January 8 is the last day for Cambridge residents to put their Christmas trees out for curbside pickup. The trees collected are chipped and used as mulch in parks around town. For more information, see the city’s announcement.

In my last post I considered the changes I made in 2009; now it’s time to think about the things I want to do in 2010. This is more brainstorming than resolution-making. With that in mind, here are some things I might write about here this year.

Books

• Read Green Metropolis
• Read Farm City
• Read Toolbox for Sustainable Living
• Read Extraordinary Uses for Everyday Things
• Find life cycle analysis of Kindle vs. paper books

Cleaning

• Figure out how to clean shower and toilet with vinegar

Clothing

• Look into organic cotton
• Find vegan shoes in Boston
• Look into green dry cleaning

Energy Use

• Put plastic frame in single-paned windows
• Get roman shade for back door
• Finish caulking
• Finish adding V-channel weatherstripping to windows
• Rack dry clothes
• Replace desktop computer with network-attached storage
• Look into LED lights

Food

• Eat more in season
• Figure out what’s most important to buy organic
• Set up system for storing root vegetables
• Can more food
• Use the slow cooker
• Make bread/pizza crust
• Make soup stock
• Find organic/fair trade chocolate
• Find organic/fair trade coffee
• Find organic/local beer

Health/Beauty

• Test Crystal deodorant
• Find moisturizer that’s not tested on animals
• Look for toothpaste not tested on animals
• Look into phosphate-free laundry detergent

Miscellaneous

• Tour Cambridge recycling facility?

Water Use

• Replace shower head with 1.6 gpm model
• Turn our toilet into a dual-flush toilet

I’m sure lots of other stuff will come up as the year goes on, but this is what I’m thinking of now. Any suggestions for things I should add?

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but the week that I have off between Christmas and New Year’s is a great time to de-stress from the holidays and reboot my normal life. With that in mind, I’m going to take stock of the efforts I’ve made to live more sustainably this year and think of things I might want to focus on next year. It’s a lot of stuff, so I’ll break it out over a couple posts. First up: this year’s progress.

• CSA –  I loved my summer farm share, but I wasn’t at all prepared for the winter one. Hopefully I can do the same one next year, but set up some sort of basement storage beforehand for all the root vegetables.
• Ceiling fans – They were a godsend in the summer. This winter we’re only using the one in the living room, since I seem to feel a breeze in the bedroom. There’s not supposed to be a noticeable breeze when it’s going clockwise, but maybe the extra exposed skin in the bedroom makes the difference.
• Composting at Whole Foods – This has been a lifesaver while our worms bin is infested with flies.
• Recycled toilet paper – If we see the Marcal brand that Alli recommended we’ll try it, but otherwise, we’re perfectly happy with Green Forest.
• Avoiding takeout – It comes and goes in cycles. We still have to get into the habit of making our own food.
• Cat litter – We’re really happy with our corn/pine mix.
• Water testing – I’m happy to know now that we don’t need to filter our water.
• Taking the stairs – Once I got into the habit, it was easy to keep up.
• Dishcloths – These have been surprisingly great. The ones we chose with a special scrubbing side are getting a little ragged, so in the future I’ll get something simpler. But I’d never go back to sponges.
• Caulk – It’s noticeably less drafty, although in a couple places the cracks seem to have widened as the house settled. We still need to finish the kitchen and office.
• Meal prep – The flipside of takeout. It comes and goes in cycles, depending on how busy we are. We need to make this second nature.
• Handkerchiefs – I’ve gotten used to them. I still keep a box of tissues for when I’m sick, but for everyday use, hankies work great. Jason’s even started carrying one around, too.
• Cat tree – Oliver’s been much calmer since we got this.
• Honeycomb shades – They’re great on the living room windows. The ones we got for the dining room don’t fit so well, though. We may have to end up getting made-to-measure shades, which will be more expensive. Still thinking about it…
• IUD – My IUD hasn’t been any trouble at all, and I still haven’t had my period since I got it six months ago.
• Boston Organics – I’d forgotten how great it is to always have fresh fruit around.
• Microfiber cloths – They work great and we use far fewer paper towels now. We still need to store them better; they’re taking over our linen closet.
• No-VOC paint – The living room and dining room are finished, but now I want to paint the bedroom, too. It never ends….
• Boiler maintenance – We replaced some of the valves, un-leveled the radiators, and are monitoring the water levels. We still have to clean or replace a couple more valves, but the noisiest are done.
• Worm composting – We started one worm bin and moved the worms over to a new one after a couple months. But we’re having fly problems right now and aren’t feeding the worms again until the flies go away.
• Laptop battery life – I’m keeping my laptop on a hardcover book, I changed the energy saving settings, and I turn off unused applications, but I’m not so good at keeping the charge somewhere in the middle. I’m hoping setting up some kind of charging station/desk/shelf thing will help (and be more convenient).
• Squeegee – This has kept our shower looking great, mostly thanks to Jason.
• Humane cat food – This was a bust. My cat liked the food but was prescribed special food by his vet because of health problems.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the progress we’ve made, and I think the blog has encouraged me to do more than I normally would.  I’m looking forward to next year.

