So I’ve been thinking, what little things can we do to improve our environment for our children, and their children, and so on? There has to be any number of steps we can take that are simple, easy, and inexpensive. Any ideas? Here’s a few that I came up with:

Five simple things you can do to save the environment and improve the size of your wallet:

1. Save water: Turn the faucet off while you’re brushing your teeth. If your faucet delivers 2-4 gallons of water per minute, and you brush your teeth for the recommended 2 minutes at least 2 times each day that amounts to (2x2x2=) 8 gallons of water to (4x2x2=) 16 gallons of water down the drain. In only two minutes!
2. Save a tree: Use fabric napkins instead of paper napkins. We stopped using paper napkins a couple of months ago, and I don’t miss it. Actually, I prefer it this way. I never have to turn to paper towels because I’ve run out of napkins. We have a dozen really inexpensive fabric napkins for ourselves, and then another bunch (of nicer ones) that we use for company. We just throw the napkins in with the towels when we do laundry. Easy as pie. Not only is it good for the environment, but it saves on the grocery bill too.
3. Save a tree: Cut back on paper towel use. Take all those old cotton t-shirts, sheets, and anything else lying around that isn’t needed anymore and cut them into conveniently sized rags. Leave a stack of them in the kitchen and each bathroom. When there’s a spill, sop it up with a rag and throw the rag in the laundry with the towels. On the rare occasion there’s a really gross mess to deal with, you can use the crummiest of the rags to clean it up and then toss it when you’re done. Now you can get rid of that annoying paper towel holder that just takes up space on the countertop.
4. Reduce energy consumption: Only do full loads of laundry. This will be easier now that you have all those rags to wash. One full load of laundry uses less energy than two smaller loads of laundry.
5: Reduce energy consumption: Unplug appliances, computers, and TV’s when not in use. According to The Green Book this accounts for 10 percent of energy use in the home. 10 percent!! Compute approximately one-tenth of your monthly utility bill and that’s what it is costing you to have these things plugged in. The easiest way to accomplish task when you have a number of electronics in one general area (DVD, TV, VCR, etc.) is to put them all on a master switch (a wall switch or one of those power strips) so you only have to hit one button to turn everything off. Remember to unplug the toaster oven and coffee pot when they are not in use. Your utility bill will thank you. 

Anything we can do, no matter how small, will start to turn things in the right direction in the aggregate. The more people that choose to do one more thing to help, the greater the overall effect will be. 

I’m sure there’s many more ideas out there. Any suggestions? Feel free to comment!