3 Ways to Make Earth Day Everyday

Earth Day is just a few days away – have you decided how you’re pitching in? While the day itself is relatively young – Earth Day was founded in 1970 – it's become increasingly urgent that we observe it daily. Especially as news of climate change, extinction and destruction of natural resources (and shitty, irresponsible decisions made by the current administration) dominates the news. Frankly, there are times when I feel helpless thinking about the planet's current situation (these times typically coincide with scrolling that compendium of Debbie downer news: Facebook). But by taking small steps at home – I feel like I'm at least doing something, you know? Even if I'm not exactly in the position to hop a Greenpeace boat. Today I'm sharing three ways to celebrate Earth Day – on the day itself and in your home daily – with one way to help others, too.

To-do on Earth Day: Organize a beach cleanup
Winter is over? Maybe? Or at least, summer will eventually be here – right? Why not make your local shoreline that much more inviting by gathering some friends and picking up the detritus that has washed ashore over the past several months? Organizing a beach cleanup is an incredibly simple and effective way to make a small dent in the overwhelming amount of plastic clogging our oceans. The World Economic Forum estimates that approximately eight million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. Yes, you read that right. Eight million. A year. This massive amount of plastic poses an enormous threat to wildlife and public health, causing immediate threat to fish and birds that ingest it and possibly contaminating tap water (to name just a couple ways discarded plastic waste affects the earth) – removing at least some of the trash on your local beach, and recycling what you can from that, prevents that waste from causing further harm.

You’ll need: 

• Protective gloves (choose reusable, washable gloves to minimize waste) 
• Trash bags (try grabbing two colors, one for trash and one for recycling, or assign people roles) Yourself and/or a group of friends 
• Want to go the extra mile? Put up a flier at your local coffee shop or make an event page online to help spread the word and widen your network

To-do for your everyday: Say goodbye to plastic

Still relying on single-use plastic baggies and plastic storage containers in your kitchen? Stop. Trust me when I tell you it's insanely easy to make the switch to reusable options, and it'll save you so much money in the end. I even managed the seemingly impossible and broke Chris of his plastic baggie habit. A true Earth Day miracle. Take the day as designated time to finally bid those baggies adieu and send those plastic containers to recycling once and for all. Then, treat yourself and stock up on some glass storage jars for your fridge and pantry (like Weck jars, which are both super pretty and affordable), reusable sandwich bags (these from Blue Avocado), reusable produce bags, and a few totes for groceries if you don’t use them already. Easy right? Also, bonus: No more disorganized Tupperware drawer from hell. Once you’ve said goodbye to single use baggies and containers, take a look at what else in your life you can replace to cut out single-use plastics:

• Love sipping iced coffee or iced tea from a straw? Invest in a few stainless steel straws to keep at home and carry with you so you can say ‘no’ to plastic straws at takeout and coffee shops. A straw may seem harmless, but over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used daily in the United States alone – with the majority ending up in the trash. Visit the Plastic Pollution Coalition to learn more about straw pollution and more ways to help.
• Once you’ve replaced your straw habit with a reusable option, it’s time to find a reusable coffee cup. With so many options for hot and cold coffee – like those offered by Hydro Flask, Keep Cup and Corksicle – it’s easy to find a cup that fits your coffee drinking habit. 
• Looking for more ways to green your grocery routine? Replace those one-and-done produce bags with a reusable option, or make your own from washable, see-through mesh. If you don’t already own a million grocery totes, these totes from Baggu are a fun and – more importantly –washable, option. With more and more US grocery stores hopping on the pay-per-bag bandwagon to cut costs and usage, you’ll be saving your pennies and the planet while you shop.
• Think you can’t live without plastic wrap or tin foil for food storage? Think again! Along with your shiny new glass containers, there are plenty of ways to eschew plastic cling wrap and tin foil from your life. First, try going without it for a week or two after you’ve replaced your storage containers with glass to see if you really need an alternative. Then, if you really, truly can’t live without something to cover bowls and containers with, try a reusable wrap, like Bees Wrap. If you use tin foil for baking or cooking, replace it with biodegradable parchment paper (you can even bake a potato in parchment, so no excuses) or a reusable Silpat mat – once you say goodbye to these “essentials” you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to live without them. Really – we haven't used plastic wrap in over a year and tin foil in over six months.

To-do for someone else: Volunteer your time

If you’re a pro at all of the above, why not share your skills and teach others what you know? Encouraging others to go green does take tact and gentle coaxing, but if you’ve got the gift of instruction-paired-with-kindness – use it! Ask a friend or family member if they could use a little help sorting through their plastic storage containers or shopping for reusable storage alternatives (you can be really nice here and offer to organize their pantry for them, too). Or plan a fun day of DIY to help someone make their own cleaning products to replace the chemicals under the sink. Love trees? Teach some little ones why trees and plants are important, or offer to help in your local community garden. Spreading the Earth Day love is a great way to extend the virtues of this one day a year that asks us to expressly focus on the planet.

