I used to dream of living in a quaint European city or town where people ride bicylces everywhere. I thought I’d have to move there to be a part of that lifestyle… until gas prices went through the roof (just as my bathroom scale was also edging higher).

It turns out that one of the good things about apartment dwelling most anywhere is the close proximity to one’s everyday errand destinations, like the grocery store, the post office, the bank. One way you can beat the gas pump and lessen your fear of the bathroom scale is to ride your bike when running nearby errands.  Think of all of the benefits! You’re not creating any pollution. You’re reducing the local traffic. You’re saving money. You can save some more money by quitting the gym because you’re getting exercise on a real bike, not a stationary bike. You’ll live longer and stronger. You’re shaking it up- giving the locals something to think about. Plus, your derrier is getting nicer. What’s not to love?

Being at the front end of a trend can be a really fun thing- you get to have a new lifestyle! Just think of all the bicycle choices there are these days! Do you want to be an Italian racer type? Or a mountain-bike type? Or look like Miss Gulch in The Wizard of Oz, like me? She was the pre-curser to the Wicked Witch - You know, where she’s riding down the farm road with Toto in her basket strapped to her bicycle? I sing the tune under my breath when I pedal- “duddle la duddle la dah, dum. Duddle la duddle la dah, dum.” Yup. I think my kids would agree.

I used to live in a house with a curb-side, all-you-can-fit-into-the-giant-bin recycling program. I loved it! We generated twice as much recycling material as we did actual waste, and boy, did I feel great about it! I was saving the world, one cereal box and hamburger meat foam tray at a time. Feeling all green and fuzzy.

Until the downsizing occurred, which moved me and my packaging into smaller digs with NO recycling program. As you know, if you’ve been doing something for years, suddenly not doing it leads to heaps of guilt. I struggled to throw our bags of “trash” into the dempsty-dumpster, knowing it wasn’t really trash; I was filling a landfill. The local recycling machines are fine if all you want to do is get your deposit back on beverage containers, but what about the Cheerios box?

Here are some options to help get back that green feeling again:

Find a friend w/ curbside recycling and ask if you can add your materials to their bin. If they are green and gracious, they’ll let you, but be a considerate squatter. Crush your cans, collapse your boxes, roll over your milk jugs- in other words, minimize the volume of material that you put into their bin. One of the families in our school carpool agreed to let us share their bin, so I just made my contribution while I was picking up their kids for school. Eventually I overwhelmed the bin so I’m loading my leaf bags full of recycling material into my carpool partner, Mike’s car trunk and he puts it into his bin. When he gets fed up, I’ll have to make a new friend…

You can also collect your materials and lug it to a local recycling center, which is a bit of a hassle, but you’ll feel better. The challenge will be allocating space to collect enough to make the schlepp.

Maybe we can get our apartment communities to install recycling bins. It makes sense- we’re using less space than homeowners, so we should be using less landfill space than them, as well. Let’s here it for our team!

One other way to be a part of the solution is to reduce the amount of packaging you are buying in the first place. Duh. Remember, it’s not just Recycle. It’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, so don’t skip the first two steps!

We can make less waste, as well. Buy green, look for less packaging, use reusable shopping bags (because how ridiculous is it to put your used plastic shopping bags into the bag recycling container at the grocery stores so they can process it into - wait for it - new shopping bags!)… go ahead, blog your ideas on this so we can all try new ways.

Feeling green and fuzzy again,

T

The price of gas is in the news everyday and on our minds every time we see the gas gauge move its way down to “e.” This has also caught the eyes of many marketing departments. It has also caught the eyes of many apartment managers too. So now everyone is offering gas cards if you move-in by a certain date or sign a twelve month lease. It is so easy to offer this kind of incentive since it is in the news a lot. The problem also comes that everyone is offering it too. It takes away the incentive part. I can get a card for signing up for a new cell phone, getting five oil changes, or drinking thirty lattes. It is no longer the big deal if a dozen other businesses are using this incentive.

So if not a gas card then what? Well another area hitting our wallets is the grocery bill. Have you seen your grocery bill lately? A gift card to the nearby supermarket has a lot more value now. This is just as an important of an issue as gas prices. We all have to eat and not having to pay for groceries for a little while can be a bigger incentive with the gas cards you get from the billion of others you do business with. I am not saying do away with the gas card, but why not offer a choice. Another great idea in larger metro areas is public transportation passes. Often if you pre-pay for a month or longer the deals get better and better. Mass transit is getting pretty popular even in California where the car is king.

We all know being “Green” is the latest trend and it seems like everyone is trying to woe customers with their being “Green” message. And it’s not likely to stop anytime soon. Now it is your chance to let everyone know what your community is doing in the environmental category by blogging about it.  Many apartment communities are starting to switch to using solar energy to heat their pools. Not only is this a big savings for the community it is also saving our planet. Let people know the improvements you are making by blogging about it. Here are some ways you can green your community in big and small ways:

1. Buy 100% recycled copier and printing paper
2. Heat your pool with solar
3. Use green products for cleaning
4. Buy recycled paper towels, tissues, and bathroom tissue
5. Make sure you have recycle bins in your office and around the community
6. Install energy efficient light bulbs
7. Reduce print advertising and increase online advertising
8. Give incentives to encourage employees to live at the community, take public transportation, or ride a bike
9. Install a grey water system to water plantings and landscaping
10. Blog….yes blogging can help by encouraging others to go green as you have done.