Pick green tips to add to your daily habits. The left column indicates the category and subcategory of each EcoWabi Green Idea. Eco Icons tell you how the Ideas can make you greener!
Energy Saving
Environmentally Friendly
Money Saving
Recycling
| Home | First, fill the laundry washer and drier. Then, turn it on. | |
| Laundry | Less frequent machine use, less energy consumption. | |
| Home | Clean the lint filter out after every load. | |
| Laundry | One of the most efficient ways to dry your clothes in the minimum amount of time. | |
| Home | You've got a fancy washer and drier? Read the instructions and take advantage of the eco-friendly functions. | |
| Laundry | Many laundry machines offer more than just washing and drying functions. Find out what kind of green functions your laundry machine offers. Remember, you paid for the expensive machine! Look for functions such as Extra Spin Option and Moisture Sensing Option. | |
| Home | Do not mix towels/heavy weight cottons with lighter weight clothes. | |
| Laundry | Don't just transfer wet clothes to a drier. Towels and heavy cotton clothes take much longer time to dry compared to lighter weight clothes. A little bit of effort makes a big impact on our environment. | |
| Home | Natural dry your laundry. | |
| Laundry | Sunlight sterilizes clothes and gives a natural smell to your laundry, which is a great reason to stop using chemical dryer sheets. Also, more and more stores carry Laundry Drying Rack! | |
| Home | Choose eco-friendly detergent. | |
| Laundry | Eco-friendly detergent works well! Keep our planet clean from harmful water waste by using green detergent. | |
| Home | Choose Cold or Warm water for laundry. | |
| Laundry | Did you know that the majority of energy that you use during laundry comes from choosing "Hot" water cycle? Choose cold or warm water and save TONS of money and energy. | |
| Home | Do you really need to use dryer sheets and softener? | |
| Laundry | The majority of conventional dryer sheets and fabric softeners are made with non-renewable elements: chemicals and oils. And where do they end up? Our rivers, lakes and oceans. Give our earth a minimum environmental impact. | |
| Home | Buy green cleaners - next time. | |
| Cleaning | We don't want to tell you to throw your current cleaners right now. But the next time you buy, choose green products. Cleaners are not something that we buy often. For something that lasts for months, you don't mind spending a little bit more money to keep our planet clean, do you? | |
| Home | Hand wash the dishes. | |
| Cleaning | You can reduce a lot of electricity and water by doing the dishes by hands. (Make sure that the water is not running the whole time.) Enjoy the time of this old-fashioned way of doing the dishes. | |
| Home | No more Ziploc bag sandwich lunch! | |
| Kitchen | Use reusable containers instead of disposable plastic bags. | |
| Home | Drink filtered water instead of drinking bottled water in the house! | |
| Kitchen | Try to create less waste. Get a water purifier and drink filtered water instead - it tastes as good as bottled water and is more economical! | |
| Home | It is best not to use disposable paper products - but if you must, choose recycled paper products. | |
| Kitchen | Buy recycled paper products for napkins, plates and towels. But, of course, it is best if you don't use any disposable products. | |
| Home | Use the refrigerator more efficiently. | |
| Kitchen | Cool down hot foods before putting them in the refrigerator. And cover food containers up - liquid causes moisture to evaporate more quickly, which consumes more energy. | |
| Home | Make sure that the refrigerator door is tightly closed. | |
| Kitchen | If it does not close tightly, it may be the time to replace your refrigerator... | |
| Home | Keep 3-inches of air space behind the refrigerator to help air flow. | |
| Kitchen | Refrigerators need to let the heat out to function more efficiently. | |
| Home | Install weatherstripping to keep cool air and heat inside the house. | |
| Summer,Winter | Spend $20 dollars for weatherstripping and get lower electricity/heat bills. | |
| Home | Unplug appliances - all the time! | |
| Energy Saving | Even the power is off, if the power cord is plugged in, the power is draining and you are paying for electricity. Unplug appliances from the outlet when not in use. | |
| Home | Plug home electronics into power strips and turn the power strips off when not in use. | |
| Energy Saving | Isn't the red power light on after you thought you turned off TV? Isn't the time displayed on the DVD player after in use? Those electronic products drain power even if you thought you turned them off. Read instruction of your electronic products to see whether the products can save memory after turning the power strip off. | |
| Home | Do not forget to unplug cell phone charger! | |
| Energy Saving | Charging the cell phone has become a daily routine in our lives, but do we unplug the charger from outlet after the cell phone is fully charged? Make sure to unplug the charger after use. | |
| Home | Choose energy efficient appliances - next time. | |
| Energy Saving | Energy efficient appliances can be more expensive, but in the long run, you can save a lot of money, energy, electricity and water. Look for "Energy Star" products. | |
| Home | Basic! Turn off the lights when you leave a room. | |
| Energy Saving | Make this a daily habit. | |
