Friday, October 1, 2010

**Simple Living Month**: Day 1


I am so excited about this month's special focus: simple, sustainable, natural living.

It is one of my personal passions: to live a life of conscious choices that will benefit the environment, humanity, my friends, my family, and in the end, myself as well (though it's not meant to be a selfish endeavor, which makes it that much more satisfying).

I call this kind of thoughtful living "simple living," simply because it is simple. The tips and thoughts I will share are meant to simplify life.
To take away the complications that chemicals, toxins, technology, business, stuff, etc often present us with daily.

I've taught classes on simple, sustainable living when I was in college to students, faculty, and community members, but I still have so much to learn, so PLEASE e-mail me, comment, and comment again because I hope that this month can be a month of sharing advice, thoughts, and tips so that we as a broad community can take a step towards living consciously for a simpler, more passionate life.

So tip number 1 is an easy one that you've probably heard over and over and over again, but oftentimes we forget:
When you leave a room, turn off the lights.

I was really bad at doing this until I got married and Scout does it religiously. So much so that I have gotten in the habit and people at work even complain when I turn off the office lights when no one is around.

This simple task not only conserves ridiculous amounts of electricity, but will save you money as well.

Benefits: you and the environment

Note: To those super conservationists out there that might argue that turning a light back on will use more energy, especially with fluorescent bulbs, the most recent research (see here) argues that it is worth turning it off, especially if you are leaving the room for more than 5 minutes. So... turn those light bulbs off friends.

1 comment:

  1. I am a fanatic about turning off lights and the t.v. on when you leave a room. I stay on Uncle Jeff about it. I do not know why you need to turn the light on in the hall and the kitchen too!

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