Happy Earth Month! How are you celebrating?

Aside from being totally bananas for bananas, I care a whole lot about the environment. So of course, when it's EARTH MONTH, I'm going to go all out! Saturday, April 22nd is Earth Day & while I think every day should be earth day, people all over the world celebrate this day to honor the wonderful earth we have been blessed with. I'm celebrating in part by devoting a series of blog posts focused on how to lessen our impact on the planet & how to preserve the natural beauty of bountiful, amazing Mother Nature.

For this first post, I thought I would start with something easy: providing simple steps to be more green in day-to-day life. I hope this info shocks you, but in a good way! How can shock be a good thing? Well, because these steps are SUPER easy to do RIGHT NOW! You don't need to buy anything special or learn a new skill, you just need YOU, that's it. You'll be amazed that you aren't already doing these things, because they not only save the environment, they save some moolah$$ too! So you know what that means, don't you? Yep, no excuses ;)

1. Always have a set of utensils with you, in your car or in your purse/bag so you don't have to use single-use plastic **remember: AWAY doesn't exist...plastic sticks around for thousands of years and never fully breaks down, which means every single piece of plastic ever created still exists today! So please please please bring your own utensils with you & you'll save tons of plastic from going to the landfill

2. Say no to a plastic straw! Whether you're at a sit-down restaurant, your local coffee shop or getting food to-go, remind the staff you don't want a straw with your drink. While this doesn't technically save you money, 500 MILLION PLASTIC STRAWS are used & disposed of daily in the U.S., and by refusing plastic straws, you are contributing to lessening that number. Doesn't that feel good to know?

3. Use a broom instead of the vacuum to clean up wood flooring or tile. You save money because you're using less electricity AND you sweat a little (or a lot... it's hard work!)

4. Bring a hand towel or nice kitchen towel with you to work or throw it in your backpack, purse or bag to use as a napkin. Use hand towels or cut up cotton t-shirts for cleaning the bathroom and wiping down kitchen countertops. And say adios to paper towels! I know this is a big thing for most people, so if this totally freaks you out, just do what you can with what you have. If you aren't at a place where you can get rid of paper towels completely, keep them around but make cotton towels your go-to.

5. Bring fabric bags with you to the grocery store and farmers market. A lot of grocery stores actually give you a $.5 or $.10 credit for bringing your own bags, sometimes even per bag! For the farmers market, I always like to give them back the plastic bags once I've transferred their produce into my cotton drawstring bags (another huge lifesaver!) AND those green strawberry baskets? I save them up and bring them back to give to the farmers, which they always appreciate :)

Let me know how it goes when you start implementing these tips! Change is hard, so be patient with yourself & don't give up. Research shows it takes an average of 14 days for a new habit to stick. You can do this! I'm right here with you. Stay tuned for the next Earth Month post!

If you have any questions, comment below & I'll be sure to respond! And if you would like to go further than these tips, contact me at happilyhealthyashley@gmail.com & we'll talk about working together :)