GET INSPIRED
JUST DO ONE
Hosting or purchasing things from a garage sale is not only easy on your pocketbook, but a great way to reduce waste and reuse items. I look online each week to find local sales that may have things I need...and I always find the cutest things for my 2-year-old daughter! She loves seeing the other children (and the pets, of course). It's fun for both of us!
Carry re-usable bags for ALL your purchases, not just the grocery store. I take them into the hardware store, pharmacy, Home Depot, Costco, even fast food and take out places! You would not believve how many OTHER places you can accumulate plastic bags, and how many are surprised when you have your own. You have to stop the store clerks before they pack though, or they automaticlly grab plastic.
Kleenex tissues are made using virgin wood pulp, which they claim makes the tissues softer. You could buy tissues made from recycled material ("green" tissues). Instead, how about REDUCING CONSUMPTION and stop using kleenex or other paper products to blow your nose. Buy a pack of handkerchiefs instead. But wait, that's still consumption. Better yet, take an old shirt or sheet and make your own.
Put all of your applicances, computers, tvs, etc on to power strips. Instead of clicking the remote, switch off the power switch on the power strip. This will turn off all of those little red lights that suck off energy through the outlet -- a.k.a. vampire electricity. Your savings could be up to $60-75 annually.
Conserve water and still have a clean car! Next time you notice dew drops glistening on the morning grass, leave your car outside overnight so that it collects moisture. Before driving off to work or school, towel dry your car. Presto - you have a clean car without wasting water or polluting storm drains with soap residues! For extra squeaky clean windows, spray a bit of vinegar and wipe dry for extra sparkly windshields. If you do this on a weekly basis, you'll never have to waste water!
Carry a coffee mug with you. When you want to buy coffee at a cafe, gas station, or want to help yourself to coffee at a meeting, bring your own cup. You save the resources that would otherwise be used to manufacture a paper cup, or even worse, a styrofoam cup which takes some 250 years to decompose!