What things do you do to be more 'green'

I know plenty of chazzers are as green as they can manage, so I'm just curious what exactly you do to be green at YOUR house. List out as many things (big or small) you do.......you may inspire someone else who hadn't thought of that particular way yet!

1. I use reusable shopping bags.

2. I recycle EVERYTHING that I can possibly recycle each week.

3. We use actual lunch boxes and containers.

4. I make our laundry soap WITHOUT harsh detergents.

5. I use vinegar instead of fabric softener, window cleaners, and in place of MANY other cleaners around the house.

6. We keep the heat set at 68....too cold? Too bad...Get a sweater.

7. Shut down the computers each night.

8. I do try to keep lights off in rooms not being used...........sometimes in this house of teens it feels like a losing battle!

9. I can and freeze in season fruits/veggies reusing jars and containers.

There's probably more that I'm not thinking of ATM. The following are things I'm going to attempt this summer:

Composting, gray water reusage for the lawn/plants, and a rain barrel.

Please share yours!

Not as much as you but we recycle as much as possible, use reusable grocery bags and if, for some reason, we wind up with the plastic bags, those are returned to be recycled on the next shopping trip.
Also use sandwich containers for lunch, turn off lights where possible (have one aged cat and her eyesight is dimming so now we have night lights in the hallway/bedrooms) and our thermostat is set at 60.
All of our shopping trips (grocery, hardware, feed stores) are planned for the route home from work so once we're home, we don't have to go again. If we do find we've forgotten something, well, it can wait until the next day.

When I lived on my own I:
recycled everything
never used paper plates or even paper towels or napkins, just cloth
made my own detergent, soap/shampoo, cleaning supplies
only used public transportation and walked anywhere within a 5 mile radius
use reusable containers for lunch

I guess that's it. I tried to eat local/organic, but it was hard to afford.

At my parent's house. Nothing. They hate saving the environment. And saving money. We use paper plates and paper cups for everything, napkins, paper towels, disposable EVERYTHING. Run tons of useless electronics all the time. Blast the heat or AC. Buy disgusting food in disgusting packages. They recycle some stuff, not everything though.

I do everything you do with a few exceptions:

-I just buy locally made all natural laundry detergent. Super cheap in the bulk section of my co-op so I just re-fill my container as needed.
-I don't turn on my heat or A/C unless I (or Chester) am dying, in which case I'll blast it for 30 seconds or so. So far the coldest it's gotten according to my horribly-not-accurate thermostat is about 62, and the warmest I think was 84 (in the summer, I just take clothes off, ha! The joys of living alone).
-Almost all of my food is local, and what isn't is typically bought in bulk with re-usable containers. I also make from scratch everything I can (I just made my first pasta!), especially yogurt, butter, and buttermilk.
-I almost completely refuse to buy new books. I'll either buy used (far preferable) or e-books (with the notable exceptions of cookbooks that I just absolutely cannot find used. I'll use my tablet for online recipes, but I hate having a whole cookbook on an e-reader).
-I try to do all my errands at once, or else I walk there.
-I use a fair-trade shea butter shampoo (all-natural as in it's just saponified shea butter, some essential oils, and a stabilizer that I'm not sure what it is so it's probably "natural" but whatever - it's at least more all-natural than most other hygiene all-natural products, and it makes my hair amazing).

I'm constantly looking for new things to cut back on.

Not much.. we walk or take public transport everywhere, and use eco friendly cleaners.

Can't cut down on AC... Ferrets.

We use recyclable bags, my mom now uses some sort of vinegar cleaner to be more environmentally friendly, turn off lights/etc, use containers for just about everything.

My aunt is the master of natural living though. She finally had a baby in August (after years of wanting one), and because her husband has a rare heart condition.. they buy all organic food, plus Joaquin (my cousin) wears cloth diapers, my aunt made the bedding/etc herself, she doesn't use baby wipes (she uses some sort of grape seed oil or something similar), etc. I think I could go on for days. I think most of it stems from my uncle's health issues.

I drive a Prius. Recycle. Use reusable shopping bags. Buy local when I can. Walk where I can. Donate to several environmental and conservation groups.

-Walk/ride my bike a lot of places
-Shop locally, both grocery items and otherwise
-Recycle
-Another thermostat set at 68
-Turn off lights, electronics, etc.
-We NEVER use paper plates or disposable cups or silverware
-We do the lunch box thing, too

- we dont use a microwave.
- we try and hunt most of our meat as we can.
- re-use bags
- we only use organic body products like lotion, hair products. I would like to try and make my own products, but my scalp is very high maintance.
- my car is pretty fuel efficient, although our truck is not, but we hardly drive it.
- we don't currently, but this year we will be putting in a wood stove.
- we try and recycle pretty much everything we can.

I think the microwave actually comes out ahead of most other forms of cooking, energy wise.

I think I have the driving under 6k miles now.
House set to 60-65.

How does one play beer pong without disposable cups?

I've started using much more natural (homemade) cleaning supplies and far fewer chemical laden products, but to be honest that is mostly to protect the health of the birds....And the birds need the house to be warmer than we had it before we had birds, so maybe that cancels out the natural cleaners-lol.

Most of our "green" habits have more to do with saving with money first, with the greenness of it being an afterthought.

We try to be pretty green. My Mom's always bought organic only since I can remember.
Now living on my own I:
I use reusable shopping (others you have to buy here, no free bags)
Buy mostly organic (always dairy, meat, fish, veggies ect.)
We get local organic veggies delivered once a week
we recycle (have to, our trash cans are too small)
I use "organic" cleaners and laundry detergant/fabric softener. (Id leave the softer be, but I don't have a dryer so towel without fabric softener are meh)
I use public transportation or bike most of the time
Thermostat around 70 (we have tiles, its REALLY cold.) but it get's turned down when we are not here.
We buy fairtrade coffee/teas only.

We have mandatory recycling in my town so we do recycle whatever we can. My heat stays at 66 during the day when no ones home and 52 at night when we are all in bed. Otherwise it is 68. We mostly use reusable bags for grocery shopping but do get a few plastic for when we scoop the litter box a few times a day. 80% of our lights are energy efficient. We don't use air conditioning, if we get too hot, we jump in the pool. I shop locally when I can. I use the reusable filters for my keurig instead of the plastic throw a way ones. I'm sure there are more and I am doubly sure I could do more.

You people with your thermostats so low are insane

I'm hoping to cloth diaper the baby, at least at home.

i am trying to use less plastic. Not buy it if it isn't absolutely necsesary. That goes for packaging, reuse.,,save, things like bubble wrap and styrafoam and use natural peanuts when possible.

I always look for anything i need at the thrift store first. More times than not, I will find something that works. The thrift store I shop at most goes to 17 local charities so it is a win win all the way around.

I try to consolidate all trips. Not only for the idea of saving on gas money, but just in general.

OMG.........JEALOUS!

My gang (including Orson!) are a bunch of whiners with the temp set to 68....how in the world do you get cooperation on the 60-65!?

Programmable thermostat.

60 is supposed to be while people are asleep!

I sleep with about six blankets and let me tell you I wouldn't be getting out of bed if it was 60 in my house.

Ours is set to 60 all the time but when you're outside a lot, caring for livestock when it's 10-20 degrees, well, 60 feels pretty darned good! In the summer, we keep the thermostat around 78-80 for the same reason, being out when it's in the 90s, I hate coming into the house and 'freezing'.

Back when my Rottie mix, Emily, was alive, she hated heat (and generated quite a bit herself) so to keep her from whining, grumbling and pawing at me all night, I usually kept my bedroom window cracked all winter. Now, THAT got cold!