Be Green -- Do Nothing!

In The Tightwad Gazette, Amy Dacyczyn explains that when reporters come to her house, they want to see her doing tightwad things, so they frequently take pictures of her hanging the laundry. She thinks, however, that what is even more important are the things she doesn't do. For example, she doesn't buy fruit snacks (but that doesn't make for a very compelling photo op.)

Another piece of advice in her book is to keep reducing the amounts of stuff that you use until it's not enough. For example, do you really need 1/2 c. of laundry detergent? Or will 3/8 of a cup do? If 3/8 is enough, maybe 1/4 is.... Do you need to cover your whole toothbrush with toothpaste? Or is a "pea-size amount" (like the dentist says) enough? Or even less? My dentist told me that it's the brushing, not the toothpaste, that really matters.

To me, these two pieces of advice go hand in hand. Sometimes, to be green, or to be a tightwad, or to be both, we don't actually have to DO anything. We just don't do something:

• Don't go shopping. (This is an amazing time saver.)
  
• Don't change the sheets every week.
  
• Don't wash the towel every time you use it. You dry off your CLEAN body.
  
• Don't wash your jeans every day. Really. Unless you work outdoors or something, they're just not that dirty. If it doesn't bother you to wait two days, and no one notices, go for three...
  
• Don't go to the store for 1/4 teas. of a mystery spice; just leave it out.
• Don't make meat for dinner -- just eat side dishes. I was a vegetarian for over 10 years, and my favorite meal was Thanksgiving. Not because of the turkey -- blech! -- because of the sides.
• Don't take a shower before bed and when you wake up. Really. How dirty ARE you?
  
• Don't flush the toilet every time you use it. This is gross for some people. But how about this: if you take all your kids into a public restroom, do you flush after each person? Or does everyone pee and then you flush? (This assumes they are little kids and you go in with them. I personally think it's grosser to flush after each person. I just imagine all the bacteria flying into the air.)

Not doing anything can make a real difference. Here's an easy example:

Imagine that you normally change the sheets every 7 days, or 52 times a year.
You get radical, and decide that every 8 days is enough. Now you only wash your sheets 45.625 times a year (let's round to 45, because you leave town and let it go a couple more days.)
That's 7 fewer washes a year, saving 7 loads of water, the energy to heat it (if you're still washing with hot water), the detergent, and the energy to change the sheets.
Laziness pays off! Did it make a real difference? Did that extra day push you over the edge? Probably not.