I don’t know when exactly when I first became aware of leaving carbon footprints on the earth. But in the last few years, it has been thought of. I have been a person who doesn’t have much and that it is the way I like it. I don’t need a lot to make me happy. I have a lot of yarn, crochet accessories, fabric, sewing machines, and makeup. I am a crafter hence the stash of yarn, fabric, accessories. But what really got me thinking of this topic is the amount of trash that my family gets rid of. So it started me to research online especially YouTube and this is how it started. Here are some things that I do that you can do to start on a journey of leaving little carbon footprints on the earth.
1. I stopped buying one-time makeup remover pads.
I love the makeup especially lipstick. I probably have the closet to 10 different shades of lipstick but I use them all. So I used to buy the cotton one-time use pads to remove my makeup and then throw them away. Not was I wasting money but I was using a lot of trash. I went online and looked up how to make my own reusable pads and learned how to crochet and sew my own. So now I don’t buy them but make them for myself and others. Did you know that by buying these one-time use pads you are putting harmful chemicals in the air and that these chemicals will eventually end up in the ocean? We can reduce this if we all use reusable pads to remove makeup off our faces.
2. I don’t use paper towels but cloth.
I started using cloth rags instead of paper towels. I didn’t realize how much we went through paper towels. It not only saved us money but I don’t throw away a lot of trash. This is something new that I just started. I am obsessed with YouTube and one day was watching sewing videos, which caught my eye. You can actually sew cloth to imitate paper towels, but I instead cut up some of my white fabric into squares and bought some cloth rags from the Dollar Tree. These you can keep washing either by hand or washing machine. I love using cloth rags it takes up less space, saves money, and saves the planet.
3. I don’t buy store-bought cleaning supplies but make my own.
I stopped buying store-bought cleaning supplies. I love making my own stuff if it is possible. These past few months I have been using store-bought supplies but now I use my own since I was able to buy the supplies that I needed to make my own. When I clean my home I know that no harmful chemicals are polluting the air.
4. Turn of any lights that we don’t use.
Did you know that you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.15 pounds an hour by turning off your lights when you don’t need them on? I didn’t know this until I looked it up. When we leave the room the lights go off. My husband loves the dark but I need light. I make sure the lights go off when I am home. It saves money as well as electricity. If we all do this can you imagine how much gas emissions we would be saving?
5. I buy what we need.
Something else that I recently started was buying items when we need them and not stocking up too much. I used to buy products in bulk especially when they were on sale. I don’t do that as much now because I have access to stores when I need them and it takes up space. I do stock up on some food items that won’t spoil when they are on sale or when I have the extra money, like coffee, tea, cereal, oat milk (in a box), etc.
6. I cut down on the laundry.
Growing up my mom did a lot of laundries especially with a family of 5. She would sort the clothes, whites, colors, etc. In recent years, I do all of our clothes together. So now I do one load of laundry a week and one week I do two for clothes and towels/bedding. I have cut down on washing my clothes and drying them. I also use unscented laundry detergent. Tumble drying your clothes adds a lot of emissions to your carbon footprint. In the future, I want to invest in a wooden rack to hang my clothes.
7. I reuse my plastic shopping bags.
I have boughten some reusable shopping bags for when I go shopping and leave them in the car when I am done with them. The problem is that I usually forget them and end up getting plastic bags when I check out. That is fine because I use the bags either for trash or I make them into plarn. Plarn is cut-up plastic bags in which you use as yarn. Years ago when I ran out of yarn and couldn’t afford to buy some I went on YouTube to see what I could use as yarn and I came across this video where they used plastic bags as yarn and since then I have been hooked on this concept. I started out crocheting these bags into a mat but it was taking too long so I turned it into a bag. I have crocheted many bags out of plastic bags. This is a great way of using up those plastic bags so they don’t end up in the ocean.
There are many other ways that you can do to help the earth. In the future, I may do more but for right now these are the ways I am doing to help with the carbon footprints.
https://vocal.media/earth/how-i-cut-down-on-my-carbon-footprints
