happy earth day! let's have an eco-week together..

    Happy Earth Day friends, let's celebrate mother nature by doing our part. Instead of celebrating just one day, let's expand our festivities into an entire week of environmentally friendly practices that will up your eco-awareness for the whole year. Here are 7 things my family does to do our part in helping our beautiful earth. Read HERE for other great ideas!

SUNDay

     Make cleaner cleaners. 

• Exchange synthetic, chemical-based all-purpose cleaners for a homemade one.

*Using a small funnel, pour ½ cup white vinegar, ½ cup water and 15 drops of lemon essential oil into a spray bottle. Simply give it a shake, and then spray down dingy surfaces such as porcelain sinks, mirrors and linoleum. (Not recommended for granite or marble countertops.) Wipe clean.
TRY: NOW Essential Oils 100% Pure Lemon

• Make homemade laundry soap (this one is for babies) or the whole family, especially those with sensitive skin!

*Recipe: 1/2 cup of Dr. Bronner Baby Unscented Pure-castile liquid soap + 1/2 cup of baking soda.
Directions: add soap to machine + baking soda. Add 1 cup vinegar as a fabric softener to the rinse cycle. For HE machines use half these amounts.
  **Click picture to direct you to where you can purchase the book..**

monday

     Let's talk about Air conditioners during the summer months and heating system during the winter months. Did you know that they use a great deal of electricity? Here are some tips on how to help our mother earth.

• Use natural ventilation. Our family opens all the windows in our home when the sun goes down and stay open all through the night. first thing in the morning the windows get shut and so do the blinds to keep the sun out. Keeping our home naturally cooled during the day.
• When summer days are to much to handle we use a fan. We have a rotating tower fan and a ceiling fan in each room too. 
• If you do use an air conditioner, set it to a slightly lower temperature than outside. For example if it's 98 degrees set your thermostat to 80 degrees. Remember that setting the temperature lower uses more electricity, and it won't cool things off any faster.
• Close your vents. If you have a larger home and you are not using certain rooms in your house, close the vents in those rooms, and close the doors. Doing this consistently will reduce the amount of energy being used by heating or cooling seldom occupied spaces. 
• During winter month bundle yourself up. If you need to heat up a room during the night buy a room heater with a temperate and tip over sensor.

tuesday

     Change your light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use at least two-thirds less energy. Every time we move this is the first thing I do. Replace all the bulbs in the house.

wednesday

Compost.

• Start a compost container on your kitchen counter to collect food scrapsCompost in a commercial facility or backyard container to keep soil-enriching matter out of landfills.

 TRY: Full Circle Fresh Air Odor-Free Kitchen Compost Collector

thursday

     Conserve water. Paying attention to how we use water can make a big difference. Here are some ways to help you be conscience of your water waste. Our family has some room to improve in this area.

• Take shorter showers. 
• Turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth.
• Install low flow faucets (taps) or aerators, low-flow shower heads, and low-flush toilets.
• Run your dishwasher only when it is completely full. We run ours once a day a night before bed.
• Wash full loads of laundry in a washing machine and choose a front-load machine if possible. Our family has a front load washer thanks to some amazing friends.

friday

     Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

• Cut down on what you throw away, meaning if you buy yogurt in a glass jar, keep it and use it to take a soup to a friend that isn't feeling good.
• In our home we have completely stopped using plastic containers and have switched to glass containers. I even bought a glass cutter to cut jars that are beautiful and limited edition.
• Use reusable bags. I have many expo reusable bags that I use when I do groceries.
• I have switched from using saran wrap to Bee's wrap.
• #StopSucking Put a stop to plastic straws. My girls and I love Straws for all our drinks, but I recently gave up plastic straws for stainless steel and glass straws.
• Give up plastic baggies. Who doesn't love the convenience of using a plastic baggie and then trowing it out?! I do for sure, but i'm slowly doing my part in transitioning to silicone baggies.

 *You can buy bees wax, alternative straws& silicone baggies HERE*

saturday

     Go paperless...

• Everything is online these days. Think about how much paper you can save just by getting bank statements and bills sent electronically and paid the same way.
• Unsubscribe from junk mail. It's time to save some trees and get your name off that mailing list once and for all. 

     Thank you for reading my blog post on ways we can help doing our part to protect our mother earth. Let me know at least one thing you will change to do your part! Also if your out and about and see trash on the street please pick it up and put it in the trash. I know many hikers that pick up trash along their hikes every single time. Let's do our part. If your a ​germaphobe like me then don't toss trash anywhere either then the trash.