Allie made a good point this morning about how to shop green on her blog chock full of tips on how to be green, and I want to reiterate it here.
Everyone is jumping on the greenwagon, which is great! -- in a way. It's great that Clorox is starting to sell affordable green cleaning products. It's great that grocery stores are starting to encourage you to bring reusable shopping bags.
But here's the thing. Some people are just in it for the money (GASP! I know it's hard to believe). They'll show you all these fancy environmental friendly products and encourage you to buy them so you too can be green.
When I saw an e-mail from Crate and Barrel advertising this really cool dining table made of sustainable teak, of course my first reaction was "cool! I'd love to have a dining table made of sustainable teak. I'd be sooo green then." Well, not exactly. They'd have to ship it to me first, which would require gobs of unnecessary packaging -- boxes, styrofoam everywhere -- and the fuel needed to get it here. Not to mention I already have a fabulous little dining table with a cool colored mosaic top.
So long preachy post short, live by this mantra: If you need it, buy green. If you don't need it, don't buy at all. If you've run out of dishwasher detergent, consider the Seventh Generation brand. If you've already got a dining table, don't bother with buying a new, albeit green, one.
I know this seems contrary to the shopping-esque nature of this blog, but here's a little secret: most of the stuff I post on here is stuff I only look at and admire for it's beauty or funkiness or coolness or whatever. I don't usually buy the stuff I'm sharing with you. I'm inviting you to also admire it, and if you might need a new dress because you've got a wedding to go to and your old dress is too small or you've got a dark space in your home that needs a good lamp.
4 comments:
sing it Modern Gal!
Ha ha, I'm off my soapbox. For now, anyway.
the boyfriend and i were talking about this yesterday. he made the same point, and you're both totally right. in trying to make sure i use reusable shopping bags, i kind of went crazy and bought a bunch. not a ridiculous amount, but probably 10 bags of various shapes, sizes and colors. Ikea, Target, Baggu, to name a few. and i lust after the colorful bags offered by trader joe's. i had to stop myself before my innocent desire to use fewer plastic bags turned into wasteful greed.
Thanks for the link!
It's hard. New products are fun, and things around the house do start looking dingy after awhile. But when you think about how much you actually need vs. what you want, it's staggering. Of course if none of us bought stuff ever we'd have economic problems too.
I'm thinking of painting my kitchen table this summer. It's a hand me down from my in-laws and may be older than me. But a coat of paint could go a long way.
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