Partially Greener

The Story of Stuff...

...is a powerful one. Check out this video with Annie Leonard.

Annie does a fabulous job of illustrating how hooked on stuff we are. It's scary how much we define our worth based on what stuff we have. It's even scarier that only a very small percentage of that stuff remains in use six months after we buy it.

What would happen if we stopped consuming so much? Would the U.S. economy collapse? Would the world economy collapse? Would we be better off? What do you think?

Who wants a clean house?

I'm feeling a bit hesitant about our latest step in our quest to become partially greener. We fired our cleaning people. While I hate to clean, having them come just didn't make sense (and was less than frugal). Think about it:

1. Cleaning lady packs her car with non-earth-friendly, toxic cleaning supplies
2. Cleaning lady drives over 30 miles from her house to ours, burning precious fossil fuels and polluting the air
3. Cleaning lady applies non-earth-friendly, toxic cleaning supplies to surfaces in our home
4. Cleaning lady packs her car and drives back home
5. Andy and Rory write a $260 check each month

Who'd have thought that clean toilets caused so much impact to our environment?

Rory and I have made the commitment, and will begin keeping this place clean on our own, effective immediately. We're disposing of most of our hazardous household cleaners at the local hazardous waste drop-off site, and we're replacing them with Meyer's more earth-friendly products.

We'll see how this goes. Hopefully we won't fall into such uncleanliness that we'll be condemned!