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Tuesday, May 31st, 2011You might remember when I was recently all very laissez-faire about the marching lines of ants strolling through my house in recent weeks- since they weren’t interfering with my food or the rest of my house, there wasn’t any reason to actually do anything about them, besides let them go on living their ant lives. [...]
Clothing Swaps Are Awesome
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011I recently moved to a different part of town, and after sorting out all of my stuff I discovered two seemingly contradictory facts: I have too many things I need more things You know how it goes- “wow, what was I thinking when I bought this red skirt??” which is often followed by, “Gosh, I [...]
Greening Cleaning
Thursday, May 5th, 2011While I think it’s safe to assume that you and I are still cleaning our homes with green cleaning supplies, it turns out that’s not the overall trend in US home cleaning these days, and analysts are saying that the recession is to blame: “When Clorox introduced Green Works, its environment-friendly cleaning line, in 2008, [...]
Dirty rain water
Monday, April 18th, 2011I was talking to a colleague at work the other day, and she mentioned that she’d visited a family member who works at one of the fancy green buildings in NYC - I asked how she’d liked the space, and my colleague said that it was of course ultra modern, but her family member didn’t [...]
Those old Consumerist Urges
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011As much as I pride myself in just not shopping much, you know, I’ve got some serious consumerist urges. I’ve been known in the recent past to order multiple pairs of shoes, try them all on and then return all of them. (*cough* Frequently.) I’ve joked that in the past, I spent all my money [...]
Recyclable Ziplocs?
Monday, April 11th, 2011A couple of months ago I found an article about Ziploc bags, and how they will be recyclable - perhaps even to be collected at a local store near you! They’ve partnered with RecycleBank, which is an interesting points-based program wherein you buy specially marked boxes of a product, pledge to recycle the packaging, and [...]
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
I was talking with a friend today, one who owns a solar installation business, and he mentioned something I found really interesting. It turns out that a common reason he’s called out for trouble-shooting on existing installations is that customers are sure their systems are malfunctioning because they run out of electricity so quickly, and/or, [...]
Corks in Wine Bottles
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011I’m getting frustrated about corks in wine bottles. Rather, I LOVE corks in wine bottles - I’m getting frustrated about the NON-cork stoppers used in so many wine bottles! I’ve tried lots of things, like Not drinking wine Drinking wine from boxes Drinking wine from screw top lids but right now I’m on a local [...]
Rubber Band Napkin Rings
Monday, April 4th, 2011I’m so excited about something that I’ve implemented at our house - fancy instant personalized napkin rings! I’ve been meaning to make some napkin rings for a while now - ever since Stacey let us in on her quick’n’easy napkin ring ideas - but I just never have. I even carry around felt with me [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Unplug Your Toothbrush!
Saturday, April 2nd, 2011Got one of those schmancy electric toothbrushes? Good for you, and good for your teeth! But take the time to unplug it when it’s fully charged. Otherwise it’s still pulling electricity from the socket, even when it doesn’t need any more.
Little Soaps
Monday, March 28th, 2011I didn’t take a photo of this, and I’m kicking myself now! But I was away this weekend and we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast, and the owner had tiny individual soaps prepared by a local soap maker, and wrapped in a paper sleeve out in the bathroom. It was a small piece [...]
Retiring a Dish Soap Bottle
Monday, March 21st, 2011It’s been a long time, but I think it’s finally time to retire one of our well-used plastic bottles. I started using this dish soap bottle from Trader Joe’s back in 2008, when I made my first batch of homemade dish soap. That was in June, 2008! and I’d been using it for at least [...]
Water-Saving Faucet Love
Thursday, March 10th, 2011I recently fell in love… with a faucet. While out and about one day, I visited a public bathroom and became reacquainted with a rarely-seen example of an incredibly green faucet: the Smart Faucet. When you’re ready to wash up, you press the lever and the water flows on-demand. This smartiepants device eliminates water waste [...]
Insulating your body, not your home
Monday, March 7th, 2011My partner recently sent me a link to the very excellent Low Tech Magazine article discussing - in great scientific detail! - the benefit of wearing more clothes to insulate your BODY, rather than worrying too much about insulating your home. When I was bragging on my very much warmer second floor, thanks to the [...]
On (citified) homesteading
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011It turns out that I missed Urban Homesteading day, which was on February 21st in response to a nasty cease and detest letter that many people have been getting from a family who have the gall to trademark the term “Urban Homesteading.” Can you believe it? not many people can, actually, because it’s just too [...]
Reclaimed Materials
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011It should be no surprise to y’all that I love tiny houses - so even though I haven’t written a whole post about tumbleweed houses (but I plan to!) just let’s take it at face value that I subscribe to their newsletter, and I was really excited to read the most recent one. It linked [...]
Icy Walk Solutions
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011I feel like I just wrote about how to keep the driveway clear of snow, and now I’m thinking hard about how to keep our steps ice-free and safe to walk on. It’s been a nutty winter in my part of the world! But I have to say, it’s snowing and icing at about the [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Turn it Down and Turn In!
Saturday, February 5th, 2011Many people talk about turning down your thermostat at night - how about combining a few tips? Turn down the heat every day by programming an electronic thermostat, and make the temperature drop so it is lowered right about at your bedtime. Even if you bundle up and put on a sweater, you will STILL [...]
Review: NikWax
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011Before it started snowing (and hasn’t stopped) around here, you may recall that I wrote about hunting for a good green waterproofing option to take care of my boots and shoes. I decided in that post that I would try NikWax, and a representative of the company contacted me shortly afterwards and offered to send [...]
Eco-Friendly Snow Removal (and I don’t mean Spring…)
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011We have been enjoying a really lovely, really snowy winter here in the northeast USA. It’s been snowing every week, it seems, and it’s been really cold to boot - so the snow is piling up and staying put! Our house includes a very very long driveway - I tell people it’s about 150 ft. [...]
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