Virtual Assistant Janet Barclay challenged me to describe three things that I do to minimize my impact on the planet and I’ve taken up Janet’s challenge!
Gift Giving
Rather than giving stuff this year, we’ve given more “experiences”. We’ve purchased horseback riding lessons, guitar lessons, dinners in restaurants and a few gift cards. Did you know that many kinds of wrapping paper can’t be recycled? We’ve recycled bits of fabric into gift bags and the wrapping paper we use is made from newsprint and can be easily recycled.
Electricity Conservation
We have compact fluorescent bulbs in all of our light fixtures and we keep lights turned off as much as we can. Did you know the chargers keep converting electricity even if the device is not plugged into the other end? We unplug power adapters and portable device chargers as soon as we’re done using them.
Fuel Conservation
We installed a programmable thermostat on our furnace (I always forget to turn the heat down at night). I group my errands and do them all at the same time. This means I use the car less frequently. Planning my trips to minimize left turns reduces the amount of time I’m sitting in traffic and saves fuel too!
I’m interested to know what fellow bloggers are doing to minimize their impact on the planet so I’m tagging the following people to see what they have to say.
- Eliza at Silver and Grace
- Heather at Smart Spaces Organizing
- The Deep Friar
- Marilyn Bohn at Get it Together Organizing
- Avonelle at Code Poetry Software
Now I know everyone is very busy especially at this time of the year, so if you don’t have time to blog about this topic I understand. If you do write a blog post, please link back to this post and leave a comment here so we won’t miss your answers!
And if there are any other bloggers out there who want to participate, please join in, we all need more green ideas!
Happy Holidays! Joyeuses Fêtes!
Thanks for playing along.
I love cloth gift bags! I have two or three that I received many many years ago, and I just keep reusing them every year.
1. switched from commercial shampoos to baking soda
2. we are selling 1 of our cars and just use one. Will make it work.
3. using cloth shopping bags for everything, not just groceries
Great to know you use cloth gift bags too Janet! Our whole family uses them so we get & give different models every year.
Eliza, you’re a revolutionary to stop using commercial shampoo! I know you’ve blogged about it several times so any of my readers should flip over to your site to know how it has been going.
Sorry…I”m quite busy right now, just before Christmas.
But thanks for asking.
No problem Friar. Thanks for dropping by.