Giving a gift is a personal way to memorialize your appreciation for somebody else. If you want to give a thoughtful and environmentally conscious gift to a friend or a family member this year there are many different ways to do it.

Use What You Already Own
Although re-gifting has gotten a bad reputation, there are meaningful ways to use what you already own and reduce the amount of disposable consumer items being purchased and discarded every year. The possibilities are limited only by your own creativity. Some favorite ideas are baking dessert items and gifting them to a friend or family member who doesn’t have a lot of time to cook. Another idea is to give a home-made card that is a sort of gift certificate promising to take the recipient out for a meal, or to a movie, or spend a few hours with them doing something they choose. The gift of promised time together is remarkably meaningful and increasingly precious in our busy lives. The beauty of customized gift certificates is that you can give to each person what is most meaningful to each of them.

Support Environmentally Conscious Homes
Another green gift idea is to support a person’s desire to make more environmentally friendly decisions by purchasing something for them that you know they will use or want to try. Reusable grocery bags, natural cleaning products or electrical outlet covers are simple ways to encourage a lifestyle that many people are eager to embrace but do not always know how to initiate. On a much larger scale there are now companies online that sell items such as garden composters and even solar panels. If purchasing a solar panel is more pricey than you can afford but you have a friend who is eager to install one, you can always make a donation toward a solar panel or any other item that s/he may wish to own.

Support Green Lifestyle Items
There are a plethora of websites that now offer organic clothing, organic bedding, organic food (including coffee and tea) and organic toys for young children. The more organic products that are purchased the greater the economic incentive companies have to provide goods that have not used chemical fertilizers, pesticides or dyes that can harm the soil and groundwater on which we rely. Additionally, the greater the demand for organic products becomes the less expensive these items will eventually be because farmers, distributors and producers will create and maintain systems for growing and creating larger quantities of organic products which will result in a lower cost per each item.

Purchase Durable Goods
It is common knowledge that many personal and household items do not last as long as they used to. As consumers we have the ability to vote with our dollars for the kinds of products we want to buy. Take the time to research the durability of the products you purchase. Value long life as a product description and we will end up with less in our landfills.

Author Bio: Christine writes about a variety of lifestyle topics. Visit http://mylifeinhouston.com/ for more resources.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: lifestyle, dining, society, culture