The month of April highlights one of our favorite days of the year — Earth Day! It is a great time to take a moment and think about how to improve our habits.
From how we eat to the type of items in our home, it’s important for our family to focus on bettering the environment. Not only does it help our planet, but it also gives us hope for a better tomorrow.
It’s no secret that change takes time. For the past two years, we’ve been conscious of the products we purchase. Not only the food we eat, but also how we are making a difference in the community.
We started this journey by cutting back on the trash we put out as well as the cleaning products we use.
Cleaning with vinegar has always been a staple in our home, however, we would use other alternatives as well to help eliminate the strong smell.
It wasn’t until we learned about the use of essential oils that we decided to invest more in these products. Since using it for therapeutic reasons, we’ve begun using essential oils in other ways.
10 Family-Friendly Ideas For Earth Day
Spending time with your family is always exciting, more so when you’re helping others as well. This Earth Day will be a bit different than others, however, it doesn’t mean we should forget to continue our goal of helping improve our surroundings.
While adding solar panels to your home and biking everywhere are great ways to help the earth, there are smaller things you can do every day that will make a significant impact.
Here are 10 ideas for Earth Day you can use to help improve your surroundings every day.
1. Clean Up Your Community
Cleaning your area doesn’t always mean picking up the garbage you see in your community. Aside from picking up wrappers, it’s important for people to do things that help improve the way your community looks.
If it means grabbing paint buckets or power washing a sidewalk, then you should. Not only does it count as a workout (bonus), but it also helps others feel good when they see these surrounding areas.
2. Conserve Your Water
It’s no surprise that people waste more water than they need. There are a variety of ways you can help control water usage in your home. Below are three ideas to start today:
- Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth
- Only run the dishwasher when you have a full load
- Only run the washing machine when you have a full load
These three things alone can make a big difference in how much you consume water. You’ll be glad to see the decrease in your water bill.
3. Switch To Online Bill Pay Or Go Paperless
Saving the earth’s resources means preserving our trees. A simple eco-friendly way to help do so is by switching to a paperless billing option. Not only do you have less clutter in your home and trash, you’ll also help eliminate the need to cut more trees down just to remind you to pay your bills.
Bonus: This means no more marketing letters, and you can get everything you need to your email. Great for tracking your paid bills, too!
4. Switch To Reusable Alternatives Instead Of Single Use Products
One of the best ideas for Earth Day (and every day, really) is to avoid disposable items as often as possible.
Disposable products are a great way to minimize clean up after events or to minimize tasks throughout the day. Yes, you save water when you don’t need to wash the dishes, but disposable products end up in places they weren’t intended to — like the ocean and in the stomach of sea creatures.
It’s not because they’re tasty. In fact, they’re toxic to marine life and does more harm than good.
One of the ways we try to minimize the use of disposable products is by dining with reusable plates and utensils. Is it another to-do item on my list?
Yes, but it’s worth it for a better tomorrow.
5. Invest In Reusable Water Bottle Over Single-Use
There are a variety of cute water bottles out there that fit your style. One of our favorite brands of insulated water bottles is Simple Modern.
everything in our home. It keeps everything cool.
6. Dish towels And Cleaning Rags Over Paper Towels
Dish towels are a great addition to your kitchen. Not only do they work for wiping excess water from your plates, but they also help with eco-friendly initiatives. We’ve picked up a variety of colors throughout the years, mostly earth tones.
Cleaning rags are perfect for wiping down surfaces and walls. They don’t fall apart like paper towels and create less waste.
7. Shop Smart When You Head To Stores
Shopping smart isn’t just saving as you buy. You also want to focus on having reusable grocery bags handy as well. It’s one of the best inventions ever made and one of the best ideas for Earth Day you can start implementing today.
FYI: There are even produce bags you can grab as well. We love using our Lotus Trolley Bags whenever we shop for the family.
Also, do your best to avoid products that have multiple packaging. Bulk purchases are great for the family, but they’re not always necessary.
8. Combine Trips To Save On Gas And Use Your Car Less
If you can, make one day your dedicated errand day. Do all of your shopping and appointments on one day each week. While this may not be possible, you should try to combine trips as much as possible.
9. Switch To Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
This will help you save energy, and your bulbs will be much brighter! We did this as soon as we purchased our home. It’s a good idea for those looking to save on their light bill every month.
10. Know What Can Be Recycled
Pizza boxes cannot be recycled if they have pizza grease on them, but glass can! Before you throw something away, double-check that it can’t be recycled.
Big or small, these little actions will make a big difference! Not only can some of these help you cut down on your water usage or waste, but they can even help you save some money and your environment as well.
17 responses to “Family Ideas For Earth Day That Will Help Your Environment”
I really love these ideas. I’ve always tried to teach the kids how important it is to take care of our planet. We only get one, and we’ve historically been kind of horrible to it.
I think we need to do everything on that list, every day of the year! Great tips for people to follow.
This year I started recycling glass. My city does not pick up glass so I am going to take it to the drop off place
I love these ideas. We are already doing a number of these but there is always room for improvement.
These are such great ideas. My daughters told me they want to pick up trash on Earth Day. I just hope it’s going to be a nice day out for it.
My family has been very conscious of the waste we produce in our home. For this reason, we already do almost all of these things on your list! Some take a bit getting used to, such as rags instead of paper towels, but we don’t even think about it anymore.
These are all great ideas. We already use reusable bags when we go shopping. They hold so much more and are better for the environment. We also recycle everything we can. Here we can put pizza boxes and other soiled paper food containers in our compost bin that the city picks up every week.
These are all great tips! As a family, we are very aware of how the choices we make impact the environment so we do most of these things already…
These are great tips! And everyone should try to do everything that is possibile to improve our planet. We are working on conserving our water!
These are really awesome ideas!!