Moving time ... the follow up

I've been in my new apartment for almost a week. Before I moved in, I envisioned myself treading so lightly on the environment that it would hardly know I was there ... using less water in general and especially less hot water, not keeping lights on. But ya, I'm no Green Superwoman. I'm still enjoying my hot showers and keep several lights on at once because otherwise I'd be straining to read or feeling like I was trespassing in my own place. What can I say, bright lights make a home feel cheery. But I have made small adjustments. I've been scraping the food off my plates instead of rinsing them under the sink before I put them in the dishwasher so I don't waste water. I haven't run a load yet so I'm waiting to see if they come out clean. I read that tip in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine and it kind of hit me over the head with how obvious it was. Another tip I got from that mag is using a French press instead of a plug-in coffee maker, which I like doing because the coffee from my French press tastes better and keeps the coffee hotter (one of my major peeves with my crappy coffee maker). But then I got thinking, does it use more energy to boil the water on the stove for the French press, or to use the coffee maker? This is what buying "here are a million and one ways to go green" magazines does to a person. I bought the magazine at the grocery store before my move. I almost jumped I was so giddy with excitement. Ooh, the possibilities and things to learn.

I've read it cover to cover, even the article on how to make schools more green (no I don't have children but I also don't have cable or Internet yet so I've reading everything in sight. In my defense I did skip the article on carpets). The most interesting article was on kitchen storage. It recommended using glass and stainless steel containers and said to throw away old plastic containers because they leech chemicals and bacteria can form in small scratches. It also said if you are going to use plastic containers, #5 is safe but don't heat them or put hot food in them because they will start to deteriorate (#5 includes yogurt containers but also the Ziploc and Glad storage containers you can buy at Target). I didn't have anything too egregious in my kitchen, although it did make me wish I'd read it before I bought my cutting boards since it featured cool cutting boards made from recycled material.

The other big "green" effort I want to make is to buy used furniture. I need a few items but haven't bought anything yet, besides a small table I put by the door to hold my keys ($10 from a nameless store on 4th Street, Long Beach's thrift store row). Once I get Internet I'll be checking out Craigslist a lot I'm sure. Keeping my promise to buy used furniture has been helpful because otherwise I'd be flipping wistfully through every catalog that comes in the mail and feeling the need to hit the malls. Instead, I'm flipping wistfully through the Green Guide!