It’s easy being green—really. Here are truly quick and simple ways you can start making a difference (and saving time and money!) right now.

Want to do more for Mother Nature but don’t have time for something as involved as, say, installing solar panels or making biofuel? Join the too-busy-to-be-green club. Yes, we should all aim to take great strides to help save the environment, but with so many complicated suggestions out there, and so little time, too many of us end up doing nothing at all.

The thing is, real change isn’t going to come from a few people doing big things, but from many people doing what they can to lead a more earth-friendly life. Even small things like inflating your tires properly or paying bills online can have a big impact. Here are 25 easy changes you can make today to save the earth for tomorrow.

Donate a tree. Help rebuild our forests by giving to arborday.org/shopping/donations/orderfire.cfm. Each dollar donated equals one new tree for a national forest.

Bank and pay bills online. Save time, paper and stamps when you sign up with individual vendors or use mycheckfree.com to pay your bills online. If all Americans viewed and paid their bills online, it would reduce solid waste in landfills by more than 800,000 tons each year, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, which provides research on financial services topics.

Load ’em up. Make sure your dishwasher is full before you run it. The same goes for your washer and dryer. And don’t waste water prewashing your dishes; your machine should get them clean on its own.

Stock your Fridge. Full refrigerators take less energy to keep cool. If you don’t have enough food inside, use bottles filled with water. Just be sure to leave room for air circulation.

Just bake—Don’t preheat. Your cookbook might say to preheat your oven before baking, but there’s really no need, except when making pastries or bread. Simply turn on your oven when you’re ready to put your dish in. When it’s time to check it, make sure to look through the oven window rather than opening the door and letting heat escape.

Lower the temperature. Set your hot water heater’s thermostat to 120F (130F if your dishwasherrequires it). Many hot water heaters are shipped from the factory with the temperature set at 140F, which not only wastes energy but actually shortens the appliance’s life.

Give Laundry a Good Soak. Put in a load of laundry in the morning and let it soak—using cold water rather than warm or hot—while you’re at work. When you get home at night, put it on the “light” cycle and finish. This will save energy and water while still getting your clothes clean since they’ve been soaking all day, says Leah Ingram, founder of the Green Boot Camp (greenbootcamp.blogspot.com).

Pack a waste-free lunch. Start using reusable containers and thermoses in school lunches instead of plastic bags, juice boxes and prepackaged snacks. And bring your own utensils to the office rather than using plastic knives and forks.

Don’t dump your electronics. About 40 percent of the lead found in landfills today comes from discarded electronics. “Donate your old electronics and computers to schools, day-care centers or the National Cristina Foundation at cristina.org, which redirects them to groups for the disabled or underprivileged,” says Alicia Rockmore, CEO of Buttoned Up and a mother of one. Dell, Apple and HP also take back old products. Visit their sites for details.

Green your car wash. Add an automatic shut-off nozzle to your hose when you wash your car and you’ll save up to 100 gallons per car. Another option? Commercial car washes use 35 to 85 gallons less per vehicle—and many recycle the water.

Use both sides. Every year, Ameri-can businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper, or about 175 pounds per employee. Set your office printers so they default to double-sided printing (you may be able to do this at home also). This will cut down on your paper usage as well as the clutter on your desk. Don’t forget to have your kids draw on both sides, too!

Shop by the numbers. Look at the bottoms of shampoo, soda and other plastic bottles for a numbered recycling symbol, which corresponds to the type of plastic used. (Since plastics can be hard to recycle, some communities accept only certain numbers, so check with your local recycling center first.)

Have a ball. Try a dryer ball like those from Nellie’s (nellieslaundry.com) instead of traditional fabric softener sheets. The balls are designed to reduce drying time and soften fabrics naturally, without chemicals—a boon for kids with sensitive skin or people with allergies.

BYOC. Bring your own cup on your next Starbucks run and you’ll save 10 cents on your joe. (Check other local coffee shops, too, as they might also offer a cup credit.) And at work, use your own mug rather than paper or Styrofoam cups.

Clean with cloth. Cut back on your paper towel waste by using old T-shirts, stained baby clothes and other cotton clothing to dust and clean.

Carpool. Drive to work with coworkers and coordinate with friends so your children can ride to school together. If the average commuter carpooled every day, she would cut emissions and save 500 gallons of gasoline each year, according to EarthLab, a Kirkland, WA–based foundation dedicated to providing outreach and education for green living.

Measure your family’s eco-footprint. Want to know how much impact you and your family are having on the environment? Go to Conservation International’s website (conservation.org/ecofootprint) and take its free quiz with your family.

Shop local. Transporting fruits and veggies long distances costs money and burns gas, so buy produce from your local farmers market. You can find one by searching LocalHarvest’s online directory at localharvest.org.

Give away, don’t throw away. Someone wants your unwanted items; find her through freecycle.org. This online community enables you to give away everything from books to appliances—and find the things you need for free, too, keeping more stuff out of landfills!

Reduce your junk mail. One hundred million trees are ground up each year to create junk mail. Visit catalogchoice.org to get rid of unwanted catalogs; contact the Direct Marketing Association at dmachoice.org/mps to remove your name from mailing lists of its members; and stop receiving credit card and insurance offers at optoutprescreen.com.

Echarge your batteries. Americans buy nearly three billion batteries annually—about 179,000 tons of which end up in the garbage. Instead, buy rechargeable batteries. They may be more expensive up front, but you’ll save in the long run. If you do buy regular batteries, dispose of them properly. Batteries have a high concentration of metals, which can seep into the ground and negatively affect ground water and soil. You can find local recycling centers online at earth911.org.

Skip the burger. By some estimates, a pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce, compared to 63 gallons for a pound of potatoes. Try going meatless tonight!

Conserve water in the loo. Americans flush about 4.8 billion gallons of water down the toilet a day! To cut back, fill a plastic bottle with about an inch of sand or pebbles, then water; seal shut and place carefully in your toilet tank. You’ll save about 10 gallons of water daily.

Pump up your tires. Driving on poorly inflated tires wastes four million gallons of gas a day and produces even more carbon dioxide. Properly inflated tires “are safer, perform better and last about twenty-five percent longer,” says Jill Palermo, founder of We Add Up, a global warming awareness campaign.

Get your daily greens. Want more ideas? Go to idealbite.com and sign up for free “bite-sized” ideas for green living.