Going green is a hard road less travelled. I realised that well when I explored some simple steps as how to save electricity at home. This past week was about pushing (my) buttons. In few occasions, I was wondering if I should continue with this journey… The “honeymoon phase” of going green is clearly over. Practically speaking, it was an easy week, as my green living goals mainly involved pushing (or not pushing) various switches to save electricity at home. Yet emotionally speaking, my buttons were pressed, and things were not so straightforward.

Simple steps as how to save electricity at home that I carried out:

1. Turning lights off when not in the room

2. Switching off appliances that I do not use

3. Turning off my computer (or putting it in sleep mode) overnight

4. Not pre-heating the oven

5. Putting my phone on flight mode at night

6. Reducing the thermostat of my refrigerator to 3 degrees Celsius

7. Kids game: light police patrol

How to save electricity at home: Becoming mindful of my appliances

I had previously put on the list that if a new appliance is needed, we should buy an energy-efficient one. However, following my maxim not to consume more new products because of my green journey, I had to discard that activity. I discuss this maxim more in my post on changing my coffee and tea habits. Nothing had broken down and thus this was not the step to take to save electricity at home last week.

It was also important for me to acknowledge and build upon what we already had, presented as a list in my earlier exploration of how eco-friendly I am. We had already switched to energy-efficient light bulbs, and my husband found those even for our chandelier, as shown in one of the featured photos of this post.

In general, we were not so bad with keeping unnecessary lights on. Yet there were some flaws in the system. I often “forgot” the spotlights above the sink and the stove in the kitchen, so I had to work on that. And I got better during the week! The same with the lights in the basement where I do laundry. For some reason, I often used to leave the lights on there. Our toddler Rick is also at the age where he likes to reach out and switch on lights, and very quickly our home is lit like a ballroom! I had not been always so rigorous turning off the lights after him.

Switching off computer and phone

An area where a lot of improvement was needed was switching off the appliances that were not in use. This included my computer and putting my phone on flight mode at night. I had to first learn How to Save Energy by Eliminating Phantom Loads and then practice being mindful of that. The easiest task for sure this week was switching my refrigerator that I found to be turned on 5 degrees of Celsius to 3 degrees. A very simple way as how to save electricity at home.

Another way to reduce electricity bill: Light police patrol

As mentioned in the Solar Power article on 45 Ways to Make Going Green Fun for Kids, children can be great contributors to saving energy at home. It is just important to present the activities in a kid-friendly way. So I proposed that Lev and Max become the light police patrol. Every time I mentioned “light police,” they were running around the house looking for lights to turn off! It was a great way to introduce them to the idea of switching off unnecessary lights, despite that it sometimes led to clashes with Rick who loves switching on all lights. Fortunately, the battles culminated in nice reconciliations!

Challenges

Vicious circles of going green

I touched upon one such vicious circle in my blog post on water conservation when discussing the dilemma of whether to eat organic or reduce plastic. Last week I also stumbled upon some more paradoxes like that. For instance, first I had thought of buying a mechanical alarm clock and switching my phone completely off at night. Yet when I looked at options online, most of the alarms were actually battery-powered…

In a similar vein, to decide about whether I should put my computer on sleep mode or turn it completely off at night was not straight forward. It became clear that although turning the computer off is the best option in terms of electricity use, turning it off too often can reduce the lifespan of my already pretty old computer. This could, potentially ,lead me to have to buy a new one sooner. So after some reflection, I decided to opt for using flight mode for my phone and sleep mode for the computer at night. Regarding pre-heating the oven, I also realised that with our little oven, this did not really work. This just prolonged then the cooking time.

This is all just a small drop in the ocean

The autumn arrived with its colours, but also with colder and grey weather that impacted my mood. We had some bad news about our loved ones and myself, and two of my boys also got sick last week. So, tired and in pain, I found myself thinking: why do I bother with all this? All that I do in my family and with my blog is just such a small drop in the ocean…


Going green is a hard road less travelled

In the midst of this negative mindset, I just wanted to forget myself into a hot shower, push just a button to make a coffee quickly, jump into a warm car to get to my yoga class, and so on. My mood did not improve as I forgot to switch off my computer some evenings. Or when my baby cried and I ran to comfort him and fell asleep with him, leaving the computer, phone, and lights on downstairs all night. The greener way seemed complicated, and all I wanted was an easy way out—back to the comfort of my old ways.

Losing my blog post

On top of the seasonal blues and being sick, tired of the harder greener way, I lost the first draft of this blog post. This happened due to my experiment of shutting down my computer for the night! Yes, I must have been very sleepy, not paying attention, and I forgot to save changes before turning off my computer. Then my buttons were very much pressed, and without my commitment to you, some inspirational readings I turned to, and practicing some positive habits that I have, I would have turned back to my old comfortable easy way for sure.

Tips and highlights of the week

First of all, I remembered the quotation that:

• The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step

I did not remember anymore who said this, so I looked up and decided to keep this Lao Tzu quotation as one of my main mottos for my green journey. The idea is to contemplate this idea whenever I slip back into doubt about my chosen direction. And last week when I tried to save electricity at home, my seasonal blue presented an excellent occasion for that.

• Focus on what I have already achieved

A dear friend often reminds me about the “compare-despair” connection, saying that we just mostly feel bad when we compare ourselves to others . She often adds that if I really need to make a comparison, then I should compare my present situation to the way things used to be before in my life, the road I have already travelled. So I decided to do some calculations:

1) Since beginning of this September, I have introduced 37 little changes to my and my family’s lives that make our lifestyle more eco-friendly.

2) Just with my new way of brushing teeth, I have saved about 740 liters of water since September.

3) With my new take-away coffee mug, I have avoided consuming at least 10 single-use paper coffee cups.

4) With weekly biking and walking more, I have saved about 3 liters of gasoline. According to Ecoscore, this means I have avoided about 7, 2 kg of CO2 emissions.

I have to say that I did feel much better about all my green journey after this little counting exercise!

• Know when to indulge an easier way, forgive myself, and keep trying to follow the road less travelled

I knew before starting the greener living journey that I could not approach it with “black and white” thinking. The aim of my exercise is not to have extra guilt, another source of feeling guilty, but to reduce eco-guilt. So when I am sick, very tired, or overwhelmed, it is okay for me to indulge into easy way and not beat myself up for that! With so many different habits, it is normal that I will forget about some things sometimes. However, when I feel better again or become mindful of my omitted new habits, I am Taking the Road Less Travelled, because as beautifully worded by Carmen Payne:

“Taking the road less travelled is a choice to break the status quo because it requires us to get out of our comfort zone. No one ever said it would be easy, but many who have travelled on before us assure us that the rewards of learning to do things differently are great.”