What do you do to conserve & compact?

Question

Give your conservation & compacting ideas to others. Maybe someone will see something you do & start doing it themselves. If you have noticed a great change on your bills, then let everyone know. Give in details what you like & don't like in your answers.

Serious answers only...If you don't have anything helpful to say then don't answer. This is to help others who actually care. Thanks & God bless.

Answer 1

Here are some of the easy things I do that make the way I live "greener":
1.) Buy Used Things instead of New: Go to the classified ads, thrift stores, second hand clothing stores and garage sales to buy clothes, furniture and almost anything else that you want. I also "dumpster dive", taking good quality things or things I can paint / repair from the trash and cleaning / fixing them instead of buying new items (My big t.v. is from the trash, as is a stool, a bookshelf, a dresser, etc.) Not only will you save a lot of money, but you'll also be keeping a lot of used items out of the landfills and NOT contributing to the manufacture of new items.
2.) Recycle everything. Find a pamphlet on recycling in your city and separate out your recycling as you throw things away.
3.) If I can reuse it, I do:
* Jars with lids are used for holding nuts, bolts, screws, nails, garden seeds, drinking "glasses", "watering containers", "vases" or to hold pet or human dry food so that mice and other pests cant get in it.
* Newspapers line my birds cages and are then composted with the poo. Newspapers are also torn up and used as bedding for my elderly rat.
* Plastic containers with lids are used as "tupperware". I wash my ziplock bags and reuse them, and even plastic utensils.
* Grocery bags are re-used for trash bags or recycling containers, which I then never have to buy, and often used as poop pick up bags for walking the dog. I also use them to put food inside, twist close and use as "freezer bags".
4.) If it can be composted, I compost it: coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, vegetable and fruit scraps, weeds, garden waste, bird cage papers, rat and rabbit "litter" - anything organic that I or my pets create goes into the compost bin that I built out of 5 discarded wooden pallets.
5.) If I dont want it, but it can still be used, I wash it and give it away or sell it. This goes for clothing, furniture, dishes, toys and everything else I own that can be re-used. I post free things on www.craigslist.com because someone else always needs them.
6.) I feed my vegetable and bread scraps (as species appropriate) as treats to my rabbits, bird, rat and dog. They all love fresh food that will go bad before I'll eat it, and they can often digest things that human can't.
7.) Carpool, combine my shopping trips into one outing and ride my bike to reduce fuel use.
8.) I save money, eat healthier and save the environment by making big meals, then dividing them into reusable tupperware like containers and putting them in your freezer. When I need to eat a meal, I just reheat them - instead of going to a fast food restaurant or buying individually packaged microwavable meals. Cooking large meals can also be a social activity you do with friends - or have a potluck and divide up the food items into your containers!
9.) If you are interested in gardening, try raising your own vegetable garden like I do. You'll be raising food without pesticides, fertilizers or chemical weed killers, it will be cheaper and healthier to eat. Your food wont be shipped, processed, packaged or require a drive to the grocery store. It also puts all that good compost to use.
10.) I re-use water. I fit a hose to my washing machine, when it drains I either soak my dishes in the kitchen sink with the water (rinse with clean water), water my house plants with it or water my garden with it. The laundry soap I use is biodegradeable, and the plants use the extra phosphates for healthy growth.

Answer 2

These things will save you money, so I suggest you do them even if you do not care about pollution at all.

Lower your thermostat in winter and raise it in Summer. Heating and air conditioning are the biggest energy users in your home. I set mine to 73F in winter and 78F in summer. Others may be more conservative. I have heard things like 65F in winter and 85F in summer. Also, if you have a smart thermostat that will automatically change the settings at different times of day, use it to set it very high in summer and very low in winter, to basically prevent the heater or AC running at all when nobody is home. You can always manually override it if you are home unexpectedly. Use ceiling fans in summer. This uses less power than an air conditioner. But turn off any fan in an empty room, because the fan does not cool the room, it only helps your body feel cooler due to the draft.

Drive a small car. It does not have to be electric or hybrid, it just needs to get good gas mileage. Try to drive less if you can by doing things like stopping at the store if you pass it on the way home from work anyway, instead of making a special trip after getting home.

Drive the speed limit and maintain your car. Keep the tires inflated correctly and keep the engine running well.

Answer 3

recycle
use lighting less-also, switch to fluorescent bulbs-they save on the electricity bill
drive far less
keeping the lights off and keeping sunlight out of the house to keep it cooler so the ac doesn't have to be so high.
If it's possible, here in TX it gets really hot so to save on ac, I'll wet my hair and/or clothes and use a fan to cool me off.
That and I'm a huge believer in DRINK MORE FLUIDS!

Edit: I forgot to add-I drink a lot of tea-I use the tea leaves for the trees and other plants around my house. (A little ad for Celestial Seasonings-they use recycled products for their boxes of tea and the bags themselves are made w/o staples or glue so they can be recycled too; the tea is made from actual plant leaves-not a flavored powder of some sort)

Answer 4

Currently, all I can do to conserve is recycle and lower down my energy usage.

I have switched most of the lightbulbs in my home to fluorescent ones that conserve more energy. Also, I recycle all paper and plastics. I also drive a car that gets good mpg.

Answer 5

turn the lights out when I leave a room

Do not flush the toilet everytime if you only water it