Primed and ready for paint

The Modern Fiance and I a few months ago bought a 100-year-old house that, despite being in pretty good shape, has needed a little updating a lot of greening. One of the first big things on our to-do list was painting. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve lived in a place that needed some painting. In fact, the last time I painted anything there was no place I knew of locally that sold low- or zero-VOC paint — it was only available to me if I ordered it online. I like to test paint out before committing, so that really wasn’t an option.

Boy how things have changed. The Home Depot sells Freshaire Choice VOC-free paint. Lowe’s sells VOC-free Olympic paint — really every paint store I’ve been to lately had VOC-free options. It’s great to have choices. But like most green home products, my concern was whether the quality would hold up compared to the VOC-heavy paint options.

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Apparently it’s product review week here at The Greenists. So far, we’ve heard about body butter, bar soap, baby bottles, and hand wash. I’m sort of glad The Modern Gal threw an “h” in there with that last one, because that means it’s not me who spoils all that nice alliteration by telling you that today’s post is sponsored by the letter “c.” Friends, we’re going to talk about candles.

Learning to live a greener life involves just that: learning. I’ve been working on that basic Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra for years now, but I’m always coming across other tidbits of varying significance and concern that simply never occurred to me before. Take candles, for instance. Like lots of people, I burn candles at home now and then to fill the room with fragrance or simply enjoy the cozy glow. And sure, I knew candles are made of wax, but I never really stopped to think about where that wax comes from.

In most cases, it’s from paraffin, which is a petroleum product. As we all know, petroleum is a non-renewable resource. It also contains carcinogenic toxins, and burning it releases contaminants that pollute the air in your home and, on a large scale, contribute to global warming. Traditional paraffin candles also produce soot, which can blacken not only the inside of the glass that holds your candle, but your walls and furniture as well.

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Our own Allie Larkin’s debut novel, STAY, hits bookshelves this Thursday, June 10. In celebration, this week’s posts on The Greenists are inspired by the book.

In STAY (which is fantastic, by the way), the main character, Van, does not keep the world’s cleanest home. She’s a cram-everything-in-a-closet-when-company’s-coming-over kind of girl. Pet owners would agree that having a dog in the house doesn’t exactly help keep things cleaner, especially when said dog is an enormous German Shepherd like Van’s dog Joe. But there are things you can do to keep your place from being completely overrun by pet hair and odor. Here are a few green cleaning tips for pet owners:

1. Brush your dog daily, especially during shedding season. Even short-haired animals will shed. Ideally you should do this outside, and keep the excess hair in a manageable pile before throwing it away. Your doggie will probably enjoy the back-scratching that comes with a good brushing anyway.

2. Keep pets off the furniture. Create a special place elsewhere for them to lie down and train them to use it. Or, if you like to snuggle up with your pooch on the couch, put a blanket or sheet down first. Once pet hair gets into the fabric of your furniture, it can be hard to get out, so try to keep it from getting there in the first place.

3. Obviously, you should train your dog to not use the bathroom in the house. However, we all know that accidents happen, especially with puppies. Animals relieve themselves where it smells like they should, so if there’s an accident, clean the carpet thoroughly, or else your pet is likely to go back to that spot. We’ve reviewed many kinds of green pet stain and odor removers; check here and here for examples of effective, eco-friendly cleaning products. (And don’t pick up poop with a non-biodegradable plastic bag. Use paper, or a water-soluble bag that can be flushed down the toilet.)

4. Wash your hands often. This is mainly for your benefit, not your home’s, but pet hair can carry all kinds of bacteria. Keeping yourself clean goes a long way toward keeping your home clean.

5. Keep your pet’s nails trimmed. This will keep wood floors from getting scratched as much.

6. Use stain-resistant, washable fabrics wherever possible. Remember this when picking out bed linens, especially if your pets like to sleep with you.

7. Vacuum regularly. Can’t get around that one.

8. Use non-toxic cleaning products when cleaning all parts of your house, not just the parts affected by pets. This goes for laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, dish soap, glass cleaner, surface cleaner, etc. Using eco-friendly cleaning products will lead to better air quality and the kind of clean you can feel good about. That’s healthy not only for your four-legged friends, but for you as well.

