icky". You're a big girl, though, and you CAN adapt.)
2. Assess your purchasing needs and when it can't be avoided buy used products whenever possible. (Try Freecycling -- it's fun!)
3. Learn to cook from scratch instead of going out to eat or ordering in (assuming you do).