Design & Lifestyle

Quick Green Tip: Salt Your Oven

jchait — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:00:24 -0400

Besides drain cleaners, oven cleaners are at the top of the list when it comes to dangerous home cleaning products. Oven cleaners are totally toxic - why else would you need gloves and a well ventilated work area to use the darn stuff.

Instead of toxic harsh chemicals, try plain old salt. If you notice oven spills, sprinkle table salt liberally on the spill before your oven cools down. After the oven is cool, take a damp cloth and rub off the spill. This even works on tough greasy stains; but you have to work with a warm oven. I’ve tried this on col ovens, and had less luck.

For more green cleaning tips, read:

Compact Fluorescent (CFL) Bulb Safety

jchait — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:00:33 -0400

Compact Fluorescent (CFL) Bulbs are much better for the earth than standard bulbs, so hopefully your home is full of them. However, there’s a slight danger to having CFL bulbs.

You may have heard that mercury is dangerous, and that’s not false. However, when it comes to CFL bulbs, you’re not dealing with a huge risk. CFLs do contain mercury, but not in large enough amounts to affect your entire household, say, if one breaks. Mercury will escape from your bulb if it breaks, but it’s such a tiny amount, that it’s not going to flow over all the rooms in your home, and it won’t pose a danger to you, your pets, or your kids, so long as you carefully clean up the broken bulb.

Kids should never clean up broken bulbs.
You should avoid touching the bulb pieces while cleaning them up.
Gently sweep pieces into a dustpan, and toss into an outside trash can.

There have been some strange, rumor-like stories about CFLs online, but when you get right down to it, they’re mostly safe, and save energy, so go ahead and use them.

[image via GE - visit the GE Lighting ENERGY STAR Program page to learn all about CFL bulbs.]

Quick Green Tip: Ditch Your Answering Machine

jchait — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:00:02 -0400

If you’re one of those people who still have a bulky answering machine hanging around, it’s time to upgrade to a greener phone message choice. Answering machines are plugged in all the time, thus wasting energy. Answering machines take resources to build and ship, plus, it’s just one more thing to clutter your counter. Skip the answering machine and have your phone service set up with voicemail.

In most cases, voicemail is more dependable than an answering machine, and in all cases voicemail will save you (and the earth) energy.

Hemp Shower Curtain

jchait — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:00:30 -0400

Each little green step you take adds up to a whole bunch of green living perks. Even something as small as your choice of a shower curtain can make a difference. With all the dangers of PVC, you’ll want to look for a PVC-free Shower Curtain Liner. If you can’t find a decent PVC-free liner, a second choice is to choose a shower curtain that needs no liner at all.

For example, a Hemp Shower Curtain can be used sans liner. Hemp is not only naturally resistant to bacteria and mold, but hemp is a sustainable, easily renewed crop. If you have a well-ventilated bathroom a hemp shower curtain will work fine for your shower - just remember to wash it every few weeks.

The Hemp Shower Curtain from are naturals, is made from 100% natural hemp canvas, is a tight weave for leak protection, and is machine washable; a much better choice than having a vinyl liner.

10 Easy Reuse Ideas for Organizing Your Home

jchait — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:01:33 -0400

A green home is good. A green organized home is fantastic. Here are 10 simple ways to reuse stuff you already have in order to get organized. Trust me, with the holidays coming, it’s best to organize now.

Take old wastebaskets; you know the ones too grungy for the house, and use them for storing long rolls of wrapping paper. No one will see it, because a mid-size garbage can fits neatly into the back of most closets.
If you’ve given up clothes pins for an energy efficient dryer, you can spray paint the pins pretty colors and use them to hang pictures and your little one’s artwork. Simply hang a string across one wall. This makes changing your art decor fast and easy.
Make your own reusable lunch bags out of old tablecloths. Very cute, and the perfect way to organize lunch outings.
Old laundry baskets can be used for storing toys or out of season clothing. If you do use them to store clothes be sure to place clothing in a garbage bag first.
Quit buying overpriced Tupperware. You can reuse sauce jars, butter tubs, and more for snack and left-over storage. Small yogurt cups are perfect for kid sized snacks.
Reuse bubble wrap (start saving during the holidays) for protecting produce. Line your produce bins in the fridge with bubble wrap and you won’t have to deal with bruised fruit anymore.

Luggage, either new or old, can be used to store off season clothing and extra blankets. This saves on having to buy plastic bins, or cardboard boxes. If you want your clothing to stay fresh, add a sprig of lavender or a cedar block to the luggage interior.
Make Recycled Garden Containers out of almost anything!
And just to prove that not one thing should go to waste, here are some great ideas for folks who replace their bathtub: 6 Uses for Your Old Bathtub. Amazing.
Flower pots, especially ones that come with drip plates, make perfect kitchen sponge holders, toilet scrubber holders, or you can keep one clean, and simply use it for storing long utensils in the kitchen.

Visit How Can I Recycle This? for many more home reuse ideas, or even submit a tip yourself.

Quick green tip: plasma TV is not so green

jchait — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:00:33 -0400

See how I can rhyme my green tips! But that’s besides the point. If you like your TV big then consider a LED-screen, rear projector screen, or even just a biggie old fashioned TV - all three use less energy than plasma screens.

In fact, some figures show that with continued plasma use, TVs will end up consuming about 8% of the energy used nationally per year. 8% sounds small - but think of al the stuff we own that uses energy, and that makes 8% to TV alone seem pretty icky.

