Happy Earth Day Everyone!!! A day where we are all supposed to reflect on what we as human beings are doing to protect Mother Earth. I will openly admit that I have never been the most Eco conscious person out there….not even close. But I have to pat myself on the back a little, since this year I started making some strides in my efforts. Although small, I think something is better than nothing, and I hope there are other people out there doing their part too.

About a year ago I was inspired by an Oprah episode, and wrote a post about how to decrease your carbon footprint. After seeing that show I began doing some little things that could help. See my biggest complaint has always been, how as an individual I can make my own little bit of difference. All the change people were talking about seemed so big. Like driving a Hybrid car (ok who’s paying for one?), doing a compost pile (I don’t have my own yard), and take public transportation (I live in the suburbs!). After watching the episode I was disgusted by the video footage of the garbage that is floating in the Pacific Ocean. I knew in my heart something had to change.

The Captain always gets mad at me when Oprah inspires me, but I figure at least she inspires me to make a change for the good. She doesn’t preach about changing your life completely, and shows you how little changes can make a big difference. So over the course of this last year I have done the following

  • Recycling: It always seemed like a hassle even though we had curbside recycling pick up. But now I am very diligent about it.
  • Less paper plates: I used to use paper plates for my breakfast and lunch meals. Now I only use them as a last resort (which is almost never)
  • Less paper towels. I always used to clean my counters and dust with paper towels, but now I use a dish rag or sponge on the counters, and a micro fiber cloth on the furniture. I like it better!
  • “Green” Cleaning products: I haven’t replaced them all, but I have found the the Lysol GreenWorks Products  work well, and pretty much cost the same as the regular kind. I always held back because of the increase in cost.
  • Power saving light bulbs: Most of the light bulbs in my house are now the energy saving light bulbs. I sometimes don’t like how dim they are, but I can deal.
  • Power saving surge protector: We bought one of these for our entertainment system. It turns out that just because you turn off your TV doesn’t mean that everything else gets turned off, and the power is always running. Now, with this strip, we turn off the TV and everything else plugged in automatically gets turned off.

Although this list seems small, I am pretty proud of the little things I am doing to make a difference. If everyone just made a little bit of change in their lives I think we’d see a BIG change in our future. So what do you do to help? Do you have any tips? I am always looking for new ways to be inspired!