Greener Living is A Good Habit

I think they say it takes 15 to 20 times to do something before it becomes a habit.  Like my husband’s drawers on his dresser never being completely closed.  Yeah, he has that bad habit perfected quite well!  Or that funny swallowing thing he does with his throat that drives me insane.  Another one of hubby’s habits that is performed like a pro.  Wait, this post wasn’t intended to be a rant about my husband and his not-so-good habits.  It was meant to share with you how simple it can be to create wonderful and long-lasting habits that will not only benefit the health of you your family, but also the planet.  Yes, Mother Earth gets to reap the rewards of my family’s eco-friendly ways.
Some of the easiest habits to form when it comes to living a greener lifestyle:

• Buy and bring your reusable bags with you where ever you shop.  To make this more simple, buy fabric ones that can fold and fit in your handbag.  I have at least 2 or 3 in mine at all times!
• Recycle!  I can’t imagine there are many cities/towns these days that don’t offer at least some options for recycling.  My husband does this one on a weekly basis – yes, he does have some decent habits, too!  Look at it this way – the more you recycle, the less that goes into your garbage can, which means lower cost to you for your actual trash disposal.
• Buy, fill, and bring a reusable water bottle with you when you leave home – even if just going to the store.  Sometimes trips take longer than we anticipate and rather than being stuck with nothing and having to purchase a much less desirable plastic bottle of water, you will have gone prepared.

Those are a few of the easiest green habits for my family.  Basically, we do these things without even thinking about it.

A few things we could work a little harder on at becoming habits are:

• Turning off the water when we brush our teeth – we are all guilty of this crime!
• Hubby leaves the water running while shaving.  And it’s hot water.  (Hmm, maybe this post is a bit of a pick-on-hubby kind of a post)  Too bad Good thing he doesn’t even read my blog.
• Electronic devices.  We have too many and they are often left on when nobody is using them!

So there you have it.  Some of my family’s easiest green habits to follow and some that are still works in progress.  A great way to help you and your family could be to hang ecominders throughout your home.  My younger son and I had a lot of fun posting them all over the house as little reminders to be more conscious of how well we were doing and what we could be improving on.  I should also mention that they are reusable so don’t worry about putting actual stickers on your household surfaces!  The ecominders remove quite easily.