Tomorrow is Earth Day! In addition to events and celebrations of our beautiful home planet, there are many ways that you can help preserve it. Don’t limit yourself to simply tomorrow or this week - these ideas can be used or tweaked all throughout the year to help both your own household as well as Earth.
Make your own cleaning supplies
Cleaning supplies are a staple of home life, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay top-dollar to achieve top-notch results! With brand-name product prices on the rise, it can be cheaper to buy your own cleaning ingredients in bulk and mix them to your liking. In addition, if you make your cleaners, they should also end up with fewer fillers and other additives than if you buy some pre-mixed sprays and bottles.
At many grocery and hardware stores, you can find a slew of bottling or container options available, so you can use smaller bottles for the little jobs and bigger ones for hefty tasks. A final benefit for you and the planet? The containers and cleaning mixes that you make will be reusable! You can cut down on plastic waste while getting a fresh-smelling, dazzlingly clean home.
Remember your reusable grocery bags
On that same point of reducing plastic waste, remember to bring your reusable bags to grocery stores. Most stores let you use just about any bag you’ve got - even backpacks, as long as you’re clearly using it to carry groceries. So, if you have a couple of cute bags, bring them with you on grocery trips.
Here’s a trick, so you only have to remember them once: Place one or more of those bags in your vehicle, backpack, or another item that you bring with you nearly everywhere. This saves you from using a bag at the store, and your spare bag could come in handy if you need to carry anything else during your shopping, too! By keeping our own bags handy, we can reduce the plastic that ends up in landfills or oceans. As a personal benefit, you’ll have fewer plastic bags cluttering the house and trash bin.
Update or change your blinds/drapes
Ready for a seasonal update, and you want to do something to reduce daily electrical usage? Then, you should update your blinds or drapes. As we go into spring and summer, you can upgrade to energy-efficient window coverings that help keep out the heat.
At the top end, insulated cellular shades can prevent up to 60% of unwanted solar heat gain! That can translate to huge energy savings for your household, as you will have to run the air conditioner less often. Who would’ve thought, you can get a cool new look for the windows, as well as save money while cooling off.
Power down with power strips
Banish the phantom power draw that occurs with plugged-in electronics! Each year, American households pay an average of $100 extra due to the wasted electricity that "phantom power" draws out of a home. This is electricity that is wasted by plugged-in electronics that are not running. A tea kettle, coffee pot, or even your trusty air fryer that stays plugged in all the time, but only gets used once a day, is still drawing phantom power as long as it is connected. Of course, you could unplug the appliance every time you finish using it - that’s always an option... But, doing so takes more time and effort!
The superior option is to get a power strip. Plug your appliances into the strip and tap its one button to shut off electricity to them all at once. This will save you the effort of unplugging things, and could also prevent a power surge from frying your electronics! You have options between a regular “dumb” power strip or the more advanced “smart” power strips - some of which will automatically cut power to devices when they are not in use. Do your part - get a strip, help your pocketbook, and save the planet!
Start a garden
Are you feeling the start of spring? Getting that itch to grow something? Well, instead of an ornamental plant, you could grow your own greens! It won’t take much to add a bit of rich, green, edible color to your landscape. Seeds or pre-started plants are for sale right now, and sometimes you can even get a cute container for them included!
Home-grown greens like lettuce, cabbage, and green onions are easy to cultivate and provide nutrition that will help keep you healthy. As an added bonus, because they are fast growers, you will get to literally see these plants thrive and mature on a daily basis. Put your green thumb to the test, and help reduce demand for plants that you can watch grow right outside your window!
Have a very happy Earth Day! We would love to hear about how you practice any of these planet-saving ideas.
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