20 February Featured Space: Kitchen - Going Green

Some of you may recall that during the Home Office featured space, I through out a couple of ideas/ways to go green.  And I also mentioned that I would try to do the same for each space I feature each month.

The reason being is that it was part of my new year's resolution list, to start living more green and take better care of this great earth we live upon.  And, now that I have a couple of absolutely amazing and fabulous blog readers, hopefully a couple of you can snag a couple of the tips and tricks as well, and together, we can find ways to reduce our carbon footprint!

And man oh man!  There are insane amounts of things that can be done in the kitchen space.  More than I could list here without creating a new record for longest blog post, but believe me, it's super easy to get boatloads of tips and tricks for going green in any space, by using my bff search engine, Google, or check out this article which also has some pretty great information!  That being said, I have to share some easy peasy lemon squeezy options, that are completely easy and do-able by anyone!

Clean Green:

 

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a small addiction to cleaning.  It's a small problem, not like Charlie Sheen rehab worthy problem, but let's just say it's not normal to see me without cleaner and a rag as part of my daily apparel.  Knowing that, over the last year, I have done everything possible to only purchase cleaners that claim to "Be Green"

 

I do say claim, because it had been brought to my attention that some green cleaners are really more green than others.  So, I have gotten better about reading labels closely to ensure I am doing what's right for the earth.  The one drawback is that all natural cleaners tend to run on the more expensive side, and although I bite it and do it because I know how truly harsh non-natural cleaners are for both my family and the earth, I am also recently being turned on to common household items that can also be used to get the homestead squeaky green {such as lemons!}

I have also been educating myself more on the impacts of many of the chemicals in our home, by reading through a scary but eye opening book: Squeaky Green

And let's not discount necessary second half of using the cleaners, their counterparts - dusters, rags, sponges, and mop heads.  The good news, ALL of these disposable items can now easily be replaced with non-disposable versions, call microfiber.

Yes folks, it is the cat's meow.  And not something new, but something so wonderfully good for cleaning, because you aren't filling the landfill with disinfecting wipes, sponges, duster refills and mop heads.  Oh yes, microfiber comes in all those versions, pare a rag with some dusting solution, nothing gets wood looking better!  Snag a microfiber sponge for washing dishes or wiping down bathrooms and counters, oh yes, we are really onto something now.  And lastly, when it comes to floors, I totally HEART the Method O-Mop, with a microfiber cleaning pad:

 

Not only does microfiber lock in dust and keep it there, it's also completely washable by just tossing it into your washer/dryer, and when it comes out, it looks like new again!  It really is a miracle cloth.

Wash Green:

 On a very similar note, the kitchen floors, buffet tables and counters aren't the only things getting scrubbed in the kitchen, but equally important, are the dishes we eat from each day.  This one is an easy no brainer for me.  During the day, after each meal with the kiddos, I actually, enter gasp here, wash all of the dishes by hand.  

 

 Oh yes in deedy.  I throw on some gloves and scrub scrub scrub after each and every meal during the day.  Saves us SO much water and energy from washing the dishes through the dishwasher.  

However, for those big family meals, I am not going to lie, I am a fan of my dishwasher.  It gives me more time with my family after dinner, and I can definitely appreciate that!  However, since I am a dishwasher addict, the fact that I am only running it for one meal a day, allows me to get away with only running it every 2-3 days.  Plus, I also use earth friendly dishwasher detergent and finally, I run it at night when I put the kids to bed, and open it up to let air dry over night, while the hubs and I are resting our eyes.  This saves on using the heat drying cycle.

 

Shop Green:

You may have noticed in the pantry reveal, a not so fancy bin of green bags resting on the floor.  This not so fancy way of shopping, is one of my absolute favorite ways to go green, literally, in the kitchen.  About a year ago, I invested in a 10 pack of green sacks from bagsontherun.com.  A little skeptical at first about the whole green bag thing, the second I received my little buddies in the mail, I was SOLD!  These bags hold an AMAZING amount of groceries, like up to 22 lbs of them!  And here are some scary facts for all of you to munch on {courtesy of bagsontherun.com}

• The petroleum used to make 18 plastic bags could drive a car for 1 mile?
• The EPA estimates that it takes a plastic bag over 500 years to decay in a landfill?
• The average person's plastic bag legacy will be 4.175 million years?
• The worldwide consumption of plastic bags is over 500 billion, over 1 million per minute?

So, I took my new found friends, and put them into a nice little lidded bin like so:

And every time that we go shopping, into the trunk goes the bin.  And yes, we even fill that up too, when the bags are full, or for carting out jugs of juice or cleaners.  Waste not!

