Top Three Green-Living Tips & More

I used to not think too much about living greener until recently where I started changing habits to live a little better.  Just by looking at my own household and the volume of trash taken out, I knew I had to do something to help reduce the waste we produce not to mention going green can mean lower costs.  TwitterMoms and LighterSaferGreener is sponsoring this great awareness blogger contest for the top three green-living tips.

Thanks to my blogging, I was introduced to the Pur Water Filtration Pitcher which is a very obvious change to make to reduce wastes considering I would normally throw away at least five empty plastic bottles a day.  This change reduces waste, eliminates the growing expensive purchases of bottled water and provides a little control in what my family and I are actually drinking.  This is probably my biggest green-living tip.  The great thing about the Pur system is they have flavor cartridges to allow a little jazz in every glass of water.  Lemon is my favorite but they have other flavors that should appeal to anyone.

My second Green-Living tip is eliminating the need to use all those plastic shopping bags at the store and use the great recycled shopping bags that I picked up for free.  It's amazing how much you can actually carry in those bags which makes it easier to get back into the house.  I was reluctant to use them until my 21 year old kept needling me to switch as she works at Publix and loves the bags herself.  They fold up nice and neat and can be put away in the car for the next trip out.  The amount of waste due to these bags is unreal.  The only thing I used to do with the bags is reuse them for the small trash can liners which Target bags work the best for that task.  I found the bags from Publix and Walmart were useless and there was no point in not doing my part by switching. 

My third Green-Living tip includes purchasing as many organic fruits and vegetables, wherever possible, since that means a reduction in the number of harmful chemicals in the soils and our groundwater plus we get healthier food.

Other tips I use for living green:

• We participate in the school's Capri Sun Pouch recyling program where the school works with a vendor who exchanges the voucher for school for cash and they recycle the pouches.  They also recycle paper and newspapers.
• I avoid printing e-mails for work as I'm a telecommuter.  The documents that are not confidential, I let the girls draw pictures on the back.
• Use your local FreeCycle program from Yahoo.  Many products are reused thanks to this great program that allows communities to give and take items for free.
• I use energy efficient light bulbs that may costs a little more but they use less energy and require less changing.
• I use canned vegetables cans during the holidays to bake decorative homemade bread gifts.  The cans be decorated with left over Christmas wrap from last year and the ribbons and bows can be added to spruce up the presentation.
• I use past Christmas cards to make my own gift tags by layering other papers and ribbons and projects I print off my computer to personalize such as photos.
• We drink a lot of lemonade and with all those empty sturdy cans, I reuse them to start plants in late fall to be planted outside.

Want to get involved, learn more about what you can do or participate in the blog challenge? 


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