Easy Ways to Go Green

In the kitchen, make your own cleaning supplies using common household ingredients like vinegar and baking soda. Often times these green cleaners are more effective than chemical-laden products you find in stores. Install a water purifier on your sink instead of buying bottled water. You’ll get a better quality and won’t be sending hundreds of bottles to the landfill each year! Also remember to only run your dishwater when it’s full. This prevents extra energy use as well as water waste.

The laundry room is an easy room to give an eco-friendly makeover. Buy only eco-friendly, green laundry detergents. These detergents are often the same cost as regular brands, but you’ll be keeping harmful, poisonous chemicals out of your clothing and the environment. When you’re cleaning your clothes, try to use cold water. This prevents the energy usage that’s required to heat the water. You can also use a drying rack for many clothes instead of the dryer, giving them an eco-friendly, fresh dry. Also be sure to clean out your dryer’s lint trap every day. Not doing so makes your dryer overload itself, using massive amounts of energy to do the same job.

There’s also a couple of things you can do in the bathroom to give your life a green makeover. Install faucet aerators on the faucets and low-flow showerheads. These quick installs will cause less water to be used, although you won’t even notice. You can also take shorter showers and buy a new toilet that uses less water per flush.

Some more great things you can do around your home include installing solar panels, which gives you free electric energy and means no more monthly payments to your electric company. You can also set up a compost bin in your yard to recycle waste and make rich fertilizer for your garden.

As if these tips weren’t great enough, there’s even more you can do outside your home. Simple things like using your library and renting movies are great ways to use your community resources and avoid buying items that aren’t likely to be used more than a couple of times. If it’s possible, try to buy locally grown or raised foods. This means less trucks on the road pumping poisonous chemicals into the air. If you’re only going short distances to do your errands, ride a bike or take a walk. Not only is this a bit of needed exercise, you’ll also be saving the gasoline it would take to drive. When you’re shopping for groceries, remember to buy in bulk to save packaging resources, only buy meat you’ll be able to use, and use reusable bags to avoid plastic that doesn’t break down.

There are so many ways to go green in your daily life apart from these easy tips. The more eco-friendly practices you implement in your life, the more rewarded you’ll feel, saving money while helping the environment. Being green doesn’t have to mean spending more money for eco-friendly products; today, going green is cheaper and easier than ever.