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Now is a great time to organize yourself and your family to form some new environmentally friendly habits at home, school, and work:

REDUCE

If your current habit is to respond to each birthday, each holiday, or even each stressful event in your life by going shopping, it's very likely that you're adding a lot of clutter to your home, and to your friends' and relatives' homes.

Consider going on a shopping diet for a while. Test your fortitude for just a month and find out how liberating this new habit can be! For example, instead of giving brightly wrapped presents to your loved ones, give them your time by treating them to a special meal out, a healthy treat made from scratch, or an activity you both enjoy.

For additional inspiration, visit the Matter of Heart Organizing blog, complete with photos and links.

REUSE

As you become more organized at home, in school, or at the office, it is not necessary to purchase a lot of new organizing products for your clothing, files, and other possessions. You probably have many containers and other items already that may be used for different purposes to satisfy many of your organizing needs. For example, shoe boxes, used either as-is or decoratively covered, are often the perfect size for filing and storing loose photographs, household supplies, desk accessories, and small toys.

For some great ideas, each issue of Real Simple features alternative uses for everyday things like your daily newspaper.

RECYCLE

When it's time to get rid of items in your home or office, it's very easy to toss them directly in the trash without a thought. However, by taking one extra step to recycle, you can minimize risk to the environment and to your identity.

Make it a habit to set aside any papers that contain personal information like your Social Security number, bank or credit account numbers, or other sensitive information, and shred before discarding. Inexpensive shredders are available at most office supply stores, and for high-volume jobs, there are quite a few mobile shredding services in your local area. Just enter the term "shredding services" in your favorite search engine.

Place recycling bins in a few key locations around your home or office for paper, glass, and plastic to help you get into the habit of sorting the recyclables separately from other trash. Encourage your family members to join you in the effort, and celebrate when the quantity of your recycling is larger than the "regular" trash you discard. Visit Earth911.com for lots of recycling tips as well as the location of recycling centers near your home, school, or office.

By forming a few environmentally friendly habits, you can also become better organized. Try it for just a month, and you'll find just how easy it is to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, American households spend an average of over $2000 each year on energy costs. Consumers could save a third or more of that money by upgrading, cleaning, and forming some simple habits around the house. Use these tips to get organized to cut your energy costs:

Use a programmable thermostat. Replace your old thermostat so you can program your heating and AC for one temperature when your famiy is away at work and school, when everyone is home. You can program weekdays one way, weekends another, and set the thermostat to "hold" a certain temperature while you're away on vacation. Careful programming can help you save over 20% on your heating and cooling bills.

Replace incandescent bulbs with compact florescents and LEDs. Compact florescent lightbulbs (CFLs) and LEDs use about 75% less energy than incandescents and last about 10 times longer. Both emit more light and less heat. Bulbs are now available in a variety of sizes and colors to fit almost any size fixture.

Clean your heating and cooling units. Appliances, especially furnaces, air conditioners, refrigerators, and any other units that exchange air and require filters, operate more efficiently - saving you money - when they're cleaned regularly of dust and dirt. Make it a habit to clean these appliances once a month for maximum efficiency and performance. Mark your wall calendar or set up an e-reminder to assure you get it done. Use your appliance manual to find out how to clean filters, intake grills, coils, and other parts.

Install ceiling fans. Circulating the air helps to balance the temperature in a room, increasing your comfort and allowing you to lower the heat or raise the AC setting, another money savings.

Turn off and unplug electronics. Any appliance in your home with a clock feature, a remote control, or an on/off light continues to use energy even when you aren't using it: TV, DVD player, stereo, phone, microwave oven, computer monitor, printer, and on and on. To routinely turn these items off completely, plug them in to an outlet strip with an on/off switch, and use the switch to power them on and off all at once.

Use timers on household lights. To save energy, and to add to your home security, add timers to household lights instead of turning them on and leaving them on. Program lights in various rooms to turn on during times when they're likely to be occupied, off when they're not. Use timers to give strangers the impression that someone is home when you and the family are away. Using timers will save you the need to remember to adjust the lights around the house while saving you money spent leaving them on when not necessary.

Find out how to program your TV's sleep timer. Many people use the TV to fall asleep, needlessly using power all night long. Use the operating manual to locate and program the sleep timer for 30 minutes, an hour, or as long as you typically need to nod off. You'll rest a little easier knowing you're saving on your power bill.

Teach your family how to save energy. Make it a family project to find all the ways you can save energy around your home, and track your monthly bills to estimate your progress.

Share some ways you cut energy costs.