| Babies and small children come with a lot of packaging | | | | but they also end up in landfill sites. Get your family a |
| and it can be a challenge to even think about green | | | | bunch of colorful cloth napkins, or make some from |
| living when you are lost in a sea of disposable diapers, | | | | leftover fabric scraps or old soft cotton shirts, and use |
| wet wipes and laundry. Unless you are a committed | | | | them at family meals. They take up little space in the |
| eco-mommy and have already embraced cloth | | | | laundry and can be used several times before |
| diapers, you probably have a guilty feeling that it isn't | | | | washing; just give each family member a different |
| possible to be truly green and energy efficient with a | | | | color or else an individual napkin ring to identify their |
| baby in the house and a busy lifestyle. | | | | napkin. |
| But disposable diapers aren't the beginning and end of | | | | 3. Recycle |
| an eco-friendly family lifestyle. Nobody said it has to be | | | | If you're not already re-cycling find out about options in |
| all or nothing. Even if they are essential to the smooth | | | | your area. There may be a local pick-up scheme if |
| running of your household, there are still plenty of other | | | | you separate out your garbage or you may have to |
| smaller green living measures that you can take to | | | | find a drop-off point. Kids will catch on quickly if you |
| help the environment. In doing so you will also be raising | | | | have separate bins for re-cycled paper, glass and |
| your kids to be aware of green issues, which is an | | | | plastics and it's a great start to educating them about |
| important part of building a sustainable future. After all | | | | the environment. |
| they are the ones who will inherit the earth from us, so | | | | 4. Hang out your laundry |
| energy awareness is essential to their education from | | | | Whenever the weather allows, hang out your laundry |
| an early age. | | | | on the clothes line rather than using the dryer. Older |
| Try a few of these simple green living tips to increase | | | | kids can help with the pegging out and folding |
| the efficiency of your energy use and reduce the | | | | afterward. Your clothes will last longer and you'll save |
| impact your home has on the environment. Remember | | | | a lot on electricity. |
| the green mantra: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Reduce | | | | 5. Use energy saving light bulbs |
| the amount of resources you consume, re-use things | | | | Replace your light bulbs with the curly energy efficient |
| like paper, plastic and cloth wherever possible and only | | | | bulbs, as the old ones give out. Switch off lights when |
| then recycle what you can no longer use. This saves | | | | you leave a room and make sure any lights left on at |
| you money and makes the best possible use of | | | | night, for kids that are scared of the dark, are of a low |
| resources. | | | | wattage, energy saving variety. |
| 1. Use both sides of the paper | | | | These may seem like small measures, that won't do |
| Kids love drawing. Before you know it they can have | | | | much to save the planet, but think about it this way: if |
| accumulated a stack of artworks equivalent to a small | | | | every household in the US were just to switch to cloth |
| tree. Encourage them to use both sides of the paper. | | | | napkins for a year, millions of trees would be saved, as |
| Re-use office scrap paper for drawing on before you | | | | well as the energy and water consumed in turning |
| re-cycle it. | | | | them into paper. Each small measure adds up. |
| 2. Switch to cloth table napkins | | | | Once you have incorporated these green living tips into |
| Disposable paper table napkins not only use up an | | | | your family lifestyle, you could gradually introduce a |
| immense number of trees to produce, if you count up | | | | few more, greening up your home and your kids one |
| how many each household can get through in a year, | | | | small step at a time and saving money too. |