I've been blogging about my efforts to be more ecominded for a year now, and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of the changes I've made. I certainly could be more ecominded in my actions (I've been wanting to buy a compost bin for at least a year, for example, but still haven't bought one), but all in all I'm doing a lot better than I was when I started this blog. I committed to changing my habits and my spending patterns whenever I could, and for the most part I've been satisfied and even incredibly surprised at how easy those changes were: I turn off my car when I think I'll be idling for more than 10 seconds, my dryer goes largely unused because I dry most of my family's laundry on clothes racks if the weather isn't amenable to me drying them outside on my clothesline, I pack snacks and leftovers in reusable containers, we fill our Klean Kanteen and Sigg bottles with water at home instead of buying bottled water (my 5-year-old did not lose her school Klean Kanteen bottle for even a DAY this year!), we unplug appliances we aren't using, and minimize our entertainment center's phantom load by hooking everything up to the Smart Strip. Am I singlehandedly saving the planet with these small changes? No. But I am making a difference, and that's something to celebrate.