Apartment Cleaning Smackdown - Round 2

Round 2 - The Living Room

So, after I spent a day going through piled-up mail and leftover papers from my office, I had piles of shreds to go to the recycling center (I really like shredding ... I have a little thing for destruction, what can I say?)

All that mail was piled up here, on the desk. Much cleaner now! I think I could actually do work here... I don't think I will, but I could.

I was ready, then, to begin cleaning the living room. Here's a rundown of the green/light green/red cleaning methods I used:

Green:

• I dusted using my homemade rags.
• I swept the floors using green energy (my own elbow grease)

Light Green:

Not dusty anymore! Thanks, old T-shirts.

• Zero - nada - none. I was not light green in the living room. I was either super green or totally ungreen.

Red:

• I used the random floor cleaner and a disposable mop for the floors, but I did use the disposable mop head for much longer than standard.

Speaking of green vs. red cleaning - I've been thinking a bit about green guilt lately. Of course, I read a bunch of green blogs to get ideas for things to try in my own home/life. I occasionally run across statements such as, "I would never ... (insert non-green lifestyle choice here)."

I sometimes wish I was as committed as these folks, but I think that we, as a movement, should be careful that our "I would never -" statements don't alienate people who are still as light green as new leaves in spring. They'll get to be a darker green as the days pass - if they, like leaves, receive lots of sunlight and love. However, if they feel like they can't be good enough to be "green" then the leaves might shrivel up and die (like the extended metaphor?).

The fact is, there's no official definition of what it means to be green. I try to be as green as I can, with the time and money I have available. I use a disposable mop head. I have air conditioning (I live in Texas!). I sometimes go through the Starbucks drive-thru. And sometimes I feel guilty about these things, and sometimes I don't. But I'm doing the best I can, and I hope that we can support all of the little changes people make.