Living lightly on the Earth now is imperative if your children are to have a world to live on in the future. Unfortunately, many people think that being eco-conscious costs too much. However, it doesn't have to cost a fortune to go green at home and frankly you won't have to give up the things that make life easy and convenient.

    Here are eight accessible ways to think green around your home:

    1. Sustainable wood means wood harvested from carefully managed forests or reclaimed from old sources – buildings, discards, old furniture. Bamboo, says the Sustainable Woods Network, based in Oregon, is actually a grass rather than a wood. It regrows quickly with little cultivation.

    2. Sustainable cotton, according to the California-based Sustainable Cotton Project, is grown organically: no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, hand-cultivated on carefully supervised plantations. It's used in consumer market clothes, bedding, linens, furniture covers and all manner of fabric products.

    3. Shopping carefully at the right places can put sustainable, Earth-friendly products in every room in your home. Google "green shopping." Mega retailers like Lowe's, Wal-Mart or Dillard's, recognize the huge swell of grass roots interest and now carry green items in nearly every department. Specialty all-green stores like Ocean Springs' Mississippi's Forever Green are springing up all over.

    4. Savvy consumers can dress their bed with bamboo sheets, blankets and coverlets made by companies like DreamSack or Caldrea. Though that conjures images of picking wood shards out of nightclothes, the truth is slathered in luxury. Bamboo is stripped, processed and turned into fabric, then woven and polished. The result rivals the finest Egyptian cotton in texture, often at lower price points.

    5. Think you have to dispense with convenience items like disposable plates, plastic cups and paper towels? Not so fast – look for Earth-friendly disposable table items - bamboo derivative plates, plastic cups from corn oil. Organic dish cloths and dish towels are widely available and most are antibacterial.

    6. Decorating and remodeling products ranges from granite-like counter tops fabricated from recycled glass to planet-safe flooring and furnishings.

    7. Planet-friendly personal care items are easy to find, though reading labels is the way to be sure of what you're getting. Organizations like Consumer Reports caution buyers to ask questions with an eye to fact-finding when considering terms like non-toxic, natural, environmentally friendly or biodegradable.

    8. There are lots of household products out there. Consumers say organic laundry soap makes clothes seem cleaner and softer, without leftover residues. Surface cleaners tend to smell better without the artificial odor of chemical esters, the olfactory footprint of traditional cleansers. A whisper of essential oils makes homemakers feel their home smells fresh and healthy.

    Put down your bottled water and think organic. Sustainable. Post consumer-recycled. The newest buzz-words of the 21st Century. A few quick changes in where you shop and what you choose to buy plus an investment of time to read labels carefully will turn you into a green-thinking expert in no time.

    在地球上節約的生活是必要的，如果你的后代還要生活在這個世界上的話。不幸的是，很多人認為環保會花費很多。然而，能在家擁抱綠色并不需要什么代價。坦白的說，你不需要放棄什么就能使生活變得更加簡單和方便。

    以下是八個可行的方法能讓你在家里擁抱綠色：

    1.可再生木材是指經過精心栽培的木材或由舊的資源（建筑，廢棄物，舊家具）再加工而來的，例如竹子。可再生木材網上提到，竹子起源于俄勒岡[美國州名],與其說它是木材不如稱它為草，因為它生長迅速且幾乎不需要養料。

    2.可再生棉花 .根據加州可再生棉花項目，可再生棉花是有機生長的：無化學肥料，無殺蟲劑，在精心照顧的培養園內由人工栽培。它用于衣料，寢具，亞麻制品，家具套和所有形式的針織制品。

    3. 在所有地方謹慎的消費，為你家的每一個房間購買那些可再生的、環保的產品。一下"環保商店",有數百萬零售商，如氏公司，沃爾瑪，狄樂百貨等。他們意識到了草根消費的巨大利益，令綠色產品幾乎出現在每一個部門。特別是海洋溫泉，密西西比，綠苑長春等綠色產品專賣店猶如雨后春筍般地出現在各地。

    4.精明的消費者會選擇DreamSack或Caldrea 公司生產的竹床單、毛毯和被單等床上用品，選擇木材碎片制作睡衣不僅難以想象，而且幾近奢華。竹子經過收集，加工成為織物，然后進行編織和拋光，其結果可以與最好的埃及棉媲美，而且往往價格低廉。

    5.試想你必須省掉一次性盤子，塑料杯和紙巾等方便的玩意兒，怕是還沒那么快。谷歌一下"一次性環保桌具",搜索到竹子能做盤子，谷物油可制塑料杯。有機抹布和洗碗布正在被最廣泛人使用，其中的大部分還有抗菌的效果。

    6.裝修和改型的產品包括從由再生玻璃制造的花崗巖類柜臺到環保地板和家具。

    7. 環保的個人護理用品能很容易找到，但通過閱讀標簽的方式就可以肯定你買到的是什么嗎？消費者報告等組織告誡買家在考慮諸如無毒，天然，環�；蛏�物降解等問題時應著眼于事實調查。

    8. 現在市面上有許多家用產品被使用。消費者表示有機洗衣皂使得衣服看起來更清潔，更柔和，沒有剩余的殘留物。平面清潔器往往味道更好，并且去掉了傳統清洗時留下的化學酯的味道。少許精油就能讓家庭主婦感到家里的味道新鮮和健康。

    舍棄瓶裝水，考慮那些接近自然的，可持續的，能再生的產品。21世紀最新的流行語是。購物和選擇時的迅速改變加上投入少許時間仔細閱讀標簽將會使你立刻成為一個綠色思維專家。