Thanks to Direct Energy for sponsoring today’s discussion.
Saving energy isn’t only good for your wallet, it’s good for the environment, too. Water, gas, and electricity may seem like they are in never-ending supply but this isn’t true. As a society we must be mindful of the resources we consume in order for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to have access to these same resources in the future.
I am very happy to partner with Direct Energy to offer some ideas for conserving energy and living life a bit greener. There are just a few things that you can do around your home that will make a big impact on your life and consumption of natural resources.
Here are some of the things that my family does to lower our impact, save money, and live a little greener.
1. Recycle
This may seem like a no-brainer yet so many people don’t recycle at all or do it very little. Our town gives us a large bin for recycling that is picked up every two weeks. There are times that it’s full in that time and we need to run the excess to the recycling center and we have considered getting a second recycling bin. For most of our neighbors it is the opposite. The amount of trash I see my neighbors throwing out weekly alarms me a little, to be honest.
2. Use reusable grocery bags
We bring our own bags to the grocery store each week. In fact they have started or are considering a bag tax in several counties near me which means that if we forget our bags we had better be ready to pay up.
3. Install a programmable thermostat
We have our thermostat set to go up or down in temperature depending on the time of day. During the day it is set to 65 degrees because we get a good amount of sunlight that warms the house, it goes up to 68 degrees in the evening, then back down to 65 at night. We also have it similarly set for the air conditioning in the summer months. This saves us a lot of money on our heating and cooling bills.
4. Purchase an energy-efficient washer and dryer
Our washing machine in an HE toploader and our dryer has an eco drying cycle. Both are energy-efficient.
5. Install an energy-efficient furnace
Now I realize that this probably isn’t something that you would go out and do if your furnace doesn’t need replacing but we had to have our furnace replaced and did so with an energy-efficient one. We can definitely tell a difference in the warmth of our house, the speed in which is warms up, and the positive impact on our utility bill.
6. Line dry your laundry
We don’t line dry as much laundry as we used to because of our HOA but we do hang our cloth diapers to dry
7. Use cloth diapers, wipes, and menstrual products
Not only are fewer resources used in the making of cloth diapers and menstrual products than their disposable counterparts, they don’t sit in a landfill taking up valuable space for hundreds of years. Plus there aren’t any chemicals and they’re cuter.
8. Plant a garden
Save money on your grocery bill and lessen your footprint by planting your own vegetables. I just planted my seeds to start seedlings for replanting last weekend and I am so excited to finally have a garden this year!
9. Be mindful of water consumption
Take shorter showers, turn off the water while brushing your teeth, use an HE washing machine, etc to lower your water consumption and lower your water bill in the process.
10. Turn lights off when leaving the room
I am pretty crazy about the lights. I know that I probably drive my kids crazy but I definitely enforce the “turn the lights off when you leave the room” rule with an iron fist.
11. Use reusable snack bags
Instead of throwing away plastic sandwich bags all the time, use cute reusable snack bags. I am in love with these adorable little bags.
12. Set lawn sprinklers on a timer
Even if you don’t have a sprinkler system installed in your yard, turn on a timer in the house if you use a sprinkler and hose for your lawn instead of letting it run all day. Your lawn only needs 1″ to 2″ of water per week which you can achieve in 20-30 minutes of watering depending on your grass and soil type. Also for maximum efficiency you want to water your lawn early in the morning before the sun gets hot to reduce evaporation.
Find out more tips for saving energy from Direct Energy.
I would love to hear how you and your family conserve energy and live a little greener!
20 comments
Great list. We do quite a few of the things you have listed. We also unplug everything (that we can) in the house before bed. The T.V., internet routers, stereo system, ect. it all gets unplugged.
That’s a great one and something that I’m not very good at remembering to do
It sounds like you and I are on the same page! We also cloth diaper, use reusable shopping bags and reusable snack bags. I also use a menstrual cup and cloth pads. We have an upstairs apartment, so I can’t plant a garden, but I do have some planter boxes for some veggies and herbs. We also don’t have recycling here, but I stockpile things myself and take them to Whole Foods and recycle them there. Most of all, I try to upcycle and repurpose things before tossing them or even recycling them.
Upcycling is one of those things that I would like to do more of. I am not crafty though so I usually end up donating things that we no longer use.
I do a number of these already but it is a great reminder of some other simple ways to cut down on energy use.
I have a ton of re usable shopping bags that my dad got from free from work.
but I have severe anxiety & I haven’t been able to use them yet. I really want too. :/
i just feel like no one in my area does and that the cashiers will sigh at me (which makes my anxiety horrible and i have to leave) I used to get wic when my son was little and i had to stop using it because my anxiety from the peoples reactions were horrible
Helpful tips; like the garden one
Awesome list. It’s always good to have reminders about little ways to be more green. One thing we’ve been trying to do is get rid of paper products in our home… it’s admittedly been a struggle, especially with my husband. 😉 But we no longer use paper plates, and we use rags/washcloths for almost everything around the house instead of paper towels. We’ve also found that our local grocery store has recyclable milk containers – you buy your milk, drink, rinse it out, and return to the store to be used again. Not much, but hopefully all the small things add up!
We have cut down on using paper plates a lot, too! One of our local stores also has reusable glass milk containers but we kept forgetting to bring them back so now we just recycle the carton. It’s a great idea though!
I love using my reusable water glass at work instead of the paper cups. I also have started with mama cloth and love it!
We have begun to do our own recycling and it has become a great family activity
Thank you for reminding us about all the little things that will make a big differance.
We do a lot of the things on your list, but also compost our lawn waste and food scraps, and drive plug-in electric vehicles (I drive a Volt and my partner a Rav4 EV).
Good post. Good ideas and reminders!
Over the past few years, I have been very conscious of my energy consumption and have made a lot of changes to the way I do things. My husband and I purchased an energy and water efficient washer and dryer set, started line drying our laundry and added to our collection of reusable grocery bags. We really started to make it a routine habit to turn out lights/fans when we leave the room, and use energy efficient light bulbs. I try the best I can to preserve the world we live in so our childrens children will live on a healthy planet! Thank you for the tips and reminders. This is a very important topic and should be discussed more!
I use dryer balls when I can’t line dry to help reduce the amount of energy I use.
In addition to snack bags, there are also reusable bowl covers, which save on waste!
Or, you can do like my mother-in-law, and use a lunch or dinner plate as a lid.
These are great ideas. I really need to get a clothesline set up outside so I can air dry our cloth diapers.
Where did you get those adorable snack bags? I am constantly going through bags taking snacks everywhere we go. Id love to get some of those! Thank you!
Those bags are from Monkeyfoot Designs. All of their wet bags and snack bags are great quality and her fabric choices are the best out there (in my opinion anyway)