What do you do to help?

I was at work yesterday and was blown away when someone came into my office and we were discussing something and at the end of our discussion they realized they didn't need the huge stack of paper in their hands anymore and just threw it in my garbage. After they left, I of course fished it out (it was on top and there was nothing else in there except for my granola bar wrapper) and brought it over to the shredder bin which also recycles the shredded paper. I don't know why but when people throw out things that can be recycled it makes me cringe especially when it's in larger quantities, and it shocks me every time I see it happen.

How I recycle:

~All bottles including juice bottles, shampoo bottles, contact solution bottles, etc... are all recycled and not thrown away.

~All cardboard is broken down and recycled even smaller items like cheezit boxes, cereal boxes, milk cartons, egg cartons, all get broken down when finished and recycled instead of thrown in the garbage.

~All cans including H's soda cans that he brings home from work each day (I'm so proud of him!) and food cans like when I make a pot of sauce or a can of soup all get recycled instead of thrown away.

~I bring back to MAC. For every 6 containers you bring back to MAC they will take them back to recycle and give you a free lipstick or a free eyeshadow. You have to go to an actual MAC Cosmetics store not just the kiosk inside Macys for the eyeshadow though.

~I never throw away paper! Anything that comes in the mail gets brought to work and dropped in the shredder bin.

~I pay all bills online and all of our statements are paperless.

Some may think this is all ridiculous, but when it becomes your routine it's really just second nature and you're really making a difference. Now the next list are things I do not only to help the environment, but also to save money.

~We replaced all the bulbs in our home to energy saver bulbs.

~We always turn the lights off when we leave a room, and use minimal lights at night.

~We stopped buying bottled water and bought a Brita pitcher.

~We always run the dishwasher late at night which isn't considered peak time.

~We unplug all appliances that aren't in use (except the fridge, stove, tv's, lamps, and clocks)

~When we lived up north we used draft blockers in the winter and insulated our water heater.

I've noticed a big difference in our electric bill and when we lived up north and had upstairs neighbors with the same exact size floor plan, our electric bill was 1/3 what theirs was and in the summer when they were constantly running their AC it was 1/4 of theirs! Of course we run our AC when it's hot and the heat when it's cold, but we leave it at a reasonable setting so it kicks off quicker.

What do you do to make a difference for not only the environment but your wallet? Or what are you willing to start doing to conserve and/or recycle? Every little bit helps :0)

Also, I thought I'd give an update on my Clarisonic use. I'm unfortunately still going through the "purge" but I see a difference between how bad my skin was last week compared to now. I knew I'd have a bad purge because the whole reason I purchased the Clarisonic was because I was running out of options and so frustrated at how bad my skin has been when I've never really dealt with bad skin. I can see it starting to get better, but I know it'll probably still be a few weeks before I see the results I'm looking for. I'll keep you posted ;0)