It IS easy being green, sometimes!

I get that I am not perfect.  But I do try to be a good green ambassador.  I was reminded today by my 2 year old that that is not always the case, sometimes I am not as good as I need to be.  We had taken an afternoon walk to feed the ducks and turtles, and on the way back I walked right by a recyclable plastic coffee cup and a recyclable cardboard holder that had been tossed on the side of the road.  Both items were from Starbucks, not sure that makes a difference here.  Anyway my son went to pick it up, probably not for the reasons he was supposed to, but he still went to it nonetheless.  And it hit me, if he was not there I would have walked by it, without a second thought.  I was so involved in whatever fun thought was in my head that I was unaware I could have been helping.  I try so hard to conserve and practice good habits for the environment, but sometimes I mess up.  Do not worry we picked up the cup and cardboard holder and brought it home to recycle.  So what is the point here, I suppose that my point is that sometimes we all need gentle reminders that we can help a bit more.  We need to continue to put forth the effort, we need to do rather than to talk about it, and remember that all the small actions will add up.  No point in short shortsightedness or short term solutions.   We may not see results right away but we will benefit from the efforts long term. So I started thinking about some of the ways that we try to be environmentally friendly in our house and went down a quick checklist to make sure I was not slacking in other areas.

These are just a few helpful tips on easy ways to go green that I find pretty easy to practice with little reminders.  

1.  Take a walk and pick up some trash (don't think I will be forgetting this one again any time soon).  Sounds awful put if you have kids can be a lot of fun.  And who knows you may find some treasure.  

2.  Always make sure you run a full load of laundry (and if you do it on cold, extra energy savings added) in the washing machine and dishes in the dishwasher.

3.  If you can dry some or all your clothes on a laundry line. 

4.  Turn off lights when you leave the room, and/or try not to use lights at all. 

5.  Higher your AC thermostat, anything over 75 F or 23 C will help cut down on cost and saves a bunch of energy.  http://sustainablechoices.stanford.edu/actions/in_the_home/thermostatsetting.html

So these are just a few of the ways we try to help.  There are a bunch of other ways too, but these are the ones that if you start practicing will become habits and you will not need a kick in the pants like I did today.  Oh yeah there is another one, number 6, take your own reusable container to restaurants (because we all know you are already taking out your reusuable shopping bags) so yo do not have to use their disposable one, yay for leftover love.

Keep being green!