1. Green your brew: Buy organic, Fair Trade coffee and use a reusable coffee filter instead of paper filters. If you take your coffee from home to the office use a stainless steel, toxin-free reusable carry along mug.
2. Green your clean-up: Harsh chemicals in the kitchen are so over. You can use safe and natural cleaners and still have a perfectly sparkling kitchen. Greening kitchen clean-up counts for more than when you green clean the rest of your home – who wants chemicals around their food? Try some easy to use store-bought green cleaners or go ahead and make your own green kitchen cleaners.
3. Green your food storage: You don’t need foil, plastic wrap or plastic baggies. You also should shun harmful plastic containers made with non-renewable resources. Aim for glass or stainless steel food containers. They’ll last longer than disposables and look better too. In the long run a big perk will be the money you’ll save.
4. Green your old leftovers: Make smaller portions so you don’t have leftovers that will sit around and go bad. After that, most leftovers can be composted not tossed in the trash. Composted food is perfect for your organic garden too and helps keep gardening costs down. If you don’t have a compost try your second best option – a garbage disposal. At least you’re keeping the landfills a little less full.
5. Green your paper products: Clear unnecessary paper towels and paper napkins out of the kitchen. Always use cloths to clean with and to dry your hands and use nice cloth napkins for meals. Cloth over paper feels better, lasts longer, costs less over time, and helps save trees.
6. Green your mealtime: Stock up on the most important organics. Eat more vegetarian meals (at least three a week – then more). Buy less junk food and way over-packaged processed food items. Not only do these habits help keep the planet healthy but they help keep your family healthy as well.

[image via stock.xchng]

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Six Ways To Green Your Kitchen

Here are some tips for designing a super green nursery…

• Start with the skeleton – that means walls and floors – before you move in any furniture or accessories. Choose eco-friendly low-voc / no-voc paints or non-toxic wallpapers for the walls. Go with natural, sustainable, or organic flooring and floor coverings. For example, bamboo is a good sustainable wood flooring option as are non-toxic carpets and rugs.
• Choose sustainable furniture made without particle board or aim for refurbished or thrift furniture; just make sure the paint on used goods is lead free.
• Create clean air quality in the nursery from the start.
• If you’re not co-sleeping and are buying a crib make sure to get an organic crib mattress. Your baby spends much of his first year of life sleeping so this is a key component.
• Install energy saving lights and light bulbs – you can even get nightlights with energy saving bulbs now.

Most importantly – buy less stuff. Buying a lot of stuff is in no way green and frankly babies don’t need as much gear and toys as you think. For the items you do choose makes sure they’re eco-friendly. Smart green baby gear choices include cloth diapers, organic clothing, and natural non-toxic toys.

[image via stock.xchng]

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Design a greener baby nursery

Of course there’s no good reason to use plastic bottles when you don’t have to. The new Aqua bottle is just one more smart solution to said plastic issue and a fashionable solution too. These bottles are really pretty and stylish; made from food grade stainless steel. Aqua has been tested and is certified to be BPA safe. What with all the SIGG drama last year, Envirosax is getting ahead of themselves and even offering up certificates and lab results to prove their Aqua is BPA safe (available on request).

Aqua line comes in two flavors; skinny and classic.

Skinny line features include:

• Bottle capacity of 600ml / 20oz.
• Aqua Skinnys are 8.2″ tall and 2.6″ in diameter.

Classic line features include:

• Each bottle has a capacity of 600ml / 20oz.
• Aqua Classics are 7.2″ tall and 2.9″ in diameter.

Both lines offer screw top lids with a caribiner attached, and an optional sports cap can be purchased for $1.95. In big downer news, none of these bottles are dishwasher safe (I’m guessing because of the fancy paint). Bottles should not be used for hot liquids. At $18 a pop, these are beautiful and affordable water bottles. Learn more at Envirosax Aqua.

[images via Envirosax]

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New Envirosax Aqua Reusable Water Bottle

That said, there are some general ideas behind green housing you can follow. Decent sustainable housing is in line with the following ideas…

Each level of the process is sustainable. From how you choose a site for your green home, to your choices of materials, to the contractors you use, to your energy system and landscaping, and so on. Think about green housing as small parts of one large whole. At each level of the planning and building process there are sustainable aspects you can consider.

