Happy Earth Day, friends!

I love Earth Day because it brings a bit of awareness to how we treat our planet. I know there are those who think every day should be Earth Day, but it’s nice to have a day set aside to those who aren’t already living an eco-friendly lifestyle. To my friends & family, I’m uber green, but compared to my truly organic, sustainable, crunchy friends, I’m just lime green. A little bit crunchy—that’s me! But, I do have a few simple changes that can have a big impact—not just on the planet but your wallet too!

Buy Bamboo

Bamboo products, such as bowls, spoons and cutting boards, are inexpensive for a very good reason—bamboo is plentiful! Bamboo is sustainable because it grows so quickly—up to 24 inches per day! Per. Day. Seriously. It is the perfect environmentally friendly alternative. My bamboo spoons, spatulas and spreader are among our kitchen favorites.

Cloth Not Paper

How much money do you spend each month on paper towels or napkins? I know my answer—zero! We have replaced our paper products over the years so that I no longer purchase any of it. Not only will it keep your expenses down and your trash out of the landfill, but it’s actually kinda fun to use cloth all the time. It really makes an ordinary family dinner feel a little bit special.

Homemade Compost

Admittedly, I’m not actually very good at this. That’s because we’ve chose a super simple “cold compost” method—it means we don’t have to stir as frequently or buy a special container. It also means it takes over a year to actually create usable compost for the garden. We’ve been composting for 2 years now and have yet to use any for our produce. However, the grass surrounding the compost bins is lush & thick where our dog digs the dirt out from around them. Clearly, we’re onto something here!

Rechargeable Batteries

I wish I could say we have switched 100% to rechargeable batteries, but it just hasn’t happened yet. We do use a rechargeable battery for our most frequently used items like the remote control, Flip video camera, cameras and video games. Even if an item didn’t come with its own rechargeable battery, there are often accessory packs you can purchase to stop buying batteries. When you do use regular batteries, be sure to recycle them rather than adding to the landfill. Home Depot, Best Buy and other locations collect dead batteries for proper disposal.

Waste Free Lunch

This is a big one for us since our girls take their lunch to school every day. We use a few different lunch boxes to keep them waste free. Laptop Lunch and Easy Lunchboxes are favorites. We also save butter containers to use when the lunchboxes manage to get left behind. MFJ has reusable sandwich bags & wraps. There are several cute designs on Etsy, but I think I’m going to buy a few of the Wrap ‘n Mats on Amazon—most are only $6.99 and, as always, ship free when you spend $25.

Using this combination keeps our trash to a minimum. Each week, we place a small bag of garbage next to our 2 bins of recycling. It’s amazing how quickly these few simple changes to your everyday life really add up. You’ll enjoy the monetary savings while you help protect the environment.