Making Green Convenient

For obvious reasons, protecting our environment is an important and worth while cause. A cause that many people have dedicated themselves to. In fact, it seems that more and more people are taking up the “green” banner each day. These individuals are looking for eco-conscious products for every aspect of their lives from household cleaners to automobiles. While going green is vital, it can also be inconvenient. Green products can be hard to find, expensive, and confusing in comparison to one another. It doesn’t have to be like that though; going green can be convenient.

Stick with it. First off, even though being eco-friendly can be inconvenient at times, don’t give up. Being green is important and worth a little inconvenience. In addition, understand that as time goes on and more and more individuals begin demanding green products they will become more readily available. Hopefully the price will go down as these products become more common place. In the mean time, if you’re having trouble finding green products or simply can’t afford them you can still help sustain the environment by simply reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Have a dedicated recycle and compost bin. Buy two extra trash cans (or small bins if space is limited) to keep in your kitchen. That way you’ll have one can for trash, one for recycling, and one for compost. Keeping these bins in the house rather than having to walk your recycling or compost outside each time will make it easier for you to stay green.

To make these bins even more convenient buy bins that have wheels or add casters to them. That way you can move the bins around the kitchen or house with you as needed.

Turn your home into a smart home. Leaving the lights on when no one is home or the thermostat turned up when you’re away on an extended trip is not exactly eco-friendly. However, coming home to a dark house when your hands are full of groceries or returning after a long trip to a chilly home isn’t exactly convenient. Luckily there are several services available that allow you to control the lights, thermostat, and locks of your home from a smart phone, tablet device, or computer making being green a little more convenient.

Plan your route. When you jump in your car to run errands and just go in whatever order you want with no “to-do” list you aren’t just wasting fuel, you’re also wasting your time. To make the whole thing green and convenient make a list of errands you need to run. If nothing on your list is time sensitive, hold off until you have several errands to run rather than just one or two. Then plan out the most direct route.

You should also consider the time you are going to run your errands. Running them during rush hour (morning or evening) or during lunch time is probably going to stick you right in the middle of traffic which is yet another fuel and time waster.

Let some grass grow under your feet. In the warmer months, instead of rushing out to mow your lawn every other day, kick back and relax. Allow your grass to grow a bit longer than normal (approximately 2.5 inches). This will not only save on fuel for your lawn mower but encourage a healthier lawn.

In addition, when you do mow your lawn, don’t bag the clippings. Leaving the clippings promotes a healthier lawn by adding additional nitrogen which will help the grass grow and prevent weeds from sprouting up. Plus, you won’t be contributing to the millions of tons of yard waste generated in the U.S. each year.

Go paperless. Instead of having bills, invoices, magazines, and etc. mailed to your home every day, save some trees by signing up for electronic delivery. More and more companies are quite happy to send your bills, bank statements, account notifications, and pretty much any other communication to you via email. Not only that, but with the invent of the iPad, Kindle, and other tablet devices more and more magazines each day are available in e-book format. Plus, once you switch to electronic delivery you won’t have to worry about forwarding your mail if you move or a letter getting lost in the mail!

Going green does not mean purchasing expensive products, food, and cars. While all of those things may support this all too worthy cause there are many, many ways you can help out without driving all over town and forking over all your green. Being eco-friendly is all about reducing, reusing, and recycling. Keep that in mind and remember that no gesture is too small.

Lindsey Brickell writes for Caster Specialists and is interested in creating green and economical solutions for any situation.