We’ve written before about the wondrous powers of baking soda here at The Greenists, but here’s another cheap, easy-to-find substance with all kinds of uses: hydrogen peroxide. When I was a kid, my mom used hydrogen peroxide to bubble away the germs after I skinned my knee or got into a rambunctious fight with my brother that ended up bloody. Little did I know that hydrogen peroxide can be used for all sorts of things around the house, even when one is too old to be roughhousing with her brother anymore.

Why buy expensive products when you can get the same job done with a $2 bottle of hydrogen peroxide that you can find at any grocery or drugstore? It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it involves less packaging — win/win/win. Read more…

WARNING: Once you start cloth diapering, it becomes an obsession. Once you try one Kushies Ultra-Lite Cloth Diaper, you WILL purchase more!

Kushies sent me a Trial Pack of Infant (neutral colored) diapers to sample on my little Owen. The Infant diapers are sized to fit babies from 10-22 pounds. I discovered that the diaper did not fit him properly until he was about 15 pounds – the only drawback to this incredibly soft and vibrant diaper (every baby is shaped differently – just because they did not fit Owen properly until 15 pounds does not necessarily mean it will be the same for your little one). As one of the least expensive “All-In-One” diapers on the market at $12.49 or less, I additionally purchased a Toddler Pack of 5 (boy colored) to use on my 2-year old son. Read more…

All right . . . weak joke . . . but this baby bottle is so green that it could’ve grown in my garden!

Pura generously sent me a Pura Kiki stainless steel baby bottle in this beautiful shade of aqua blue to try out on Owen, my new little boy. I cannot comment on its function as a baby bottle, as my little Owen is exclusively breastfed. However, this toxin free, environmentally friendly baby bottle is also able to function as a sippy cup simply by changing the attachment on top. Read more…

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gyuvallos/71410563/

Summer makes me happy. I love going swimming, watching baseball, and not wearing socks for four months. But if there’s one thing about summer that bugs me, it’s … well, bugs. Not only are mosquito bites itchy and painful, they’re also dangerous. Going outside, especially into a wooded area, with no insect repellent is not an option.

But insect repellents, as you can imagine, are neither eco-friendly nor particularly good for you. Many are made with DEET, which is highly effective in warding off pests but not something you want swimming around in your bloodstream, which is exactly where it ends up after you spray it on your skin. Fortunately, for those who want to protect their health by avoiding both bug bites and chemical-based insect repellents, there are all kinds of do-it-yourself recipes for natural bug sprays. Read more…

Memorial Day is now behind us, which means it’s officially beach season. We’ve all been told over and over again how important it is to wear sunscreen when you’re out in the sun for any length of time, but did you know that instances of skin cancer have gone up since sunscreen was invented? It’s true — because sunscreen is not a free pass for a day of fun in the sun. It’ll keep you from getting burned, but it won’t prevent skin cancer.

However, the sun may not be the only thing to worry about on bright summer days — research shows that sunscreen itself may actually cause skin cancer. Remember, sunscreen is a chemical that you rub directly onto your skin, and about half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products contain vitamin A that directly contributes to malignant cell growth. Read more…

A couple months ago, I was standing in the shower thinking about Greenists post ideas. (Well, more specifically, I was standing in the shower showering, but also thinking of Greenists post ideas, because I am a big fan of multitasking and because we all know lots of good ideas happen in the shower.) And as I lathered up the bar of soap I’d picked up at a recent craft sale, it occurred to me that I should write about what a good idea it is to switch from disposable plastic poufs and bottled shower gel to old school bar soap. I was thinking about how much less packaging bar soap uses and how easy it is to find bar soaps that aren’t full of unpronounceable chemicals and how switching to bar soap is just the kind of simple, good idea The Greenists love to focus on. And then I searched the archives and realized… Allie already wrote about that. Of course she did! OK then.

A good tip is always worth repeating, so I decided to mention it anyway, in my Not-Quite-New Year’s Resolutions post a while back. And I’m mentioning it again now not because I like to beat a dead horse, but because the good people at Anima Soap sent me some samples of their fine products, and they’d probably like me to tell you about them.

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Today marks the start of National Public Health Week.

According to the American Public Health Association:

• Our nation’s health is in poor shape, despite the fact that we spend more money on health care than any other country.
• An estimated 46.3 million Americans do not have health insurance.
• Nearly 900,000 people die from deaths that can be prevented each year
• For the first time, American children may live shorter lives than their parents.
• Nearly 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese.
• An estimated 46 million people or 20.6 percent of all adults (aged 18 years and older) in the United States currently smoke cigarettes.

While these are big problems, the Nation Public Health Week campaign does a fantastic job of breaking down taking charge of your health into small solutions, like carpooling, buying locally grown produce, and opting for the stairs instead of the elevator.

Watch the video (warning for people reading at work, the video starts automatically), take a look at the list of things you can do to take charge of your health, and share with friends and family.  Check it all out here.

What steps are you taking to lead a healthier life?

All that hysteria over H1N1 seems to have died down the past few months, but we’re still in the midst of cold and flu season. I know this because I managed to catch myself one. A cold, that is. Or possibly bronchitis. Or maybe the pneumonic plague. I’m kidding. I’ve consulted Dr. Google, and I’m pretty sure it’s not the plague, though I may have to wait a few days to be certain. Meanwhile, I’m sipping fluids and bonding with my couch and wishing I had picked up the little bottle of CleanWell hand sanitizer I recently bought a week or so earlier than I did.

Hand sanitizers have gotten a bum rap the past couple years, for partly good reasons. Read more…

It’s the end of the semester. Certain things go by the wayside in the frenzy of grading papers, writing recommendations, and handing out tissues to failing students whose most creative work all semester is a sob story worthy of a Lifetime Movie. I haven’t had time to shave my legs in almost a week. On the bright side, I no longer need to wear long johns to walk to work. I’ve also found that the stubble keeps my socks from falling, thus preventing those nasty blisters you get when the heel of your sock bunches at the back of your shoe and rubs, rubs, rubs all day. I would say that not shaving this week has been a win, but my cat, Not a Dingo, has found another use for my gorilla like leg locks — scratching posts. Sometimes the Dingo household can take the whole recycle/repurpose mantra too darn far! But I digress. What I want to talk about is food.
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Photo credit: www.npr.org

Big cities have the advantage of not only having a lot of attractions in a relatively small space, but also having mass transit systems. One of the best I’ve experienced is the Metro system in Washington, D.C., which goes pretty much anywhere a tourist could want to go in our nation’s capital. I don’t need to explain the environmental benefits of mass transportation to you — one vehicle moving lots of people at once is obviously greener than each of those people driving individual cars. But in D.C., you can take it one step further and bike your way to wherever you want to go.

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