| Home | Use task lighting. | |
| Energy Saving | Instead of lighting an entire room, focus on lighting the corner where it is needed. | |
| Home | Use natural lighting. | |
| Energy Saving | This is the ultimate inexpensive way to acquire light for your daily life. Open the shades during the day and enjoy the daylight. | |
| Home | Set your thermostat or install a programmable thermostat to control heating and cooling your home. | |
| Energy Saving,Summer,Winter | Do you cover up yourself with a blanket on a couch in summer? Do you open windows to cool the room down in winter? These are good signs that you set the thermostat too low or high. | |
| Home | Try not to use hair drier as much. | |
| Energy Saving | The hair drier is one of the appliances that uses a lot of electricity - you notice that the lights dim when you turn it on. Enjoy the hair's natural wave except for a romantic date?! | |
| Home | Make your own 'Earth Hour' at home. | |
| Energy Saving | You can find your own quiet time at home at the end of the day. Why don't you turn off the lights at a certain time every day and enjoy the relaxing time? | |
| Home | Close the window shade during summer. | |
| Energy Saving,Summer | This is one of the ancient techniques to keep the room cool all day long. | |
| Home | Replace your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). | |
| Energy Saving | Changing from incandescent bulbs to CFL drastically saves energy. CFL's longer lifespan means the double money saving! | |
| Home | Use old magazine ads for gift wrap. | |
| Recycling | Magazines are full of cool and colorful ads that can be used for gift wrap. Personalize your gift with a creative idea. | |
| Home | Rent things from your friends and family. | |
| Recycling | There are things that you only need occasionally. Ask your outdoor-loving friends for camping gear and extra chairs for your house party from your neighbors. | |
| Home | Consider buying second-hand products. | |
| Recycling | Take a look at your local second hand shops. You may be able to find high quality products for very low prices. | |
| Home | Recycle your street. | |
| Recycling | Keep an eye on your street. There are many people who throw things away when they move. You may find things that you can reuse at your home. | |
| Home | Plan for moving in advance to recycle. | |
| Recycling | If you cannot take everything when you move, call your local thrift store for free pick up. Recycling makes you feel good! | |
| Transportation | Bike or walk instead of driving to the store around the corner of your house. | |
| Transportation | Walking or biking for 10 minutes is not far! Don't make an excuse to yourself to drive anywhere you go. Enjoy being outside and feel the season! | |
| Transportation | Take public transportation. | |
| Transportation | Taking public transportation reduces significant amounts of emission, gives you time to study and read, and ultimately, you don't get angry stuck in traffic! | |
| Transportation | Turn off the engine when the car is parked. | |
| Transportation | It is more fuel efficient to restart the engine than idling over 30 seconds. A new and easy habit for drivers. | |
| Transportation | Keep your car tires fully inflated. | |
| Transportation | Fully inflated tires increase the efficiency of your car. | |
| Transportation | Choose biodiesel fuel. | |
| Transportation | Biodiesel fuel comes from plant or animal sources and we can always produce more. These fuels are better for the environment and better for our future. | |
| Shopping | Buy larger size packages instead of buying smaller packages. | |
| Shopping | It is more economical and makes less waste in the end. If it's available, choose refills instead of re-buying a full package product. | |
| Shopping | "Paper or plastic?" Choose neither! Bring your own bag to grocery stores. | |
| Shopping | Choosing paper bags is more eco-friendly. The truth is that the paper bag manufacturers use more energy to produce paper bags than plastic bags. And plastic bags take a long time to break down in the landfill. | |
| Shopping | Choose Organic food. | |
| Shopping | Organic food is usually more expensive, but organic foods are made to be especially green for your health and earth. Try to buy as many organic products as possible. | |
| Shopping | Avoid buying disposable products. | |
| Shopping | Nothing creates waste more than disposable products. We can start a new habit to offer cloth napkins, glasses and coffee cups for your home party. | |
| Shopping | "No Thank You" to clothing store bags. | |
| Shopping | How many clothing store bags have you thrown away or are now hiding in your closet? Plastic bags from clothing stores are usually thicker and are hard to stretch to fit in a garbage can in the kitchen - grocery store plastic bags are more practical to reuse at home. Always keep a portable bag in your purse/bag, and say "no thank you" to the store clerk. | |
| Office/School | Take left-over food after business meetings. | |
| Others | Don't waste food! Take left-over food and snacks home for your dinner and dessert. | |
| Office/School | Use both sides of the paper. | |
| Paper | Save energy, trees and money by greening your office. Any white spaces on the mis-printed papers and junk mails can be memo papers. | |
| Office/School | Choose two-sided button on the copier and printer. | |