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with the health and safety of my pets, but goodness they are messy!  While Argo and Stella do a fantastic job of making nose smudges on the windows, muddy footprints on the floors (and sometimes counters!) and leaving their gunky toys all over the place, they don’t do a good job of cleaning up.  And they lick EVERYTHING, so using harsh chemicals to clean up after them isn’t an option. Read more…

The following is a guest post from Steven Matthews.  If you’d like to guest post at The Greenists, e-mail Courtney at TheGreenists dot com for more information.

Nowadays, everyone wants to go a little “green,” especially in their homes.  Not only does greening your home help the environment, but it also saves you money in the process.  “Green” homes are in demand now more than ever, so when it’s time to sell your home a more energy efficient choice is always better for buyers.

Whenever a client of mine is getting ready to sell their home, I tell them to take some simple steps to make their home more eco-friendly.  It will make the home more attractive for perspective buyers.  Alternately, when a client of mine buys a home, I give them simple tips to make their home more eco-friendly, which can save them a lot of money over the years in utility bills.

Below are a few tips that you can take to be a little more green at home: Read more…

Here in Minnesota we’ve lucked out and gotten a couple of absolutely gorgeous spring weekends in a row. For some people, that means time to do some serious spring cleaning. I am not some people. I’ve never been one to let the weather dictate just when it’s time to tidy up and when I’m content to live in squalor. As the sun shone into my kitchen on Sunday, however, I did realize my dusty, spotty windows were well overdue for a cleaning, so I did at least devote a portion of the lovely weekend to that infrequent task.

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Image credit: mikknits.blogspot.com

It’s hard to beat the convenience of a battery-powered mop. All you have to do is press the button, and the cleaning solution squirts out onto the floor right in front of you! Then, with just a few back-and-forth sweeps of the mop, your floor is clean!

But let’s face it: Those mops aren’t exactly green. You have to replace the plastic bottle that contains the solution, and those pads that affix to the bottom of the mop are disposable. But fear not! If you have a wet-jet mop, there are ways to green it up a little. Read more…

Photo courtesy of marie-II

Are you a New Year’s resolution maker? Yes, yes, I do realize it is March, which probably seems like a strange time to be asking about New Year’s resolutions. But judging by the thinned out crowds and significantly emptier parking lot at the gym recently, March is about the time a lot of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions. So maybe that means March is a perfect time to revisit your resolutions or, if you didn’t make any a few months ago, time to start setting some.

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Image credit: claytonihouse.com

This is, without a doubt, the coolest pre-fabricated house ever made.

What if your house could be tailor-made for maximum energy efficiency and sustainability, right from the moment it was built? Behold the i-house — a prefabricated house that’s selling for around $100,000. The i-house is popping up in several cities around the United States, including Knoxville, Tenn.; Seattle; Sacramanto; Albuquerque; and many more.

The i-house gets its name from its floorplan. The house is divided into two parts — the main part, which is about 1,000 square feet, includes a kitchen, great room, bedroom, and bathroom. The so-called “flex room” which is detached from the main part, is like the dot in the letter i. This separate flex room includes a bathroom and adds another 300 or so square feet, and it’s topped with a rooftop deck.

So how is it sustainable? The i-house includes dual-flush toilets, bamboo flooring, decking material made of recycled content, solar panels on the roof, high-efficiency appliances, a tankless water heater, and super-efficient doors and windows. The rooftop deck comes with a butterfly roof that doubles as a rainwater collection system. Construction waste from each i-house is limited to just two garbage cans or less.

The whole thing is completely customizable, and get this — the entire house can be powered for just a dollar a day. The company that came up with the i-house, Clayton Homes, will soon include a feature on its website that lets you build your own i-house. You can even visit the factory while it’s being built.

What do you think of the i-house? Would you ever consider buying one of these? Do you think it’s reasonably priced for what it is? Personally, I’d love to take a tour of one of these homes!