Sustainable house ideas

After reading about this ‘water-efficient home in L.A.’s Mount Washington’, nothing would please me more than to keep my 1939 house “original”  while incorporating solar and other energy-saving ideas. It may not be possible either technically, aesthetically or financially, so in the meantime, my roommate and I do what we can.

We currently:

1. Use compact fluorescent bulbs in 99% of the house.  Fixtures on dimmers have regular “A” lamps.
2. Take re-usable bags to the grocery store as much as our memory allows.  Yes, we sometimes forget but when we do, we make sure we re-use or recycle the paper & plastic bags.
3. Take shorter showers and always use our shower head shut-off valve when soaping up.
4. Run the dishwasher and clothes washer when full.
5. Set the clothes dryer to  the ‘energy miser’ setting.
6. Turn off lights when we leave a room – but we don’t go overboard and live in a dark house. At night, it’s still nice to have some ambient light even if we aren’t spending time in that room.
7. Re-use dryer sheets to dust furniture with,  and use micro-cloths to dust the hardwood floor.

Please send us your comments on what you do for the sake of living green.

– - DM