Ok, admittedly, I’m using Tuesday’s Tip this week to vent a pet peeve, but hey – it’s my website and I’ll crab if I want to . . .

Here’s a thought: TURN OFF LIGHTS in rooms or areas of the house that you’re not using. I know, duh, but how many times have I walked around my house turning off lights because no one seems to know how?!?! Sigh. And, really, it’s the poor laundry room light that gets hit the hardest. It’s the first one to go on when we walk into the house from the garage and it always seems to be the last one that’s remembered – usually by me. And of course it’s also the hardest one to replace. What a pain in the neck! But because it’s so badly neglected, it needs to be changed most often. The upstairs lights are next in line to be frequently forgotten. My kids left for school one morning and I walked around the upper level and literally turned off all 3 bedroom lights, the hall light, the foyer light, and the one in the bathroom. The basement light also has its fair share of neglect. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve called downstairs to see if anyone actually was there only to be met with silence. So, what is there to think about when it comes to simply flipping a switch, hmm? It’s really not that difficult. You turn it on when you walk in the room, therefore you turn it off when you leave the room. I think that’s pretty simple. Apparently, however, I’m the only one in my house that thinks so . . .

Here’s another tip (actually given to me by a rep from the electric company): UNPLUG items you don’t use on a regular basis. Obviously, we’re not going to unplug things like the fridge, computers, or TVs, but other appliances use energy even when they’re not turned on. It got me thinking, so I toured the house looking for small electrics that were plugged in, but not in use, or that we didn’t use on a very regular basis. As it turns out, we had about 15 or so items that were sucking juice from the outlets, but weren’t using it. Things like the document shredder, a space heater that we hadn’t used in 6 months, the air hockey table, can opener, wine cork remover, decorative lights in the china hutch that hadn’t been turned on in years, a couple of lamps that never get used, a portable stereo, decorative lamps in the kids’ rooms that haven’t been used since we installed ceiling units 7 months ago, a pencil sharpener, and other various chargers for phones or gadgets were all plugged in, but sitting idle. So do you know what I did? I unplugged them all. I can’t imagine that we’ll be saving a whole lot just by killing the feed on these things, but you never know. And any savings is better than none.

While these may not be tips that save you thousands per year, I hope they give you something to think about – especially in light of the recent news of rate hikes by the electric company. Ick. So you may want to do a sweep of your house, too, unplug what you don’t constantly need, and make a conscious effort to turn things off when not in use. It’s worth it to do watt-ever we can to save a little current-cy.