There’s a lot that I read each week and am not able to post about. I thought about twittering links to my favorite articles, but I wasn’t very timely about it. So my new plan is to post links to them each Friday. If you want to suggest things I might be interested in, shoot me an email or leave a comment. Enjoy.

• What We Put By – Boston Locavores. This post makes me drool. I don’t know that I’ll ever actually aspire to this level of food preservation, but it’s something to admire.
• Is It Greener to Spend Those Gift Cards Online or in the Store? – Triple Pundit. The conclusion? Buying stuff in the store results in 15 times more emissions than buying it online. I buy many things online, so I’m really happy to hear that.
• On the Move: Species Face Race Against Climate Change – Grist. On average, ecosystems will need to shift 420 meters (about a quarter of a mile) per year to cooler areas this century if the species that inhabit them are to keep within their comfort zones.” Yikes!
• Three Tips from the White House on Winter Gardening – Eat. Drink. Better. Hoop houses, greens, and cover crops all seem like relatively easy things to do. If, you know, you have a yard.
• Cleaning Green: An Ode to Vinegar – Green Upgrader. I have the vinegar, I just need the gumption. But I really want to use Green Upgrader’s toilet cleaning suggestion.
• Net Metering – Boston Green Scene. Dan Burgess talks about how customers can get credit from the electric company for the renewable energy they create.
• Make Your Own Brown Sugar – Green Phone Booth. I haven’t tried this, but I would in a pinch. Who knew it was so easy?
• Practically Green Offers Simple Steps to an Environmental Lifestyle – Big Green Purse. With a name like that, how could I not want to read it? Straight to my Kindle.
• Save Energy by Cleaning Your Dryer Vent – Cheap Like Me. I hadn’t even thought of this. Now how to get my vacuum cleaner outside?
• Eco-Hot Chocolate Taste Test – Grist. The conclusion: make your own with cocoa.

Elsewhere, my How to Preserve Your Laptop’s Battery post was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter.

We’re not big wine drinkers, but we’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party this year, so champagne is a must. And although I know a once-a-year purchase isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I figured that since I had to wade into unfamiliar territory anyway, I’d try to find an organic champagne.

Er, sparkling wine, that is. I was told by the nice guy at the Wine and Cheese Cask in Somerville that champagne from the Champagne region of France is unlikely to be organic, since the wet climate encourages mold growth, and thus the use of fungicide. Drier areas, like California, are where most organic sparkling wines will be found. (Check out the Organic Consumers Association or the Organic Wine Journal for more info on organic wines.)

.

Oddly enough, the two brands that we found were both from Europe:

• Albero is from Spain. It was the only organic sparkling wine at our local Trader Joe’s, but they had both the regular and the brut. It was really cheap, which makes me wonder at the quality….
• Mionetto is from Italy. It was the only organic sparkling wine at the Wine and Cheese Cask. The guy who found it for us said he’d never tried it, but he liked other wines by that company.

Our local Whole Foods was a huuuuge disappointment. Not only did they not carry an organic sparkling wine, but when I asked, the guy manning that department told me that organic wine didn’t exist—and tried to convince me for something like five minutes when I looked skeptical.

This was a lot harder to find than I expected. Grist and Treehugger had some good reviews, but I couldn’t find what they recommended. If I was really stumped, I would have just made sure to get sparkling wine from Europe. Wine travels a long way to the East Coast, but its carbon footprint is smaller if it’s shipped by boat from Europe than by truck or rail from California.

I haven’t tried either of these yet, so I don’t know how they taste, but I’ll let you know what the consensus is after our party. Cheers!