Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Let's get started ... (a recycled article)

Since we have so many new readers at Reduce Footprints, I thought I'd recycle some of my original posts. Even if you've been following this blog for some time, you may have missed the earliest articles ... after all, as with many blogs, it takes awhile to reach the viewing public. So ... that being said ... here's Reduce Footprints' very first post:


If you're like me, you want to do your part in saving the planet but ... it all seems so overwhelming. Not all of us can rush out and buy an energy efficient car or have an energy efficient house built.


So, I decided to create a blog where we can share "easy to do" ideas on reusing, recycling ... and basically, all things associated with reducing our footprint on the earth. Hopefully, something you see in this blog will inspire you to look around and discover new ways to help Mother Earth, in an easy-to-do, inexpensive way. And for those of you already making the effort, perhaps this blog will give you ideas that you hadn't thought of. I should add that I don't take credit for any of these ideas ... they are things I've read, things that friends and family have shared and yes, once in awhile, I actually come up with something myself. With that in mind, let's get started ...


We recently went through the house and noted how many electronics contained a clock. There's a clock on the VCR, the TV, the Microwave ... well, you get the point. All those "clocks" require electricity to keep the time. So we looked at each device and determined which ones actually need to keep time ... it turns out, in our opinion, that the VCR was the only one (need those daily recorded programs). Everything else got plugged into a power strip so that we can turn it off when it's not in use. This includes the TV, all of our computers and associated external "stuff", any chargers (cell phone, batteries, etc.) and timers.


Sure, there's minor inconvenience ... when we go to turn on the TV, we have to bend over and turn on the power strip. But hey ... we get a little exercise and ... "unplugging" cut our electricity bill in half.


That's it for this first posting ... I hope you will visit often and share your ideas.