1. Just one dryer sheet is designed to be used for up to 4 loads. Armed with this knowledge I have cut my dryer sheet usage in half. You can just toss a dryer sheet in with your load of laundry to dry and then reuse it a few times.
What I do is cut each dryer sheet in half and then toss a half dryer sheet in with each load to dry. (I do not reuse this dryer sheet, though I'm sure you could get some more life out of it). I just use my heavy duty kitchen scissors and cut the sheets in half as soon as I open the dryer sheet box. Simple as that!
2. When drying clothes in your dryer it's best to do a continuous load one right after another. Your dryer uses most of its energy initially heating up the dryer. If you pop a load in right after one has just finished then you will save on energy in the long run. However, this means not just doing one load of laundry every day or so, it means a day of laundry.
3. Use heavy duty drapes or even tinfoil on the windows. We have super heavy duty black out curtains from when we lived in Japan on all of our upstairs bedroom windows. This helps keep the cold out in the winter and also the heat from the sun out during the summer. This past summer our upstairs was dreadfully hot. Our AC unit could not keep the upstairs cool in comparison to the downstairs. The kids were roasting during nap time. So, even though I love the sunshine in the house, I had to keep the kids black out curtains pulled during the daytime in their rooms. My daughter is in the middle bedroom and her room was roasting. I even resorted to an old trick we learned in Japan for reflecting the sun and hung up tinfoil on her windows. It was not attractive at all, but it worked and she could take a nap without breaking a sweat.
4. Use a crock pot whenever possible instead of the stove. Even the microwave, instead of the stove, can save a ton on energy costs. (it also keeps your house cooler in the summer). There are a ton of great crock pot recipes out there to make your life more simple at the end of the day for dinner, but it also saves a ton on energy costs.
Here is one of my favorite crock pot websites.
5. Use your ceiling fans. In the winter time set your fan to run in a clockwise direction to push heat from the ceiling down into the room. In the summer set the fan to run the opposite direction to circulate the cool air in the room. This can make the room feel as much as 8 degrees cooler in the summer.
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