| Paper | Save energy, trees and money by greening your office. Do you really need the print-out to be on one side of the page? Find out how to print on both sides of the paper. | |
| Office/School | Choose two-page in one paper function on the printer. | |
| Paper | Save energy, trees and money by greening your office. This technique is perfect for record keeping. Print out your flight confirmation with this technique. (You can still read.) | |
| Office/School | Choose 100% recycled paper products. | |
| Paper | Recycled printer/copier papers are not costly. Tree-free office paper products are also available: made with bamboo and hemp etc. | |
| Office/School | Turn off the lights when you leave the office. | |
| Energy Saving | Make this a daily habit for any rooms that you leave. | |
| Office/School | Use natural lighting. Open the shades during the day. | |
| Energy Saving | Enjoy the daylight and turn on the desk lamp for additional lighting. | |
| Home | Fill your water bottle and take it with you anywhere you go. | |
| Before Running Errands | Instead of buying bottled water every time you are thirsty outside, have your own water bottle ready. | |
| Home | Have your own bag ready anytime JUST IN CASE. | |
| Before Running Errands | You never know what you're going to run into. You may find the coolest pair of jeans, rare CDs or may suddenly crave chocolate chip cookies. Carry an extra portable bag for the just-in-case situations. | |
| Home | Take a few bags before going grocery shopping. | |
| Before Running Errands | You never know how much you will wind up buying when you go out to shop for groceries. Bring multiple bags - you have two hands and shoulders to bring them home! | |
| Home | Basic! Turn off the lights when you leave a room. | |
| Energy Saving | Make this a daily habit. | |
| Office/School | Turn off the lights when you leave an office/room. | |
| Energy Saving | Make this a daily habit. | |
| Transportation | No speeding, no unnecessary rapid acceleration and braking. | |
| Transportation | Don't make yourself get a speeding ticket! Aggressive driving causes unnecessary carbon dioxide. | |
| Transportation | Don't drive too fast. | |
| Transportation | According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gas mileage drops rapidly above 60mph. | |
| Transportation | Close windows while driving. | |
| Transportation | Make sure to close windows especially on the highway. It requires extra fuel to drive the car - it's not efficient! | |
| Transportation | Your car trunk is not a storage space! | |
| Transportation | Is your car becoming a storage space? Reducing the weight of the car helps improve gas mileage and save energy. Also, make sure take minimum luggage for traveling. | |
| Transportation | Get a regular maintenance check up for your car. | |
| Transportation | It helps to examine whether your car is performing more environmentally friendly or is running safely. | |
| Transportation | Buy smaller and fuel efficient green car next time. | |
| Transportation | Are you thinking about buying a new car? In a long run, a better gas mileage car will save you lots of money on fuel. | |
| Transportation | No roof rack - Place items inside the car. | |
| Transportation | Installing a roof rack on your car and driving with it requires more gasoline to drive your car. | |
| Transportation | Avoid traffic and stoplights. | |
| Transportation | Less breaking and accelerating helps consume less fuel and lets you drive more efficiently. | |
| Transportation,Shopping | Do all the shopping at once. | |
| Shopping,Transportation | Doing all your errands at one place or over one trip will reduce the frequency of cold starting. Organize your day to do all the shopping needs at once while the engine is still warm. | |
| Transportation | Put the gear on Neutral at stoplights. | |
| Transportation | If you think about how manual car drivers do at stoplights, why not do the same with automatic cars? Let's consume less fuel and create less negative impact to our earth. | |
| Home | Replace an old heater with an energy efficient heater and save energy - and, in the long run, money! | |
| Winter | If your heating equipment is 15 years or older and has been poorly maintained, it’s probably time for a more efficient replacement. | |
| Home | Recycle used CFLs. | |
| Recycling | CFLs contain a small amount of mercury to work efficiently. Although it is a small amount, find a local drop-off site to recycle your used CFLs. | |
| Home | Stop running water when brushing your teeth. | |
| Energy Saving | A few minutes of stop running water can save a lot of water in a long run. "Little and often fills the purse." | |
| Home | Go to bed 30 minutes earlier sometimes to use less electricity. | |
| Energy Saving | You will end up using less electricity and getting a good longer sleep! "Kill 2 birds with 1 stone." | |
| Home,Office/School | Turn off your computer, monitor, printer, scanner when not in use. | |
| Energy Saving | According to ComEd, turning off your PC and monitor for 2 additional hours per day cut your annual electricity use by 1.5%. | |
| Home | Air dry dishes instead of using dishwasher's drying cycle. | |
| Kitchen | Turn the switch off after the final rinse. Find out if your dishwasher has an automatic air-dry feature. | |
| Home | Take a look at dishwasher manual and find out how to set the water temperature. | |
| Kitchen | Most of the energy used by a dishwasher is for heating water. Set the water temperature lower to save energy. Dishwasher energy consumption is one of the top home appliances that requires a large amount of electricity. | |
