My wife’s family love card games. Me, not so much. I lack the attention span for most games, so much so that I never even really got too into video games because I’d get bored by the second level. When I was offered a chance to review Spot It!, a game by Blue Orange, I knew I’d be a pretty tough judge. If I approved, it was going to be a good game. Just to make sure I gave it a fair shake, I asked my card-game-loving wife and my 4-year-old son to help me test it out. Read more…

This post isn’t about tips or advice for how you can become more green yourself. This is public confession of areas where I fall short of my own ideals. Maybe by admitting my problems I can find the motivation to improve my performance.

1. I use too many plastic utensils. This is one flaw that is actually more of a character flaw than a failing of my Greenist ideals. I am a forgetful person and I also find it difficult to develop and maintain habits. I take my lunch with me to work daily and I use reusable containers for this. My water bottle and travel coffee cup are also reusable. For some reason, however, I struggle to remember to throw in a fork or spoon from the kitchen drawer while packing my bag in the mornings. I started to develop the habit in December, but then the vacation days of Christmas intervened and I ended up back at square one having to use my emergency stash of, and later raiding the cafeteria for, plastic utensils. This is insanely frustrating. There’s not even a real reason to need the plastic in this case. It’s easier to remember the metal fork and take it home to wash than it is to go hunt down plastic in the 20 minutes I have for lunch each day. The real forks and spoons work better. Luckily, I have gotten back into the swing of things lately, but all it will take is the next vacation for this to become a problem again.
2. I use paper towels excessively. Unlike problem #1, which was really more about my forgetfulness than it was about my status as a Greenist, I secretly prefer paper towels over dish towels. They wipe up liquids better. They don’t start stinking by the next day. I don’t have the image of rampaging microbes dancing in the back of my mind while I use paper towels. They’re already right there on the counter. That’s probably part of the problem.
3. I have three refrigerators, a 3-foot-tall freezer and a 6-foot-tall freezer in my house. We don’t even use the  third fridge or the small freezer. That’s a crap ton of wasted electricity, and part of it is just because I’m too lazy to get rid of the unused appliances. We do need more than just the one refrigerator, though. We get a lot of fruit and vegetables from the garden and local farms in the summer to freeze for the year and we also buy a local hog or cow on a regular basis to last us for months so we don’t buy as much industrially farmed meat. And don’t ask me to give up my beer fridge. That one is normally full.

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Chris Molnar.

For hundreds of years, Valentine’s Day has been a celebration of romantic love. Today it is celebrated with gifts like flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards. But once the holiday is over, what do you do with the endless packaging of all those gifts and cards?

This Valentine’s Day, let’s turn the red into green with Valentine’s projects, gifts and ideas that are all eco-friendly.

Finding ways to recycle and reuse those gifts and packages is a great way to be a friend to the environment while still enjoying the holiday. So if you are looking for greener options, check out these ideas and tips.   Read more…

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36027131@N05/3440278634/

My husband and I are excitedly awaiting the arrival of our first child.   Along with being extremely excited, we are also overwhelmed, anxious, and concerned about how to raise a child in this world in a manner that aligns with our values.  One of those values, of course, being as environmentally aware as possible.

Read more…

Like the shoe? That’s one of my new running shoes. I’m a little torn as to whether I think they’re hideous or freaking awesome, but this post isn’t really about those shoes, at least not yet.

Last year I went through three pairs of running shoes. As the year went on, I gradually upped my mileage to the point that I ran 101 miles in October and have averaged more than 60 miles each month since, even though I’m not currently training for something specific. I fully expect to run more miles this year than last meaning I’ll probably go through at least three pairs again this year. While I may be a much thinner and fitter version of the self I was two years ago, I’m carrying a lot of dead weight in old running shoes. Read more…

In an unrelated series of events, I recently decided to purge my sock drawer of any and all socks that I just don’t wear.  Either because of color, fit, or fabric, I would wager many of us have socks that just aren’t our favorites and, as a result, get worn very little.

But what do you do with used, but not used up, socks?

Although technically still wearable, I doubt there is much of a market for used socks.  And if they aren’t yet worn out, I hate to see them thrown out or, at best, relegated to a textile recycling center, especially when they could still work for a reuse project.

So after some google searches, I found a recommendation to make socks into reusable swiffer pads- perfect!  Although we gave up buying disposable swiffer pads years ago, we still have the sweeper around and the convenience of the thing is still very appealing.  Only problem was, I could find the suggestion of making socks into a reusable swiffer pad, but I was having far less luck finding actual tutorials for such a project.  The fact that etsy has these cool crocheted swiffer socks wasn’t helping my search, either.

So I came up with my own solution. Read more…

Photo: Olivier Bacquet

For years I’ve made coffee the old fashioned way with a drip coffee machine and paper filters. I did get the brown, unbleached filters. I don’t normally drink any coffee during June and July when I don’t have to work, but that’s still hundreds of filters thrown away each year. This is especially annoying as I also drink tea, but I buy it loose so I don’t have the waste of a used teabag (and also the option to buy better tea). Why should I had to add paper to the coffee equation?

Read more…

I love those creamy, spicy, coconut milk-laden dishes you get in Thai restaurants and I wanted to make my own. I found this recipe on a site called Nutritioulicious, and I’ve tweaked it a little to my tastes and the contents of my kitchen. Serves four. Read more…

It’s always fun to look back at the posts we’ve written in the past year.  Here are a few of our favorites!