And of course the bags don't just get used for groceries, they are also great for long car trips/vacations or for trick or treating!  

These days, there are a lot of fancier pretty options from envirosax.com or containerstore.com, or you can even find them at just about any grocery or department store.  At any rate, there is no longer any excuse not to use these amazing multi-tasking earth savers.

Eat Green:

Another endless subject, but there is so much you can do in this department as well!  And I am not just talking about eating completely organically {bowing to those of you that do, I am not there yet, but getting closer year after year}.

First way we started eating more green, and saving mucho moola, was by planting our first veggie garden last year!  No green thumb needed either; it was surprisingly easy to do!  Last year we successfully grew onions, peppers, tomatoes, celery, herbs and leaf lettuce, and plan on doing the same plus, this year! 

Nothing is better then freshly grown veggies straight from your garden!  Delish!

Aside from eating green from a technical perspective, there is also a lot of things you can do to be green when preparing foods!

First, eating at home is a lot more green than eating at fast food restaurants.  The amount of waste created from grabbing food on the go, is quite insane.  And for you coffee on the go individuals, snag some reusable travel mugs and cups:

These days you can get kinds that work great for both iced and hot coffee, and I haven't found a coffee joint yet that won't be happy to fill up the personal cups vs. giving you ones that later end up taking up space in a landfill.

And as far as cooking at home goes, this year we received an amazing Christmas gift, that is actually helping us green up in a little way:

Yeppers, this bad boy is a multifunctional cooking machine, both a rotisserie and toaster oven in one.  And how is this "green" you ask?  Well, this little puppy uses far less energy than our oven, and can definitely hold tons of food to feed our huge family of five!  Pretty amazing!

And when we do use the oven, a couple of things do help, like shutting your oven/burners off early, and letting the already built up heat, finish cooking the food.  And when using the oven, I cook everything inside at once vs. one thing at a time.

And when baking, to preserve the cookie sheets, vs. lining the cookie sheet with tinfoil, I found you can actually get these totally reusable nonstick baking tray liners.  And they are GREAT!

And for lunch on the go or for school:

Reusable Lunch Bags, Totes and Boxes are far better than brown bagging it.

And even better yet, we have found using these little guys, are great for using less sammy baggies:

 

And such an obvious one, like think Britta commercial obvious:

 

Instead of using bottled water, snag yourself a water pitcher with a built in filter, or add on to your faucet, or use that fancy water from your fridge door.  Whichever you choose, this route is much better for the environment than bottled water.  So snag a reusable water jug for each family member, and fill 'em up at home before hitting the road to that soccer game or jog around the lake.

Another obvious one is food storage:

Opt for storing leftovers in good quality food storage containers vs. those couple time use containers that end up getting tossed after filling them up with spaghetti sauce.  Oh, and a quick tip for keeping your plastic food storage containers looking brand spanking new after storing a red sauce, hand wash the container in soapy ice cold water.  So far, it's been a no fail solution for us folks!

And remember my snack storage suggestions?  Buying in bulk is much more green than buying individually wrapped items, and even greener, is re-using the storage bags that you divide your snacks down to.  They even have these cool devises made specifically for drying your sammy bags:

Live Green:

Yep, I said it.  I either say Live Green or Recycle Recycle Recycle!  Either way, think about each thing you are tossing away.

 

And these days, there are so many great storage options when it comes to recycling.  Broken record or not, IHeart using these baskets in tons of rooms in my home for papers:

 

And for all other kitchen recycling {cans, glass, cardboard, etc...}, we have a recycling bin tucked under the sink, that pulls out easily for access:

 

And to get your little munchkins excited to help with organizing, check out this book from your local library, they will be sure to HEART it and learn a lot about keeping our planet green: Michael Recyle 

 

It's amazing what my little sponges of knowledge can tell me about what I should recycle, I actually laugh that they are constantly on "Recycle Patrol" and I couldn't be more proud of that fact!

Lastly, something I haven't done yet, but have full intentions of starting in the kitchen, is a counter top compost:

 

And because I also resolute to spend less this year, I am going to attempt to make a homemade DIY compost for the kitchen, vs splurging on a spendier version.  And the benefit will be that I will have amazing soil for this year's veggie garden and creating less landfill waste at the same time.  Gotta love two for ones!

So there you have it!  Now it's your turn!  Anyone else resolute to be more green this year?  What are you doing around the kitchen to green up, and what else can I do that I didn't mention above?  I would be gratefully joyous to hear what you have up your green sleeves as well!