Happy St Patrick's Day

In honor of this green day I thought it was the perfect time to send you a quick little note and remind us all there are easy ways to go green! So here is a little list of 10 simple ways to go green.
1) Switch to a CFL bulb instead of a regular light bulb.

2) Watch your home energy. Monitor your thermostat, if it's in your budget for about $70 purchase a pre-set thermostat where you can set the temperature for the week, month season or however long you would like.

3) Unplug things you are not using. Get rid of phantom power. It can take up up to 20% of your utility bill.

4) Recycle. Most cities offer curb side recycling if you city does not there are many community areas to take your recycling. I have a link here on my blog to www.earth911.org and they have a list of community recycling areas. Check all boxes and bottles when you are cooking you would be surprised what can be recycled.

5) Recycle electronics. One person's trash is another person's treasure...remember that. There are many places that will take your old broken printer, cell phone, monitor. Whatever it may be and give you credit towards a new one. You can also visit http://www.electronicsrecycling.org for more information.

6) Stop using plastic bags!! Switch to whatever type of reusable plastic bags. There are cute ones now, practical ones, heck cheap ones. Here are my favorite Click Here because it's my favorite company of course and because of the size and I shop for a family of 4 so I would rather carry 6 bags vs 20 cute little ones.

7) Reduce-- cut down packaging by buying food in larger containers vs small 1 serving containers. That is less that needs to be put in the trash....which sometimes we forget leads to a landfill.

8) Stop buying water bottles!! Most of them end up in landfills and even if you recycle there is no reason you can't use a water bottle to refill. We all know that tap water is safer than bottled water anyway. So there isn't a health factor there.

9) Shop smart at the grocery store (source: Green Daily). One way to do this is to look for the USDA Organic label, which certifies food hasn’t been exposed to things such as pesticides or synthetic fertilizers or growth hormones and that the soil where they were grown is free of these, as well. They may be more expensive but they are much healthier. So you have to decide what is more important.

10) Use less water. Shorten showers if possible. Even if it's one a week every little bit helps. A lot of people have started collecting rain water also for use in their lawns throughout the summer.

Now these may all seem overwhelming but don't get discouraged! Take them a little bit at a time. Maybe switch one bulb at a time, or pick one things you know you can do full time and most of these actually save you money. And in these tough economic times, who can't use that.

Happy St Patty's Day,
Karen
www.KarenPore.com

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

We have all heard this before. Reduce, reuse and recycle. We have all heard about recycling and how important it is. But it is important that we also REDUCE what we use. That is probably more important than the recycling.

There are many ways to reduce our usage of the earth's recourse's, but one of the most important things we can reduce is the bottled water. There are thousands of bottles of water floating around at any given time around here. That is a lot of bottles to recycle.

A lot of people don't feel great about using tap water even though it has been proven in most areas to be safe. If you are one of those people who do not want to use tap water there are some great alternatives out there.

The first thing you will need is a effective water pitcher that will clean your tap water or a water tap filter.
Here are my favorites:
Best Water Pitcher Click Here
Best Water MTS 2000 for your counter top Click Here

I use the Best Water Pitcher. It's important to know that I use the water from the pitcher for everything! Cooking, watering my plants with it really make them thrive. I also use it for my pets to keep them healthier. I know everyone says all water tastes the same and I always believed that. But everyone told me the water out of the Best Water Pitcher tasted different. I didn't believe it until I bought the pitcher. I noticed a difference and didn't say anything and then my 12 year old daughter came to me and told me that it tasted so much different. So I believe it now, there is a difference in your water.

The next step to get that convince that you can get with those water bottles is to buy reusable preferably BFA free water bottles. Then you just need to refill that same bottle and you get the same convince as those water bottles!

Here are some examples I have put together for you. All three of these are BPA free bottles.

HSN 2 Pack of Bottles Click Here - If you are a Mom like me you may want the convince of having multiple bottles ready to go I saw this set on the Home Shopping Network website and it's a really good deal for the money. It's basically for the price buy one get one free.

Nalgene Click Here This company has a pretty good variety of bottles at a pretty decent price. They range from $9-$12 per bottle and have a variety of different styles.
Sigg Click Here This company is more on the high end. The bottles start around $20 but they do have a huge assortment of aluminum bottles. Over 100 designs actually to choose from.

So there are some choices for you to start to reduce no matter what you budget is. And in the start our economy is in this may be a little more money upfront, but will actually save you money in the long run instead of spending all that money on bottled water.
Another important thing to remember is whether you have a water pitcher or a faucet filter be sure you change your filter about every 60 days to ensure the best performance.

Until next time:)

Karen Pore