Happy Earth Day!

Original Artwork by Alexandra Fomicheva

Honor our Planet and Your Craft Today!

~ REDUCE ~

In Your Home:  Here are small changes you can begin TODAY

1. Turn off lights when you leave the room.

2. Close drapes, blinds or shutters on the side of the house where the sun is shining.

3. Buy an aluminum water bottle and refill it from your water filtering system (on the fridge front, Britta system, etc.)  Don't buy bottled water anymore!

4. Pack your child's lunch in plastic containers.  They come in all sizes now, for sandwiches, the size and shape of juice boxes, small enough for one serving of crackers or cookies, etc.  Include a fabric napkin, too!

5. If your child drinks from a straw, buy her a stainless steel straw!  (Available HERE)

6. Use fabric napkins at mealtime.

7. Use fabric rags when wiping down counter tops or cleaning windows.

Your Writing:

1. Print out your drafts less often.  When you do, reduce the font size, fitting more text on each page.

2. Change the color of your font each time you print, using up colored ink cartridges at the same rate as the black.

3. Shut down your computer at night.

~ REUSE ~

In Your Home:

1. Wipe off barely used aluminum foil, fold it when good and dry, and use it again.

2. Buy the reusable grocery bags and keep them in your car.  Use them EVERY time you shop.

3. Save yogurt and sour cream containers to store your child's small toys and game pieces.

4. Buy molds to make your own Popsicles using organic fruit juices.  You save money, there's less sugar, there's no supermarket packaging to throw away, and the kids will LOVE them!

5. Buy giant gallon sized boxes of hand soap and refill the pump-style containers.

6. Store food in the fridge and freezer in plastic or glass containers, not disposable bags. 

In Your Writing:

1. Save your rough drafts and print newer drafts on the backs.  (Draw a cross with a highlighter on the old side!)

2. Save the colored paper announcements from your child's school and print rough drafts on the blank sides.

3. Don't throw away deleted excerpts from your MS, or examples of practice writing, etc.  You may be inspired to use it in another project!

4. Use a secondary character from one story as the protagonist in another.

5. Expand a short story into a novel.

6. Use a scene from a less successful novel and write a short story or poem.

~ RECYCLE ~

In Your Home:

1. Put everything with the recycle triangle on it in your recycle bin.  Things you can recycle are: plastic, glass, and aluminum, of course, but also empty cereal boxes, aluminum foil, take-out cartons, plastic SOLO cups and plates, disposable silverware, magazines and newspapers, plastic trays that store bought cookies sit in, cardboard pasta boxes, pizza delivery boxes, plastic bottles for shampoo, hand soap, dishwasher and clothes detergents, etc.

2. Save gift bags from birthdays and Christmas for the next event.

3. Donate outgrown clothes to charity organizations in your community.

4. Donate books to your local library or school.

In Your Writing:

1. Refill used printer ink cartridges or recycle them at office supply stores.

2. Shred rough drafts when both sides of the paper have been printed on, and use them when stuffing packages for fragile objects to be shipped by mail.

3. Donate old laptops and other computer hardware to recycle centers.

Mother Earth and your Muse thank you!

Celebrate Earth Day by implementing these small changes!

What other ideas can you share for reducing, reusing and recycling?


[Arg! Blogger won't let me post comments on anyone's blogs today!  I'm frustrated!!!!]