Easy Green Living Tips

This simple tip will help you green your next move to a new house or apartment, and will save you money at the same time.

As soon as you know that you are going to be moving to a new apartment or a new house, start collecting boxes at every opportunity. Whenever you go to the grocery store, or drive through an alley, or see dumpsters, check for sturdy, reusable cardboard boxes that you can grab for free. Another great way to find reusable moving boxes is to check Craigslist.com on a regular basis before your move. Lots of folks who have just moved will put up an ad and leave the cardboard moving boxes at the curb for pick up.

After your move, make sure that you keep your boxes in circulation by giving them to friends who are moving, or listing them on Craigslist.com so that other movers won’t have to buy new boxes, which, of course, require trees, energy, water and transportation.

This is a very simple way to help save the planet and save a lot of money at the same time.

By switching to reusable cloth towels for drying your hands, cleaning up spills, dusting, wiping countertops, and everything else that you currently use paper towels for, you will be helping the planet as well as your pocketbook.

Paper towels are one of the most wasteful products and can be found in most households. In fact, many families go through 2-3 rolls of paper towels each week – using them for napkins, cleaning, drying hands or laying out as placemats or food prep mats. All of these needs can very easily be met with reusable cloth napkins and towels.

Switching to cloth towels means that you will be limiting your impact on the environment by lowering your consumerism and the amount of waste you contribute. Paper towel production requires trees, water, energy and transportation – and then more energy, water and transportation is used in the recycling of the cardboard tube and the used paper towels that are clean enough to be recycled.

Switch to reusable cloth towels (and napkins) made from organic fibers and you will significantly lower your negative impact on the environment.

Plastic baggies might make your life easier, but they are hard on your wallet and on the planet. Disposable bags, baggies and containers spend a couple of days in your kitchen and thousands of years in a landfill - not to mention that buying disposable food storage bags and containers can add up to hundreds of dollars over time.

Keep in mind that these types of plastic don’t biodegrade – they photodegrade, which requires air and sunlight (which are not abundant in landfills). The process takes at least a thousand years, but it could even take much longer than that. So, think about every baggie you use for lunches or freezer storage and every disposable plastic container you use in the fridge. How many disposable baggies and containers do you add to landfills each week?

Fortunately, this is easy to fix. Reusable food storage containers can last you a lifetime and even be passed down to future generations. Eco-friendly reusable food storage containers will save you lots of money over time and will make a significant impact on the amount of plastic you and your family send to landfills.

Glass containers are a great option for most purposes. They work well for storing and transporting food and they even saveenergy when used for baking or for storing in the fridge. But, if you want plastic-y containers for their weight and convenience, your best bet is to find products that do not leach chemicals and should last a long time, such as some containers by Farberware, Gladware, Rubbermaid and Tupperware.

Napkins and paper towels require trees, water, energy and packaging to produce and transport. By the time they end up on the store’s shelf, napkins and paper towels have already had a significant negative impact on the environment. And, this is before they get used once, tossed in the trash and start making their way to the landfill.

You can very easily green your dining routine by using eco-friendly reusable cloth napkins that can last you a lifetime. Inexpensive cloth napkins can be sewn from a variety of reclaimed fabrics or purchased at home and discount stores. At just a few dollars per set, reusable cloth napkins will also save you a lot of money since they can last a lifetime and you will never again need to purchase disposable napkins.

Reusable cloth napkins can be washed in your normal laundry loads and don’t take up much room in the washer, so they shouldn’t increase your water usage. To get a little greener, dry your reusable cloth napkins on a clothesline – or even thrown over your shower rod – rather than drying them in an energy-using dryer. However, they can also be thrown in the dryer with your clothes if line drying is not an option.

Like I have said before, commercial cleaning products are expensive, come in wasteful packaging and are loaded with unnecessary, harsh chemicals that are bad for you, your family, your animals and the environment.

Of course, we all want a clean house, but we don’t have to buy into the hype that we must have the latest “breakthrough” in cleaning products in order to make our home safe and clean. Old-fashioned cleaning products are often the best bet and certainly less expensive. Plus, they clean just as well – if not better – than the brands you see advertised on television.

For example, some big name brands try to convince us that we need their particular brand of abrasive scouring scrub or we will never have a clean shower, bath tub or sink. But, in reality, you can have a sparkling clean bathroom or kitchen without the unnecessary packaging and chemicals, and for pennies instead of dollars.

You can make all natural, eco-friendly abrasive scouring cleaner that will scrub your tub just as well as commercial brands from stuff you probably already have in your pantry.

Simply take one cup distilled white vinegar and mix in ½ cup of baking soda for a great abrasive scrub for your bathroom and kitchen. After scrubbing your surfaces with this mixture, wipe with a vinegar-soaked rag and then with a wet cloth.

This simple mix will save you money, clean your bathroom and kitchen naturally and limit your impact on the environment.

