I was washing dishes the other day, and instead of gazing out the window or talking with the kids, I started reading the back of the dishwashing liquid bottle.

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one 25 oz. bottle of petroleum based dishwashing liquid with our vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 6,800 U.S. homes for a year! ~ from the back of the Seventh Generation dishwashing liquid

What a small thing to do, but the results can be enormous. There are so many small steps that we can take in our daily lives, things that are painless for us, yet benefit the earth greatly.

It's not hard to grab a rag instead of a paper towel to wipe up a spill. Throwing leftover salad or rice into a compost bucket instead of the trash takes me only a few extra steps. Walking from one end of a shopping center to the other instead of driving takes only a little of my energy and time.

Signing up for online billing for the electric company or mortgage company saves me time in the long run and it saves all the paper and resources necessary to transport a paper bill to my door. Giving away on Freecycle something I no longer need makes me feel good, helps someone else, saves landfill space for the item I might have thrown away and saves the resources for creating a second item for the other person to purchase.

Put washable, reusable covers on a swiffer or dustmop. Use both sides of a sheet of paper. Borrow books from the library or share ones in your collection with friends.

All are small things that aren't hard to do, but the benefits can be huge if we all do them. What small thing do you do that others might not?