1.  Recycle EVERYTHING, and if it can't be recycled, don't buy it.  Suppose you wanted a new sweater.  Should you go out and buy a new one?  Nope.  Get on Freecycle, ask your stylish friends and relatives if they have cleaned their clothes out lately, and get yourself down to your local thrift shop and find yourself a used one.  At this point all of my clothes are recycled, and most came from family members. Some of these clothes were bought from a thrift store, then passed on to me, so at least three people have used them.  That's recycling.  The same goes for things like glass jars.  I reuse glass jars I get from the grocery store and use them for herbal mixtures or buttons and other things.  If I have a choice between glass or plastic in product packaging (such as juice), I pick glass.

2.  Make things you need, or buy them from someone who made them.  Want to redecorate or get a new couch pillow?  Sew it, or buy it on Etsy.  I have even made pillows from old clothes that had nice fabric that I got from the thrift store, or from fabric remnants given to me.  Be a pack rat and save things to be made into other stuff later.  Use labeled baskets (not plastic bins) to stay organized.

3.  Find your local farmer's market or whole foods store.  Almost every town has one now, support it and buy local and organic when possible.  For many people this seems very expensive, and it really can be, but if you're smart it can be very cheap.  The trick is to only buy whole foods rather than anything that has been processed.  Don't buy cereal... eat toast and free range eggs.  Instead of snacky treats and crackers, buy apples and baby carrots.  When planning meals, our culture tends to center the recipe around a rather large piece of meat.  You can still eat meat, especially free range meat, but instead focus the meal around the vegetable, and use meat as the accent.

4.  Energy use is a big problem for our culture as well.  It really does help to replace bulbs with fluorescents, but it would be lame if that was all you did.  Get rid of your small appliances that use electricity (even leaving them plugged in is an energy drain), and your dryer.  We have gotten rid of our television, our microwave, coffee or tea pot, mixers, food processors, etc.  We do have a dishwasher (I wish it was a Miele, which are more energy efficient than even washing by hand), stove/oven, washing machine and dryer, and computers.  Eventually we won't have a dryer.  Our computers are Macs, which are the most earth-friendly energy efficient computers you can buy.  

5.  Make it a goal to use less petroleum.  Since almost all store-bought products use petroleum, and your car uses it as well, this is a tough one.  Get bikes and if you are going somewhere close, pedal there.  Be a one-car family, and only use it for long distance trips.  Avoid plastics and petroleum based products, which means buying less and spending a bit more on some things like deodorant.