For the past four and a half years I've been living in New Zealand where electricity is outrageously expensive and almost no one uses a clothes dryer. I made my husband buy one when we moved here because we have three kids and I just didn't know how I would manage without one. The only one we could find was a teeny tiny little dryer that I actually carried out of the store!!! My dryer in the States had to be moved with a dolly! Since it only ever dries like 5 things at a time it is totally useless unless I'm drying something that I need in an emergency--but then I see the result of that emergency when I get my power bill.

Anyway, the normal practice of drying clothes here is by hanging them on a clothes line. I can honestly say that never having done this in my life and having three kids and a husband who worked in a vineyard at the time, I about lost my mind trying to keep up with it! Then there were the rainy days where I couldn't hang out anything and was forced to use my stupid ass useless dryer which I would run 24 hours a day causing my power bill to be almost in the four digits!! I'm not kidding!

Since I couldn't justify the power bill to having dry clothes they just didn't get washed or dried and we had to wear our undies inside out and stuff like that--just kidding, but it was bad.

Then, at about the two year mark I realized that I was being a big baby and I mustered up the courage to look like an idiot and asked my mother-in-law what people in New Zealand did when it was too wet to hang out their clothes. She laughed and said, you hang them inside. Yes, I felt like an idiot but then I realized how silly I'd been for not thinking of that myself.

People generally have an indoor clothes rack or line. It's either suspended from the ceiling and can be pulled up when not in use or they use their porches and verandas to hang clothes when it's wet. We now use a collapsible rack. The point I'm trying to get to here is that due to our monstrous energy consumption, our world is fading fast; everyone knows how close we are to the breaking point and so I'm just offering a suggestion to be part of the solution. I know it is hard in this day and age, with kids and busy lives to not do the most convenient thing, but I actually ENJOY hanging our family's clothes now--it gets me outside, I am forced to pause; then I see all the other clothes lines in my street and some of the people out hanging their clothes too and I feel like I'm a part of something. The kids help out and hang sometimes, my husband does it if he has time...it's just what we do.

In America, there is a stigma attached to clotheslines; they sometimes invoke images of poverty or "trailer trash"; but here in New Zealand there is a stigma attached to people who use their clothes dryers rather than hanging them outside if it is a nice day; they are considered wasteful and inconsiderate! So, what do you say America? Let's bring back the clotheslines!!!! Who cares what your neighbors think, if they say anything mean to you, say, "I'm hanging my clothes outside to save the world, what are you doing about it??"

Last but not least, when you hang your clothes outside they last longer, they smell like sunshine, the bills are lower and the world is cleaner!

Stay tuned for more Green Earth tips. Changing the world is just a matter of changing our minds about it!

Shauna Ratapu is a regular mediator and independent representative for The One Group: Certified Organic Nourishment for the Skin, Hair and Body. http://www.sacredsun.mionegroup.com

Shauna, an American, lives and works in New Zealand with her Kiwi husband and their three children. For more information on Eco-travel in New Zealand, Meditation or Organics visit Shauna's homepage: [http://www.soulfoodcafe.co.nz]

When it comes to adopting a green living lifestyle, let's dispel the most common misconceptions people have right up front. Adopting a "green lifestyle" can be done gradually and DOES NOT mean you need to go out and start hugging trees in your backyard OR riding your scooter to work in the rain.

There are very, very simple changes you can make in your lifestyle, and make them gradually so that you will hardly even notice any "inconvenience" to living a more green life.  In fact, not only does adopting a green lifestyle mean saving on the earth's finite resources, it also means saving money because a large part of living green involves saving energy; things like gasoline, electricity, heating oil, etc. So the lifestyle is actually easier on the budget and should give you more disposable income each month. Not a bad deal is it?

Here's some simple tips and easy changes you can make to start living more eco-friendly:

Using Less Energy

Weather-proof your house, You'll be very happily surprised at the amount of dollar savings you can achieve simply by getting an energy audit from your local power company and adopting the changes they suggest. Most utility companies offer this service at no charge and you should definitely take advantage of it if you haven't already done so.

Believe it or not, simply doing the laundry is a huge user of energy. You need to heat the water to wash the clothes, then heat the clothes to dry them. Instead, try washing your clothes in cold water and also give the old-fashioned clothes line a try for drying your clothes. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of money you can save by doing these two simple things.

Cut Down on Water Usage

Everyone likes a nice hot bath once in a while. Consider taking them less frequently as your typical bath will use up to 5 times more water and energy than a shower. Speaking of showers, buy one of those energy efficient shower heads that cut down on water flow by 1/3 to 1/2. This can be a huge hot water saver.

When you run your dishwasher, make sure that it is full so that you maximize each load and not unnecessarily waste hot water on partial loads. If you just have a few dishes to be cleaned, consider doing them by hand.

Getting Back and Forth to Work - Carpooling

Consider joining a car pool. Yes, it is not nearly as convenient as taking your own car to work, but for the extra time involved, you'll see your gasoline bill plummet.

This list is just a very small number of the things you can do to start living greener. There are many websites that go into much more depth on things you can do to become a more eco-friendly member of the world community. One such site is listed below.

To find out more hints and tips on how you can gradually adopt a green living, eco-friendly lifestyle, you can find plenty of green living tips at The Living Green Club website. Logan Montrose is passionate about the subject but also has a practical understanding of what the average family is both willing and able to do in terms of lifestyle changes. He has become so enthused about the importance of educating as many people as possible about living a green lifestyle (and educating them that it does not involve large changes to their current lifestyle) that he has started a website devoted to the topic which can be found at http://www.livinggreenclub.com/