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Going Green This New Year: Eight Great & Simple Tips To A New and Healthy Home Environment

Everyone promotes the New Year as the perfect time to begin a new and healthy lifestyle. Indeed, the New Year is a great time to set the clock for changes such as physical fitness and weight loss. It is also the perfect time to begin healthy household rituals such as buying and using more green, eco-friendly products.Eight simple steps to an environmentally healthier New Year:1. ONE STEP AT A TIME - Switch to twelve green products this year, one at a time. By going green one product at a time, one month at a time, makes the transition into an eco-friendly home life easy.

2. SAY NO TO PAPER MORE - Give up using paper napkins and towels. Buy sets of decorative and organic cloth napkins. Cut up old towels into manageable squares that can be tossed into the laundry.

3. KILL THE ELECTRICITY VAMPIRES - Cut down on the power that your electronic devices use. Believe it or not, all those electronic gadget and their power cords you have plugged in around the house are draining energy, even when you are not using them. Try making a charging station at your Amish built computer center. Label each charger and plug them into a power strip. By making a centralized spot for charging you can find your cords faster, and you can conveniently switch off when you’re not using them.

4. TURN OFF THE WATERWORKS -  We all have the bad habit of running the water while get ready to shower or while we’re brushing our teeth. By reducing the length of time before we get in the shower, and by taking shorter showers, or turning off the water while soaping up, we can save gallons of water.

5. BRIGHT IDEAS - “Going Green” has reached into the lighting industry, one of the highest consumers of energy in the world. Switching from “regular” bulbs to the newer CFL (Compact fluorescent light ) ones, theoretically save electricity, saves money and saves the environment, too. The jury is out on the light quality emitted, however. It is a fact that by producing less heat it can reduce cooling energy use in your home.
ADDITIONAL BRIGHT IDEA TIPS:

• Try swapping out a white lampshade with a black one to help diffuse the light.
• If you can’t switch all lights from incandescent then at least at least switch to lower wattage bulbs.

6. STOP CONSUMING - Pledge to buy less stuff this year. Stop and think before you buy something. Leave the store. If it is something you really want or need then come back the next day.

7. REUSABLE BAGS RULE - Pledge to bring your own grocery bags when you go shopping. Many stores are now selling reusable and recycled bags for only a dollar. Buy enough to keep in a trunk so you can rotate them out with the groceries.

8. BUY SUSTAINABLE HARDWOODS - Vow to purchase only renewable, recyclable, long lasting solid wood furniture like the Amish build. A single lifetime purchase of a solid wood piece that can be handed down for generation beats multiple purchases of non-recyclable, chemical filled, press board or particle board purchases.

Tags: amish hardwoods, going green new year, green lighting, new years resolution, reusable grocery bags, water conservation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 1:04 am and is filed under Accessories, Amish Furniture, Kitchens, Lighting and Lamps, Solid Wood Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.