Easy Ways to Incorporate a Green Lifestyle If You’re Just Starting Out

Starting a green lifestyle can be overwhelming, especially for a person who knows next to nothing about what this means. Rather than make a complete and overall change, transitioning gradually into living green is the best way to go. This way you’re aware of what you’re getting yourself into and it’s easier to maintain the change. If you’re looking for easy ways to incorporate a green lifestyle into each day, then look no further than our tips for adding few touches of the green lifestyle in order to prepare you for a complete overhaul.Adopt Green Cleaning Up Methods

While doing dishes, skip hand washing your dishes with the sink. Dishwashers actually use one-sixth of the water, half of the energy, and much less soap than hand washing. Just make sure that your dishwasher is full before running it.

Laundry should be done using cold water so that energy that would be used to heat the water is saved. According to Energy Star, about 90% of the energy a washing machine uses is spent heating the water. More often than not, a good detergent in addition to the scrubbing action of the machine are enough to remove stubborn stains.

Cut down on dryer energy by about 40% by taking out pieces of clothing that are already dry sooner, such as dress shirts and t-shirts. The dryer will spend less energy working on your clothes and the thinner fabrics will emerge less wrinkled.

Significantly Lower Your Holiday Waste

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, most families produce the most amount of trash. There are many hidden ways to save time, money, and energy during this time:

• Make holiday lights last longer by turning them off or unplugging them during the day
• Wrap gifts in newspaper for a lovely vintage feel, or in leftover wrapping paper from last holiday, or even in leftover fabric scraps!
• Consider recycling your Christmas tree instead of trashing it. You can locate a local tree-cycling location with Earth 911 as a useful resource
• Rather than buying gifts, consider creating handmade gifts
• Send e-cards instead of paper greeting cards

Green Popcorn

Not the color, because that would be weird! Regular microwave popcorn bags are normally lined with PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid) which is bad for the air and worse for your body. Studies show that it has adverse effects and may contribute to infertility and cancer. Skip the fancy bags and pop your corn the old-fashioned way—in a pan on the stovetop using a thin layer of olive oil.

Enjoy the many benefits of coconut oil

Coconut oil is one of those miracle products that can achieve successful results when used in anything. Experts at Supplements in Review agree that a significant portion of the money spent on beauty products at the drugstore can be cut down considerably by investing in a single jar of coconut oil. The product has naturally occurring antifungal and antibacterial properties and can penetrate all types of hair better than other oils. It can also be used to soothe and soften dry skin and moisturise your body.

Reduce or Eliminate AC Usage

There are more natural ways to cool your home besides an AC. Ceiling fans make use of 10% of energy that ACs use and can cool a room at 10 degrees more as well. Reducing or eliminating use of AC will save you a lot of money annually. In the winter, put your ceiling fan on its reverse direction to encourage warm air to be circulated down from the ceiling. This way, you won’t have to increase the heat setting on your AC.

There are many more ways to live green, and once you begin, you will find that it’s a lot easier than you imagined!