Category Archives: Budget Environmentalism

Drying Your Clothes with Less Energy

As the weather warms up, I’m starting to really wish for a clothesline. Only one reason one hasn’t been installed yet:

We’re renting.

We did think about it last year, and right about when we were starting to get winter rain was when my husband figured out a way he thinks he can manage it. Our budget is tight enough that we have to do this as cheaply as possible, and many of the freestanding solutions I saw were out of our budget last year.

This year the delay is different. With my husband out of work, we may only be here through April, then into the *eek!* inlaws’ house. And there’s no way we feel comfortable committing to a clothesline until we know we’re staying long enough to really reap the benefit.

Using a clothesline has a lot of advantages. First is how much you save on energy. Clothes dryers use a lot of it. According to energy.gov, a clothesdryer uses 1800–5000 watts. If you wash a mere 4 loads a week with 45 minutes drying time for each load, that’s 187.2 kilowatt-hours per year, and at $0.085/ kWH, is $23.88/year on the low side.

But most families use their dryers far more than that. Heck, I can end up doing a load a day if my son’s going through a bedwetting phase. With 4 people in the house there’s always enough to make it a full load immediately.

Winters here are mild enough that much of the time we could even dry the clothes outside. But there are indoor systems that you can use too, I know. My mom even had a clothesrack when I was a kid.

Of course, if you do have a dryer and just prefer to use it, there are things you can do to save energy. Keeping the lint trap clear is a big one that most of us know, yet some neglect.

Your washing machine can also make a difference. The newer horizontal axis ones are more efficient in many ways, but they can be better at getting water out of your clothes as they dry, so there’s less work for the dryer to do. But with other washers you can get a similar effect by doing an extra spin cycle at the end. More moisture will come out.

Replacing your dryer when the time comes is one of the best ways to cut back on its energy use. Look for one that has a moisture dectector, which is pretty common now, I think.  Look for the most energy efficient you can get on your budget.

I’m very hopeful that we’ll get things figured out here so that we can stay at least another year or so. If we manage that, I’m going to try to get that clothesline up this year!

Costco Will Recycle Electronics

Yesterday I talked about whether or not you should repair or replace broken electronics. I briefly mentioned that you could recycle, but I forgot to mention one more resource for disposing of them.

Costco has partnered with Green Sight to recycle old electronics. They buy back those that still have some value, but if they don’t want to buy it, they will still take it for free. Much nicer than having to pay to recycle them. They’ll even give you an estimated value online.

Once you’ve filled in your information, they ask for your address and send you a prepaid shipping label. You get your payment in a Costco Cash Card. Seems like a pretty nice deal for getting rid of unwanted electronics

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Smarter Not to Repair?

Having successfully fixed my leaking dishwasher recently got me thinking about how easily many people throw broken gadgets and appliances out. Not even trying to recycle them in many cases; just throwing them out.

broken tv

There’s a list in AOL’s Money & Finance section that drives me nuts. It’s a list of 5 things you should never repair.

I know many gadgets are hard to have repaired, but to say you shouldn’t even bother checking it out really makes me mad. Especially since the list includes computers. The quick version of the list is:

  1. Computers
  2. Digital Cameras
  3. MP3 Players
  4. Microwave Ovens
  5. Cell Phones

I was smart when I got my computer and got the extended warranty. That’s not a smart move with a lot of electronics, but I’ve found it to be a must with computers, and every time I’ve bought one on a computer I’ve gotten my money’s worth. My computer I’m using right now has already had its power supply replaced once. Shouldn’t have needed it as it is not that old (coming up on two years, I think), but it did, and that would have been an expense if I hadn’t had the warranty. It’s had more minor work done too.

The other items mentioned I do understand are much harder to decide to repair. After all, they’re cheaper than a good computer, and repairs are expensive. It has long been an annoyance that disposal makes more sense than repair for so many things now.

I do agree that one of the smartest things you can do is to properly protect your electronics. They recommend that you have a sleeve for MP3 players, so that they are not so easily damaged. That’s just good sense.

