Earth Hour to Earth Day Challenge Week 1

Here is a recap of this weeks green tips... but first, don't forget to enter to win That Baby CD & DVD. You'll thank me!

DAY 1: Saturday at 8:30pm was Earth Hour. What is it? Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. The goal this year is 1 billion people participating!

We will be shutting off our household for one hour. Thankfully, my girls think it is fun to hang out in the dark with candles, so we will have fun while we do it.

As part of Earth Hour and Earth Day, I am taking the Earth hour to Earth Day Challenge. I will have an eco-friendly tip at the bottom of my posts every single day from now until April 22. I will be giving family-friendly, low cost tips that any regular Joe Schmo can use. If you have ideas for me, please email me so I can add your idea or your link.

DAY 2: MOM CAN COMPOST
Here is my second post for my Earth Hour to Earth Day challenge. This year I am dedicated to starting to compost. I have never done it but I know it is fairly easy and will reap huge rewards for our impending veggie garden. I have researched a couple of sites and found some great ideas. The first site is my favorite since it only uses a cheap garbage pail from the hardware store. I will start with this before I make any big investments and see how we do with it. I will post pictures when we actually make it so you can all see how it goes.

SimpleMom composter tutorial
EHow composter tutorial
ThriftyFun composter tutorial
Organic Gardening composter tutorial


DAY 3: DONATE TO STAY GREEN:
There are tons of ways to keep your junk out of landfills. One of the best ways is to donate it. We all know the standard donation ideas, but here are some more unique ones:

• Donate old glasses at One Sight: drop off old prescription or nonprescription glasses at your local Lions Club, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears, Target, or BJ's Optical store (they'll give you a receipt for taxes), or mail them in (and request a receipt)
• Donate an old car rather than let it end up in a junk yard. This can be a great tax write-off.
• Donate sneakers in ok condition at Soles4Souls. Soles4Souls facilitates the donations of shoes to aid the hurting worldwide. They coordinated relief efforts for the Asian Tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, netting over 1 Million pairs donated for these disasters.
• You can also donate sneakers that are not suitable for wearing to Nike's Reuse a Shoe Program. The Reuse-A-Shoe program takes your worn-out kicks and turns them into Nike Grind, a material used in sports surfaces, playgrounds and even new Nike products.
• Donate your wedding dress to a metastatic breast cancer patient who will be a bride herself.
Almost anything you have can be donated to a local church or charity and will keep tons of garbage out of our landfills while also saving all the resources of creating a new product.

DAY 4: SAVE INK
Try this font as a means to save ink. It cuts little holes out of the letters, which isn't really apparent to the naked eye, but it will save lots of ink. It is a cool concept that is free to download and free to use. What have you got to lose? Just try it!

DAY 5: ORGANIC GROCERY DEALS
Don't think you can buy organic food on a budget? Being the budget-conscious, coupon clipper that I am, I have found a site that helps you find great organic deals. It is a forum that will highlight where the best deals are and even tell you where to find the coupons. Check 'em out.

DAY 6: THAT BABY CD ON iTunes
I am sure nobody is surprised to learn that downloading music is far better for the Earth than buying a CD. Check out www.greenzer.com for a full article on the subject. So, go ahead, buy this CD from iTunes and save some more resources for the new baby.

DAY 7: PLANT A GARDEN
This tip is pretty self explanatory. Go to your local garden center, but some seeds, cut out a piece of your yard and start planting. There are tons of resources online if you have questions. I used Lowes online, which seemed to be pretty comprehensive.