Ready to hop on the environmental bandwagon? With our simpler-than-you-think guide to green, you and your family can usher in a more earth-friendly lifestyle with small changes that have big impact.

I was raised by a working mother who hung our laundry out on the line rather than drying it in a machine, so being green comes naturally to me. And I've tried to pass environment-loving ways on to my own children. But last year, our family's earth-friendly lifestyle hit a snag. I'd switched my kids from their environmental charter school to a neighborhood elementary school to cut out 100 miles of driving each week—and cut down on fuel emissions. My son blossomed, but my daughter missed her friends and the old school's old ways (like organic food on real china). Then one of my friends advised me to start a green club at school. (Why didn't I think of that?)

I raised the idea at the next PTO meeting and hoped for the best. Thirty kids showed up for the first meeting, and ideas started flying. In short order we organized a "no idling" rally aimed at cleaning up the air quality during school pickup. Next we tackled lunchtime waste, spreading the word about the benefits of reusable containers. We also set up eco-games and a recycling obstacle course at the school carnival.Give kids the information and the tools to make a difference and they will—whether at school or at home. And odds are your spouse will, too. Often, the key is to start simply and build gradually. The best place to begin? Right where you live. It may not seem like a big deal to pack plastic-bag- and juice-box-free lunches, sort recyclables, unplug a charged cell phone or use energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, but little things do add up when it comes to combating massive landfills and energy depletion. Simply by installing water-saving features (like low-flow faucets and showerheads), Americans could save about 5.4 billion gallons of water per day, according to the nonprofit American Water Works Association (www.awwa.org). Here, plenty more easy yet effective ways to turn your family into a green team. Try a few—or a lot!

Clean and Green Even if you already use vinegar and lemon juice for natural cleaning, it's also handy to have a ready-made product to squirt when your toddler applies crayons to your walls or your dog spits up on your carpet. Fortunately, some companies that produce household products, like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and S.C. Johnson & Son, are also becoming earth-friendlier, so "cleaner" cleaning products are now more available. Beyond environmental citizenship, using less-toxic products is also better for your kids. "Most people don't know that bleach and ammonia—two common bathroom tile cleaners—combine to create a toxic gas," says Linda Mason Hunter, a pioneer in this country's green movement and the author of Green Clean. Since children breathe rapidly, crawl on floors and put their fingers in their mouths, their exposure to household toxins is greater than that of adults.

To make cleaning greener and healthier, read product labels to avoid known toxins and polluters; look for those that say "chlorine- and phosphate-free."

Other tips to try:

Break out the baking soda. The all-purpose baking leavener, toothpaste and refrigerator odor eater can also help scrub your sink, bathtub and oven. Try cleaning your toilet with baking soda and water, then spritz with white vinegar and wipe dry. Knowing the cleaning product is safe, you can let your kids help clean around the house, too.

Make your own cleaners for pennies. For a safe window spray that gets the job done, mix three tablespoons vinegar, a half teaspoon liquid detergent and two cups water. And to fight mold as well as disinfect, spray on a combo of one to two teaspoons tea tree oil (found in natural-product stores) and two cups water. Recipes for this and other homemade, toxin-free cleansers can be found at www.betterbasics.com, the website of Annie Berthold-Bond, author of Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less-Toxic Living.

Buy concentrates. Using concentrated laundry and dish detergents usually means using less, which means smaller amounts of polluting plastic packaging overall. If you have household help, invest a little time in education before or after work. Explain how to use your green products. Write notes and label bottles. Supply rags to cut down on paper towel usage.

Hand wash "dry cleanables" when feasible. Many dry cleaners use tetrachloroethylene (also known as PERC), a chemical that can cause dizziness, nausea, headaches and other problems, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Many dry-cleanable clothes can be hand washed or freshened and de-wrinkled by putting them in a dryer with a wet washcloth. If you must dry clean, air out clothes (outside if possible) for three days before wearing.

Just for Kids How to get kids to clean up their room? Have each pick out two or three old toys to toss. But rather than throw them away, pack up the gently used items for another go-round and give them to a children's shelter or hospital. Or suggest a recycled-toy table for your school's next fair. It's one of the three R's (reuse)—and your child's space will be neater.

Eating Local—If Not OrganicGetting kids to eat their veggies may be a constant battle, but you can at least feel good about what they're pushing around on their plates. Opting for locally grown food may mean more flavor: It's picked at peak ripeness. Plus, it contributes to better air quality since fewer trucks will be hitting the roads—in the Midwest alone, most produce is trucked an average of 1,500 miles, according to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. So hit the greenmarket when possible for fresh, local foods. And remember that while local helps, not all local food is organic and pesticide-free. So:

Shop smart. Before you head to the market, know which foods have the highest pesticide residue. According to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, some of the top culprits are strawberries, cherries, nectarines, pears, imported grapes, potatoes, sweet bell peppers and spinach. Armed with this information, you can plan your menus accordingly.

