"Green" vs. "Crunchy"

As I've eased my way into the world of being "green" I have discovered a new related, but different world previously unbeknownst to me - that of being "crunchy." To be honest, when I first heard the term, I did not think it sounded like something that I wanted to be! However, as I discovered blogs such as Just West of Crunchy and Crunchy Betty* I began to feel a flame growing inside of me. A flame of desire to make my whole life a little less synthetic.

Many have the misconception that green and crunchy are interchangeable synonyms, but I view them more like a venn diagram. Some areas overlap, but they are different concepts. If you are trying to live green, you desire to be eco-friendly. This means that you want to do your best to help protect and conserve our Earth for yourself and future generations. Green actions include things like respecting nature, not littering and our favorite mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Once living with a healthy respect for nature and the natural resources of the Earth, it is not a far leap to realize that many of the products we use and foods we consume are far from natural. In addition to being green, you may find yourself with the desire to live a "crunchy" lifestyle as well. Being crunchy is a desire to make your life more natural, and short of making everything yourself, to make choices and purchases that support companies committed to nature and more natural products.

Now, as in everything, there are degrees of crunchiness. And as with being green, it can be easy to become overwhelmed. When I first began reading and researching about living a more crunchy lifestyle, I felt overcome with the weight of all the changes I felt I needed to make. My advice on this, as I've mentioned before, is to take it slow. Find one thing that really strikes you, and take steps toward change.

For me, the first thing that really hit home was beauty products. Although I do not claim to understand the science behind these things, it makes logical sense to me that exposing ourselves to many chemicals over time would be detrimental. As our skin is quite porous and absorbent, I felt a strong desire to stop lathering myself with chemical laden products. It has been a slow process, about which I will share more in a later post, and I still have a way to go. However, for each product I replace with a more natural alternative, I feel a sense of accomplishment and well-being.

Another area that I have slowly been making changes in is cleaning products. As with the beauty products, it just makes sense to me not to spray and wash chemicals into my home. This has been a somewhat more difficult process. I am greatly hindered by my loathing of vinegar. 99% of all homemade cleaning recipes include some type of vinegar as the main ingredient. However, I have made a few discoveries which I look forward to sharing with you.

You by no means must be "crunchy" to be "green." If you desire only to do your part in helping the environment, that is wonderful! If you are interested in making your life a little more natural, more power to you. Either way, remember that you should in no way feel bad for "not doing enough." I say this as someone who has to preach that to myself on a regular basis. Sometimes it can seem like there is just so much to do and you can never do enough, short of moving to the country and living like Laura Ingalls Wilder (and the thought has crossed my mind!). Just remember the url of this blog "sneak into green." Take baby steps, make small changes and when those changes become habit, make some more changes. Remember that every bit helps and all along your journey you should...

Enjoy your tiptoe through the tulips!


*I do not necessarily endorse or agree with everything on these websites, but they were very inspiring to me so I wanted to share.

My mom and dad were conservationists before it was cool

I was raised green and didn't even know it. Back before it was in vogue, my parents were already concerned about caring for the Earth and preserving it for future generations. I was taught things like "Take only pictures, leave only footprints." On our many family hiking trips, my father went so far as to clean up after others who did not follow the same mantra. 


We learned not to be wasteful, both out of concern for the environment and out of economic frugality. We were taught to use the same cup to drink out of all day, not to run water unnecessarily and to close the refrigerator. My parents turned the A/C and heater off at night, something that drove me crazy (you could always open a window or add a blanket they said). One of the most surprising, once I was old enough to appreciate it, was the fact that my mother would wash and reuse ziplock bags and "disposable" plates, cups and utensils. 

And we recycled. Obsessively. We recycled when it was highly inconvenient, when there wasn't a recycle center in every community. We would load up our tubs of recycling into the car and drive quite a ways to drop it off. My father, meticulous as he is in everything, taught me to rinse things out and sort them thoroughly into the tubs in the garage. He was also the person who would reach into the bins at the recycling center and reorganize items that others had dumped into the wrong place.

Many of these things followed me into my adult life, as things learned in childhood often do. I was somewhat surprised that not everyone was concerned with caring for the Earth, that not everyone wanted to find ways to not be wasteful. Of course, as most young adults will do, I chose to impress my friends rather than stick with my training. Although, when they weren't looking, I would often pick up trash they left behind. ;-)

Once I became a "responsible adult" many of the old habits began resurfacing. When I was first married, I tried washing ziplock bags (my husband thought I was crazy). I have become lazy in more recent years, but have been thinking about starting again. Since having a household of my own, recycling has been a part of it. When we still had our small apartment, it was somewhat of a challenge to find room for recycling bins, so we recycled only the basics. Now that we have a house, we have plenty of room to organize our recycling without having to take it to the recycling center every week (we purchased even bigger bins since my previous post). I still rinse everything out before putting it in the bins. 


The more I think about it, the more I realize it is not a big surprised that I am on a journey to become more eco-friendly and earth conscious. After all, being green is something that was instilled in me since childhood! Thanks mom and dad for teaching me to 


Enjoy my tiptoe through the tulips!