Books & Music...

When you're poor and live in the country, summers are filled with the endless chore of hanging clothes with clothespins on the line outside and retrieving them hours later. The monotony of such a task was broken only by the occasional protest my brother and I staged when our basket contained our little sister's panties. However, we usually lost as evidenced by the previously mentioned personal items of our little sister being hung by as little fabric as possible. Handling such clothing items would have surely given us cooties even a hundred unwanted baths couldn't have washed away.

Now, in my revisionist history, I tell others that my family was eco-friendly cool before it was cool. My mom and dad had the foresight to see what an energy-saving idea it was to dry your clothes on the clothesline outdoors in the summer.

Revisiting such traditions from my childhood isn't a fond thought, but it isn't the end of the world. In fact, it's one small step that just might keep us from getting to the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).

In her book Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home, Renee Loux makes sure readers are equipped to make hassle-free changes to their lives, including ways to have fresher, eco-brilliant laundry. Here are her tips on laundry:

• Wash full loads to get the most out of water and energy use.
• Rinse laundry with cold water. Eighty-five to 90 percent of the energy used to wash clothes goes to heat the water.
• Use plant-based, biodegradable detergents that don’t have chemical fragrances or dyes.
• Opt out of using chlorine bleach. Choose oxygen bleach instead—it’s color safe, fabric friendly, and eco-brilliant.
• Line dry what you can. It saves energy and money and extends the life of your clothes.