What easy steps have I done and what easy steps can you do to have an "green" home and live an "green" life?
Remove Toxins: Use natural cleaning products to clean your home. I have choosen to use products from
Melaleuca online company for wellness. I also purchase my vitamins and some food products from this site as well and even better they get sent to my home. If you are interested in joining Melaleuca let me know!
Leave your shoes at the door: I know you would not want to go lay down on a public sidewalk or road, so why would you want to drag in all that dirt and germs into your home that you walk around barefoot in. Super easy, just takes a little while to train you guests to do the same.
Use a reusable water bottle: Place your filtered tap water from a Brita (or other similar product) filter into a reuseable water bottle. Mine is from Target and has a wonderful flip top to display the mouth piece; it has become a family favorite. Using a reusable water bottle helps reduce unnecessary plastic and packaging waste.
Go to your local farmers market: Get familiar with your local farmers market. Buying local means the food has traveled less to get to you thus has more nutrients and has used less energy to get to your home. Try to bring your reusable bags or and of your old bags from the grocery store to the farmers market and or the grocery store.
Buy Organic: Organic foods and food companies are becoming more mainstream which is great because it brings down the price (a common deterent for many people in buying organic products). Organic means you are not adding pestisides and chemicals to your body that are NOT REAL FOOD and can have harmful effects down the road. My theory is that I would rather spend a tiny bit more now that pay for the health problems later.
Grow your own herbs and vegetables: I don't live in a big apartment or have a large patio but all you need is a small piece of soil in your yard or a small patio to put some pots on to grow your herbs and some vegetables, even better it is very easy to have organic when you grow it yourself. This is also a great way thing you can get your children involved in and it helps to teach them where our food is coming from as well as will make it more likely for them to eat their vegetable if they grew them. I am currently attempting to grow a cherry tomato bush, strawberries, sage, rosemary, oregano, and from seeds: basil, cilantro, Italian parsley, chives, arugula and 2 other kinds of lettuce. The seedlings are sprouting and the lettuce is almost ready to transplant into a larger planter box. I look forward to being able to enjoy my own fresh, home grown herbs and vegetables.
Turn off the lights: When you leave a room and especially when you leave the house turn off the lights you are not using. Once it is a habbit you won't even have to think about it.
Keep it unpluged: Keep applicanes unplugged that you maybe use only occassionaly or once daily. This and the suggestion above will bring down your energy costs and they are just so easy!
Use cloth: Use old rags or torn up shirts for cleaning and then toss them in the laundry after. This will help reduce lots of paper towel use. You can also use dish towels for drying your hands and on the counter for your handwashables, cloth napkins at dinner which you can wash once a week or when they get soiled, and washable fabric mop head that can be reused instead of those synthetic disposible products.
Recycle: It's not hard to find a place under your sink, in a cabinent, or closet for a old paper grocery bag to place all your recycleables in. Mine seems to mainly fill up with all that junk mail that I wish they wouldn't send me. Once full you can then bring it to your apartment or home recycling container. Some grocery stores also have recycling centers if your home or apartment does not offer recycling. Recycling my recycleables reduces the waste that I am contributing to our land fills and that makes me feel great!
What other green lifestyle ways do you partake in or can you think of? I am always interested in new ideas to living an green life and creating an green home.
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