Stefanie – Cleaning Your Burner Bowls the Easy on the Arms Way – “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!”

Melissa – Green Guilt: Just Let it Go – “Last night, I threw out a glass spaghetti sauce jar. The day before that, I bought two new Pack & Play sheets (buy one, get one – plus I had a 20% off coupon) without checking Craigslist first. Last week when I went grocery shopping, I didn’t buy any organic food AND I bought generic Dawn instead of my usual Seventh Generation. Oh, and I’m currently using Tide instead of a natural brand of laundry detergent. Are you shocked yet? Gasping for air and shouting to yourself, “And you call yourself a Greenist?” Well, I do call myself a Greenist…and yes, I’m experiencing a lot of green guilt right now – that feeling of I know I can do better. I know I can do more. But allow me to explain . . . It came down to money.”

Howling Hill – Miss the Train - ”Not having a car in NYC isn’t a big deal. There’s lots of public transportation to get you to and from work and you walk to your local grocer to buy groceries and take a cab to see your grandma. You don’t think much about the lack of car while booking your trip to New Hampshire after all, you can take the train. Right?  Wrong. There is no way to get from NYC to Dorchester, NH via train. As a matter of fact, you cannot get to New Hampshire from anywhere via train because there are no trains in NH.”

Courtney - How to Clean Your Car Headlights the Natural Way - “The last time I visited my parents, I pulled into the driveway and my dad immediately said, “What’s wrong with your headlights?” I got out to take a look, and sure enough, they were filthy. But it wasn’t just dirt that was causing the plastic casing around the headlights to turn cloudy; it was all kinds of road grime and other gunk that was making my lights not shine as brightly as they should. (Apparently it’s pretty common. Chalk that up to car maintenance issues I’d never considered before!) A simple car wash wasn’t going to fix the problem, so I started looking for possible solutions.”

Allie – An Interview with Ayla Kell of Make It or Break It - “To be completely honest, I’ve gotten a little jaded by celebrity greenies.  Sometimes the token gestures they put forth into the green world feel more like a way to get good PR than a genuine effort.  But I wanted to chat with Ayla because I love her on Make It Or Break It and I thought it would be fun to talk with her.  I figured I’d be able to walk away with at least a few PR friendly-tips to pass on to readers, and I could slip in a TV-geek question or two for good measure.  But Ayla doesn’t spew sound bites.  Her interest in conservation and the environment is genuine and passionate.  She actually taught me a thing or two about going green.  It was refreshing and inspiring to talk with her. ”

Jody – Barefooting and Environmentalism – “ Not only do these shoes use less material than standard running shoes, they also need to be replaced far less often (mine lasted 2 years while training for a marathon while my husband went though 3 pairs of standard running shoes).  And when they do finally need to be replaced, it isn’t due to an unseen issue like “the cushioning has worn out despite the fact that the shoe looks brand new” like you see in most thick soled running shoes.  Nope, these shoes only need to be replaced once you see your foot poking through to the pavement… and even then replacement is merely a suggestion.”

Jacob – Death to Your Lawn!- “I hate yard work. This is not the normal hate that you feel toward a food you don’t like or a type of music that represents a group of people with which you don’t identify. I hate yard work with a seething rage that churns out ill will and bad thoughts with an efficiency to match that of some machine that’s really good at making something.  Unlike my brain with that simile, obviously.”

NPW – Planet Shoes – “ I’m all for companies providing environmentally-friendly products, but I don’t mess around about shoes. I have high standards and my shoes need to meet certain criteria. These flats do all that, plus have the added bonus of drawing compliments from everyone middle school students to my mom.”

Mickey – Less is Less - “Here at The Greenists we’ve been trying to come up with one thing, just one perfect thing, one big important-yet-elegantly-simple thing to ask our readers to do on Earth Day, for Earth Day. Which is Friday. Tomorrow. Well I thought of my thing, and I don’t think it needs to wait until tomorrow. Or maybe I just don’t like to give away post ideas. Here’s my one big Earth Day request: Use less.”

Deborah – Are You a Green Sinner? – “My son recently mentioned that he finds all this environmental awareness activity amusing. He remembers when the other kids made fun of him because his family recycled. “They thought we were weird.” In just a few years, we Greenies have gone from being on-the-fringe treehuggers to being the most guilt-ridden members of society. Why? Because now that everyone is doing it, we feel as if we never do enough.”

The Modern Gal – Are TOMS Shoes All They’re Cracked Up to Be? – “For $54 a pair, I expect my shoes to last far longer than two weeks, and how green can they be and how useful are they to children in developing countries if they’re falling apart that quickly? I did what I do anytime I have questions like this, I turned to The Google to see if others had asked and answered similar questions. What I found were mixed reactions.”

Ashley S – Staying Green While Moving - “Moving is typically synonymous with filling several dumpsters worth of things you don’t want to take with you and sending it all to a landfill — but it doesn’t have to be.”

Jamison – What Kind of Environmentalist Are You? -  ”On the surface this may seem like a silly question, but the motivations that leads a person to environmentalism can be extremely different. My wife and I are perfect examples of this. Being a Greenist, she comes to environmentalism from an extremely different approach.