Ideas For Greener Living

If you're interested in ideas for greener living, I have great news for you. It is easy and inexpensive to do, yet it can save you thousands of dollars along with saving the planet.

There are tons of things you can do to be more environmentally responsible. Many of them cost little or nothing but can pay off big by lowering your fuel consumption and energy costs.

You've probably heard the saying: reduce, reuse, recycle. Well that's good advice. Below I'm going to start with reduce, and give you some ideas of what you can do to lower your energy consumption. This is a good place to start with our Ideas For Greener Living

Reduce

This is a simple concept, don't be wasteful. Most of us were raised to not be wasteful but it seems like we've forgotten that lesson as we got older.

Simple things you can do to reduce would be to stop using water bottles, instead buy reusable, dishwasher safe bottles for your water.

Use reusable bags for grocery shopping and plastic containers when you pack your lunch instead of disposable bags.

Try not to drive as much, combine errands when possible. Plan out your route so you don't have to do a lot of backtracking.

Make sure your home is energy efficient so you aren't using more fuel than necessary to heat and cool your your house. Keep your furnace filters clean and add insulations.

One of the best ways to reduce the amount of energy you need to buy is to build your own wind turbine. This easy, one day project won't cost more than $200 yet it can save you around 80% on your energy bills.

If going green is your goal then 'reduce' is the logical first step for you to take. The less you use the less of an impact you'll have on fuel consumption and land fill waste, which is why this is a good first step to take.

Ideas for greener living is not difficult, you must only get into the right frame of mind and they will come to you.

Our next idea, of our three ideas for greener living is to reduce. Reduce, reuse, and recycle is a catchy way to remember that many of the changes we can make in our going green efforts are actually pretty easy and can even save us some money.

The first step,of our ideas for greener living, is reduce, that is easy. You can reduce the amount of items that you use that are disposable. Instead use items that can be re-used. You can reduce the amount of harmful fuels you use by driving less, keeping your car tuned up, and keeping your tires properly inflated.

And you can reduce by generating your own electricity. For only a few hundred dollars you can build your own wind turbine for your home. It's small, efficient and easy to build yet the savings can be significant.

The second step of our ideas for greener living is, reuse, that is an easy step too. We have gotten a little spoiled in the last 20 to 30 years. We have gotten it the, bad, habit of buying disposable everything.

If you stop to think for a minute you'd be hard pressed to think of ten items that don't have disposable alternatives. Everything it seems has been made to be thrown away.

We have disposable razors, disposable cigarette lighters, disposable bottles, disposable diapers, etc. The list could go on and on. The point is that we might not realize that this way of thinking isn't good for our environment and it's also expensive.

It may seem like nothing to spend a few dollars for a throw away cigarette lighter, and to buy a good one is expensive. But add up the 'cheap' lighter over the number you'd use in a year and the number of years you'll use one and you'll quickly see that that 'cheap' disposable lighter is not only bad for the environment it's bad for your bottom line!

So starting today, make it your mission to stop throwing things away and start reusing them when possible, if it's not possible at least recycle them. That way you can implement the ideas for greener living and save green at the same time.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.  That is the mantra of going green and thus of our ideas for greener living.  It's quite easy to do for most people, it just takes a little readjustment in your thinking. 

This three step process can be started today.  Start with reducing. Just don't use as much as you used to: don't drive as much, don't use as many disposable things as you used to, don't keep using as much fossil fuels as you used to.

Instead you can use reusable bags, cups, and grocery bags.  Combine trips so you don't drive as much, and build our own energy sources such as a wind turbine for your home.

All of these steps will help you use less and save more.  They are all very easy and inexpensive to do yet the payoff can be huge.

The next step is to recycle. 

Again, this is an easy step to take.  There are some things you will need to use that can't be re-used, such as cans from your groceries.  For these things you can lessen the impact on the environment by recycling them instead of throwing them away and clogging up the land fills.

More and more communities have some sort of recycling program for their residents.  I live in a tiny town and they pick up my recycling bin on the same day they pick up the trash.  It couldn't be easier.  I just throw newspapers, cans, bottles, etc into the recycling bin during the week and take it to the curb on trash day.

Just a little bit of thought and a little bit of extra effort on your part can make all the difference in the world. And if you need more motivation, remember that many going green changes will actually save you money, sometimes a lot of money!