Easy Ways to Be More Eco-Friendly

We all try to protect the environment, but without a large paycheck, that can seem difficult, if not impossible, especially in this economic climate. But doing your part doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. Small steps add up to a big difference, you just have to know which ones to take. Conserving resources also helps save you money, which is something most of us are happy to live with. 

Use Less Water.

Saving water is all about small steps, here are a few that will help save big.

• Turn off the water while you brush your teeth
• Take shorter showers
• Only flush the toilet when you need to
• Put a brick or two in the tank of your toilet so that you use less of a volume of water
• Only run full loads of laundry and dishes

Buy from sustainable producers. These are farmers, ranchers, and other producers that use techniques that pollute less and use less water. You can do some research online or ask at your local organic market to find these products.

Use Less Energy.

If your monetary circumstances won't allow to buy a hybrid car or convert your home to solar power, you can make a big difference with these small changes.

•  Buy energy efficient appliances.  They may be more expensive, but make up for the increased cost in lower energy bills.
• Line dry your laundry instead of using your tumble dryer. Sometimes we have the dryer on for 30-45 minutes at a time and that is a LOT of wasted energy if it's warm and sunny outside.
• Unplug chargers when you’re not using them.  Cell phone and other chargers use up powers even if there’s nothing attached to them.
• Put devices with remotes, like T.V.s, VCRs, and stereos, on a power strip and turn it off when you’re not using them.  These devices use a lot of power to run the remote receiver even when the device is off.
• Walk or ride your bike for short trips.
•  Buy local products. It takes energy to transport food and other products across the country. Buying local not only supports your local economy, it helps them use less energy.

When it comes to saving energy and water, it’s a great idea to get the kids involved. You can even make it a game! Have them track how much water and electricity everyone in the home is using. You can compete to see who uses the least water.  You can often count on your kids to help keep you on track when given the task.

Reuse. 
Most of us know the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, but when we work on conserving, we often leave 'reuse' out of the picture. While you can often find tips on how to reuse common products from other people, what you need most is creativity. With a little thought there are very many items around your home that can be reused – toilet paper holders can be used to sow seeds for the vegetable patch. And old yogurt containers can be cut into strip to make plant labels. Old food jars can be refilled with homemade foods or can make great impromptu vases.

Use environmentally friendly products. When you go to the grocery store, you probably see more and more “natural” or “eco friendly” products every time.  There are generally two big problems with these products:

1. Just because they say they’re more natural than regular products, doesn’t mean they are entirely natural.
 2, They’re often expensive.

If you want to use inexpensive, natural, safe products, make them yourself. Vinegar is a great way to clean and disinfect glass and other surfaces, among cleaning many other things. Need to remove stubborn stains? Just add some baking soda to your vinegar cleaner. Some quick searching online will lead you to hundreds of other natural safe home-made cleaning products and recipes for your own concoctions.