Now before you start leaving me funny comments about how Earth Day was LAST week let me begin by saying that Earth Day in our house is celebrated 365 days a year. Since I was out of town on business last week I didn’t get a chance to write what was on my mind about Earth Day. So today you are all going to celebrate Earth Day again…with me!
When the very first Earth Day was celebrated I was still safely nestled inside an egg in my mothers body. It wasn’t until a few years later that I would be welcomed onto the Earth and begin leaving my footprints on her. I remember as a child having passion for projects – the homeless, the hungry children in Africa, the stray dogs in the neighborhood – you name it, I had to be involved. As I got older this passion for projects turned into a career and I am now one of many who claim to be a protector of the planet.
While I may not lead the perfect green lifestyle I do make a difference with my small changes. I am fortunate to be able to make milke naturally for my babies and never had to feed them that fancy stuff from the cans – thus reducing their environmental footprints as well as my own. With the birth of number two I leapt backwards into the world of cloth diapers. What I like to look at as an archaic lifestyle has suddenly turned modern once again. With this leap I have personally saved thousands of diapers from a lifetime sentence in the local landfill and have encouraged others to do the same. I guess we can learn something from our parents; after all my mom used cloth on both my brother and I.
But what more can we do today (and everyday)? As I reflect on Earth Day 2010 and how I reached out to a few thousand employees to make small changes in the workplace; I wonder what else I can do in my own life. So I began making a list of 40 things I can do to live a more sustainable life. (*40 since it is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day)
In no specific order here is my list:
1. Reduce my paper towel dependance at home.
2. Eat more local grown foods.
3. Eat less meats and seafood.
4. Be more attentive to my families recycling.
5. Use less plastic in our lives (thanks Beth Terry for always making me cringe when I use or trash plastic!)
6. Make more homemade toys for my children.
7. Purchase less STUFF.
8. Get outside more.
9. Watch less TV (and computer, phones, etc).
10. Consider the amount of toxins that are in our families skincare products (thanks #ecowed crowd for making me cringe when I put on lotion!)
11. Attempt to garden more. (I’m a huge failure here!)
12. Compost more (again, another failure!)
13. Find a local environmental project to volunteer for. (Beach erosion or cleanup sound interesting!)
14. Reuse more of our waste products.
15. Create a weekly trash to treasure project.
16. Blog every Thursday with a new trash to treasure project (one of my original goals of this blog).
17. Involve my family more in our green ideas around the house.
18. Take my water bottle with me more places. (Especially when I travel)
19. Use my To-Go-Ware more and carry it with me when we go out! (reusable silverware)
20. Throw away less food. Have you ever looked at how much food we waste?
21. Recycle more paper at home. I’m bad about trashing junk mail which is probably one of our biggest wastes.
22. Spend one day a month removing myself from mailing lists; I hardly have time to read it all and never make any purchases from them.
23. Use only real and local soaps. Now more bottled bath wash.
24. Line dry more clothes. I wonder if I could talk hubby into hanging an old fashion clothes line?
25. TRY the Diva Cup instead of tampons.
26. Find a local farmers market and start shopping there.
27. Pick up 40 pieces of trash each time I go to the local beach. (or anywhere really)
28. Travel with our cloth diapers more. I’m good on short trips but the longer trips become challenging!
29. Watch Food, Inc (the movie) or read the book! (CHECK!)
30. After watching Food, Inc…decide on how to change what my family eats!
31. After watching Food, Inc…do not eat at McDonalds again!
32. Green our bathroom renovations…if and when we get off our keesters and actually begin the projects!
33. Buy and install a rain barrell.
34. Replace the windows on our house to be more energy efficient. This may be saved for next year due to the cost of the bathroom renovations.
35. Take my son to see Disney Nature’s OCEANS! (CHECK – 5/16)
36. Do something to help the Gulf oil spill.
37. Get cloth diapers on The Ellen Show. #OperationFluffy!!!
38. Convince at least one more person to use cloth diapers.
39. Work to green my sons school and implement a recycling program on campus.
40. Stop using dryer sheets – try wool dryer balls instead. (STARTED 5/16)
As you can see this is a work in progress. I can’t even complete the list by thinking of 40 things. What about you? Could you think of 40 small things you could do to be more sustainable?
EARTH DAY 365 PROJECT: Create your list of 40 small changes and link to it using McLinky below. Check back montly as I give you an update on my 40 things!
I'm working on my list. Will link up, hopefully, tomorrow. Farmer's Market is today. I'll put that on my list to-do 🙂
Love your list and just wanted to comment on #24. I bought an umbrella base holder (like you use with your outdoor furniture) and a rotary dryer and then plunked the dryer into the umbrella holder and TA-DA, a movable drying line that doesn't require any concrete, and is easy to move around for mowing purposes.