7 Easy Steps to Start Living a Green Lifestyle Today

Starting to live a green lifestyle can be totally overwhelming – the first thing you think is you have to make a lot of changes all at once. Not true. You can start greening your lifestyle by taking small steps – one at a time. It is about changing your mindset and creating new routines. Once you start to incorporate these small steps into your daily, weekly and monthly routine, it will naturally just become a part of you life. Back to school time is the perfect time to get started, follow my 7 easy steps to living a green lifestyle and work your way through the list.1. Eliminate the Paper
Invest in a nice selection of cloth napkins, washcloths and towels. To keep things simple, we have washcloths that are only used to clean the bathrooms, ones to clean the kitchen and other areas of our home and ones to use in the shower. Each of these are different colors; white for the bathrooms, gray for the kitchen and yellow for the shower – I like to keep the shower washcloths separate from the cleaning ones.

2. Reusable Bag It
Buy a set of five reusable grocery bags and use them. My hands-down favorite reusable bags are Envirosax because they package five large reusable bags inside a pouch. We have a few of these – I keep one in my handbag, the mister keeps one in the front of his car, we have a set that we use in our RV and there is a set stowed in my car – in case the mister takes it to do marketing. This way we always have a set available and there is never a reason to have to choose paper or plastic?

3. Make it a Waste-Free Lunch
When you pack your lunch, your spouse’s lunch or your child’s lunchboxes, the idea is to get each lunchbox to be waste-free. When Eben was younger we loved the PlanetBox, it has everything needed to keep his lunch waste-free. Now, that he eats more – we are obsessed with our Wean Green Glass Cubes.

4. Green Clean It
The next time that you do your household-cleaning product shopping, pick up some green cleaners. These products work just as well as the conventional products without the toxic ingredients. Nothing is worse than gagging while cleaning – isn’t house cleaning bad enough by itself. 🙂 Green cleaners are not only great for the health of your family but the health of the environment too. Plus, if you wish you can make the green cleaners yourself.

5. Ditch the Bottled Water
This one is simple – DO NOT purchase bottled water. Instead, get each member of your household a great reusable water bottle – we prefer stainless steel. These are great for beverages on the go! And if you are worried about water quality, then purchase a filter for your kitchen faucet, a filtered water pitcher or a reusable water bottle with a built-in filter.

6. Green your Cup of Joe
Skip the Starbuck’s drive-thru window and brew your own organic coffee at home. It is much more affordable and when you pour yourself a cup or two into your reusable coffee mug, you help the environment too. Instead use that money to make a small environmental donation –  Charitable Donations Canada is a great place to start.

7. Recycling 101
If you aren’t already recycling, what are you waiting for? Most communities offer some type of recycling program, so start there. If you are too lazy to walk the recyclables to the recycling bin in your garage, set up a simple recycling center in your kitchen. Many kitchens have the space to neatly conceal all of your recyclables under a cabinet – I like this option, it would allow you to separate paper, cans, plastics and glass all in one space. Brilliant!

How about you, what easy steps have you taken to live a green lifestyle?
Do you have suggestions for readers who are just starting their green journey?