Electricity is typically generated by burning fossil fuels or using other natural resources. To help protect the planet, cut down on how much electricity you're using. Here are some tricks to keep your electricity use low: Turn off lights when you leave a room. Take advantage of natural lighting from windows during the daytime. Unplug electronics when you aren't using them. Wash your clothes on the cold setting so you don't use energy to heat the water. Change your light bulbs to energy-efficient light bulbs, such as compact fluorescent light (CFL) or light-emitting diodes (LED). Set your thermostat a few degrees higher during summer and a few degrees lower in winter. Then, wear less clothing if you're feeling hot or more clothing if you're cold. This can save electricity and cut down on your heating or cooling costs. The Earth has a limited amount of freshwater, so it's important to conserve it. Change your household habits to reduce how much water you're using. Here are some great options: Turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth, washing your hands, or doing the dishes. Take short showers instead of baths. Use a bucket to catch water in the shower so you can use it in your garden. Run your dishwasher only when it's full. Avoid using sprinklers in your yard. Plant drought-resistant and native plants in your garden so they require less water. While dryers are super convenient, they also use a lot of electricity. Instead, hang dry your clothing on a line or a drying rack. This can save you energy and money. If the weather is nice, hang your clothes up outside. If the weather is poor, use an indoor drying rack to dry your clothes. Commercial cleaning products often contain harsh chemicals and come in bottles that you'll likely end up recycling or throwing away. On the other hand, using homemade cleaning products helps you keep your home safer and helps keep trash out of the landfills. Use white vinegar, baking soda, and lemons to clean your home. For instance, you can use white vinegar with a spritz of lemon as an all-purpose cleaner. If you like, add a few drops of essential oil to make it smell better. Similarly, you can scrub your bathroom and kitchen counters using a paste of baking soda and warm water. Raising animals for food requires feed, water, land, and transportation. When you add up these resources, animal products put a lot more strain on the planet than plant foods. To reduce your footprint, eat more vegetarian meals. If you eat a lot of meat, try doing a meatless Monday. Then, slowly introduce more meatless meals into your life. Packaged foods will add to your recycling or trash, so do your best to avoid buying them. Instead, stick to fresh produce, which doesn't create extra trash. Recycling can help you keep items out of landfills. Additionally, it can help save natural resources. Participate in your local recycling programs. For example, you can typically recycle the following: Most paper can be recycled, including printer paper, magazines, newspapers, and junk mail. You can recycle most cardboard, such as pizza boxes, egg cartons, milk cartons, and juice cartons. Flatten out cardboard boxes before you recycle them. Plastic bottles and containers like those that contain dishwashing liquid, bleach, soap, milk, and condiments are typically recyclable, but rinse them out first. Metal cans like soda cans, tuna cans, and soup cans can be recycled if you rinse them first. Glass bottles and jars can usually be recycled but check the policies for your local facility. Additionally, rinse them out first. When your electronics die, take them to a local recycling center. Using solar energy instead of fossil fuels helps stop global warming from carbon emissions.

Summary: Conserve electricity by turning off lights and unplugging electronics. Cut down on your water use. Line dry your clothing instead of using a dryer. Make your own cleaning supplies. Eat less meat because it takes more resources to raise. Buy whole foods to avoid creating extra trash. Recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal cans. Install solar panels.

If you aren't looking at your spouse, you aren't giving them your full attention. Put down the iPhone or computer and turn off the TV. It's nearly impossible to pay adequate attention to someone when our attention is divided. Making eye contact with your spouse lets them know that you are focused on them alone and ready to listen. Your facial expression matters, too. Don't scowl at them or roll your eyes when they begin speaking. Often, we think we are listening to our spouse, when we are busy crafting our response or argument in our heads. This is not good listening because you're only partially hearing your spouse because your main focus is on what you're planning to say next. This leads us to jump into the conversation, usually before it's our turn to speak. Few things are more detrimental to a spouse who needs to feel that they're being heard than being repeatedly cut off mid-sentence by their partner. To be a good listener, it's important to avoid dominating conversations. This is related to not interrupting and might seem obvious, but often couples begin to struggle with this concept over time: you can't be listening if you're speaking. Be patient and allow your spouse as much time as they need to talk or vent to you. Everyone feels busy and overextended at times between work, school, and family obligations. However, it is important to carve out even ten minutes a day to sit with your spouse and talk. The benefits of this are twofold. First, if you mention to your spouse that you want to prioritize talking to them, then that shows that you care about your relationship and are willing to be proactive to help improve it. Secondly, the ten or more minutes you set aside will help your overall communication if you use the time to give each other a "status report" on your days and how you're both feeling. Try to ensure that your discussions are productive. Don't use this private time to complain that the house is dirty, even if it is. Use this time to talk about a tough project at work or an upcoming event you both have, for example. Then be sure to ask your spouse how their day went and actively listen to them. If you have truly opposite schedules that make this difficult, then you might try Skype or FaceTime as ways to still communicate with each other.

Summary: Stop whatever you're doing. Look at them when they talk. Don't interrupt your spouse. Dedicate time each day to talk.

Place the bank behind you so no one can reach it. This will make them give you the money first. Every so often, instead of putting the money in the bank, slip it underneath you. Then, secretly take it out, and put it in your stash of money. Alternatively, you could take money from another Monopoly game and slowly add it to the pile throughout the game when no one is looking. However, be sure to mark these to distinguish it between the other notes. If you know that you will be playing Monopoly in a few hours, get to the game box, and slip out a bill from each denomination. Then, put the game back, and keep the money to use for the game. During the game, you can add the bills to your money pile, and no one will ever know. Make sure that you keep your money pile messy when you add to it, so that it is not obvious that you have an extra $500 bill. That is the bill that people may notice more easily. Any chance you have to steal a few bills from the bank, or from another player, take it. Act like you are busy on your phone, or distracted with something other than the game right after you do it to deter any suspicion. Instead of keeping your money organized, and neatly piled by denomination, keep it all together, and out of order. It is common for players to want to keep their money nice and orderly, but if you leave it messy, it will be easier to steal some money occasionally.
Summary: Be the banker to stay close to the money. Steal money before the game begins. Take a few dollars when the other players leave the table. Keep your money pile messy.