5 Easy Eco-Friendly Tips to Brighten Up Your World Recipe

by Anne-Marie Nichols

Are you looking for ways to make your daily routine more eco-friendly? Here are 5 easy eco-friendly tips that will brighten your world, save you money, and help you give back to your community! Easy eco-friendly tip #1: Tune it up, then turn it down. This easy eco-friendly tip is also a money saver! Now that it’s getting cold outside, it’s time to turn up the heat. To make sure your heating system is working at peak performance, change those air filters. Then schedule a heating system check up with a reputable HVAC company to make sure everything is running at peak efficiency. Finally, learn how to program your thermostat so you can schedule times to turn down the heat when you’re sleeping or when your family’s at work and school. Easy eco-friendly tip #2: Go paperless. This eco-friendly tip not only saves you money, it prevents identity theft. When you get e-statements from the bank and bills emailed, thieves can’t steal your mail to get personal information. Getting e-statements also eliminates paper waste. In addition, when you sign up to pay bills online, that means you don’t have to write a paper check, buy envelopes, or pay for postage. Love to read? Then transfer your newspaper and magazine subscriptions to digital subscriptions. That way you can read the news online and download your magazines to read on your favorite digital device instead. (I do this and love not having so many magazines to recycle.) Also, when you buy ebooks instead of paper books, you don’t have to worry about finding a place to store them all! Easy eco-friendly tip #3: Donate. One way to give back to your community by being more eco-friendly is to donate your used items to charity. (It’s a great tax write off, too!) Now that it’s getting colder, many communities are holding coat drives – a terrific way to donate coats the kids have outgrown. Don’t worry if you think your old t-shirts and ripped up jeans are too ratty for the thrift store. Donate them anyway as many thrift stores work with rag houses that recycle old, beat up clothing and turn them pillow stuffing, insulation, and more. Easy eco-friendly tip #4. Join the Meatless Monday Movement. Not only is meat pricey, but meat production eats up considerable resources. Starting a Meatless Monday routine not only helps your budget, but it’s eco-friendly, too!  Need some Meatless Monday recipes? Check out my Meatless Monday Recipes board on Pinterest: Easy eco-friendly tip #5. Start an eco-friendly skincare routine. Wouldn’t you love to be more eco-friendly by using skincare products that are more naturally based? Then you should check out Neutrogena® Naturals Brightening Moisturizer. Brighten up your skincare routine with Neutrogena Naturals I wish my skincare products were made with more natural ingredients, but was disappointed by the products I’ve found at the health food store. That’s why I was interested in Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer. Not only is it from Neutrogena, a name I trust and brand I love, but it’s made with 94% naturally derived ingredients. Not only does Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer hydrate your skin, it helps to even skin tone in just four weeks.  I’ve been using it for a week now and have already seen some difference in my blotchy skin tone! At first, when I heard “natural” I thought Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer wouldn’t have broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection. Instead, I was thrilled to see that Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer contains a 100% naturally derived sunscreen that has a SPF of 25. (I feel that daily sunscreen use helps your skin looking younger.) I like that Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer doesn’t contain sulfates, parabens, petrolatum, dyes, or phthalates.  If you’re concerned about any of these types of ingredients, Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer should be on your shopping list. I loved that Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer is lightweight, fast absorbing, and doesn’t clog pores. It didn’t leave my skin greasy and I haven’t gotten any breakouts from using it.  Finally, the packaging is terrific since Neutrogena uses recyclable, post-consumer materials and renewable resources whenever possible. The folding carton the moisturizer came in is made from 100% recycled paper with 60% post-consumer recycled content. Their recycled paperboard cartons use 75% less water in processing than virgin paperboard does. Also, the bottle is made with 50% post consumer recycled content. Learn more about Neutrogena Naturals Neutrogena Naturals Brightening Moisturizer sells for around $13.99 for a 1.7 FL OZ (50mL) bottle . Check out the rest of the Neutrogena Naturals line, like the Neutrogena Naturals Purifying Pore Scrub. It’s gentle enough to use every day. (I use it daily in the mornings.) There’s even an acne line of Neutrogena Naturals acne line, which I can’t wait to check out for my teens. To learn more about Neutrogena Naturals, watch this video: Find out more about Neutrogena on their homepage. Connect with them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. What eco-friendly steps are you taking to brighten up your world? Photo credit: Adobe Stock