Archive for green living

The Power of Vinegar

May 30, 2008 · Filed under Home Cleaning, Vinegar, green living · Tagged , , , , ,

Vinegar has many uses and is a versatile natural product that can be used through out your home. Vinegar can disinfect, preserve and heal.

All vinegar starts as alcohol, which is created through the conversion of carbohydrates to sugar. When alcohol ferments, it becomes acetic acid, or vinegar. For example, a bunch of grapes deteriorates to become wine (alcohol) and then wine ferments into wine vinegar. This is pretty impressive considering vinegar is a byproduct of something gone bad.

Your kitchen, for example, is probably one of the hardest rooms to keep clean, with all the foot traffic, greasy pans, and spills. Vinegar is an indispensable tool for your kitchen because it can clean practically any surface. From coffeemakers, to dishwashers and everything in between, vinegar will clean better than any other chemical commercial product for a fraction of the cost.

With this series of “how-to’s” with vinegar we plan on giving you practical do-it-yourself techniques to help you clean your home, clean your laundry, cure some ailments such as hay fever, rashes, and heartburn, along with a few home improvement tips and tricks and much more.

To get started, bellow is a recipe for a multipurpose home cleaner. With this simple mixture, you can get rid of all those harmful, expensive cleaning chemicals. You can use this mixture on virtually any surface for daily cleaning. It is especially good for cleaning stove tops, counter tops, and ovens.

What you will need:

  • 1 teaspoon of borax
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons of vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon liquid dish soap
  • 2 cups of hot water

Prepare the mixture and store it in a clean spray bottle. You might want to recycle an old spray bottle from one of the commercial cleaners. To do this make sure to rinse the bottle at least 3 times to clean out the remaining chemicals from the old cleaner. Or you can purchase a new spray bottle at most hardware stores. Make sure to clearly label the bottle and attach a list of ingredients.

You can use this cleaner through out your home on any hard surface. Keep in mind that it is mildly abrasive due to the baking soda so use it carefully on easily damaged hard surfaces such as wood and glass.

* Whenever vinegar is called for through out this series, use distilled white vinegar. If other types of vinegar are called for, the specific types are noted.

No comment »

Taking Earth Day a Step Further: Living an Earth Life

April 22, 2008 · Filed under Earth Day, Getting Started, Urban Green, green living

Celebrating Earth Day is a fantastic event and it gets us thinking of the environment and what more we can do. And we can do more. We can take the ideas and lessons learned on Earth Day and apply them to our everyday lives.

6 Simple Things You Can Do Everyday

  1. Give up bottled water. Did you know that in America we throw out more than 40 Million plastic bottles every year from bottled beverages, including bottled water? And only 20% of those bottles get recycled.

    What you can do:At home, put a filter on your tap and use a glass. If you’re going to the gym; take your own reusable water bottle. At the office, get a water filter or a water service.

  2. Use reusable bags at the store. With your own reusable bags you will know the answer to that annoying question of “paper or plastic?” - You will say, “Canvas, please!” If you did this one little thing, you personally would save 500 plastic bags going into the landfill every year.

    Now that is Earth Life!

  3. Eat less (red) meat.

    According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, one pound of red meat is responsible for 20 times the land use, five times the water use, and three times the greenhouse gas pollution compared with a portion of beans or pasta.

  4. Create an organic garden. Planting your own vegetables means you can ensure they are organic and healthy. And getting your food out of your own garden cuts the carbon emissions that would have been required to bring you food from the farm to the store to your table. Learn all about organic gardening at Gardenerd.com.
  5. Cut the junk mail. First, go to Do Not Mail.org and sign the petition for the “Do Not Mail” Campaign to stop junk mail. This is a campaign to create legislation similar to the “Do not call” registry. We canned spam in our email boxes and we stopped the “junk” phone calls. Now we can stop junk mail, too.

    Second, even though the Do Not Mail registry isn’t created yet there are a few paid serves you can get to stop your junk mail.

  6. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. The tried and true… But I think we are all getting the idea of reuse and recycle so I would like to focus on “reduce.” Put simply, buy less stuff. America is the largest consumer market in the world with the smallest population compared to other industrialized countries. Do we really need all that junk?

    In my neighborhood you drive down the street and even though every house has a 2 car garage, all the cars are parked on the street. Why? because that 2 car garage is full of junk that we bought and clearly don’t need.

No comment »

Earth Day: April 22nd, 2008

April 21, 2008 · Filed under Earth Day, Organic in the News, Urban Green, green living · Tagged

April 22nd marks the 38th anniversary of the modern environmental movement that began in 1970, when 20 million participants across the United States gathered at colleges, universities, primary schools and community centers in peaceful demonstration for environmental reform.

According to organizers at the Earth Day Network it is now the largest international secular holiday in the world with a half billion celebrants annually. With immanent climate change at the forefront of today’s global environmental consciousness, Earth Day’s call to attention is more important than ever.

Earth Day 2008 is expected to be the biggest yet! From Tokyo to Togo, to our flagship event on the National Mall in Washington, DC and 7 other U.S. cities, we will be galvanizing millions of people around the world behind a Call for Climate, our global warming action theme. Hundreds of events are popping up all over the globe and April 22 should be a most memorable Earth Day. We will be asking people to call their government and urge significant and equitable action on climate change.
- Earth Day Network

Join 1,000,000,000 people worldwide!
Take action now and check out the list of events near you!

d.i.y naturally ~

be the change you want to see.

