I know it’s not fun, but now is the time to winterize. It’s an easy, green practice that can save you some green this winter.

There are several super-extensive lists that are very intimidating. A simple search can find you plenty.

We’re just going to hit the big basics. The easy essentials.

Start by taking care of your outdoor furniture and gear. If it’s all-weather, then look it over to make sure there aren’t any rusty places. If there are, sand them and hit them with some rust-proof spray paint. Cover your table and chairs and put the umbrella away. Put a cover on your grill (you can remove it when you must grill!)

Put covers on all of your outdoor faucets, roll up your hoses and put them away. Go ahead and clean out your gutters as well. While doing this, think of all the calories you are burning! While you’re up there, make sure that your chimney is free of obstructions.

You also need to put weather-stripping around all of your doors and windows. We also put those child safety plug protectors in our unused outlets to keep that extra air in as well.

Run a vacuum over your heater vents to get the dust out.

Those are the biggies that we will be hitting this week, at least I hope we will.

Did I leave out any big winterizers? Let me know!

Sometimes, when reading articles about going green, it can be a little overwhelming. But there are lots of little ways you can become greener, most of which take little to no extra time or effort. One of the easiest ways to go green – and even save some green – is to combine your car trips.

This tactic only requires a little extra thought.

When grocery shopping, stop by the post office or library on your way to or from the store. When heading to work or driving home, stop to get gas or pick up your groceries.

Just think about the stores you pass on the way to your destination and plan your route accordingly. This might be a little more time consuming at first, but just think of all the time (and gas money!) you’ll be saving by not driving to the store and home, to the gas station and home, to the post office and home, etc.

Do you reuse your baggies from your lunch? It is a great way to save money and plastic from the landfills. Did you know that it takes between 10-20 years for a plastic bag to decompose? And that is if there is oxygen! Our landfills are getting so full that often things are packed so tightly they can’t decompose. Even vegetable food products. Well, if you are getting tired of having the kitchen faucet be the “baggie hanger” check this out. It is a specially designed dryer for bags and bottles. Although this may not appear to be true to the “reduction” philosophy, if you are too lazy to find something else to do the trick, you would reuse bags and bottles if there was an easy way to dry them, this will work in reducing trash.