Eight Easy, Green New Year's Resolutions

These New Year's resolutions will help you put less rubbish on the curb each week, save money, cut your carbon footprint, and give you a cleaner conscience knowing that you're making little changes that can add up to a big impact on the environment.

Cloth napkins come in cute prints (which are also great for hiding stains), and they last for years. Use use them every day, although I do have one set I save for holiday dinners. My favorite sources are vintage sets picked up on Etsy and reuse/antique shops, and I like to get new sets from T.J. Maxx. I've also turned vintage tablecloths with holes in an isolated spot into napkins, like the ones pictured below, with the help of my super crafty mom. Pro tip: go for cotton over linen if you're not a fan of ironing.

We ditched paper towels in favor of cloth rags years ago. Once or twice a year I gather all of the grubby t-shirts in our house, snip off the sleeves, and cut them up the sides to turn them into two rags. I keep a basket under the sink with clean rags and another near the stairs for dirty rags (and napkins!) so they can easily get toted to the laundry room.

Our countertop compost bin is a simple way to keep compostables out of the trash and into the backyard heap or compost bin for city pickup. We picked up this one at our neighborhood Ace Hardware and have been super happy with it.

Glass and aluminum water bottles are an easy swap out for wasteful plastic water bottles. I like Life Factory and Klean Kanteen with sport tops, and they go to work and school, on trips, to soccer games, and playdates with the kids.

We also have a bunch of milk bottles with straws from Target's dollar section that my kids love; they will drink pretty much anything I put in front of them if I put a straw in it, and there are plenty of reusable straws out there.

I also say "no thanks" to plastic and paper shopping bags as much as possible, and I save and reuse any that do come come. These are my favorite reusable shopping bags to keep in my purse or the side door of the car; they are super light weight and have a snap closure so they fold up small. For a weekly shopping trip to the grocery, I like these sturdy totes.

Although babies in diapers are a thing of the past in our house (yay!), we did use cloth diapers for about five years. I still swear by their performance and ability to contain even the nastiest messes. We also used small flannel squares (my crafty mom made those, too) and a squirt bottle of Dr. Bronner's lavender liquid soap solution rather than chemical-filled disposable wipes. And, now that we're done with diapers, I still have great wet bags for swim lessons and dirty clothes that come home from sleepovers at Nonna's house.

What are your favorite ways to keep it green?