Tips for Green Living

Hello friends! Hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was very fun, it included a class on chalk paint and milk paint, which I’ll show you soon. It was such a fun time and I got to work on some pieces of furniture too.But today is Earth day and in honor, I thought I’d put together a list of what I do that’s good for our environment.  I’m very much a green kind of girl and look for natural or recycled products in anything I buy. This includes everything from decking to hair products, but there are many ways to live in an environmentally friendly way. Here are some of my favorite tips for green living.

 

1. Use re-useable shopping bags. Not only for the grocery store but for every store. It helps if you have the little ones that roll up and fit in your car or purse. That way you always have one on you even if you think you won’t buy anything.

My friends and I have debates on whether you can take a different store’s bag into another store. I say of course you can. My friend Stephanie, she flaunts that Whole Food canvas in Wegmans. As long as you are using a reuseable bag, it doesn’t matter what it says on the outside. There are chic neutral ones at Envirosax. They have bags even your man would not be embarrassed to carry.

2. Better yet, practice this line at the check out “I don’t need a bag, thank you“. I’ve done this at a ton of places and have probably saved myself dozens of plastic bags in the process. You most likely can carry your purchases out, especially with the large purses they make these days. Toss your items in!

3. Recycle, recycle, recycle. I can’t say it enough. Even if your office doesn’t do it, start a program. My husband did at a former office and recycled over 600 pounds of paper in about one year. This is tremendous!

Many towns have the Paper Retreiver which is a paper only dumpster where anyone can take paper to be recycled. Look one up by you today so when you are done with your shelter magazines, let someone else make something fun from them.

If your town or apartment complex doesn’t recycle, find out why. These days many towns are required to and they will offer you free recycling bins too. Get on that train. Don’t put all those cardboard boxes, tin cans, and milk jugs in the garbage. Mother Earth will thank you.

4. Reuse stuff. All stuff, any stuff. Open your mind to the creative opportunities of reuse. Food containers for leftovers. Boxes for storage. Junk mail for art or wrapping paper. The possibilities are endless. About 85% of the projects I’ve done and 100% of my furniture makeovers are examples of reusing something old to make something new. Like this cabinet turned bar. Someone else’s trash becomes my treasure.

5. Before you reuse something, decide if you need it anyway. If there is any message I preach in Eco-consciousness it is to live with less stuff. Simplify your environment and you simplify your life.
Whether it’s a magazine you picked up at the bookstore, or a chotchkey near the register or an article of clothing you just bought. If you extend time, money or emotion in ‘dealing with it’ (finding a home for it, deciding whether or not to keep it, storing it) chances are it shouldn’t be in your house anyway.

6. Green your cleaning routine. One of my favorite books is called Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda and it shows you dozens of ways to clean with only those four ingredients. And I’m sure you have them all in your kitchen right now.

I recently switched to a steam mop and love that too. And we use Method products in the kitchen on that granite. Have you read their green living philosophy? I plan to use lots more green techniques in my cleaning. Do you use any green cleaning products?