Giving Back: Greening Your Lifestyle

In honor of Earth Day (I know it’s not Earth day until the 22nd) I wanted to dedicate a post to Earth Friendly tips and tricks. Since I will be in Boston on Earth Day, I figured I would get ahead of the game.

These are so many great ways to protect our environment and to be less wasteful. I am all about the clean green products and DIY cleaning, lotion and beauty care. Its more cost efficient, and it’s safer for both you and the environment. The chemicals found in most conventional household cleaners and even beauty products are unsafe and harmful to our health. They cause more harm then they do care.

Here are my easy tips for greener your lifestyle: 

• Start using essential oils in your cleaning: Essential oils such as lemon, sweet orange, peppermint, lavender, eucalyptus, and tea tree oil are great for their anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Oils are great to add to cleaning mixtures for extra power and great scents.
• Make your own cleaning products: Common household products are great for making cleaning mixtures, such as borax, baking soda, distilled white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and Dr. Bronner’s soap. All these ingredients are great for cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen.
• Open your windows frequently: Allowing for fresh air in your home helps to freshen a room and get rid of toxins. With VOC’s, the air in the average home is more polluted than outside air.
• Unplug the electronics you don’t use: Don’t leave your hair dryer, microwave, toaster, computers, TVs, and internet plugged in all the time. It actually uses electricity even when not turned on. Putting electronics on a power surge is easy and efficient, and a simple way to conserve energy.
• Use junk mail envelops for grocery lists: No need to waste paper writing grocery lists, when you can use junk mail and recycle it later. I even use it to leave notes to my hubby and do our packing lists.
• Don’t recycle receipts: The BPA on receipts is dangerous and could contaminate other recyclables.
• Invest in a diffuser: Glad plug-ins are toxic as are the air freshers like Febreeze. A diffuser and essential oils is a better way to freshen a room. Even putting oil drops in air vents works great.
• Wool Dryer Balls: Instead of wasting money on fabric sheets I suggest investing in wool dryer balls. They help to reduce static and increase drying time. Put a few drops of essential oils and your clothes smell just as fresh (and they are less toxic).
• Recycle: It’s simple and not much more work. Most cities recycle and provide you with a separate container to throw your recyclables in already.
• Hang dry your clothes: No need to dry all your clothes it only uses more energy. Your running gear and jeans will last longer if air dried, and your delicate’s such as bras, slips, and lingerie will too.

Find more tips on eco friendly ideas on my page dedicated to greener living here. There’s recipes for cleaning mixtures, and safer, less toxic cleaners to use instead of conventional household cleaning products.

Until Next time Be Whole, Be Fit and Be Green