The thought of creating a true green life can be overwhelming for most people. The media is constantly telling us things we need to change about ourselves and our lives. Most of the time, we are already running around with no time to spare to even consider making true life changes to better ourselves and our community. As a single parent with three young daughters, taking the time to educate myself on how to make the life changes I desired was like asking me to take a month-long vacation — impossible. My green transformation, like most people, was tough at first until I figured out the secret.
Living green is simply living in a way that is healthy for you, your home, and the environment.
Stressing over needing to change everything is not only the wrong way to go about it, but can be unhealthy too. Your green transformation will not happen overnight; it will be like any other successful project you have tackled… one step at a time.
Knowing the difficulty of starting this process, I decided to sit down with my staff to understand what things they did first in their green transformations. We are all at different points of our own green transformation and took different paths to get where we are today. This is the list we came up with, giving you very simple steps and tasks to focus on during your own green transformation. Hopefully there are new things on here that you can incorporate into your life now. This list is in no special order; it is just the 10 things we all agreed upon that were easy and important to do. Enjoy!
- Stop microwaving plastic — no brainer, right? The plastic is leeching into your food. Replace those plastic bowls with glass. Mason jars are cheap and fabulous for storage.
- Replace your plastic shower curtain to one that is more environmentally friendly. You can find them on Amazon for pretty cheap, no excuses!
- If you are planning any painting projects, remember to get paints without the toxic VOC’s. Again, these can be easily found in any hardware store. If you are a pet lover, this is good for both yourself and your furry friends!
- Understand your community’s recycling program. Look for that information and read it thoroughly. Many of us do not recycle everything we can. Keep an eye out for those hazardous and electronic waste disposal events. If you are a CleanGreen client ask your lead cleaner and she will help you find local events. Today, a vast majority of our trash does not have to go to a landfill. Educate your family on what can and cannot be recycled! Even if you lead your green transformation, it takes the entire family to make a green house.
- Consider using a water filtration system. There are easy methods that attach to your faucet or filtration pitchers to keep in your fridge.
- Replace your dish, hand, body, and laundry soaps with natural alternatives. Has it ever rained and the dye from your clothing rubbed off on you? Think about what is happening there. These chemicals rub onto your skin even when it doesn’t rain.
- Consider using rain barrels for your home. This will help you keep fabulous water to feed those planters all summer long. Even though we may not have a problem with fresh water here around the great lakes, it is already an issue for the west coast and someday it will be a problem for all of us.
- This is just another way to reduce what we put into landfills while taking advantage of fabulous soil for our plants’ growing needs — maybe next spring, you can even add a little gardening to your list.
- Tackle replacing your personal care products including shampoo, toothpaste, and make-up with healthier alternatives. Our skin absorbs what we put on it. Do you really want to be absorbing the toxins in those products? Do your research.
- Finally, the most difficult of all, address your diet. Do you know what you are putting into your body? It is time to find out. I recently changed my lifestyle to garner the Whole 30 diet and will share with you my thoughts on that in an upcoming post.
Numbers 9 & 10 are definitely more difficult and probably not simple, however, take it one step at a time.
I hope this gives you a good start on your way through your green transformation. I appreciate you taking the time to read and would love any feedback you might have. Have a wonderful week!
Seek Balance, Find Peace,
Jackie