Self description in Two Words..

I was in a group a while back and was trying to decide how I would describe my self in a word or two to someone who had never met me and who has never talked to me. I came to the conclusion that the best description was realistic environmentalist.

Now I know you all are wonder what exactly that means. To me it means that I am enough of a realist to know that I live in America so I am going to continue to live with conveniences like a car and 3 bedrooms and a bath and a half for a family of four. Yet it also means that I will make the changes that help the environment that I can. I will ride my bike to work and I will hang my wet clothes on a laundry drying rack to dry. I will turn off the electricity to my electronic devices when they are not being used.

Changing habits from driving to biking takes some initiative and it even takes some training since riding for transportation on the streets is different than riding for fun on trails. I suggest that you take a street biking class so that you will learn the rules. I took one and I feel 95% more confident about how and where I ride. Also I think I am a better car driver as well when I am sharing the road with a bicyclist because now I know where a little better what the expectations are.

Another habit that was changed over the past couple years is laundry. I have switch from a conventional washer dryer arrangement to a super efficient washer and a series of laundry drying racks that I purchased from BestDryingRack.com. The washer uses very little water, very little detergent and has a high rpm spin cycle so drying a laundry drying rack is very practical.

There are benefits of a laundry drying rack over a clothes line. One is that I can use it all winter even when it is sub-zero. I can use it when it is rainy. Also I can move it around my house into what ever space is currently not being used.

If your house is like mine most of the time the whole house is not being used. The kids are at school and my husband and I are at work. So the house can be used for something worth while like hanging our clothes to dry on our laundry drying rack. Then at night while we are all asleep the laundry drying rack can still be used in the kitchen and the living room.

Air drying your laundry saves 6-10% of the energy that an average US household uses. If we all did these simple switches to biking and air drying what a difference it would make.

So again how does this relate to my self description as a realistic environmentalist? The realist part comes in because I love many of my modern day conveniences including my computer, (we have three of them in the house), our telephones we have 4 portable phones all in charges and 3 cell phones. I think there is a future blog in that.

So for now Happy Earth Day, Happy National Hanging Out Day and National Turn off TV Week!