Lately, I’ve been talking about how to optimize your household tasks to save money. But one of the most overlooked ways to save revolves around energy consumption. According to a study conducted by a federal research facility, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (which is funded by the Department of Energy and UC Berkeley), 68% of all energy consumed in the United States in 2017 was wasted as a direct result of inefficiency. This statistic is both staggering to observe and incredibly unavoidable.