| Home | No rinsing before putting dishes in the dishwasher. | |
| Kitchen | Except burns and died-on food, there is no need to rinse and clean the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Do not double clean the dishes! | |
| Home | Cover a kettle or pan to boil water. | |
| Kitchen | Covering a kettle and pan boils water faster, which means using less energy to boil! | |
| Home | Sign up to remove your name from junk mail list. | |
| Paper | We receive so much junk mail every day. Let's save our trees by removing your name from the junk mail list. It can be done easily from National Do Not Mail List at www.directmail.com. | |
| Home | Turn on the fans instead of turning down the air conditioning temperature! | |
| Summer | Ceiling and portable fans make you feel much cooler and only cost about a penny per hour to operate. Make sure to turn off the fans before leaving the room. | |
| Home | Install motion sensor for outside lighting. | |
| Energy Saving | Turning the lights on only when needed and where needed saves a lot of energy. | |
| Home | Turn off the decorative outdoor lighting before going to bed. | |
| Energy Saving | Turn off the unnecessary decorative lighting in the middle of the night. | |
| Home | Clean the air conditioning filter every two weeks when the system is working in full use. | |
| Summer | The air conditioning will run much more efficiently and cost effectively in this way. Clean filters monthly during other times of the year. | |
| Home | Don't place lamps, TV sets and computer near the air conditioning thermostat. | |
| Summer | The thermostat senses heat from these appliances and may keep the air conditioning running longer than it should be. | |
| Home | Place your room air conditioner on the north side of the house, if possible. | |
| Summer | Operating an air conditioning in the shade is more cost effective and consumes less electricity to cool your room. Avoid placing air conditioning where the sun hits directly. | |
| Home | Are you using an old air conditioning? Consider replacing to an energy-efficient model. | |
| Summer | According to the U.S. Department of Energy, replacing your old air conditioning unit to an Energy Star model can save up to 50% of your electricity bill!!! | |
| Home | Turn the air conditioning up at night and when you are at work. | |
| Summer | Save money and energy by making a small effort each day. | |
| Home | Use white and light color window treatment to reflect heat away from the house. | |
| Summer | Enjoy decorating your house in a more eco-friendly way! | |
| Home | Consider using an electric mattress pad in winter. | |
| Winter | Using electric mattress pad is a low cost way to keep you warm in a cold winter night. Why not target where to heat and stop heating the entire house or apartment. | |
| Home | Clean the south facing windows to let the sun in. | |
| Winter | Help make the room naturally warmer by adding a little effort and cleaning the windows. | |
| Home | Use drapes instead of blinds. | |
| Winter | Drapes keep the heat inside the room more effectively than just using blinds. Fabric may be a little expensive, but it's a worthwhile investment over the long run! | |
| Transportation | No more than 30 seconds of idling to start your car on winter days! | |
| Winter | The best way to warm up a vehicle is to drive it. More than 30 seconds of idling will simply waste fuel and creates more carbon dioxide. | |
| Home | Burn only dry wood in your chimney - Wet wood burns incompletely and releases more pollutants into the air. | |
| Winter | Tip: Dry wood feels lighter when you lift it than wet and heavier wood. | |
| Home | Buy local produce to cut CO2 emissions due to food travel. | |
| Kitchen | Choosing local produce not only supports the community's economy, but is environmentally friendly because of the shorter distance that food travels from the farm to your plate. | |
| Home | Short in tableware? Ask to borrow more from your friends and family! | |
| Kitchen | It may not be an easy thing to ask, but instead of buying disposable tableware, try to borrow it from your close friends and family - it saves money, too! | |
| Home | If you must use disposable tableware, choose napkins and plates made from recycled material. | |
| Kitchen | And, don't forget to wash plastic dishes, cups and utensils to reuse at your next party. "Disposable" doesn't mean it has to be disposed after one use. | |
| Home | If necessary, scrape instead of using water to rinse, dirty dishes before putting in the dishwasher. | |
| Kitchen | Running your tap continuously while preparing food or washing dishes wastes water and can use more than two gallons of water every minute your tap is running. Wow, that's a lot of wasted water! | |
| Home | Use durable cloth napkins and tablecloths, and real plates and tableware to prevent waste. | |
| Kitchen | Plastic plates are too small to put all the party food, aren't they? The food gets all mixed up and tastes all the same. Real dishes and tableware makes meals look more delicious and lets you enjoy the taste of each food! | |
| Transportation | Turning off your engine at drive-through. | |
| Transportation | The 30-Second Idling Rule: More than 30 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine. | |
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