While out yard saling the other day, my husband picked up an electric pencil sharpener, and I immediately started to question whether we needed one. I mean, sure we sharpen a lot of pencils at our house, but our little hand-held sharpener has always gotten the job done AND gotten it done without electricity.

Wasn’t it better then, to forgo electricity when we could? To use our own power to complete simple tasks? We decided that it was, and left without the electric sharpener.

Want to cut back on the amount of electricity that you use?

Consider these simple changes:

• use a wisk and a bowl, instead of a mixer
• use a regular razor, instead of an electric razor
• use a hand-held can opener, instead of an electric can opener
• use a crank radio, instead of an electric radio