This is a guest post by Lisa Shoreland of Go College, originally scheduled to post at the beginning of 2011. Thanks Lisa for your incredible patience and contribution!

With the year at its close, it’s a good time to review the basics of going green.  For those of us living in apartments, many of the eco-home improvement articles do us little to no good (not that the landlord wouldn’t appreciate solar panels and a compost pile by the dumpster, right?), and it’s not like we can afford to buy hybrid cars anytime soon.  The following ways to go green are not only easy on the planet, they’re easy on your tired-of-paying-off-debt eyes, too.

1. Let’s start easy: change all incandescent, halogen, and other electric lights around your apartment to CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs to save on your energy bill.  They use between 60-80% less energy than their counterparts and and last between 6,000 and 15,000 hours as opposed to the 1,000 that incandescent bulbs last.  CFLs get a bad rap from their old days of buzzing, flickering, and sucking the life out of anyone under them, but these days, they come in warmer hues that mimic natural sunlight, are dimmable, and fit in three-way fixtures.  You can save around the ball park of $30 per bulb over its lifetime and save 2,000 times its own weight in CO2 gas emissions.
2. Even if you can’t have your own programmable thermostat at most apartments, you can regularly clean the air filters of your A/C unit to make it more efficient, cutting down on energy costs.
3. If you’ve got a ceiling fan, use it in the summer, since it’s designed to bring warm air up and away from you.  Some ceiling fans run in reverse—this helps in the winter, when warm air can be pushed down to you.
4. Older apartments in particular tend to be drafty, and the U.S.
   Department of Energy says that drafts of wind can waste up to 30% of your energy use!  Make your own door draft snakes to save on heating bills by rolling an old bath towel under a drafty door.
5. People living in their own homes are allowed to install storm doors, but most renters aren’t.  To save on heating bills, you can apply window insulation film (they come in kits you can order online).  This way, the heat you produce in your apartment stays in your apartment.
6. Instead of spending wads of money on bleach- and chemical-based household cleaners, you can make your own that are just about as effective.  All you need are old cleaning bottles and various items you probably already have in your kitchen: baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar (either white or apple cider), maybe some borax, and the like.  You can clean anything from windows to carpets, your own clothes to clogged drains with recipes found here: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/assemble-a-green-cleaning-kit.html
   
7. Ever heard of ghost energy?  It’s your pocket change ghosting out whenever you leave unused appliances plugged into the wall.  Cell phones, laptops, and other chargers (as well as your TV, PS3, microwave, and hair dryer) continue to draw electricity, about 8% of our annual electric bills’ worth, in fact.  You can either simply unplug them or plug them into a surge protector and flip the switch when you’re done using the appliances.
8. Stop paying for stupid things, like bottled water.  Go Brita or go home.  One filter lasts the average family three months, costs less than bottled water, and produced a lot less waste and CO2 emissions (since the recycling process still produces these gases).  If you need potable water, snag a reusable bottle, preferably one made out of metal to avoid nasty PVCs and other chemicals found in plastic.  While you’re at it, stop buying paper towels (yes, it can be done), precut produce that comes in extra packaging, and that gym membership you don’t use when you’ve got a dog that needs walking, etc.
9. Rather than overpaying for some big name company to add toxins to your perfume or cologne, make your own.  All you need is a glass bottle and spray pump (maybe reuse your old perfume bottle), distilled water, and flowers from your garden or store-bought organic essential oils.  You don’t need much to make one bottle of perfume, so it’s cost-effective, too.  Recipes abound online.
10. If you’re lucky enough to be near a farmers’ market or co-op, shop there for in-season organic produce and organic, pasture-raised (read: humanely and sustainably raised) meats and eggs.  This way you get the freshest goods (no salmonella, thank you) for the fairest prices, and you get to cook a meal knowing you supported the local economy as well as a healthier planet.

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Lisa Shoreland is currently a resident blogger at Go College, where recently she’s been researching education grants and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing and hogging her boyfriend’s PlayStation 3.  To keep her sanity she enjoys practicing martial arts and bringing home abandoned animals.

Photo courtesy of MoneyBlogNewz.

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