INSTAHUB’s EARTH DAY CHALLENGE: A WAY TO CELEBRATE THE EARTH

Apr 26

An environmental movement that first began on April 22,1970, with the intent of increasing public awareness on environmental concerns and highlighting the consequences of our actions on the planet, Earth Day is a day worth celebrating. It is an opportunity for us to start doing things that are good for our planet and to take the initial steps towards a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle.

This year, InstaHub has initiated a 3-day long Earth Day challenge with at-home activities that are safe, easy and totally fun to do with family and friends. Each day has a different theme assigned to it, along with two activities to choose from. The more challenging the activity, the more points you can earn. Here’s all you need to know about the challenge!

Day 1: Rethink Your Closet

Our clothes say a lot about us aesthetically, but so does the amount of clothes we own. This not only applies to style and the way we put items together, but also the materials our clothes are made from and what we do with clothing when we can’t wear them anymore. As we grow, so do our tastes, our bodies, and our preferences; leaving many of us with piles and piles of neglected pieces.

Two activities fall under this theme:

1. Clean out your closet and repurpose clothes you don’t need.

Take a look at the items in your closet, and leave out the ones that don’t fit anymore and the ones that you know you won’t wear. We are all guilty of adding to our wardrobes without going through our old clothes and attempting to repurpose them. We end up with mountains of unwanted garments that we throw away one day to regain storage space as soon as possible. Be consistent, and try to regularly take out a few items at a time, repurpose them instead of throwing them away. Try making a t-shirt pillow or some cleaning rags. Be creative!

2. Donate Old Clothes and/or Make a Purchase from a Thrift Store

If you find that you have items that you have never worn, or maybe just a few times, and have stayed in your closet for quite some time, it's time to find them a new home. If someone comes to mind, donate them directly to that person! And if your style isn’t for them, you can always go to the nearest donation box. These can be found in or near grocery stores and pharmacies. Alternatively, you can also purchase something from a thrift store. Clothes from thrift shops and secondhand stores are more affordable and often unique. They can even be of higher quality than first-hand options.

Day 2: Switch to Natural Ingredients

Have you ever thought about the ingredients in your household cleaning products? Take a peek at the ingredient lists and you’ll find words like “Didecyldimethylammonium Chloride” and “Sodium Hypochlorite” listed along with other hard to pronounce ingredients. It’s overwhelming, and most of us stick to the brands that smell good or that others recommend. But those aren’t indicators that the products are safe or effective. Often, synthetic ingredients found in detergents, cleaning sprays, and dish soap are highly toxic for the environment as well as your health. There are safer ways to clean your home and resources out there to help you figure that out without needing a chemistry background, and that is why the activities on Day 2 are great to try out!

1 . Look up the brands you use in the EWG (Environmental Working Group) website, and in the comments post how they rank, as well as the brands you are excited to discover next.

The EWG Guide to Healthy Cleaning website contains a database of different wide-ranging products that continuously lists, analyzes, and ranks products based on how ingredients are manufactured, how they can impact human health, and how risky they are to the environment. The best ranked products will be given the label “EWG Certified;” which means they are completely safe and recommended for use by EWG. This comes before a ranking of 1; which also means that the products are recommended, but at a slightly-lower ranking. This continues all the way up to the ranking of 10; which indicates that the product is considered toxic and unsuitable for the environment and, therefore, not recommended.

2. Make your own water and vinegar disinfectant spray (You can cautiously add your favorite fragrances to the mix)

Alternatively, there is an effective and safer way to clean your home that you can even make at home. This one product that has so many different uses and will come in handy for cleaning is vinegar. Yes, it is used in pickles, salads, marinades and sauces, but it is also very effective at removing limescale from kettles and coffee makers. Many households dilute it with water and use the mixture as a disinfectant to clean countertops, floors, windows, and even showers. It works wonderfully for these types of chores, but the only downside is that most people hate the smell. Here’s the trick though; as you create the vinegar-water mixture, a ratio of 50/50 works really well. Adding your favorite essential oil to the mix works wonders at improving the smell. Try it out, and see what works for you, and be mindful of what surfaces are safe for vinegar disinfectant use.

Day 3: Invest in a Clean Product

We buy things all the time, and find that we need or want new products almost everyday. Whether it's a personal care product like shampoo or a household product like a dishwasher, we choose the right products based on a set of criteria that matter most to us. If you’re reading this post, then it’s clear that one criterion that matters to you is the effect the product has on the environment. Activities on this day will help you understand where to get this type of information from, and how to choose the right ones.

1. Use the EWG Skin Deep database and decide on a sustainable personal care product to shift to

The EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics database website is a great place to find information on the personal care products that you currently use. The Skin Deep database shows the rankings of skincare, sunscreen, and makeup products. So, go ahead and search the products that you use and see what comes up. This database frequently makes additions so keep an eye out in case they don’t currently have information on the product you are looking for. If you find that your products are not as environmentally sustainable as you had hoped, search for similar products or brands that actually are, and try them out! They might even be more effective than the ones you have.

2. Replace an outdated kitchen appliance with an ENERGY-STAR certified appliance

Many of the appliances that we use are old and outdated. We keep using them because they’re still functional and are in satisfactory condition. But did you know that they are costing you a lot of money in the long-run? They use up a lot more energy than the new technologies available on the market. A new washing machine with an ENERGY-STAR label uses 25% less energy, and about 70-75% less water than a conventional one. So, if you plan on replacing an outdated appliance, look for the ENERGY-STAR label. It’s as simple as that!

Bonus Activities

Ditch your tea bags and switch to loose leaf tea instead

Did you know that most tea bags are made of plastic? The majority of tea brands do not specify the material of the bag itself, so you probably don’t know what it’s made of. Well, now you do. As you may know, plastic is not only harmful to the environment, but also harmful to your health. Next time you go grocery shopping, grab the loose leaf version of your favorite tea, and stay away from tea bags. It even tastes so much better!

Make a vegan cake from scratch

Nowadays, there is a vegan version of literally everything. Look up a recipe for a vegan cake and try to make it at home. You might think that it won’t taste as good as a regular cake, but if you find a really good recipe, non-vegans might not even be able to tell the difference!

Automate your lights, try InstaHub’s SoLAR

Last but not least, automate your lights! We all forget to turn our lights off when we leave a room and end up wasting so much energy for nothing. I suggest you try out InstaHub’s SoLAR (Snap-on-Lighting Automation Retrofit); which helps you save tons of energy by automatically turning off your lights when you’re not around. It is affordable, super easy and quick to install, and great for your wallet, too!

So, wherever you are, and whether it’s Earth Day or not, challenge yourself and your loved ones to begin or advance your sustainable journey. Let this be a kick start to a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle, for you and for the planet!