A longer version of this post was originally published here as part of my freelance work for Avocado Green Mattress

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Avocado Mattress Review

When we set our minds on moving back to Maine 5 months ago, my mind went to one thing: finally getting rid of our awful mattress. Really. That's what I thought about. Not the gorgeous scenery, the proximity to family, or the calmer lifestyle. Nope. Finally bidding adieu to the world's gnarliest mattress took top spot (seriously, the thing looked so bad I actually laid awake at night plotting how we'd eventually discard it without the neighbors seeing it... insomnia does funny things to a person). Anyway.

Let me explain. We'd been sleeping on this mattress for 10 years... but its history goes back further. Before we shared it, it was Chris's mattress from high school. By 2017, it was old, it was unsupportive, and it had developed a pronounced lump at the center that had become a sort of third entity in our marriage. This lump was uncomfortable, but even worse, it acted as a separator. Which is funny... but only in retrospect. No one wanted to lie on the lump, and even if you tried to, you'd sort of just end up rolling into one of the human-shaped divots on either side of the lump. It was problematic... at best. The final nail in the gnarly mattress coffin was that we were both exhausted all the time, despite getting a decent amount of sleep each night. This alone was a sign is was time for a new mattress. But neither of us knew where to start. After sleeping on the mattress we had, we weren't thrilled with the chemical-laden, super pricey options out there (most mattresses are made with formaldehyde, a chemical I'm absolutely not down with inhaling every night, and most traditional mattresses are so expensive they require financing). Knowing we'd be moving in with my mom for a few months, it was the perfect opportunity/excuse to say farewell to our nightmare mattress and search for something new. On moving day, I don't think I've ever been so excited to kick something to the curb.

But of course, we still didn't have anything to sleep on. Until I connected with Avocado Green Mattress. Avocado Green Mattresses are made with natural Dunlop latex rubber, harvested in Asia with zero trees harmed in the process. The final product is anti-microbial, resistant to mold and mildew, and a natural barrier to dust mites (all very important qualities when you consider how close your face is to that mattress every night!). These mattresses are also VOC-free (volatile organic compounds), meaning there's no off-gassing – once your mattress is set up, you can sleep on it 30 minutes later. Finished with New Zaland wool and organic cotton, and strategically-placed steel coils, the final product – which is made to order mind you, not sitting in a factory waiting to be bought – is majorly supportive, firm-yet-extremely comfortable, and the perfect temperature whether it's hot or cold (we had fist-hand experience with this in my mom's home of constantly fluctuating temperatures!).

We chose the pillow-top option for a bit more support, as we're side and back sleepers and I tend to have some pain in my knees and legs after running, and also picked out two of their pillows. After a bit of wait time after ordering (remember, they're made to order), two big boxes appeared in the front yard, containing our mattress and pillows. Time to set up! These mattresses are no joke. I recommend getting some strong friends to help you get your mattress set up, because this ish is heavy. Even the pillows are heavy. The mattresses are vacuum-packed and arrive in quite a bit of plastic, but as we recently learned when we moved our mattress from my mom's to our new place -  they need to be (I'll get to that more below). It's also tall. The pillow top adds a few inches, and it's actually recommended for platform beds, so until we figure out a solution for our beloved bed frame (not the one pictured here, which was our temporary bedroom), we're sort of Princess and the Pea-ing it.

But let's cut to the chase and answer the big question: How are we sleeping? Like freaking babies, folks. Freaking babies. You know that Cinderella song that goes, "you don't know what you got, 'till it's gone"? Well our version goes, "you don't know how crappy your old mattress is, until you replace it with a new one." I think we've got a hit single. I've had virtually zero post-workout pain, and we both have an easier time getting out of bed in the morning (a sign of a restful night).

Pros:

• Truly eco-friendly, with no harm to trees and no off-gassing.
• Supportive and will keep you warm in cold weather and cool in warm weather.
• Made to order, not sitting around in a factory waiting to be shipped out.
• Affordable (especially when compared to traditional mattresses) and financing is available for those who choose it.
• Certified sustainable.
• Greenguard certified to ensure rigorous emissions standards are met.
• Just extremely comfortable, soft but not too soft, firm but not too firm.

Cons:

• Extremely heavy. Just be prepared to enlist several friends or hire a couple of circus strongmen if you have to move your mattress. There are handles on the sides, which are helpful, but it still took five people to very awkwardly transport ours from a moving truck and up five stairs and into our new place (not flights of stairs, just five stairs). This isn't so much of a critique as it is a heads up – just be prepared.
• The pillows aren't the most comfortable, especially if you're a fan of softer pillows. I use mine as back support if I'm reading or working in bed (they're great for this purpose), otherwise it sort of gets shoved aside.
• Not the friendliest to traditional bed frames. But that's also not the end of the world. If you don't have a platform bed, just know you may have to make some adjustments.

Would I recommend Avocado Green Mattress? Yes, absolutely. In fact I already have to a friend and a co-worker. We're so pleased with ours, and finally feel as though we're getting adequate rest. I also love knowing we're not breathing in fumes or dust mites at night, which helps me sleep even more soundly.

This was our temporary bedroom at my mother's house. I've linked same and similar decor items below, as a lot of it was either pre-existing or bought secondhand (like the rug and bed frame). I'll post a tour of our new bedroom soon! This post was in collaboration with Avocado Green Mattress. As always, all opinions are my own and have not been influenced in anyway.

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