Everyone is jumping on the greenwagon, which is great! — in a way. It’s great that Clorox is starting to sell affordable green cleaning products. It’s great that grocery stores are starting to encourage you to bring reusable shopping bags.

But here’s the thing. Some people are just in it for the money (GASP! I know it’s hard to believe). They’ll show you all these fancy environmental friendly products and encourage you to buy them so you too can be green.

When I saw an e-mail from Crate and Barrel advertising this really cool dining table made of sustainable teak, of course my first reaction was “cool! I’d love to have a dining table made of sustainable teak. I’d be sooo green then.” Well, not exactly. They’d have to ship it to me first, which would require gobs of unnecessary packaging — boxes, styrofoam everywhere — and the fuel needed to get it here. Not to mention I already have a fabulous little dining table with a cool colored mosaic top.

So long preachy post short, live by this mantra: If you need it, buy green. If you don’t need it, don’t buy at all. If you’ve run out of dishwasher detergent, consider the Seventh Generation brand. If you’ve already got a dining table, don’t bother with buying a new, albeit green, one.

I know this seems contrary to the shopping-esque nature of this blog, but here’s a little secret: most of the stuff I post on here is stuff I only look at and admire for it’s beauty or funkiness or coolness or whatever. I don’t usually buy the stuff I’m sharing with you. I’m inviting you to also admire it, and if you might need a new dress because you’ve got a wedding to go to and your old dress is too small or you’ve got a dark space in your home that needs a good lamp.