Your home is as big as you actually need but not bigger. Small is sustainable when it comes to housing. A sustainable home should, in my opinion, have light footprint and take up less space. Debates abound about if you can build a green McMansion but I think a “green” mansion totally defeats the true purpose of sustainable design.

The materials you use in your home, or for the building process are locally acquired, efficient, reclaimed and recyclable when possible. Use only what you need as well. For example, if you have three bathrooms do you honestly need double sinks in all of them?

Good sustainable housing is planned with energy and water requirements in mind. Your home might make use of wind power, solar panels, or high quality energy efficient windows for example. As for water; water efficient appliances, rainwater systems, solar water heaters and low-water organic landscaping are all useful if your goal is a sustainable house.

Consider the interior. A home that’s green on the exterior is not so green if you fill it with toxic paints and non-sustainable furniture. Consider things like clean air techniques, reclaimed floors, eco-friendly cleaners, sustainable bedding and more to keep your home green.

[image via stock.xchng]

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What makes a sustainable house?

Following are some recycling bins that even the most style-savvy of home owners can drool over…

front load recycler – the front load recycler has a dial that turns to clearly show what’s stored inside: aluminum, paper, plastic or glass. There are two ways to get recycled goods inside – a circular opening that’s good for depositing cans and bottles and a secondary lid lifts up to reveal a wider opening that can be used for larger recyclables. This bin can be used in doubles as well – two bins will stack together neatly creating a tall recycling center.

flip lid recycler – this bin has two inner buckets with separate flip-up lids so you can sort trash and recyclables easily. The hinges on the lids are actually internal which saves space as it allow the recycling bin to fit in a tight corner or flush against the wall.

Red Steel Trash Can – this is as noted in the name a trash can, but I think it’s an awesome idea for a recycling bin too. Especially since red recycling bins are hard (if not impossible) to come by.

Trio 60 Litre Brushed Stainless Steel Kitchen Recycling Bin – very attractive and handy with 3 separate compartments to store various recyclables.

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Stylish home recycling bins

If you find that you don’t have the time to read the paper or you only read the Sunday ed. why not cancel the daily paper and switch to weekend only. You’ll save resources, money, and time.Another option is to subscribe online. Most newspapers offer full subscriptions online now and even if you figure in the energy you’ll use at the computer, it’s still way greener than the “paper” paper version.

That said, some folks do read the newspaper all week long, and if you’re among those folks then you likely have a good stack of newspapers going on. In good news, newspaper is 100% recyclable and easy to recycle. Most cities have decent paper recycling even if their other programs could use some work. Before you recycle though, why not make that newspaper work double time. Here are some ideas…

• Newspaper makes a great window washing ‘cloth’ and offers totally streak free cleaning to boot.
• Place crumpled up newspaper in your storage trunks or chests or even place it in an old musty suitcase. Newspaper naturally absorbs icky odors and thus keeps the smell off the items you’re storing.
• Use the comics or other interesting pages to wrap gifts.
• If you have enough newspaper you can make some DIY fireplace logs
• Use old newspaper in the garden as mulch; it’s not the most optimal mulching choice, but does work.
• Use it as packing material – although be careful not to pack items that will easily get stained with newspaper ink.

Newspaper is one of those items with literally dozens and dozens of uses. What else can you think of?

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Uses for Recycled Newspaper

In many cases a greener option (beyond a typical mop) is a steam cleaning mop which will get super hot and does save water. However, there are pros and cons.

Pros of steam cleaning mops:

• Use less water than traditional mops.
• Very hot steamy water cleans well so you won’t feel the urge to use chemical cleaners.
• Less work for you – i.e. no changing buckets of water and no wringing out gross mops.
• Can be used to safely clean all types of floors; tiles, wood, marble, slate, and more.

Cons of steam cleaning mops:

• Traditional mops are smaller and take fer materials and resources to manufacture.
• Very few steam mops are made with recycled materials.
• Unlike regular old fashioned mops, there can be ongoing costs – such as the replaceable pads that go on the mop’s end or replaceable water filters.

