Green living

Live greener challenge was inspired by a friends comment about wanting to live a little greener this year, so my dear earth friendly (aka crunchy) friends I have listed a few (8) little things that we are currently doing or intend to do this year.

*Photo from my father*

1. This one is from Tim~Use fluorescent light bulbs. Yes, they’re more expensive than regular light bulbs, but switch out your regular cheap energy sucking bulb for fluorescent bulbs in your house, and you could save a bundle on your energy bill. We switched ours out when we first moved to the Prairies.

2. Again Tim~ Keep your car in excellent condition. It’s always better to walk, or ride your bike (which Sydney and I will be doing more of when it warms up), but when you need to use your vehicle, making a difference can be as easy as keeping your tires properly inflated and changing your oil and air filters regularly.  Oh yeah and follow those traffic laws~ believe it or not your car burns less fuel when you drive slowly and obey the speed limit. Tim does a great job of keeping our car in excellent condition and I do a great job of driving slowly and cautiously!

3. Make sure your dishwasher and your washer and dryer are full before using them. I always wait on the dishwasher to be full, but I am guilty of running laundry when I may not have a full load.  (3.5) We do however have Energy Efficient appliances which save water consumption and energy.  I will also continue to make my own Eco friendly detergent, because its great for the environment and it’s Sydney and her sensitive skin friendly!

4. Skip the bottled water. My friend Brianne gave me the best work-out/reusable water bottle ever, and I take it most places with me.  Down with all that plastic waste, a nice Brita and my trusty bottle and I am good to go.

5. Supply your own reusable bags at stores. We do this for all our grocery shopping, but I am going to try to remember to use them even when I am thrifting, which brings me to my next point.

6. When you can buy it used.  This year I am going to try my hardest to purchase all of our clothes (excluding intimates, socks and jammies) second-hand.  I have mentioned before my love of recycled clothing, so this year I am going to try to take it even further than in previous years. I am proud of the love of thrifting that my parents instilled in me.  It’s green, it costs effective (especially for children), and it’s also more original and less main stream. So really its cool, cool and super cool. Is cool even “cool” anymore, probably not.

7. Buy items with less packaging, or better yet none.  This year we gifted new to you things out and also received new to us as well, and when it comes time for birthdays and Christmas I hope to encourage those around us (whom are the givers) to buy handmade or new to us (aka thrifted, garage-sale(d), or just plain old re-gifted), don’t get me wrong no junk please just thoughtful environmentally friendly or creative inspired gifts.

8. Support local farmers- as soon as the markets open up we will be there, I did more of this last year and LOVED it.  We will also venture to a friends farm to berry pick and then hopefully I can learn how to make my own preserves and jams!

There you have it, want to jump on board and live a little greener this year?  My footprint is shrinking how about yours?