Things my roommates have done to be more sustainable

My roommates are often baffled at all of the things I tell them about sustainability. I honestly think they are under the impression that I am crazy, but I have been slowly seeing changes in their behaviors (which makes me incredibly happy). For something as complicated as living sustainably, even the smallest behavioral changes can make an impact.


Things my roommates have started doing:
1. They ditched the bottled water habit! I haven’t seen bottled water in our apartment since the first week of school. A major part of this was that our fridge came with a built in water filter. As the filter has slowly stopped working as well, they have gotten used to the taste of the tap water. 


2. They turn off the lights when they leave the room (for the most part). 


3. They pack the dishwasher as full as they can before turning it on to save water and energy. 


4. They take really fast showers. Way faster than me (in my defense they are athletes so they take a few really fast showers a day).


5. They dress in layers instead of turning on the heater.


6. One of my roommates hangs her laundry up to dry.


7. Open windows instead of turning on the air conditioning. They have also worked out which windows and blinds to open during certain parts of the day depending on if we want to cool the apartment down or warm it up. 


8. They indulge in coffee and hot chocolate to warm up on cold mornings and nights.


9. We go to bed early which means we use less energy than if we stayed up late and got up late (in the mornings we only need the daylight and our lights are not on for long at night). 


10. When they do not have enough laundry to fill the washing machine, they ask around for who else needs to do laundry, which saves water and energy.


11. Instead of just throwing things away they ask me if it can be recycled.


What small things are you doing to be more sustainable?