This is a great way to reuse one of those plastic water bottles you still have from back before you switched to an eco-friendly reusable water bottle. You can reuse the bottle and keep it out of the landfill, while saving water every time you flush the toilet.

Simply weigh down the plastic bottle with sand or pebbles and place it in your toilet tank – away from all the important looking mechanical stuff that makes the toilet flush and such.

This is a great way to reduce your water usage if you don’t have a low flow toilet. The plastic water bottle in your toilet tank will displace the water in the tank (so your toilet tank won’t fill up as much) and will help you save between one half gallon and one gallon of water every time you flush. Plus, if you pay for water where you live, saving water means saving money, which is always a good thing. 

Carpet is not the most eco-friendly floor covering option, but if you are renting or own a home that came with carpet, you can still take steps to make your carpet care as green and environmentally friendly as possible.

For example, if you live with carpet you are probably all too familiar with the fact that carpet can trap dirt and odors deep within the fibers that no amount of vacuuming seems to remove. This can really be an issue if there are animals or smokers in the house.

There are plenty of commercial carpet deodorizers available that you sprinkle onto your carpet, allow them to absorb and/or mask the odors, then vacuum up. However, these carpet deodorizers tend to be full of chemicals and artificial fragrances that can be irritating to your skin, lungs and eyes and that introduce toxins to your home.

You can deodorize your carpet the eco-friendly, all natural way with plain old baking soda, which also happens to be one of the main ingredients in most commercial carpet deodorizers, so why pay more for added chemicals and fancy packaging? Simply sprinkle all natural baking soda on your carpet and allow it to absorb carpet odors the eco-friendly and inexpensive way.

For easy application, put your baking soda in a jar with a shaker lid – like an old fashioned sugar jar – and sprinkle it on your carpet. Leave it on your carpet for at least 20 minutes, the vacuum.

Commercial glass and window cleaners contain harsh chemicals that are bad for you, your family and the environment. One of the most popular glass cleaner ingredients is ammonia, which is an eye and skin irritant, causes coughing and choking, and is of particular concern for children with asthma.

Ammonia is found naturally in the environment, but in such miniscule amounts that the minimal exposure we receive naturally does not seem to cause long-term health issues. However, the concentrated, larger amounts used in industrial and household cleaners – like glass and window cleaner – can be hazardous to your health.

Glass and window cleaners contain other chemicals as well, come in wasteful packaging and require energy, water and additional resources for production and transportation.

Fortunately, we can limit our impact on the environment and still have sparkling clean glass and windows with all natural, DIY glass and window cleaner that is eco-friendly and cheap!

To make your eco-friendly, all-natural glass and window cleaner, you simple need distilled white vinegar, water and a reusable spray bottle. Mix one part distilled white vinegar with two parts water in the reusable spray bottle and your green glass cleaner is ready to go.

One more thing – if you have been using commercial, chemical glass and window cleaners, there will be a waxy residue on your glass and windows. If you leave the waxy residue on there, you will end up with streaks after cleaning with a natural glass cleaner. So, the first time you use your all-natural window cleaner, add a couple of drops of dish soap to the mix. This will remove the waxy residue that commercial glass cleaners leave behind.

Clogged drains in sinks, showers and bathtubs are a huge pain. Annoying as they may be, it’s actually pretty easy to unclog your drains naturally without the assistance - or expense - of a plumber, or chemical-laden commercial drain cleaners.

Conventional drain cleaners are terrible for the environment and are hard on your pipes. Plus, they come in wasteful packaging and can harm your health as well. Fortunately, it’s easy to save time, money and the environment with a super simple home drain cleaner that is all natural and probably already in your kitchen.

Start by pouring about ½ cup of baking soda into the drain, followed by one cup of distilled white vinegar. Let it sit and work its unclogging magic for about 15 minutes, then flush with boiling water. You may have to do it more than once to thoroughly unclog your drain, but it’s well worth it when you consider the eco-friendly and money saving aspects of this all natural drain cleaning method.

If your drains clog often, you may want to invest in an inexpensive drain snake that you can use to probe around in the drain and pull out hair and other debris. There are inexpensive options at your local home or hardware store and they can end up saving you lots of money in the long run. Also, if you can pull the ick out of your clogged drain, then you won’t have a plumber driving to your house and using fossil fuels, and you won’t be dumping harmful chemical drain cleaners down your drain.  

Weeds are an issue for anyone who has a yard, or even a small patch of dirt next to a driveway or a landing. Weed killers and commercial weed prevention products are full of harmful chemicals that are toxic to you, your family, your animals and the environment.

Fortunately, it’s easy (and cheap!) to prevent weeds naturally with vinegar – yes, vinegar! I swear, I am continually amazed at all of the wonderful ways to use vinegar in just about every aspect of your life.

Simply spray vinegar directly on the weeds that you need to kill, or on the area where you don’t want weeds to grow. Household vinegar should work just fine, but if you find that you need something stronger, home and hardware stores carry a 10% dilution that will be even more effective as a non-toxic, all-natural weed killer.