Small Acts of Conservation

I hope I'm not overstating things when I say that most of us know that we should be conserving water and power. You can easily find all sorts of suggestions on how to conserve water and power online. Most home conservation efforts seem to be focused on these areas, but is there anything else you can do at home to help the environment?

The answer is, of course there is! And you might even be able to think of a few things right off the top of your head. I'm definitely not the model of conservation, and I have to say that parenthood has reduced my conservation efforts even further, but I have a strange personality quirk that has always pushed me to conserve certain little things that others may overlook.

My best example of this is paper towel. When I was growing up, we each took turn setting the table including putting down paper towel as napkins for each person. Before "select-a-size", or whenever my mother would buy a brand without that feature, I was bothered by the fact that the paper towels were so much bigger than what we really needed. I would actually fold each paper towel in half and rip them apart before setting them at the table. Now, I simply can't bring myself to buy paper towel that isn't "select-a-size-able."

Then there's soap-like products, namely shampoo. It seems like the last few handfuls of shampoo are almost impossible to get out of the bottle. But I will work at getting every last drop of shampoo out before I wash and recycle the bottle. As I see it, if I'm going to send chemicals down the drain, I'm going to make sure they've done something for me before they go. I can only imagine how much soap, shampoo and other chemicals from the bottom of the bottle gets flushed away unused or even gets thrown into the landfill. Another thing I do with shampoo is play a little game where I see if I can figure out what's the least amount I can use and still get a good lather. I always overdo it right after I get a haircut! I wonder how many bottles of shampoo I'll save myself from buying over the years?

I'm no great environmentalist though every little thing helps. Pick up even one small conservation habit a year and you can make a difference. What does this have to do with holistic health? The health of the environment affects the health of each and every one of us who live on this planet, and it might help your pocket-book a little too. You can use the money you save to treat yourself to an alternative health session.

I'm interested in picking up more small conservation habits. What small acts of conservation do you do?