Image credit: monclovatwp.org

As much as we all love fall colors, it’s less pretty when those leaves end up on your lawn. After you’ve made them into a big pile and then jumped in them to your heart’s content, what’s the most eco-friendly way to deal with leaves? The answer is simple: Do nothing. This time, the greenest solution is also the laziest solution. Don’t you love it when that happens?   Read more…

I’ve written enough posts about natural cleaning methods that I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore when the simplest of solutions is actually an effective one. And yet? I still find myself now and then trying a new, non-toxic way to clean something and saying, “Holy cow. That actually WORKED!” I think the last such reaction was last Thanksgiving weekend, when I quickly and nearly effortlessly wiped (*cough*) um, eleven years of nuked-on gunk from the inside of my microwave just by cooking some vinegar and water in it first. This weekend, I had one again.

I was digging around online looking for a way to get my electric stove’s burner bowls silver and shiny again without simply covering their crusty, blackened surfaces with foil to hide their sad state nor giving in to the urge to toss them and start all over with new ones. Everything I found said “Scrub with [this]” or “Scrub with [that].” People, I have tried scrubbing those dang burner bowls. It gives me a little arm workout, which is good, I suppose, but when the result is burner bowls that aren’t much cleaner than when I started, I’d rather skip the scrubbing and take a yoga class for my arms instead. So when I read that I could clean my burner bowls just by boiling them in baking soda and water, I said, “Sign me up!” Read more…

 Please welcome today’s guest poster, Ashley Spade.

Loving animals doesn’t usually extend itself to loving what they leave behind. Training your dog to pee in a specified area can preserve the lawn that surrounds your home, as well as dog parks or other public green spaces. Though dog pee isn’t necessarily as toxic as some people make it out to be, here are some suggestions for reducing its impact on the Earth.  Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Jocelyn Anne.

We often overlook one of the biggest opportunities for going green, and that lies within our very own garage. The garage, sadly, often gets forgotten altogether. We store stuff in it, park the car in it, and then generally forget all about its existence.

As we look ahead to winter, I’d like to suggest a number of ways you can green up your garage. If you’ve no idea where to begin, here’s a simple list of items and ideas you can look over to see which changes you might be able to incorporate for yourself.  Read more…

Image Credit: Sonofnels

Here’s a quick laundry-related tip. Did you guys know you’re not supposed to use fabric softener when you wash towels? Of course you did, right? Maybe you even know why you’re not supposed to use it—not just because the chemicals in most conventional fabric softeners are pretty sketchy, but because those chemicals actually leave a film on fabric that doesn’t rinse away, and that film, over time, makes towels less absorbent.

My mother’s tried to tell me this for years, actually, but I’ve always been the sort of goody-two-shoes daughter who picks only the least consequential and risky advice to rebel against and therefore have ignored her warnings, throwing caution to the wind, all “I WILL have soft towels, no matter WHAT you say!”

As it turns out, though, my mother is right. Martha Stewart recently told me the same thing about towels and fabric softener in one of her Daily Organizing Tip emails, and a quick Google search indicates that the Internet at Large is on my mother’s side in this matter too.

So what’s a girl who’s ready to submit to motherly (and Martha-ly) wisdom but still wants soft towels to do? Easy. Vinegar to the rescue again. A cup of white distilled vinegar, added to the rinse cycle, helps to remove the previous fabric softener residue on towels to restore their absorbency, and then helps soften the fabric without adding any more chemicals, too.

I’ve tried this tip on my last few loads of towels, and it does work pretty well (provided I actually remember to listen for the rinse cycle and run downstairs to the laundry room so I don’t completely miss that vinegar-adding window). I think it might work better if I didn’t have hard water, and if I ever remember to buy more Borax, I’ll try adding some of that to see if it counteracts the hard water issue. But overall, the vinegar alone is warding off scratchiness better than I ever thought it would, and since vinegar kills odors and also helps protect colors in fabrics, I’m trying to remember to listen for the rinse cycle and add it to all my other laundry loads too.

Softer towels, fewer chemicals, and a few extra up-and-down-the-stairs workouts for my body, too. It’s a win-win-win!

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Joel Mark.

We all know about the benefits of living a green lifestyle for the environment, the economy and our families, but few people realize that getting good nights sleep is also an essential part of an eco-friendly life.

What’s green about good sleep?

Living an eco-friendly lifestyle requires energy and a healthy body. To make sure you have the energy to walk or cycle and not drive a carbon-emitting vehicle, you need to be well-rested. If you’ve spent the night tossing and turning, you probably won’t want to walk to the local bus stop or ride your bike to get groceries, but when you’ve had a restful night’s sleep, these healthy green activities are appealing and enjoyable.  Read more…

The past several years, I have gotten much, much better about doing the right thing as opposed to the easy thing where environmental awareness is concerned. I’m ashamed to say it, but there was a time when I would consider throwing away a mold-riddled jar of forgotten salsa rather than go through the mess and trouble of cleaning it to make it recyclable. No more, obviously. That said, none of us are perfect, and there are still times when my lazy or frustrated side wins out and sways me from a greener choice.

Like when my shower curtain liner starts to get more than a little scary looking. I know the right thing to do is to take it off its hooks and scrub it on the base of my bathtub, but you know what? That’s a giant pain in the keister. And I can get a new liner for less than six bucks. I’m not proud, but I’ll admit it: in the past, the new liner has usually won out. Read more…

My shower is annoying. Whoever built it obviously didn’t understand the laws of physics very well, because water tends to pool in it instead of draining. That, combined with the poor ventilation in my bathroom, means the shower is tough to keep clean. (Related: I may need to move.)

Anyway, if I don’t soak up all the excess water with a towel every time someone bathes in there, my shower grout will begin to turn … well, let’s just say not white. Not wanting to buy expensive and toxic grout cleaner (and since I rent this place, I can’t just rip it all out and start over, which is what I really want to do) I set out on a little experiment.  Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Jakob Barry.

Whether at home, in the office, or at school, people who spend most of their time indoors can’t afford to breathe unhealthy air. Even limited exposure can compromise concentration and creativity, as symptoms associated with breathing bad air include laziness, dizziness, mood swings, and stomach sickness. Long-term exposure may even lead to chronic conditions.

For these reasons and more, it’s important to monitor the quality of indoor air, which at its core is fairly simple when taking the following points into consideration:  Read more…

When you cook something in a casserole dish, what do you do with the leftovers? A few weeks ago, I’d have covered the top of the dish in aluminum foil and stuck it in the fridge so I could warm it up again later. How about if you’ve got a bowl without a lid that you want to keep something in? Or if you drink half a can of soda and decide to save the rest of it for later? Aluminum foil or plastic wrap to the rescue — but wait! That’s just going to create trash! In the words of every infomercial ever created, there’s got to be a better way.

And there is! Recently I was given the opportunity to try Rebel T/L/Cs, which stands for tops, lids, and covers. Rebel T/L/Cs are made by Kelli Perez, a mother of two who hand-makes all her products from her home.  Read more…