Living Green with People Who Aren't

If you're here, you're probably interested in going green (or you already are), seeing DIY projects for going/staying/being green, etc. All of this is great, but it can be difficult when you're living with others that aren't green or environmentally friendly.

For me, I live with my husband and we rent out our third bedroom to a couple. Everyone isn't inherently opposed to the way I do things, but they don't do it themselves, if that makes sense. If you're living with people who aren't green (a husband, in-laws, tenants) then it can be difficult and often times annoying. But there are still some ways that everyone can live their own lives and you can still take part in extending the Earth's lifespan.

          If you're like me, you use paper or cloth. In my case, the paper fits perfectly in the bathroom  trash can and is used for that purpose. But with others in the house who aren't green, a ton of plastic bags still find their way into my home. Instead of reusing them in ways that make them end up in landfills within the month, you can make them into a reusable tote. Find my post "How It's Still Okay to Use Plastic Instead of Paper". The post is not me telling you to always use plastic instead of paper, but for cases like this it's amazing. You'll only need parchment paper, the plethora of bags you can't avoid, scissors, and a clothing iron. 

          If you're like my husband, you looove bottled water. Water jugs filled at Walmart simply don't taste the same, he says, and they lack the convenience of single bottles! While you can't force your housemates to give up  their bottled water (trust me, my husband isn't budging, and you can't control housemates), then there's definitely an easier solution. Make a hanging planter garden. 

                                             

                                                         https://dirt.asla.org/2013/08/13/diy-vertical-gardening/

This image is taken from the above website. It actually has the full tutorial on how you can make a hanging garden out of used plastic bottles. The bottles can easily be reused during gardening season, and cleaned out and used again next year for the next seeds. 

While you can't make your housemates stop purchasing the bottles, you can provide a receptacle for them to be placed and then use them at your leisure for various projects. 

          We order from Amazon.com quite a bit and so we end up with a ton of little boxes (we buy a LOT of Funko Pop!s). At first I just broke them down and piled them in a closet. But then that closet started overflowing, and I had to come up with something. So I started making note boards, tiny shelves for origami drawers under the monitor stand, etc. There are a TON of cardboard box crafts. Most of the time people are fine with you taking their garbage before it makes it to the bin. In my case, our tenants don't mind at all and of course my husband doesn't mind because most of the time the Funko Pop! is something that I bought for him anyway. 

                                                                                  lovethispic.com

This came from a photo sharing website and didn't have a tutorial, but I think the images are fairly easy to follow. I'll definitely be making this in the future and will make sure to document the process! I am a huge collector of office supplies, so I love little storage things like this, especially when I can make them from stuff I have around the house.

You can also make a cardboard bulletin  board. I've made two (small and medium) for my home office. You just take a sheet of cardboard, whatever size you want, and glue (I use hot glue) another sheet on top of the same size. Then you can cover it with fabric or paper (I used a patchwork style of coloured papers) and you're done! It's really simple and I enjoyed making them. 

          Different things around the house. Coffee stir sticks, garbage bags, cleaning products, etc. If you're renting a room in your house and they contribute, then you can't FORCE them to buy eco friendly products. Trust me, I've tried. It won't work and they'll argue for three hours on why you're wrong to not recycle plastic. But since it is YOUR house, you can buy what you want before they get the chance. Most of the things in the house are separated since they're only renting a bedroom in the back of the house. My husband and I provide most things, and that means I get to choose most of what's brought into the house. Our coffee stir sticks are wooden, our bathroom garbage bags are paper, and I bake bread two loaves at a time with flour purchased in a paper bag rather than buying plastic sealed bread from the market.

Overall, you can't tell the people in your house how to spend their money. It's their money and while they DO live in your house, you need to be respectful that for whatever reason, they don't want to go green or live an eco friendly lifestyle. Even though it can be cheaper living eco friendly, a lot of people believe that it's much more expensive. This can make them not want to hear advice about ways to change their lifestyles, and at that point there's really nothing you can do. You can't make people change and you'll only hurt yourself trying. Instead, you can focus on yourself and do what you CAN do. Take the plastic bags they bring into the house and mold them into reusable totes that can be used over and over again. Use their shipping boxes to make small storage shelves/drawers/containers. The possibilities are truly endless.