Reduce energy use - unplug TV, printer, phone and iPod chargers

While the shift towards battery-powered devices is good in many ways, there are hidden costs involved. Most consumers leave their phone and iPod chargers plugged in day and night, whether they are charging the electronic device or not. These chargers draw a small amount of current even when there is nothing connected to them, wasting power and costing you money. So when you unplug your phone from its charging cradle, unplug the cradle as well and save yourself some cash.

Worse still, computer printers and TVs can draw more power than a fluorescent light bulb, even when they're not being used. Keeping these devices unplugged will have benefits beyond energy savings. Adding an extra step to using your printer may deter you from printing unnecessary documents, saving ink and paper. Making you stand up to plug in the TV before use instead of being able to just pick up the remote from your couch may be enough to help you break the boob-tube habit, enabling you to recover those precious wasted minutes that could be going towards something more productive, like a hobby or exercise.

If the laziness component here is a buzzkill, you can always invest in power strips that sense inactivity in the circuit, and kill power to save electricity. While these won't help for constant-draw appliances, such as refrigerators, their simplicity will allow you to reduce the energy your home uses while keeping the amount of energy you need to expend from going up unnecessarily.