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I’ve recently done some transactions on Craigslist and that makes me feel pretty good. As part of our recent move, there was some extra furniture we didn’t plan on moving. Some of the furniture was nice stuff and some not as nice but since I wanted to sell the good stuff I figured I would just post all of it. Surprisingly every single piece was spoken for and I got my asking price for all but one piece. Since I was limited on time (with the sale of my house), two of the people missed showing up and I just couldn’t reschedule. After that, turns out that my husband’s cousin is just now establishing his own place since he recently graduated. So the items I didn’t move from the Craigslist posts are now being put to good use at his apartment.

The whole idea here is that when you are done with something, just because you don’t want it any more doesn’t mean that no one wants it. So instead of throwing away items you don’t want, especially those big items, see if someone else wants it. Whether it be family or a stranger willing to pay you for it, I bet you could find someone. Nothing else, consider donating items.

Beware if you start posting on Craigslist, it can be addicting. I’ve done lots more searching for things I may want for my next house. I suppose that time will come when I start buying.

Have you been avoiding the CFL bandwagon because of the mercury content?  A while back I started switching over to CFLs and at that point I was concerned with how I would recycle them, but had faith something would come up before the bulbs burnt out.  Recently the answer has come to us.  Both Home Depot and Ace Hardware have instituted recycling programs for CFLs.  The EPA also has a site with listings of where you can go to recycle the burnt out bulbs, broken out by region.

The other thing I have heard about CFLs is, what to do if one of the bulbs break.  There was someone I used to work with that had somehow broken two CFL bulbs this past spring and he would tease that he had a mercury spill at his house.  CFLs do contain mercury, but very very little.  However, EPA has given some guidelines on how to properly cleanup from a CFL breaking.  The basic gist, don’t blow it around (including don’t vacuum it up), just pick up the pieces to throw them away and the little pieces left can be picked up by using duct tape.  If you do have a spill, check out what the EPA has to say just to be cautious.

So my friend Doug had a car that was on it’s last legs so to speak.  It had reached the point of one repair too many and he decided to donate it.  I think donating it was a great move so that it can get further use out of it supporting a good cause.  While his car was slowly dieing, he was nudged into taking public transportation to get to and from work.  Not surprisingly, he really liked taking public transportation.  Looking back, he is saving a ton of money and seeing a number of benefits that I wanted to share with you.

Let’s start with the money because I know more people are persuaded by it.  Here is what his car was costing him before he started using public transportation:

• Monthly car payment = $0 (already paid off)
• Gas = $72.54 per month (9 gallon tank, 2 tanks per month @ $4.03 per gallon)
• Insurance = $70 per month
• Parking Fees (Downtown Cleveland) = $145

So before using public transportation he was spending $287.54 per month just going to and from work.  My initial reaction is that it isn’t that bad.

Now let’s look at what he spends without his car.

• Monthly RTA pass = $70 

So by switching to take public transportation to work everyday he is saving $217.54 every month.  That is impressive.  These numbers don’t include basic maintenance either, like oil changes. I can’t think of another way to save that much money every month.  What would you do with an extra $200 a month? 

While the money says a lot, it isn’t the only thing.  There is the whole aspect of the emissions the car puts out.  Without having the car, he is making less frivolous trips to places like the bookstore.  This means he isn’t spending money on gas, again no emissions, and he isn’t buying as many books.  He doesn’t stress about driving and can also get some work done while sitting on the bus/train.

This has been Doug’s story of going to public transportation in Cleveland.  I made the same switch when I moved to Philly.  I haven’t sold my car yet, but it is on my to do list.  I love taking the train here.  I’m getting more exercise (about 2 miles of walking a day) and I can’t make an excuse to skip it.  I don’t have to stress over the traffic getting into downtown.  I’ve also been reading while on the train, catching up on my Stephen King collection, or sometimes I watch podcasts (if I remember to charge my iPod).

I realize some people feel very attached to their cars and don’t feel that they can give them up.  They wonder how they would get to the grocery store.  In Doug’s situation, his wife still has a car, so they use it for running to the store.  In my situation, my husband and I want to go down to one car as well.  There really isn’t a reason why we need two cars for the two of us, especially when I take public transportation and my husband works from home.  You can go down to one car per household without much of an issue.  There are also other services in larger cities like PhillyCarShare and ZipCar, so you don’t have to have a car at all, but if you need one, one is available.

We are all getting upset over gas prices and looking for ways improve the outlook for fuel.  A lot of people are looking at the cars they drive, ways they commute, or perhaps even instituting flextime at work or telecommuting.  But have you thought about looking within your home?   Most people don’t think about energy their homes consume when they feel the “pain at the pump”.

According to some stats published by Owens Corning (they cite the Department of Energy, but take it for what it’s worth), 80% of homes built before 1980 are not insulated to government standards and even newer homes are only insulated to the minimum standard.  They also have the following quote on their website:

“Many Americans assume that transportation and industry are the largest consumers of energy in the U.S., but it’s actually buildings,” said Wendy Burt from the U.S. Department of Energy. “The electricity consumed by one single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars. The good news is there are simple energy-efficient upgrades we can make, such as adding insulation in the attic and caulking windows and doors that reduce our energy footprint and save us money.”

Owens Corning also offers a Home Report Card Quiz to figure out where your home ranks for energy efficiency.  I took the quiz for my house back in Cleveland (we sold it for those of you following my personal life as well) and it received a grade of B.  We were good with energy efficient appliances, good on the hot water heater, decent on the windows, but we could have improved on sealing up those cracks that temperature controlled air leaks out of.  Now I do realize all this information could be taken as slighted since it all comes from a company that produces insulation.  Even if half of it were true, this is still pretty amazing and they are things we should pay attention to.

Instead of getting mad and support off shore drilling, do something about it.  Add value to your home; conserve the energy you use, by making your home more energy efficient.  Whether it be to insulate your home, or just sealing up cracks around the home where heated and cooled temperatures leak.  While I’m awful at economics, I do know that by not using fuel for heating and cooling, it makes it available for other uses and would lower prices because there is less demand (or something like that).

A few posts back, Alex commented about the blogs he reads and would like to know what I read.  So now available on this blog is a blogroll, available in the right hand column.  There are many great green blogs available.  I also believe this is what finally put me up on the Best Green Blogs.  Best Green Blogs is a great website to go to if you want to find other blogs addressing the environment and sustainability.  Many of the blogs in the directory can get into very specific topics, like travelling green or raising a green baby.

Check out some of these other blogs that I read if the topics seem to apply to your life too.  If there is something that you read that you think I should check out, let me know.  Even though my life has been a bit crazy the last month or two with selling my house (YEAH, it’s sold!), I’m still on the lookout for new things to learn, read, and topics I want to write about.  My topic list is growing so look for more new topics in the future, like the dryer I’ve dreamed about, conserving more gas by improving a home’s energy efficiency and a fantastic top ten list.