Do you ever read the lists of things we should all be doing to have a more green house and feel overwhelmed? I know I do and I consider us to be a pretty green family. When you become overwhelmed like that you are less likely to do anyhting at all because why bother?

So I present five easy tips that anyone can do. Baby steps are painless and the changes are easy to make.

1) Use a compost bin for your food scraps. We use a way back corner of our yard for this that is not visible from the house. If you have a smaller yard, or neighghbors right up closeto your property, you might want to check out something like thisor this which are also more aesthetically pleasing. Your garden will love you for this.

2)Replace all conventional incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lights, which use up to 75 percent less energy but provide the same amount of light. Virtually every lightbulb in my house is flourescent now.

3) Use zero VOC water based paints in your home. All of your favorite paint manufacturers now sell low or zero VOC lines. This reduces the toxic emissions in your home.

4) Replace old toilets, faucets, and shower heads with newer more energy efficient models. This is especially important for those of us who are renovating old houses with fixtures that date back to the 1950’s, or even earlier!

5) Set your thermostat lower in the winter and higher in the summer. While you could install your own wind turbine to power your home, it would be a lot easier, not to mention less expensive to adjust your electrical usage instead. Not to mention your neighbors will probably love you more without a 10 story wind turbine in your yard.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 6:23 am and is filed under DIY, Green Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.