By Theresa Ficazzola
Each year, a few days before the official start of spring, the robins arrive back in the area, home from their winter get away. It’s amazing how their internal clock tells them it’s time to return to their summer residence.
Even though it’s snowing outside today, it is the first “official” day of spring. What’s your spring time ritual? Spring cleaning perhaps?
As you begin to emerge from winter’s slumber and take stock of your home—and everything in it—consider these 10 ideas to help you declutter in an eco-friendly way. Since it’s snowing, and you can’t enjoy spring outside today, you can get a jump on your indoor spring cleaning and organizing.
10 Eco-Friendly Tips for Spring
- Inquire about installing solar panels on your home to take advantage of the upcoming spring and summer seasons, which are the prime times to harvest the sun for electricity to power your home.
- Clean out your closets and plan a garage sale. Whatever you don’t sell, donate to a local charity—remember, anything is fair game and one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.
- As the weather warms up, line dry some of your clothes outside (just like the old days) for a natural, cleaner experience; plus it will save you money on your electric bill by using your dryer less.
- Organize a park or beach clean-up in your town.
- Donate old towels, blankets, sheets or rugs to a local animal shelter. They could also use outdated newspapers.
- Plant your own herb garden, which you can harvest all summer long and even into the fall, for home cooked meals.
- Clean out your garage or basement and dispose of old paint, tires, LED lights, computers, batteries and other hazardous waste at designated drop-off sites near your home.
- Go for a walk and look for signs of spring.
- Donate old cell phones to charity, such as cellphonesforsoldiers.com.
- If you have lots of baby and kids’ clothes, games, books, or woman’s apparel to sell, or you are in the market for some gently used items, go to swap.com, an online consignment store.
We hope these ideas will inspire you to begin anew in an eco-friendly way.
As we mentioned above, spring is an excellent time to think about the generous tax incentives and ConEd savings you’d receive by going green. If you’d like to learn more about these amazing benefits, stop by our new office (located at 4233 Arthur Kill Road on Staten Island) or give us a call at 718-227-6527.
Happy spring!
