As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow, I’m sure you’ve seen and read about opportunities to get involved in your communities to better the environment. One thing I’ve noticed is how many of the opportunities are physical tasks that require you to leave your home. Sometimes having a chronic and rare disease means your ability to participate in physical tasks in the community is limited. We wanted to compose a list of ways you can celebrate Earth Day yearlong from the comfort of your home.
1. Utilize a reusable water bottle – ditch the plastic and get yourself a nice reusable water bottle if you haven’t already! Outfit that bottle with a handle or a koozie and personalize. It also makes staying hydrated for treatments and therapies a little more fun.
2. Recycle – Be in the know with how you can recycle in your community. For some that may be adding recycling to your garbage collection or for others it may mean getting bins to sort out the different materials. In my community, most of what I recycle can go out in a separate bin with my garbage except glass. Luckily in Kansas City, we have Ripple Glass where you can toss your own glass for recycling. Let me just tell you, a great stress reliever is tossing in the glass and hearing it shatter as lands in the collection bin. *Recycle at your own risk of course!
3. Compost – Get yourself an indoor compost bin and start collecting food waste. Amazon has a great selection of indoor kitchen bins. If you don’t have a yard to put the compost in or aren’t physically able, post it for others to utilize on a neighborhood free page such as Nextdoor or Facebook or ask a friend to help you transfer into your yard.
4. Have an indoor herb garden - There are many benefits to growing your own herbs if you like to cook. Cost is a huge benefit but also many herbs offer nutritional value.
5. Utilize a mail order for your medications – instead of going to the pharmacy every month, utilize a mail order pharmacy that gets shipped to your home and provides a longer daily supply. Double bonus, these are often cheaper to use.
6. Utilize electronic medical records – It’s 2023 and just about every medical practice utilizes electronic records or has an app for them such as MyChart. Familiarize yourself with the system your provider uses and get comfortable downloading and locating documents so there is no longer a need to print them. Have you ever started printing a medical report and realized two paper reams later you just needed a few of the pages instead of all 500!?
7. Close your blinds during peak heat – a lot of us are impacted by temperature, especially a hot, humid summer. Keep your home cool in the summer by keeping your blinds closed during peak times to reduce electricity usage.
8. Host a clothing swap – I love having people over and pre COVID-19, I enjoyed hosting a group of friends over for a Chat & Swap. Everybody brings items they are ready to get rid of and you swap! In the process, you get new to you things and you save money by not going out to buy! So, start a box to collect items you’d like to swap. Then invite some friends over and swap. What doesn’t get chosen, you donate to your favorite thrift store! The additional perk in this, seeing friends is good medicine. It doesn’t have to be fancy to have friends come over!
9. Reduce delivery service packaging – I’m the queen of delivery service, a bit ashamed to say, but the last few years have changed how I can accomplish things. Make sure when you are using delivery services to investigate the ways you can reduce packaging or what they send you. For example, let them know that you don’t need extra plastic silverware (if ordering a meal) or combine your packages when shopping through Amazon or Target so it is the fewest deliveries.
10. Get yourself some houseplants- houseplants are said to relieve stress, improve the air quality and give you something to take care of. There are many low maintenance house plants like cacti, snake plants and spider plants.
These are just a few of the ways you can participate in helping to better the environment while living with a rare disease. Got any other ideas for us?
“Celebrate Earth Day every day!” John Denver