What about the Benjamins? It's obvious that in order to get more green, you either have to invent an entirely useful household item (enter Snuggie?), marry royalty, be a gold digger, work exceptionally hard and get a bit lucky ... OR
Start small and save a little green instead. That's right, we're not talking about getting rich here, but how to put a little back into your pocket by reducing costs.
One of the easiest household tips I know of to help reduce costs is through the laundry chute. Habits be darned, here are a few essentials for greener laundry practices:
- Wash everything in cold. It reduces heating costs for hot water, and you can wash whites with darks as long as you've run previous cycles to ensure clothing does not bleed. I tend to stick to primarily socks, as they seem to do just fine with most color items. Any new items should be washed separately before testing this theory (though pink is in they say).
- Shorten wash cycles from 12 minutes to 8 for heavy loads, 8 minutes to 4 for lighter loads (if you insist on smaller loads, crunched for time, etc). I've never encountered issues with the cleaning capabilities of a 4 minute cycle.
- Wash full loads to minimize frequency. Now it goes against the above suggestion for lighter loads, but there will be occasions where you just can't wait. In that case, shorten your duration.
- Hang dry jeans, towels, sheets (basically anything where wrinkling isn't a big concern; reduces drying time).
- Go for non-toxic detergent (Seventh Generation, Method, Green Works) if you're concerned about how green your detergent is, but buy in larger quantities. Prices tend to be lower over time if you buy in bulk versus smaller quantities that you'll run out of more frequently. Same would apply to regular detergent (we all know the green stuff is not cheap).
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