Choose a greener steam mop:

• Look for the lightest steam mop model you can – lighter = fewer materials.
• A good typical model should heat water in 60 seconds or less and have a good warranty.
• There are a few companies making steam mop with eco-friendly or recycled materials so search around before you buy.
• If your steam mop needs a specific brand of mop pad, try using a reusable, washable microfiber cloth or other washable towel as the mop top instead. This will save money and resources.

One good brand is the HAAN SI-35 Upright Slim Steam Mop (shown above) which cleans sans chemicals and comes with reusable pads vs. non-reusable.

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Steam Mops Save Water & Cut Chemical Use

Brick Oven Classic from Cuisinart shown above

Toasters come in many flavors: Toaster ovens can save energy but technically toaster ovens fall into many categories such as your basic pop-up toast-making toaster, smaller sized toaster ovens that fit larger pieces of bread or other foods including leftovers, and gigantic toaster ovens that can actually broil fish or chicken, bake a pizza or even cook a family-sized casserole in a pan. Make sure that before you shop you know which size in general will fit your needs.

You don’t need a million appliances. Microwaves, pop-up toaster, convection toaster oven, and more – many people have tons of appliances. It’s a waste of materials, which isn’t very green, not to mention a waste of kitchen space. If you rarely eat toast with breakfast but do cook a ton of oven based dishes in smaller quantities, a mid-to large size toaster oven is best NOT a toaster oven and pop-up toaster both. If you heat up soup or veggies a lot but rarely bake, a microwave, not a toaster oven is a better bet. Only own appliances you actually need and use regularly.

Consider a model with a fan. Not all toaster ovens have convection fans and some people are leery to buy one with a fan because it will cost more, but if you use a toaster oven a lot it can save you time and money in the long run. That fan allows your oven to cook faster and more evenly.

High wattage toaster ovens use more energy but usually can cook more food at once. Don’t buy more wattage than you need but be sure to buy enough. Learn more about wattage.

Some toaster oven brand choices:

• Breville
• West Bend
• Cuisinart
• GE
• Hamilton Beach
• Black & Decker

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Choose the right toaster oven

Green your cleaning: Most conventional bathroom cleaners are anything but green. Conventional cleaners can be full of chemicals and other icky stuff you shouldn’t be breathing in. You can make homemade green cleaners that work just as well as conventional or choose the best store bought green cleaners you can.

Green your body care products: Switch from chemical body care to natural and organic body care products and cosmetics. It’s not that tough if you make small changes and ease your way into a healthier bathroom. Non-green body products have toxins, chemicals, and weird fragrances and additives that you don’t need. Most green bath and body products have perks like responsible packaging and recycling programs as well. You can save some money and make your own body care products or learn how to choose greener body products.

Green your toilet paper: Aim to find a good recycled brand of toilet paper. You may have a hard time because many brands of recycled toilet paper suck, but the trees you’ll save makes the search worth it. Thus far the best recycled toilet paper I’ve used is the Trader Joe’s brand.

[image via stock.xchng]

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4 Ways to Green Your Bathroom

Doca Pet offers pet food bowls that are beautiful as well as sustainable. These sets are very functional, lovely to look at and made with pet-safe stainless steel and comes with rubber non-skid bumpers for less mess.

Organic Bumper Bed – The Organic Bumper Bed is made with a removable organic cotton cover and the cushion used on the inside of the bed is made from 100% recycled IntelliLoft, (previously plastic soda bottles). This bed also takes less energy to make so it’s a great bed to lower your pet’s footprint.

The Couchette from Elizabeth Paige Smith, is for the most spoiled of eco-friendly kitties – classic and streamlined this bed is made of eco-friendly corrugated cardboard.

Zisc is designed to keep your dog happy and fit and made eco-friendly Zogoflex material. Zisc flies with speed and accuracy but is pliable so your dog can pick it up from flat surfaces with ease and it won’t hurt or damage their mouth. Additionally ou can easily send Zisc back to the company for recycling.

Roebuck Studio Cat Bowls – are not only super cute but eco-friendly, made with Baltic birch along with parts that come flat packed for shipping. The set is easily assembled with simple fasteners and all edges are rounded for safety. A waterproof non-toxic finish is applied and many bold and bright color choices are available as well as a clear finish.

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Eco-friendly Pet Gear