I’ll be honest with you. There are days I wish I’d never given in to going beyond being a green wannabe. I mean, as a wannabe, I always had my good intentions and list of excuses at the ready. But once I committed to making my confessions public, I sort of became responsible for doing more than just wanting to do my part for the planet, and actually being held accountable for it

As I reflect on the past year and look toward the new one, I’m happy to share that despite some of my misgivings I am a “greener” person since starting to write this column. Some of the ways I’ve changed have become so much a part of my new “normal” that I had to really think about what we do now that’s different.

Here are a few of the changes I hope add up to make a difference.

• Examined my work habits and made changes to reduce my professional carbon footprint including writing more about green issues, printing much less, recycling what I can and cutting way back on my office supply junkie habit.
• Using cloth napkins and substantially reducing the use of paper towels at home by using them primarily only for cleaning up chicken juice and other such nastiness.
• Reduced our family’s waste by considering packaging materials in our purchases, being more thoughtful consumers and committing to our goal of using the smaller garbage bin after realizing the embarrassing and ridiculous amounts of garbage we were heaping on the landfill.
• Increasing the amount we recycle by learning more about what can be recycled and just paying closer attention
• Giving less material gifts and using creative, greener wrapping ideas like reusing brown bags, attaching old ornaments and using paint chips as gift tags
• Developing a bag habit – keeping cloth bags in the stroller and trunk and remembering to use them.
• Cupboard cooking – cutting down on waste and gas by learning how to cook out of the cupboards instead of the various restaurants I had in my phone’s speed dial.
• Washing clothes in cold water – pretty much all loads except diapers and towels.
• Using cloth diapers. While I didn’t do 100% cloth diapers, I did pretty well until we went on vacation and I got hooked on the convenience of disposables. I eased my green-guilt by making sure I flushed solids every time and promising to start the cloth diapers again soon.
• Unplugging appliances, chargers and shutting down the computer overnight.
• Springing for greener cleaners
• Making homemade, mostly organic, baby food. I think I purchased a total of 12 jars of baby food this year and 6 of them are in our emergency kit.
• Cutting back on driving by clustering errands, doing more by foot and partnering with neighbors to shop for each other.
• Joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and learning to cook vegetables I’d never heard of before.

There is more to do, of course. And since I happen to be a resolutions kind of gal, here are some of my green goals for 2009:

• Make our home more energy efficient
• Maybe, just maybe, consider getting over my unnatural fear of composting
• Getting back to using cloth diaper
• Make, and use, homemade cleaners
• Continue the greener habits made last year and improve on them as I learn newer, better ways to do things

What green changes have you made that you are excited about? What were the most challenging changes? The easiest?

I’d love to hear what your green goals are for 2009! What green changes have you made that you are excited about? What were the most challenging changes? The easiest?

Happy New Year!