Happy Earth Day! I am a definte tree hugger at heart and love Earth Day. I know I’m not perfect but I thought I would share a couple of things I do around the house to try to stay as green as possible. These are the simplest of tips and if you aren’t already doing these things, what are you waiting for?
1. I try to use as little paper products as possible in the kitchen. So we actually have two very large drawers dedicated to dish towels, rags, and cloth napkins. I just throw them in with the rest of the laundry every week. We rarely use paper towels or paper napkins. Got to save those trees!
2. Under our sink we have the two things that make the biggest impact. First, vinegar. I try to use vinegar to clean as much as possible. I do use some other cleaning products. But nothing beats vinegar and baking soda for cleaning the sink and who doesn’t love to watch the vinegar/baking soda reaction.
Second, a compost bucket. We compost all our kitchen scraps. Keeping this bucket under the sink makes it pretty easy and it is surprising how quickly it fills up. Composting also cuts way down on the amount of garbage we produce. Between composting and recycling I would say we produce just one small bag of actual garbage a week.
We just got a legit composter that is outside our back door. Before we just had a spot in the back yard that was fenced in with pallets. Unfortunately our dogs kept using it as an all-you-can-eat buffet so we opted for this double barrel one from Costco. I’m excited to hopefully get some usable compost this summer.
3. Earth friendly cleaning products – I know these products aren’t as good to the Earth as straight ole vinegar but at least they are a step in the right direction.
4. Reusable mop head – It might be weird how much I like . It is a microfiber mop for hardwood floors and it does such a good job at picking up dog hair. The heads are washable so you can use it over and over. Plus if I can get away with a quick sweep with this mop instead of using the vacuum – energy saved!
5. Resuable grocery bags – We have an absurd amount of re-bags but they get used a ton. One of my weird pet peeves is seeing people at the grocery store without re-bags. And don’t get me started on those plastic produce bags (they aren’t necessary!).
6. Reusable water bottles – I take a water bottle with me everywhere I go. You’ll never find me buying a bottle of water – no way!
These are just a few super simple tips that I do on an everyday basis. I hope you are able to take amount today to make a change that will help the Earth. Happy Earth Day!
Be Happy, Be Healthy!
