Tag Archives: going green

Going Green, Life, Lifestyle, Parenting

Easy Ways To Go Green With Your Family

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Responsibility is one of the most valuable lessons a parent can teach to their children, especially in this day and age. The planet that we call home is in trouble, with waste and pollution all around us. While we may have become more aware of the impact that we have on the Earth, we must ensure our children know of this too. After all, before long, the world will be theirs to take care of, just like it is now ours. Living an eco-friendly lifestyle can seem complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. With that in mind, here are seven easy things that your whole family can do to go green.

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1. Make A Meal Plan

Reducing waste is a big part of living a green lifestyle. While material waste is definitely an issue, food waste is becoming a huge problem in many places around the world. Thankfully, this is one that is very easily solved. All that you have to do is only buy groceries that you know for certain you will eat. By creating a weekly meal plan, you give yourself a list of all the food products that you need for the week. You can create these meal plans as a family so that everyone is happy. 

2. Bring Your Own Bags

When you go shopping, make sure that you have your own bags before leaving the house. While single-use plastic bags used to be commonplace, they are slowly being weaned out of grocery stores and supermarkets. Many shops now charge for such bags, while others refuse to stock them at all. Tote bags are much more eco-friendly, as they can be used again and again. If you buy a few plain ones and some fabric paint, you could allow your kids to decorate them.

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3. Ditch Single-Use Items

Being a parent isn’t easy. As well as working and looking after the children, there are household chores that need completing. While it can be tempting to eliminate the washing up by using paper plates and plastic cutlery, the waste this produces just isn’t worth it. Before you buy stainless steel knives and forks, however, you should learn everything you need to know about bamboo cutlery. This cutlery works just as well as steel but is much better for the planet. 

4. Grow A Vegetable Garden

Starting your own vegetable garden will benefit the entire family. Learning about where food comes from and the process of growing it is incredibly beneficial for children, as is the fresh air that they’ll get every time they help you with the gardening. Plus, you won’t have to travel to get fresh vegetables. This is incredibly convenient for you, but it also means that you won’t have to drive, which limits pollution. If you don’t have a green thumb, you could buy from other growers.

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5. Turn Off The Electronics

Kids these days tend to be in front of screens longer than they are away from them. While this can harm the health of your child, it also contributes to pollution. Because of this, you should set limits on how long your children are allowed to watch TV and play their consoles. Once this time is over, you should turn off those electronics at the wall and unplug them from the outlet. Simply leaving these devices on standby will continue to use electricity, costing you and the planet. 

6. Use Natural Cleaning Products

The cleaning products we tend to find in supermarkets and grocery stores are far from healthy. In fact, they contain incredibly harmful chemicals, which can damage the environment and your health. Before you send your kids off to do their chores, therefore, you should make your own cleaning products. There are many natural ingredients that you can use for all sorts of cleaners, including lemon juice and vinegar. These clean just as well, but aren’t nearly as dangerous.

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7. Take Walks To School

As tempting as it may be on cold mornings, you should avoid driving your little ones to school. If at all possible, you should instead walk with them or ride bicycles together. This is a great way to exercise and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time. If the distance or weather makes walking or riding impossible, then consider carpooling instead. This would mean that fewer cars are on the road, which would benefit the environment in a big way too. 

Going green isn’t nearly as difficult as most people think, so follow the advice above and start making positive changes with your family.

Going Green, Going Healthy, Life, Parenting

Making Your Family Home Environmentally Friendly

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Nowadays, kids are being educated on all sorts of matters that may affect them directly during their lives. Environmental damage and pollution may be one of the subjects that they are taught at school. Why? Well, human activity is the number one cause of environmental problems right now, and things that we do on a day to day basis are making the world an increasingly problematic place for our species to survive. It’s therefore up to us to change this and kids are likely to be the leading generation to implement real change! So, if your little one comes home all hyped up about becoming an eco warrior and saving the planet, encourage them! Work hand in hand with them to make real change in your family home and create a greener living space for everyone. Here are just a few steps that you can take to make your family home as environmentally friendly as possible.

Say Goodbye to Plastic

Sure, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to be able to completely eliminate plastic from your family home. There are certain items and products that you will have to use that come wrapped in plastic whether you like it or not. Examples include bottle caps and pill trays for medication. However, you can significantly reduce the amount of purposefully disposable and non-necessary plastic from your family’s lifestyle. Buy fruit whole rather than pre-cut and wrapped in plastic containers. Use bamboo toothbrushes rather than plastic ones. When it comes down to it, all plastic is bad for the planet and its use should be seriously minimized.

