Top Ten Ways to Go Green at Home

In the midst of all the gloom and doom about global warming, saving the world may seem like an insurmountable task most days. Cheer up! Doing your part for the environment is easier than you think, and what's good for Mother Earth is usually good for your bank account too. To live a greener, cleaner (and often cheaper) life, just follow these ten easy steps that you can take right now.

Change Your Light Bulbs

Changing all of your household light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent uses one third of the energy for the same amount of light and generates less heat, making CFL's safer. A CFL bulb also lasts ten times longer than incandescent. Added to the reduced electricity costs and you're saving time, money and my favorite planet all at once.

Buy Re-usable Grocery Bags

Forget paper or plastic. Sturdy, re-usable canvas grocery bags are now available at almost every major supermarket and cost about a dollar apiece. Keep them in your car or near the door and take them with you every time you shop. The store employees will gladly fill them for you and you can fit an entire carriage-full of groceries into three of four bags, making it easier to carry your items into the house. You'll be greatly reducing the amount of paper or plastic that you're throwing away and you won't have to worry about ripping a bag open and spilling your groceries everywhere.

Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies

A few drops of essential oil into white vinegar produces an effective, sweet-smelling chemical-free floor wash. You can also use it on counter tops. For bathroom fixtures try adding the oil to baking soda and for furniture polish, add your favorite scented essential oil to olive oil.

Recycle

It may seem obvious, but remember to get recycling bins whenever you move to a new community and use them faithfully. This saves your community quite a bit of money as well.

Walk

Whenever you can, walk. Even if you're indoors, use the stairs instead of the elevator. Elevators use electricity and stairs use calories. Save the planet and trim your waistline!

Re-use

Buy products made from recycled materials. Forgo the temptation to use paper plates or plastic cups. Sure, washing dishes uses water but if you're running a dishwasher you're using it anyway and reducing waste materials has a major environmental impact. Re-use anything and everything you can at home.

Turn Out Your Lights

Remember those light bulbs we talked about? Turn them off when you don't need them. Train your kids to turn off TV's, video games and lights when they leave a room and lead by example. You might like next month's electricity bill a bit more too.

Keep a Compost Pile

If you're a gardener, make your own compost instead of relying on chemical-based pesticides. Place a bin in the yard and lay down wood chips, sawdust or straw. Over time add coffee grounds, egg shells, leaves, grass or kitchen scraps. Keep it warm, wet and turned once a week and in a couple of months you have compost for your garden.

Make Your Own Facial Masks

Leave the expensive, chemical-laden stuff at the drugstore and mix your own facial masks. Mashed avocado and honey, or egg and oatmeal are two of my favorite. Search the Internet for creative, home made, all-natural recipes. The excess can go straight to compost.

Filter Your Own Water

Skip the bottled water and invest in a water filter, maintaining it regularly to keep your tap water clean and drinkable. The plastic that bottled water comes in needs energy to be created, is a source of polluting waste in its own right and government studies now show that plastic leaks toxins into the supposedly clean water we are trying to drink. Plastic is a petroleum product. Remind yourself of that every time you want to buy something packaged in plastic. Plastic can't be avoided, but the need for it can be reduced.

These are some of the things I've done in my life to improve my health, my finances and most importantly, my relationship with the planet. You'll feel better and the Earth will appreciate it. I promise.