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.

    在地球上节约的生活是必要的，如果你的后代还要生活在这个世界上的话。不幸的是，很多人认为环保会花费很多。然而，能在家拥抱绿色并不需要什么代价。坦白的说，你不需要放弃什么就能使生活变得更加简单和方便。

    以下是八个可行的方法能让你在家里拥抱绿色：

    1.可再生木材是指经过精心栽培的木材或由旧的资源（建筑，废弃物，旧家具）再加工而来的，例如竹子。可再生木材网上提到，竹子起源于俄勒冈[美国州名],与其说它是木材不如称它为草，因为它生长迅速且几乎不需要养料。

    2.可再生棉花 .根据加州可再生棉花项目，可再生棉花是有机生长的：无化学肥料，无杀虫剂，在精心照顾的培养园内由人工栽培。它用于衣料，寝具，亚麻制品，家具套和所有形式的针织制品。

    3. 在所有地方谨慎的消费，为你家的每一个房间购买那些可再生的、环保的产品。一下"环保商店",有数百万零售商，如氏公司，沃尔玛，狄乐百货等。他们意识到了草根消费的巨大利益，令绿色产品几乎出现在每一个部门。特别是海洋温泉，密西西比，绿苑长春等绿色产品专卖店犹如雨后春笋般地出现在各地。

    4.精明的消费者会选择DreamSack或Caldrea 公司生产的竹床单、毛毯和被单等床上用品，选择木材碎片制作睡衣不仅难以想象，而且几近奢华。竹子经过收集，加工成为织物，然后进行编织和抛光，其结果可以与最好的埃及棉媲美，而且往往价格低廉。

    5.试想你必须省掉一次性盘子，塑料杯和纸巾等方便的玩意儿，怕是还没那么快。谷歌一下"一次性环保桌具",搜索到竹子能做盘子，谷物油可制塑料杯。有机抹布和洗碗布正在被最广泛人使用，其中的大部分还有抗菌的效果。

    6.装修和改型的产品包括从由再生玻璃制造的花岗岩类柜台到环保地板和家具。

    7. 环保的个人护理用品能很容易找到，但通过阅读标签的方式就可以肯定你买到的是什么吗？消费者报告等组织告诫买家在考虑诸如无毒，天然，环保或生物降解等问题时应着眼于事实调查。

    8. 现在市面上有许多家用产品被使用。消费者表示有机洗衣皂使得衣服看起来更清洁，更柔和，没有剩余的残留物。平面清洁器往往味道更好，并且去掉了传统清洗时留下的化学酯的味道。少许精油就能让家庭主妇感到家里的味道新鲜和健康。

    舍弃瓶装水，考虑那些接近自然的，可持续的，能再生的产品。21世纪最新的流行语是。购物和选择时的迅速改变加上投入少许时间仔细阅读标签将会使你立刻成为一个绿色思维专家。