Go organic with kid staples. Make a list of the foods your children eat and drink most—like milk, carrots, cheese—and switch to organic. This way, you do your part to lessen the use of plant pesticides—while feeding your family better.

Educate yourself. To learn about hormones in milk, meat options and more, check out the National Geographic Society's www.thegreenguide.com/reports so you can support the environment as you boost the healthfulness of your family's meals. Love seafood? Visit www.oceansalive.org, which rates various fish for contaminants and sustainability. For instance, bay-farmed scallops earn a thumbs-up, while blue fin tuna and imported swordfish, which are overfished and high in mercury, get a thumbs-down.

Just for Kids Help your kids plant a vegetable garden—or a window box—so they gain a better appreciation of where food comes from and how it grows before it gets to a store. Use the fruits of their labor in family meals for even bigger impact.

Less Is MoreIf you've seen the Curious George movie, you can probably hum the tune to Jack Johnson's "The 3 R's"—so you know that "reduce" comes before "reuse" and "recycle." After all, we wouldn't have to truck, sort and recycle mountains of plastic bottles if we used fewer of them in the first place. Reducing plastic-bottle usage is just one of many ways to cut down on resource consumption. "My motto this year is 'No more stuff,'" says C.J. Kettler, founder of Lime media, an environmental channel, and its companion website, www.lime.com. That means drinking from glasses or mugs and, when necessary, recycled-content paper cups—not Styrofoam.Converting her daughters, ages 17, 14 and 9, to greener habits has been a little trickier for Kettler. "We like fashion," she says. "But we're trying to limit the number of things we buy in any given season." She helps drive the lesson home by holding an annual family yard sale each August as well as an extended-family clothing swap at Thanksgiving (try it yourself this year). Of course, you can also feed your fashionista side with "Luxury Eco" styles from designer Linda Loudermilk (www.lindaloudermilk.com) or purchase apparel from companies like Nau (www.nau.com), where the clothes are green and the company is dedicated to eco-friendliness.

More ideas to help you curb consumption in your home:

Give less bulky gifts. This holiday season, think about presents that create memories, not waste, such as theater or sports tickets or pottery lessons.

Dress retro. Shop at vintage clothing and consignment stores for gently used yet stylish outfits.Donate or resell good stuff. Via websites like www.craigslist.org and www.freecycle.org, you can offer almost anything in your house. Best of all, someone will come to your house to take it away.

Just for Kids Children do love to help others. So at birthday time, let yours pick out a charity and give guests the option of making a donation. That way kids won't acquire 30 presents at a clip—many of which will quickly go by the wayside.

Tree HuggingIt's shocking how much paper a child brings home. Even if you wrote on the back of every fund-raising solicitation, you'd still be inundated. If your PTO hasn't switched to email or recycled paper, raise your hand and make the suggestion. And when your kids need school supplies, look for recycled-content notebooks, index cards and lined paper, plus reclaimed-wood pencils from brands like Earthwrite. Can't find greener back-to-school products on store shelves? Just ask a salesperson to special order them for you.

And at home, these no-hassle tips will help save even more trees:

Keep reading those labels. When you buy toilet paper, tissues and paper towels, opt for even one made of recycled fibers (many markets have them). If every U.S. home replaced one roll of 500-sheet virgin-fiber toilet tissue with a 100 percent recycled one, 423,900 trees would be saved, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org).

Use good wood, too. For do-it-yourself construction projects, buy lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (www.fscus.org) to assure it's sustainably harvested.Switch to online billing and get off as many mailing lists as you can. Your unstuffed mailbox will prove how much paper you're saving.

Just for Kids A lot of wrapping paper can't be recycled, so encourage your young ones to make their own. Let them tape together their old artwork or use old calendar pages. Or you can buy brown craft paper and have them draw on it.

Mother Nature SpeaksIn the course of her work at the nonprofit energy consultancy Rocky Mountain Institute, green architect Alexis Karolides, mom of a 4- and a 2-year-old, always asks interns what made them environmentalists. "They talk about going to summer camp or living in rural areas," she says. "Finding birds' nests, looking for creatures under rocks and being in nature has made them want to be green." In simple ways, you can foster the same love of nature in your own kids.

Here's how:

Read all about it. Picture books like The Tree Farmer, by Chuck Leavell and Nicholas Cravotta, for younger kids and The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon, for older kids will help your children learn about the wonders of nature and what happens when we don't take care of Mother Earth.

Stroll through the farm stands. Bring the song "Old MacDonald" to life by taking your child to a local farmer's market and expressing appreciation for the efforts and results of local farmers' labor. "And on his farm he had some?carrots.

"Stroll through nature, too. Take kids to natural settings, suggests Karolides—a nearby lake or a national park. Explore with them the lush wilderness and listen to the rushing flow of the water. Take notebooks and encourage them to sketch what they see. The more connected you and your kids are to the natural world, the greener all of you will want to be.