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Sustainable Living 102: Next-Level Ideas for a Greener Life

Posted on by Jo

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A pink organic cotton shirt with a green certified organic label

👪Introduction: Let’s Take Green Living to the Next Level

Welcome to Your Extraordinary Life Journey, where we provide inspiration for sustainable practices, natural health and beauty, DIY home décor, and more!

Does your family already practice basic sustainable living practices (think recycling, using reusable water bottles and shopping bags, choosing energy-efficient lighting, etc.) but want to do more to reduce your environmental impact? Not quite there? Read Sustainable Living 101 to catch up!

Let’s explore ways you can deepen your commitment to the earth and get the whole family involved! In this post, we will discuss intermediate-level green living practices, plus resources for your sustainable Extraordinary Life Journey. These steps are practical, fun, and most importantly, doable—even for the busiest families.

🌱Eat Greener Together: What’s on Our Plates Matters

Shift toward more plant-based meals

Start with “Meatless Mondays.” Kids can pick recipes and help prep! Over time, if you find yourself enjoying this new eating plan, consider going full vegetarian! Being vegetarian has great health benefits and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. There are also ethical concerns with eating meat, such as kind treatment of animals. You can find many vegetarian cookbooks and websites to help you along the way.

Grow Your Own Greens!

If you love gardening, try growing your own vegetables and fruits. Research what’s native to your area and in season. Bonus: gardening can be a wonderful mindfulness activity and help reduce stress! (Read more about mindful living here)

If you don’t have space for a full garden, you can grow herbs and fruits like cherry tomatoes (yes, technically, tomatoes are fruits!) in a window box. You can also try container gardening on your porch or patio. Kids can help, and they love seeing their produce on their plates! Involve your kids in meal planning, making a game out of finding seasonal and local ingredients.

Shop Local & Seasonal

Take a family trip to the farmers’ market and talk about where your food comes from. Educational and fun! Then let the kids help plan meals around the fresh, pesticide-free produce you picked up! Use the USDA’s Local Food Directories to help you find farmers’ markets wherever you are in the US.

👧 Green Kid Activity

  • Create a family “Green Recipe Book” of climate-friendly recipes— kids can draw the cover, illustrate the pages, and pick their favorite meals that they can help create.

📚 More Green Resources:

Books

Websites

🧺 Greener Cleaning, Healthier Home

Many store-bought cleaners contain toxic ingredients that are harmful to both your family and the environment. I was horrified when I recently downloaded the Environmental Working Group’s Healthy Living app and learned that some of the most popular “green” cleaning products, well, they aren’t so green, after all. Download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and find out just how good (or how awful!) your cleaners are. While you’re there, check your personal care and beauty products! Read our Clean Beauty guide for more info on that.

The great news? Green cleaning is simple, fun, and cost-effective when you make your own!

DIY Your Own Green Cleaners

Simple, non-toxic cleaning products can be made at home with common pantry items like vinegar and baking soda. Most people hate the smell of vinegar, but it dissipates quickly! Add your own mixture of essential oils if you want. Use lavender for a calming scent, or lemon for a bright, clean scent. There are plenty of online resources for DIY cleaning recipes. Kids love measuring and mixing, so this can be a fun family activity. Maybe your kids will come up with the best recipe ever, and you can sell it for a fortune! (Hey, it could happen!)

Green Clothes

sustainable clothes clothesline laundry

It’s easy to “green up” your laundry routine, too. After checking the Healthy Living app, you may decide to make your own laundry soap. At a minimum, consider washing in cold water and hanging out to dry to save energy. Did you know that cold water cleans your clothes just as well as hot? True story! I use cold water and the shortest cycle unless it’s an especially big or dirty load.

Reduce Waste with Refillable Cleaning Products

Buy concentrated products you mix with water, using a glass spray bottle. You’ll reduce your packaging waste and shipping costs as well! Grove Collaborative and Blueland sell many concentrated green cleaning products to help you reduce your waste. Use the EWG Healthy Living app to make informed choices.

👧 Green Kid Activity

  • Create a “Homemade Cleaning Potion Lab” to let kids make DIY cleaners — label jars with fun custom names like “Sparkle Spray.

📚 More Green Resources

Books

Websites

🔌 Flipping the Switch on Green Energy

Energy conservation doesn’t have to mean installing solar panels (though, kudos if you do!). Small, consistent efforts can slash your bills and your carbon footprint. Talk to your kids about why it’s important to save energy—not just to lower the bill, but to protect our planet. Here are just a few smart and easy ideas to reduce energy waste and make your home a little more eco-friendly, all while teaching your kids about energy conservation.

Kill Phantom Energy

Lights, microwaves, TVs, laptops, chargers—everyone knows to turn them off, but did you know that they can still use power even when they are off? This hidden power drain is called phantom energy, and it can account for up to 10% of your power bill! Make a game out of turning off lights and unplugging chargers or other electronic devices.

