1st Success...2nd Challenge

Ok, so we finished our first Green Challenge...yay us! Here's a breakdown of our stand-by power assessment & our changes:

• Living room- The only things plugged in all the time are the floor lamp (we use every day) & our electronics. The TV cannot be unplugged since it hangs on the wall & you have to take it down to unplug it. I cannot unplug the DVR...just ain't gonna happen. That only left the DVD player, which we put on a power strip & now we only turn it on when we are going to use it, and the laptop, which I already unplug when it's turned off.


• Kitchen/dining room- In the kitchen the only thing plugged in all the time is the major appliances...so nothing to change there! In the dining room we have our small candle we use as a nightlight at night (I don't want to run into things when I get up in the middle of the night to get the occasional bottle) and we now unplug it during the day rather than just turn it off.


• Playroom-The only things plugged in are the small TV & DVD player which were already on a power strip that we turn off when Julianna isn't watching her Laurie Berkner Band DVD for the bazillionth time.


• Bathroom- Just a small candle for a nightlight & now we unplug it during the day.


• Kid's bedrooms- We unplugged their lamps, since it's still light when they go to bed right now, those lights very rarely get used. They both have actual nightlights, but they are LED & on sensors.


• Our bedroom- Yikes! We had our cordless phone charger plugged in, 2 cell phone chargers, several lamps, an alarm clock, our TV, & a fan. Now we only have 1 lamp, the alarm clock, our cordless phone & the TV plugged in all the time (I watch it nearly every night Joe is on shift). Much better. But I still want to put the TV on a power strip that can be turned off when we're not using it.


• Garage- The only thing plugged in was our freezer. Nothing to change there!


• Basement- Other than the dryer the only other thing plugged in was our desktop computer, which we never use so we unplugged it.

All in all, we really didn't have to change much...we were already doing pretty good!

Challenge #2 Reusable Bags

This one is going to be tough for me. I am such a fan of plastic grocery/store bags. I use them for everything...to line our small trash cans, to pack Joe's lunches (he brings them back home & uses them multiple times), to occasionally wrap a terribly smelly diaper in (I KNOW this is really bad...that's a whole other challenge), and so much more.

Not only am I going to try to switch to reusable bags, but I am gonna go one step further & make some of my own reusable bags! I have a super easy bag pattern & some scrap canvas so why not make a few. And besides by making my own I can easily personalize them using some of my other fabric scraps and they can't be mistaken for someone else's.

I am actually hoping to start making these today because my sewing machine is still sitting out from when I made Julianna some dresses last weekend (I really should have put it away...but I knew I as going to make bags...yeah, that's it). I think a bigger challenge than me starting to use reusable bags is going to be getting Joe to use them as well. Well, I guess it wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy.