Ginny Figlar Colón

I don’t like calling myself an environmentalist, because I know there is so much more I could be doing. I think a better title would be something like “simplist.” I do try to live a simpler, more sustainable life. My husband and I both have degrees in environmental sciences (mine are in environmental sciences and environmental journalism) and I worked for Greenpeace for awhile. These things help when analyzing more complex issues like a wine’s true environmental impact or the carbon footprint of organic produce. But most of the time, taking the eco-path is something that just comes from the gut. It helps that we live in a very environmentally friendly country right now — Sweden (though we hail from Colorado). We also recently had our first child, which has taken our eco-mindedness up a notch. Life keeps getting better … and greener.

Apparently I have upset the appliance gods. Right before the holidays, the dryer stopped drying anything. And then right after the holidays, the refrigerator started freezing everything.

December turned into one costly month budget-wise. And what about Earth-wise? You’d think that fixing something old would be automatically better than buying something new. But, actually, when it comes to the life cycle analysis of most appliances — or their cradle-to-grave environmental impact — it turns out it’s the use of an appliance that has the biggest impact. Which means if your refrigerator is a shade of ‘70s avocado, you’ll step lighter on the planet if you embrace the energy efficiency of the 21st Century.

While there are a lot of variables to consider, here are some tips to help you decide whether to repair a broken appliance or replace it:

Nice … half-frozen veggie scraps molded together in a solid mass. Not exactly what I want to see in my compost bin. With at least five more months of cold weather before warmth and sunshine reappear, why do I even bother keeping the pile going?

Well, I guess I do know why. Diverting even a handful of potato skins from the trash gives me an unexplainable sense of satisfaction. (If you aren’t yet a composter, you just can’t relate to this strange obsession with vegetable scraps.)

So after filling my compost bin with a big batch of freshly raked leaves this weekend, I did a little online research to see what I could do to make it a wee bit more productive this winter.

I am not good at working out. Yoga never seemed to be my thing, and now I have a new baby to take care of.

And that’s exactly why I wanted to give Gaiam’s new video subscription service, GaiamTV.com, a try.

After one month of using the service (OK, to be honest, my workout routine was pretty sporadic), I trimmed my waistline by 1.5 inches and my hips by 3 inches, and I lost 1 lb. of stubborn baby weight. I can only imagine what the results would have been if I had been more consistent.

I was skeptical that this sort of thing wouldn’t appeal to me for the reasons mentioned above. But after giving it a go, I think new moms like me are ideal subscribers. Here’s why:

I’ve lost a pound in four days, and we’ve eaten healthy, organic meals the past three nights.

New diet? Nope. I just signed us up for organic produce home delivery.

I received my first delivery this week, and it’s already delivering much more than I had hoped for: a reason to try new recipes, eating fruits and vegetables I’ve never ventured to buy in the grocery store (hello, kale!), and losing weight in the process.

Also, I swear, the carrots just taste better.

When I told my husband I picked up some green beer, he assumed I meant a brew reserved for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (which is strange since I usually don’t even wear green that day).

No, I bought the other kind of green beer: eco-beer — extra refreshing whether it’s March 17 or any other day. I don’t remember ever seeing ecological beer in the States, so I was intrigued when I saw the label while living in Sweden last year.

When my husband and I bought our first place, my answer to that question would have been 440 square feet per person.

We had everything we needed in that space, including a spare bedroom for guests and enough “party space” for gatherings with friends. But it didn’t take long before the lure of our first house — an 1800s Victorian — made us feel as if we needed to double our living area to 925 square feet per person. (Sound familiar?)

With the creation of Small Business Saturday this year (and its huge following!), there’s another movement taking shape this holiday season: Buy Handmade. At www.buyhandmade.org, people around the world are pledging to buy handmade gifts for loved ones this holiday season and ask that others do the same for them.

I’ve always been a huge recycler, even fishing through other people’s trashcans at work as a kind of self-proclaimed recycling police.

But you won’t find me digging in the trash anymore. Instead, I am bin-diving into the recyclables on an almost-daily basis — hunting for a new toy, utensil holder, coloring book, snack dispenser or anything else my little family and I might need.

Right now, I am living with 4 plates, 1 mug, 7 spoons, 2 books, 1 sofa, 4 folding chairs and a folding table, a mattress on the floor and the rest of the basics to get me, my husband and our almost-3-year-old through January in our temporary apartment.

All the rest of our stuff is on a ship crossing the Atlantic from Sweden.

For as long as I’ve been an adult, I’ve had my own car. That must be why, at 40 years old, it’s hard to part with the one I have now. The decision has been made in my head — on paper it makes so much sense. But my heart is dragging its feet a little.