Monthly Energy Challenge to Green Up Your Home

Set a challenge to lower your electricity bill by 10% each month. Promise the kids a special treat if they can help lower your energy bill! The treat doesn’t have to be expensive: it can be as simple as a stargazing trip to the countryside, a picnic, or a camping trip. (For more low-cost ideas, read How to Live Well on a Budget.)

Take advantage of new smart technology to reduce the energy that modern technology uses. (Ironic? I thought so!) For example, smart power strips automatically cut power to devices when they are not in use, making it easy to stop phantom energy without even thinking about it! Another great use of smart technology is using timers and smart plugs (paired with Alexa). You can program lights and appliances to shut off automatically.

👧 Green Kid Activity

  • Create DIY “Turn It Off” and “Don’t Forget Me!” signs to post near switches. They can create fun characters (like “Luna the Light Switch Fairy”). Gather non-toxic paints or crayons and some recycled paper, and let them have at it!
  • Have the kids read the electric meter every month and make a chart showing how much energy they have saved, month by month!

📚 More Green Resources

Books

Websites

♻️ Rethink What You Throw Away: Go Green With Waste-Free Living

Beyond Recycling: Refuse, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Reinvent

Recycling is a great first step, but there is way more that you can do to help the environment. Encourage the whole family to adopt a waste-prevention mindset. There are a lot of “R”s around eco-conscious consumerism: Refuse (say no to single-use bags or water bottles), Reduce (Can you get by with less?), Recycle (Research what you can recycle in your area), Reuse (Use that same glass jar over and over), Repurpose/Reinvent (what else can this *whatever* be used for?), and for the truly committed, Rot (composting).

Do a family “Waste Audit”

What an eye-opening experience! Have your kids track what your family throws out for one week. Keep track of everything from food waste to food wrapping. Consider where it all goes (the landfill), then discuss ways to reduce all that waste. For example, the kids can come up with creative ways to repurpose materials into crafts or projects (e.g., tin can planters, cereal box organizers).

👧 Green Kid Activity

Set up a “Trash to Treasure” craft box — challenge kids to make art from old stuff, like paper towel rolls, fabric scraps, plastic containers, or cardboard.

📚 More Green Resources

Books

Websites

👖 Mindful Fashion and Green Shopping Habits: What You Wear Can Change the World

The Problem with Fast Fashion

Have you heard the term “fast fashion” lately, but don’t really know what it means? Let’s clear that up. Fast fashion is a business model that prioritizes profit over everything else. Fast fashion items often follow trendy styles, and feature high turnover in the stores, encouraging buying more, more, and more.

Fast fashion garments are made as cheaply as possible, resulting in low quality and potential ethical concerns in the production chain. Problems with fast fashion include high waste production, low wages for workers, pollution from synthetic fabrics, overconsumerism, and low-quality goods.

A Greener Closet

So how do you avoid fast fashion and dress more sustainably? It’s time to rethink how we shop. Choose quality over quantity. Think you can’t afford more well-made, high-quality clothes? Visit your local thrift and secondhand stores. With a little hunting through racks, you can often find expensive clothing at a fraction of the cost of the same garment new. Another option is to have a clothes swap with your fashionable friends. Also, choose classic pieces that never really go out of style and take good care of the items you own.

Choose Organic Fabrics

A green closet is full of organic fabrics and recycled garments. Wearing organic fabric has numerous environmental impacts. Organic cotton, for example, uses fewer harmful chemicals, reduces water and energy use, and supports biodiversity. Organic fabrics also tend to be more durable and more comfortable! You may see a higher price tag, but the increased benefits more than outweigh the hit to the wallet, in my opinion.

Recycled Clothing?!

An interesting new trend is clothes made from recycled materials, of all things! Recycled clothing consists of garments made from used clothing, textile waste, or plastic water bottles. Recycled nylon, for example, may be made from not just plastic, but used fishing nets. Other materials used to make recycled clothing include wood pulp or previously used fabric.

👧 Green Kid Activity

  • Get some non-toxic markers and plain organic bags, and let kids decorate tote bags to take thrifting or to the farmer’s market.
  • Have a treasure hunt with the kids in the thrift store, looking for the best deals on quality clothing.


📚 More Green Resources

Books

Websites

Bonus Green Ideas

  • Create a family “Green Jar” — drop in a coin or button each time someone makes a sustainable choice, then reward yourselves with an experience (like a hike or picnic).
  • Weekly Eco-Goal: Choose one small goal per week. Ex: “No plastic bags” or “Buy only local produce.”
  • Nature Time: Spend more time outside. It deepens kids’ love for the planet and naturally encourages less consumption.

Conclusion: Your Extraordinary Life, Greener Every Day

Think saving the planet is too big a task for one family? You’re already doing great, and these next-level steps can help you live even more in alignment with your values. Remember, sustainable living is a journey – not a destination – that’s filled with curiosity, creativity, and a sense of purpose. Think “progress, not perfection.” Pick just one or two of these ideas to try every month, then share your progress online and with family and friends. And when you involve your kids, you’re raising the next generation of planet protectors.

📚 Even More Reading & Green Family Resources

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