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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Greener Lifestyles in Glad Living

Embracing a greener lifestyle does not have to be difficult or expensive, for the most part. Some greener choices have heftier price tags initially than others have, but most pay for themselves within 6 to 12 months, and then begin accumulating savings for you. Greener living also does not mean you have to deprive yourself or your family of the things that make your life glad. Greener glad living means finding ways for you, and your family and friends, to participate in protecting the environment while also creating comfortable and efficient living environments, and lives filled with exciting experiences for the greatest in glad living. There is an extensive list of choices available to you for consideration in adopting a greener lifestyle that you can feel good and glad about having decided to give to yourself, family, friends, and to the planet.

We will be exploring a number of greener alternatives to help you make your glad life-greener. Covering topics like greener choices in foods and for family, home, fitness, health, car, yard, work, pets, shopping, travel, community, and much more.

Since May 1 is nary a day away now, this gives me the perfect opportunity to suggest a few green tips for spring cleaning your home and getting ready for the heat of summer.


☼This is a good time to change out a dirty furnace filter for a clean one. Consider furnace filters with 3M technology to help reduce the amount of allergens in the air circulated throughout your home.

☼ Install a digital thermostat in your home so that you can easily adjust to lower heating and cooling settings when you are away from home or while sleeping.


☼ Go around your home, checking door and window seals to ensure that they are still in good working order. Fix any breeches in the tight sealing of these that may have occurred over winter. You need these to be in great shape and working to keep hotter summer temperatures out, and to reduce placing strain and forcing increased energy consumption to keep your home cool, on your cooling system

☼ Next get out the screens for the windows in your home and inspect them for holes or tears, and hose them off before placing them in windows. With screens in your windows, you can take advantage of cooler evening temperatures to cool your home and use your air conditioner unit less often, which cuts your homes energy usage, and saves you money.

☼ Replace filament light bulbs with florescent light bulbs and Led technology lighting, that although costing a little more, do consume much less energy while providing sufficient lighting for inside and outside the home.*Turn off lights when you leave a room and shut off and unplug other power devices whenever they are not in use to decrease energy usage.

☼Purchase inexpensive shelves, bins, racks, storage containers, and other products for organizing and storing made from renewable, enviro-friendly materials, to help you keep your home tidy.

☼help decrease the wasting of water in your home by installing flow-control devices on showerheads, inside toilet tanks, and on all the faucets in your home to eliminate, using and wasting more water than is necessary.

☼Gat three boxes and mark them as Keep, Donate, and Trash. Then go through your home, one room at a time to simplify the organizing and cleaning of a room, and place items that you find in one of the three boxes. *Check the box marked for “trash” before tossing anything away, as the items it holds may be recyclable or better donated to someone who may be able to use them. **Your “keep” box may be holding onto electronic, battery and voltage powered things that no longer work, or are not as energy efficient as they used to be or could be. Unless they have sentimental value to you, consider donating them to worthwhile charitable organizations like Goodwill and the Salvation Army, and purchasing newer, more energy efficient models.

☼When it comes to using cleaning agents to clean your home, choose those that are less harmful to the environment and to the health of you and your family.

☼ Try buying more of the packaged foods you and your family consumes in packaging that can be recycled, or in smaller boxes and sacks packaged with materials that cannot be recycled, for less waste ending up in your garbage can.

Okay, these tips should give you a nice start on sprucing up your home in anticipation of summer, and a helpful beginning to living greener. I wish you well on your journey to a greener state of glad living.

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