Changing to Conserve: Picking a Behavior to Change and its Barriers and Motivators

Originally, I thought I would make a change regarding food and considered starting an organic garden in the University’s plots on campus. Thinking about this personal change project as I went about this weekend’s routine caused me to reconsider the food-related change. My husband and I already make a lot regularly consumed food from scratch, try to buy local, and, although meat-eaters, love our vegan cookbooks for most meals. I began to believe my original intentions to make a change in the food-realm were motivated by my belief that I would likely do it any way. I wanted to change a behavior that is certainly necessary, but may be more challenging.

In the back of my mind, I have always known eight loads of laundry a week between two people and one large dog is a bit exorbitant, to say the least. With conservation and sustainability on the brain, I decided to turn my attention to a change in the realm of energy consumption and will attempt to change my laundry habits. The reason this is a more important change to make is because I believe we are using too much energy to support an unnecessary comfort. I simply like a clean (washed and disinfected) home environment. My general cleaning habits cause me to use a lot of water as it is, but starting by changing the amount of laundry I do is where I believe I can make the biggest impact without compromising too much of my sanity.

The reason I have not changed up until this point was because I see (saw) doing laundry this often as absolutely necessary to maintaining my comfort and cleanliness. The routine that has now developed into eight loads of laundry each week is a result of my logic that this is just what is necessary for me to achieve that. The question for myself now becomes “Can I change this behavior and maintain my sanity?” I believe my success will rest on reading scientific research about the cleanliness of laundry.

My proposed change to my laundry habits will include the following:

1) Reduce the number of wash cycles to four per week

2) Reduce the number of dry cycles to two per week by using a clothes line

3) Wear (reuse) certain clothes two to three times before laundering such as business outfits and pajamas

4) Use a more environmentally-friendly detergent

5) Reduce the length of the wash cycle to the minimum necessary

6) Start putting dryer lint in the compost bin (thank goodness we already have one)

I have several motivations for changing this behavior. For my own ease of reading later, I will list them below in order from most to least motivating.

1) The most obvious extrinsic motivator is the requirement for this class. Even though I don’t know the ins and outs of the reinforcement theory mentioned in Aronson (1997), the grading system reinforces the start of this behavior.

2) I possess an internal desire to be an environmentalist. This is significantly reinforced by my husband who, as an environmental engineer, is more dedicated to that identification than I probably ever will be. Identifying myself (ourselves) in this way guides much of my behavior. In short, having my husband entirely supportive and enthusiastic about making this change really helps!

3) Currently, I am mildly disgusted by the amount of laundry we do each week, so, I have negative attitudes toward the behavior. I believe we are consuming too much water and energy, while polluting with cleaning chemicals and increasing garbage/recycling from packaging.

4) I want to save money on energy, water, costs to purchase soap, fabric softener, and dryer sheets. Additionally, over-washing decreases the life of our clothing; thus, we should save more money on clothing in the long-run.

5) I want to save time by doing less laundry on the weekend and taking fewer trips to the store to buy soap, etc. and clothing.

Where there is motivation to change a behavior, there inevitably exists barriers; otherwise, the change may already have been done. The following are my perceived barriers to making this change.

1) I do eight loads of laundry a week for a reason: I am what my friends call “a clean freak.” I feel very uncomfortable wearing clothes more than once, using bed sheets more than a week, towels more than 3-4 times, and thoroughly enjoy freshly laundered items. In short, I do not want to feel uncomfortable by sacrificing this “luxury.”

2) It will take time and energy for me to research what would be improved laundry habits in terms of conservation and sustainability. I must do the research to feel more comfortable about wearing clothes more than once, washing for shorter cycles, using different detergents, and eliminating fabric softeners.

3) I will have to purchase and set up a clothes line, both involving time, money, and energy. I will have to expend more time and energy hanging clothes, as opposed to throwing them in the dryer, and schedule laundry around rain. Part of me believes I will actually have to expend more of my resources into the laundry trying to use the dryer less.

4) I know we can afford to do laundry as often as we do now, because we have been doing it this way for three years. As such, we do not need to save money on energy and clothing.

5) I am certainly a creature of habit and laundry has had its place as it is now for many years. Re-inventing my routine to accommodate the desired change will take some adjustment.

6) “Environmentally-friendly” products have become a big business and often cost $1--$5 more than their conventional counterparts. I will have to pay more money for this type of detergent and I’m not convinced it will work as good as the kind I usually buy or necessarily be better for the environment.