To learn more read: Televisions Will Consume More Energy Than a Fridge - yup even the title is scary.

Choose A Green Community

jchait — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:00:37 -0400

Part of living green is based on green building material choices for your home. Another green consideration is house size (the smaller the better). It’s also important to think about the goods you bring into your home. Working on all of the above help you to achieve green living. However, another green living choice is your community.

Community matters, or it should. I think people sometimes forget that where they live is just as important as the building materials around them. You can have a green home, far from green spaces, but that seems somehow redundant - don’t you think?

If you’re moving or building and want to go green, and build a love of nature and the earth in your kids, then look for the following in a community…

Plenty of green spaces within walking distance.
Neighborhood recycling options - not all communities have them.
Bike paths or walking trials withing close range.
A safe park or community garden.
Low levels of traffic near your house.
On a bus or subway route.
Small homes are the norm - none of this beat the neighbors stuff to tempt you into buying more than you need.

You can be eco-friendly without any of the above, but consider that kids who grow up in neighborhoods full of McMansions, concrete, and cars won’t have as much of an opportunity to fall in love with nature, as kids in a greener setting might. You can’t save the earth if you don’t appreciate it.

If you need more help, take a look at Green Eco Communities or the 2008 US City Sustainability Rankings. Where I live came in number 1 - can you guess where?

The Urban Kitchen Compost Bin

jchait — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:34:35 -0400

[Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock from Real Goods]

Just because you don’t live on a farm, or even somewhere with a small yard, doesn’t mean you can’t compost. No matter your size of home or land, you can compost easily with a basic kitchen compost bin - even if you live in an apartment in the city. Your local parks or community gardens, or your own potted plants can use the compost. Bonus; in recent years, kitchen compost bins have even gone down in price.

Composting basics:

Composting is simply allowing organic matter to decay and return to the soil, rather than tossing it in the garbage.
Composting can reduce household waste (i.e. what ends up in your trash can) but plenty - up to 30% or more.
If you have a yard or even potted plants, compost is the perfect natural soil additive. Composting (adding compost to) your plants will reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and can even be used as mulch.

Items to compost:

Produce -veggies and fruit scraps or produce that’s gone bad
Coffee grounds
Eggshells
Fireplace ashes
Yard clippings, and cut grass
Bread, pasta, old beans

To learn more about what can and cannot be composted, visit Compost Info Guide or Composting at the EPA.

Now about kitchen compost bins…

The Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock above is one small solution to composting. The one-gallon interior will hold a week’s worth of scraps. Also, there’s a six-month activated-carbon-filter lid to trap odors and circulate air (for rot prevention).

Other ideas:

NatureMill Automatic Indoor Composter also from Real Goods: This kitchen bin can handle even meat, fish and dairy. “The NatureMill automatic composter achieves true “hot composting” temperatures for odor-, bug- and worm-free composting of up to 120 lbs. of food waste per month.” You can even use this outside. One batch of compost made in this bin will feed 10-40 square feet of lawn or garden.

Bamboo Compost Pail

Compost Pail

Green Stoneware Compost Crock

Reduce the Junk Mail Coming to Your House

jchait — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:55:11 -0400

Junk mail is a big bad; not eco-friendly at all. About 4 million tons of junk mail arrives at U.S. homes each year. Some of us recycle, but not all of us. Also, not all areas even have proper paper recycling. What to do?

Stop junk mail: This is obviously your number one option. Unless you find junk mail an exciting read (I sure hope not) then why not cancel it?Over 100 million trees are used up to create junk mail, and you really don’t want to be a part of that.

How to stop junk mail:

Contact companies personally who send you junk mail, and tell them to take you off their list. If they don’t listen, I’d start sending it back.

Join Green Dimes. Not only will they stop junk mail cold, but they’ll plant 5 trees in your name when you sign on as a premium member.

Try the Stop the Junk Mail Kit.

If you’d like to put the junk mail you already have to work, save it up for holiday wrap.

Junk mail is annoying and an eco-baddie, but that doesn’t mean you have to take it.

Make Your House A Reusable House

jchait — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:35:21 -0400

You can apply green building features to your house. You can invest in eco-friendly furniture. You can even landscape with the environment in mind. However, one of the best ways to go green at home, is to make your house as reusable as possible.

First of all make sure that you’re only bringing goods into your house that you really need. Purchased goods take energy to manufacture, and most come with too much packaging. When you do purchase goods, make sure that they’re both recyclable, and if possible reusable. Look for items that can perform more than one duty. For example, no one needs a food processor, a blender, and a food grinder. One of the above will do the work of all three.

Items that can make your home reusable:

Cloth napkins over paper napkins.
Cleaning rags (made from old ripped clothes, or old towels) over paper towels.
A spray bottle filled with homemade cleaner instead of brand new plastic bottles of cleaners.
A hand soap pump filled with homemade hand soap or bulk hand soap from the co-op.
Refillable shampoo and conditioner bottles.
A juice pitcher - make concentrate juice instead of buying large bottles. Or you could make homemade juice.
Drink water from the tap, not bottled.
Bulk foods instead of packaged. Use reusable bags or containers to store bulk food in.
And more - what can you think of?

Every time you don’t purchase something brand new, you save energy and transport gas. When it comes to paper products, you save even more (think trees). This week try to limit the amount of brand new goods you buy, and see how it goes. You’ll be making the world a little greener.