Make this Earth Day different than any other day by making a conscious effort towards less waste, less clutter.

What is your role in the waste-stream?

Imagine the trash collector didn’t come for a month. What would that look like? That visual is what sustainability is all about.

How do we both feed the growing population and handle our wastefulness?

How best can we live with all the benefits and comforts of a modern society without drowning in over-consumption?

Here are five mindful ways to make a positive change in your home:

1) Identify:

Identify the things you throw out the most. Most often your trash can will be filled with single-use waste. Replace the top three single-use waste items with reusable items. Our home has identified an overuse of straws, caps and smoothie cups.

-Try these reusable straws and caps from Ball to go with the popular mason jars

-Bring reusable plastic or glass (preferable) for tea or smoothie cups to your local coffee or juice store

2) Eliminate:

Eliminate unnecessary incoming waste such as junk mail, plastic shopping bags and plastic covering from dry cleaning plastic. For clothes that need extra care, look for cleaners who don’t use toxic chemicals. Beware, as most dry cleaners make claims to be Earth-friendly, but are advertising a false claim. Find out the specific methods and chemicals they use. Here is a good article talking more about “green cleaning.”

When finding an earth-friendly cleaner, use garment bags to transfer your clothes to and from the dry cleaner.

3) Discover:

Discover the double-uses for both body and kitchen already in your pantry. Lemon and salt can be used in your salads and the rinds for disinfecting. Baking soda can be used in baking as well as to clean.  Coconut oil is one of the best ways to moisturize skin and use in baking cookies.

4) Unsubscribe:

Clear out over-communication:  Unsubscribe from junk mail, old catalogs and emails to clear out your inbox. Pick five emails a week to unsubscribe to then up it five more the next week, and so on for one month. In one month you will have unsubscribed to 20 newsletters. Some newsletters reconfigure their content so chances are you might have already read their last blog post. If there are some newsletters you really want to keep subscribing to then create an inbox folder for the incoming newsletters. Schedule a day and time once or twice a week to read and go through these emails.

5) Clear Out:

Clear out clothes, have a garage sale or donate to a local women’s abuse shelter or non-profit. Use a garage sale as a self-confidence building tool to teach children how to negotiate and sell. They will also learn to keep their toys and clothes in good condition with the idea that it will be passed along for someone else to enjoy.

These tips are not only good for the earth but good for your peace of mind.