On my mind: Never thought I could learn so much from a dinner party!

One Tonne Life, Sweden's remarkable reality show experiment in lowering the carbon footprint of living wrapped things up recently. Much to learn from the site and its webisodes, particularly the dinner party episode embedded here.
   Often what I learn reinforces what I already know, but as they say, "knowing and not doing is not knowing." So, for me, the value of hearing energy saving tips again is they increase my motivation to start or maintain the takes-more-time tasks...hanging laundry for instance.
   Besides saving our planet, saving energy more often than not means saving money. Gotta love that!!
   Thought I'd share some of the One Tonne Life tips/data that have helped me to intensify my focus on frugality. Let me know if you've anything to add...some days I need all the motivation I can get to not take the easy way out! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some laundry to hang!

One Tonne Life Energy Wasters:

• Cooking with the lid off the pan results in a loss of 80% of the energy.
• Layers of frost and ice make a freezer work harder, which uses more energy.
• Pre-washing dishes is unnecessary in newer models of dishwashers.
• We throw away about one third of the food we buy, which means we should take less or clean our plates!
• There's a significant jump in the environmental impact of beef, as compared to chicken.

One Tonne Life Energy Savers:

• Defrost frozen foods in the fridge, so the fridge has to work less.
• If you must pre-rinse dishes before putting in the dishwasher, at least do not use running water. Instead, stopper the sink and use as little water as possible (preferably captured water).
• Cooking for many people at a time is a climate-smart move.
• Cooking enough extra for the next day's lunch or another meal reduces energy consumption.
• Open fridge and freezer as little as possible.
• Spend 5 minutes less in the shower daily to save 14,000 liters of water per year.
• Fill the washing machine to capacity to save every two out of three washes, by saving energy, water and detergent.
• The clothes dryer generally uses four times the energy of a washing machine. Air dry whenever possible.

   Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today? Share your link here or on down-to-earth. 

Cloudy day laundry solution

I never fear cloudy, iffy-might-rain-can't-tell days anymore. On those days I just hang all the laundry on hangers, keep an eye on the weather & whisk them all inside if needed to save them from the rain. Of course, it helps that I have indoor clothes rods. Caveat: be careful on super windy days or your laundry will end up strewn on your lawn! Often, even when it's not threatening rain, I will go ahead and hang clothing on hangers, rather than on the line with clothespins. Saves time when bringing in the laundry and putting the clothes away.

Where there's a will, there's a way

We have an umbrella stand for hanging laundry outside by the deck, but in winter that task is too cold for my blood. We do have a nice clothes rod in the mudroom/laundry room, but that room, which faces northeast, gathers too much moisture in the wintertime. So, I asked my hubby to come up with a way to hang clothes in our attached garage. I don't drive the car every day, and besides, I never warm it up, just get in and go, so fumes stinking up our clothes is not really an issue. He came up with the perfect solution this morning, and I'm quite proud to show that we're already using it. That strange looking beige thing on the right is my clothespin bag. Fashioned out of a coat hanger and some scrap material, we've been using it since shortly after we married 20+ years ago.

Thought I'd also show off a sample of what I did yesterday: ironed tissue paper saved from gift bags! Determined to save a tree in every little way. I'm especially mindful of trees these days, as we use a wood burner to supplement our heat so I'm very conscious of that natural resource.