We opted to wait until after Earth Day to post this message as we knew everyone would be bombarded by environmental news, activities and programming all day long and we wanted to extend the environmental consciousness even longer.

Here are our Top 10 Tips (potentially 11) for making small, REALISTIC changes to your daily life that can help reduce your carbon footprint over the remainder of this year:

1. Change your light bulbs. As your current incandescent bulbs burn out, consider replacing with compact fluorescent bulbs.

2. Turn the water off while brushing your teeth. As a multi-tasker myself…I always apply the toothpaste, then moisten the toothbrush and go around the house doing other things while brushing. Therefore, I eliminate multiple gallons of water flowing down the drain.

3. Consider recycling. A lot of us already do this and curbside recycling has made this even easier. If you do not currently participate, consider picking one or two items this year to recycle.

4. Subscribe to a digital publication. A lot of publications are now producing digital counterparts to their print versions. Only 1 in 4 print copies at the newsstand actually make it into the hands of a consumer. Guess where the rest go?

5. I operate under the premise when making a purchase to purchase better and less often. It may cost a little more up front…but in the long run, you will get better products and have to purchase those products less often. And, when you are ready to upgrade again, consider passing that product onto someone else to increase its lifespan and reduce its potential to end up in a landfill prematurely.

Photo by NASA

6. Buy products that are produced from 100% (or as close as possible) recycled materials and are recyclable when they are no longer useful.

7. Recycle your old cell phones, glasses, etc… We live in an age of new, better and upgraded. A lot of cell phone companies allow you to recycle your old cell phone when you are upgrading. I have also seen this being done at optometrist offices as well where you can recycle your old eyeglasses.

8. If you are like us…we try to avoid wearing anything that requires a visit to the dry cleaners or personally ironing anything for that matter. However, we all have those events where we must get something dry cleaned. Consider recycling those wire hangers by returning them to the cleaners where they can be reused.

9. Pay bills online…you can not only avoid the ever increasing USPS postage cost but also decrease the amount of time you spend paying bills each month and most allow you to receive ebills which reduces the amount of paper coming to your mailbox.

10. Buy a reusable container for water consumption instead of buying bottled water. Lots of companies are making options for carrying around that agua without sending millions of plastic water bottles to the landfill where they take thousands of years to decompose.

And lastly:

11. Shower with your partner. We are not convinced this will actually reduce water consumption but we are convinced that there are other benefits and could not resist the urge to include in our list.