Insulate Your Home

If your home automatically lets heat and energy escape, you’re going to have to burn fossil fuels constantly to keep it warm and functional. So, make sure your property is as well insulated as possible. Make sure that windows are double glazed and coated in Residential Solar Films. Make sure that your roof and loft have insulating materials in the cavities. Use draft excluders between rooms. Small steps can make a massive difference!

Compost

Families tend to use more ingredients in their meals, as there are more mouths to feed. But the more food there is in a home, the more waste there is likely to be too. Try composting natural waste. You can invest in a compost bin where you can dispose of potato peels, vegetable cuttings, tea bags, and other forms of food waste. This can then be used as a great natural fertilizer.

These are just three different steps that you might want to implement into your family’s home and routine. Sure, they may seem like small changes. But they would make a massive difference if every kid’s family tried them out. So, get the ball rolling in the right direction and give them a go!

Going Green, Guest Post

Going Green: Going Mom’s DIY Cloth Wipe Solution

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Hey, it’s Earth Day! While I don’t think we should have only one day set aside for such an important aspect to everyone on this planet, hopefully it helps get it in our heads to treat our Earth right! Just like our bodies, the better you treat (i.e. nourish) it, the better we all feel.

My wonderful and beautiful wife, Going Mom (Kelley), agrees, and today I’m proud to hand the reigns over to her fora guest post on the cloth wipe solution she’s been making since Avery was born. We do our best to reduce our impact on the Earth, and Going Mom is going to share with you her easy DIY cloth wipe solution recipe.

We’ve been using her solution for a couple years now with no issue. It’s easy, highly customizable, and way more cost effective, so why wouldn’t you do this for your baby/toddler? Without further ado, I’ll hand the floor over to Going Mom.

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Earth Day, DIY Cloth Wipe Spray, natural parenting, green living

Hi there! Going Dad has asked me write a post on Going Green and I happily agreed.

We weren’t always the most earth friendly people but over time we made small changes to lessen our impact on the earth and keep harmful chemicals out of our home. We are constantly learning about ways to improve and most recently have switched to using cloth wipes with our own homemade solution.

What? You stopped by the blog today only to see cute baby pictures of Avery? Well here- maybe this will help.

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We always knew we would use cloth diapers because of the obvious benefits but didn’t really think much about cloth wipes. I mean, how bad can the store bought ones be? They’re just wipes! Well, like everything else in this world, the package can be deceiving.

I had purchased some flannel wipes when I was building my cloth diaper stash thinking I would use them eventually. But then Babyganics wipes went on sale at Babies R Us for $10 a case. So we bought two cases- big mistake. A product named Babyganics must be good and wholesome, right? Wrong!

We couldn’t keep Avery diaper rash free for more than a day. After further research I found that Babyganics are the least chemical free “organic” brand out there. Sure, they have a few less chemicals than some of the bigger brands, but that’s where the baby safeness ends.

So, enter the flannel wipes. I had been looking into solution for a while and decided to finally make some. I perused a few different blogs to get recipe ideas. There are a lot of recipes out there that include essential oils and even tea bags (seriously, way too complicated for a working mom). I decided to try out the basic recipe first and then adjust from there.

Here is the recipe I followed, found on the Zany Zebra blog. http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-wipe-solution.shtml

I didn’t want to make that much in the beginning since I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. So I only made a quarter of this. I also added a few drops of lavender oil (only pure essential oil). I love the smell of lavender and I think the solution turned out great. I found after using it a few times that it was soapier than I liked and it left a residue on her bum, so I added another cup and a half of water to further dilute it. This is much better! I still get all the goodness without the soapy feeling.

There are several ways you can use the solution, but we find it’s easiest to keep it in a spray bottle and squirt her little bum (carefully so it doesn’t get into her eyes) and then wipe with the flannel cloth. I didn’t want to have to deal with a musty wipe container so this method works best for us.

It’s been almost two weeks and her rash is gone. Why didn’t I do this sooner?

Like I said earlier, we are always looking for ways to improve. RC takes care of the healthy food research and I focus more on the cleaning and skin products. There are so many products that I still use that aren’t up to par with my (new) standards. I can’t stand to waste the product I have left so I will slowly switch to better products as I finish my old stuff. 

We have been so focused on making sure Avery gets the best but never really looked into the things we use. Just this week I have been doing lots of research on the harmful chemicals in cosmetic products. It reminds me so much of the food world- products that are packaged with labels to make it seem “all natural” and good for you, when in fact it’s crap. Well, more to come on that subject later.

Anyways, if you are considering cloth diapers and wipes- don’t make the same mistake I did. Do both! It’s way better to know exactly what is going on your babies precious skin than to chance it with “natural” products. Don’t be a fool to labeling!

Thanks for reading!