blogger profile

Cara.gracie

graphic designer at skirt! Charlotte

Carefree and free-spirited, determined and focused, organized yet love the “life” in busy surroundings. I crave creativity in every aspect of my life and am enthusiastic about all forms of it. I have an eclectic taste and love for things old that can be made new and sometimes wonder why I wasn�...

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Reduce Your Footprint

In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share a list of the ways I am making my life greener, one day at a time. From what I’ve learned, it is much easier to start one green idea at a time. This way it starts to become second nature before you implement another change.

Changes I have made to reduce my footprint:

• All the lights in my home have CFL bulbs. I have to say I have not changed one bulb in the 7 months since they were purchased.
• I use organic dish soap by Mrs. Myers. Did you know that many dishwashing detergents contain petroleum products, with is an unnecessary use of oil?
  
• Most of my cleaning products are Method, Mrs. Myers, or Seventh Generation. I have noticed that my eyes no longer water or my nose no longer burns when I clean.
• I diligently recycle glass, plastic, and paper...especially junk mail and cardboard packaging from goods.
• I try to use my canvas grocery bags as much as possible. When I forget, I always save the plastic ones and take them to the recycle bin outside the grocery store.
• I am psycho about turning lights out when there is no one in the room.
• About 70% of my furniture is either a hand-me-down, purchased at a second hand store, or from IKEA.
• At skirt!, when I change the day on my 365 One-A-Day Calendar, I keep the sheets. I re-use them as scrap/memo paper.
  

Changes I plan on making in the near future:

• Attending farmer’s markets weekly to purchase fresh and local. With spring here, this is definitely do-able!
• Replacing shower heads to low-flow fixtures to reduce consumption and costs.
• Stop buying bottled water and buy a facet attachment to filter my water.
• Purchasing hemp shower curtain liners to prevent from having to replace my plastic ones every few months.
• Painting my new rental with Earth-friendly, low VOC paint.
  

I think that conserving and reusing have always been a part of my life. I’m a “don’t throw that away I can make something out of that” kinda gal. Therefore, I’m so thankful for the fact that “green living” is becoming a trend. But because trends come and go, lets hope that this is one that will stick around for the long haul. The planet can use all the help we can give it.