April 22 is Earth Day, when we purposefully think about our environmental impact and how we can lessen it, but there’s no reason to limit this thinking to one day. The whole month of April isEarth Month. Try the following actions and perhaps form some new green habits, or realized some ongoing things you can do to minimize your carbon footprints.

  1. Go around the house and unplug every possible appliance or electric item that doesn’t need to be plugged in, to minimize the impact ofenergy vampires.
  2. When you wash your hands in a public restroom, shake them dry instead of using a paper towel.
  3. Plan a meatless day in your weekly menu, pick a fewmeatless mealsto try out.
  4. Let it mellow at home. Don’t flush the toilet unless you need to — even modern, low-flow toiletsuse around 1.6 gallons each flush. If you normally flush the toilets 5 times, flushing it only once will save more than 6 gallons of water.
  5. Eat only unprocessed foods for a day: whole grains, fruits and vegetables, meats. Not only are they better for you, but they require fewer resources and less energy to produce.
  6. Empty out your car’s trunk. Every 50 pounds of stuff you drive around with in your car canreduce fuel economyby 1 percent.
  7. Buy aWaterSense-labeled showerhead. Your household can save as much as 2,900 gallons of water a year… not to mention the energy needed to heat all that water.
  8. Run your errands on foot or bike. Ditch the car and walk to the post office, school, or supermarket today.
  9. Replace at least one of your cleaning products with ahomemade cleaner.
  10. InstallGreenPrinton your computers at home and at work. It’ll prevent you from printing unnecessary pages.
  11. Go to bedan hour early. Chances are, you could use the extra shut-eye, and you’ll be saving energy by turning off the lights, TV, computer, and other electronics.
  12. Make dinner in the pressure cooker. It’s a super energy-efficient way to cook.
  13. Swap out your petroleum-based lip balm for one made of a renewable resource like beeswax or shea butter. Ormake your own.
  14. ResearchCommunity Supported Agricultureshares for the summer. You’ll be supporting local farmers and getting some great produce.
  15. Sign yourself up forCatalog Choiceto stop unwanted junk mail and catalogs.
  16. Keep your refrigerator away from the wall a few inches and clean the coils. It’ll help it work more efficiently.
  17. Work from home for a day to save on gas and avoid contributing emissions from your car commute.
  18. Try to go a daywithout throwing anything away, by using only reusable items.
  19. Read anenvironmentally focused book.
  20. Buy a house plant. Many of them canclean the air.
  21. Switch one of your favorite packaged foods to anorganic version.
  22. Link your Amazon.com account to contribute to theEnvironmental Defense Fundvia the Amazon Smile program.
  23. Gather up your old magazines and findsomeplace to donate them. Or find otherideas for reusing them.
  24. Change at least one incandescent light bulb to a more energy efficient LED bulb.

*From One Green Thing