Then again, the best thing you can do in terms of the environment and your electronics is think about which ones you really need at all, and how often you really need to upgrade. I buy computers when the old one gets beyond repair, my cell phone has survived a thorough soaking courtesy of my son, my digital camera is 5 years old and still going strong. I like it that way.

Once your electronics do reach that point, use resources such as Earth 911’s electronics recycling guide to figure out how to properly dispose of your electronics.

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Feeling Proud of Myself – Fixed My Dishwasher

I’m not that great at repairs, but if it’s something that requires research online to figure out the problem and not too much tool use, I may well be up for it. And that turned out to be the case with my dishwasher.

I noticed this morning when I ran it that it was leaking out of the bottom of the door. Did a search on Google and came up with ApplianceBlog.com’s forum. Found out that a leaky dishwasher door can be caused by the door vent being gunked up, and that they just pop right out.

So I looked inside,saw a vent I could pop out and ewww! Put me in mind of rotten cooked cabbage. The smell was horrible.

Cleaned it out and now there doesn’t seem to be a leak anymore.

Feeling pretty good about this because my landlord’s tendency is to replace rather than check out the chances for repair. I didn’t mind when the washing machine broke and they did that, since I had already figured out it was well beyond my meager abilities in that area, and the machine had a few other problems that I had been working with anyhow.

But replacing the dishwasher turns out to not be necessary, and even though it took my time and won’t save me any money, I’m happy. It’s one dishwasher that’s not going to junk quite yet.

Getting the Kids Ready for the Holidays

Children look forward to the holiday season, especially (for those who celebrate it) Christmas. For many kids it’s a time to get a ton of new toys, many of which will only be used a few times.

There are a lot of things I intend to do with my kids to get them ready for the holiday season. Some of it is to just plain clear things out, the rest to help them to understand what they should and should not be expecting from Christmas.

christmas presents

Step one, to be implemented within the next few weeks, is to agree on the toys we will be getting rid of. Due to the sheer range of stuff they receive for birthdays and prior Christmases I expect to be disposing of at least half.

My kids are unusually good about this. The last time we did a toy cleanout my daughter was delighted by the thought that poorer kids could get to use her toys that didn’t interest her anymore. She kept that up when we cleaned out her old clothes a month or two back. It may be a bit more difficult to deal with my son, who hasn’t had to do this himself before, but I think he can start to get the idea.

Step two is somewhat ongoing, due to my daughter’s current phase of wanting everything she sees a commercial for. Pretty much all parents know this phase, I think.

But I’ll be stepping it up pretty soon, as we update last year’s Christmas list. I have a website for my daughter, and one of the things it has is her Christmas wish list. Last year she couldn’t read, so I could get away with making comments on the things she was asking for, and let people know which things I really didn’t want her to have. It was the simple way of dealing with the fact that kids generally want much more than they ought to have.

But this year she’s just starting to read, and I think she’s old enough to understand why I won’t be putting everything she wants on her list. Of course if I did that, it would be pretty much the entire store.

I don’t expect my kids to want all the environmentally friendly stuff, but when I see something along those lines that appeals to them, I encourage it. I also encourage toys that require more creativity, and so avoid toys that are more set in what you’re supposed to do with them, as well as most television character toys.

Another thing I encourage them to ask for is craft supplies. I love to have a lot of things around the house that requires my kids to think, do and be creative. My kids have a box of supplies ready for all their whims. It can leave a mess but is so much fun to see.

I know some families get very picky about the toys their kids get and try to avoid plastic ones. That has always sounded pretty challenging to me, considering what is available these days. But I do want to be pickier about the plastic toys allowed. I find it hard to give up the idea of my kids playing with Legos, for one. It’s a tough decision sometimes.

Talking about what Christmas is and what it should be is very important to me. There are a lot of ideals beyond “gimme, gimme” that need to be taught. Sharing, giving to the less fortunate, for example. Appreciating what we do have. It takes time and patience to instill those values, but I hope to do well at it.

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