No comment »

Handmade 7 Piece Salad Set by Montezuma Mudd

April 4, 2008 · Filed under Handmade, green living · Tagged , ,

You know how much I love handmade pottery. This salad set by Montezuma Mudd is fantastic!

A beautiful color of blue glaze and the craftsmanship is spectacular.

  • Large Bowl Measurements: 3-1/8″ (h); 10-1/8″ (w) - 8 cup capacity
  • Small Bowl Measurements: 2-1/8″ (h); 6-3/4″ (w) - 2 cup capacity
  • Cruet Measurements: 4-3/4″ (h); 3-1/3″ (w) - 10 oz. capacity
  • Tong Measurement: 6-3/4″ (l); 4-1/2″ (w)

No comment »

Earth Hour - Get Involved Now

March 28, 2008 · Filed under Getting Started, Urban Green, green living · Tagged

Turn off all power for 1 hour! Includes involvement of key metro areas but is spreading globally.

Let the World know you care! Add your name to the Earth Hour list.

Watch the video

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

Comments (4) »

Greensburg, KA - Of All Places, Going Green

March 3, 2008 · Filed under Urban Green, green living · Tagged , ,

The people of Greensburg, KA, are leading the nation in green building, green energy use and are quiclky becomming the model community in the US for green living.


Greensburg Green Town

Last year in May, Greensburg, KA was hit with a devistating tornado, destroying most of their community. The determind Greensburgers became committed to re-building in a green, environmentaly friendly way.

“We want to re-build our community, why not do it right?” says one Greensburg citizen. “We see green as an American responsibility, one that is taken seriusly for the benefit of our children and our future.”

Most would think green living to be a “hippie,” “left-wing-environmentalist” style of living or set aside for the people who can afford it.

But not the people of Greensburg. They have come to the conclusion that Green is a blue collar, common sense, practical solution for our global future and well being.

Green Cubed

The green movement has spread quickly into the community and has the Kansas State University’s College of Architecture and Design inspired to contribute a project called “Greensburg Cubed“. Their goal is to have 4 - 6 10×10x10 cubes displayed around town. These little buildings will serve as an “education station” informing the community and public about green technology and products.

The green inspiration has also hit the high school where kids have formed the Green Club an organization of young people who want educate and inspire people to be more green. They have created a lightbulb exchange program, and have set goals that include putting recycling bins in their school and other initiatives.

The Greensburgers are not only rebuilding their communty. They are standing up and pioneering the way in one of our nations biggest challenges.

You Can Help Too

Show your support for green living and the community of Greensburg, KA. There is a donation button at the bottom of their web site.

~be the change

Comments (1) »

5 Greenest Cars of 2008

February 27, 2008 · Filed under Bio-Diesel, Organic in the News, Urban Green, green living · Tagged , , , , , ,

  1. hondacivicgx.jpg
    Honda Civic GX: green score 57 - runs on natural gas with low emissions and gets 24 MPG in city and 36 on freeway
  2. toyotaprius.jpg
    Toyota Prius: green score 53 - 48 MPG in the city and 45 on the freeway
  3. hondacivichybrid.jpg
    Honda Civic Hybrid: green score 51 - 40 MPG in city and 45 highway
  4. smartcar.jpg
    Smart Car: green score 49 - 33 MPG in city and 41 highway
  5. toyotayaris.jpg

    Toyota Yaris: green score 46 - 29 MPG city and 36 highway

Comments (1) »

10 Ways to Make Your Home a Green Home

February 11, 2008 · Filed under Baking Soda, Home Cleaning, Salt, green living · Tagged , , ,

A green home is a healthy home; free of toxins with fresh air and a clean environment for our families. A green home is also an environmentally friendly home with reduced energy use, conscience recycling efforts and sustainable living habits.

Creating a green home is easier then you think.

  1. Reduce your temperature to your water heater by 10 degrees. By reducing the temp, you can save 3% - 5% in your energy costs.
  2. Reduce your thermostat by 10 degrees. Even for just the 8 hours your family is out at work or school, will save you another 10% on your energy bill.
  3. Get a high-performance shower head. This will use 60% less water and most are designed to produce the same feeling of water pressure.
  4. Clean your lint trap regularly. Doing this simple task can reduce you families energy use by 30%.
  5. Use chemical free, natural cleaners. Baking soda, salt, and vinegar are just a few natural cleaners you can use to clean your home. Most people have these items in their homes already and they are much healthier for your family than the toxic chemicals in traditional home cleaners. Let’s just put it this way; if you need to wear rubber gloves so you don’t absorb the chemicals into your skin or if there is a warning label that you must use the cleaner in a well ventilated area, it’s a good bet that the cleaner is not environmentally friendly, safe for your family and may cause illness.
  6. Replace major appliances with Energy Star Appliances. This can be a big investment to purchase new appliances for the sake of having a green home but they end up paying for themselves in the long run. They will reduce your energy costs and help the environment.
  7. Install double-pane windows. Also a big investment, but will pay for itself as well.
  8. Remove all carpet. Drastic, I know, I’m not a fan of carpet. Especially when there are renewable, sustainable, environmentally friendly alternatives that are much healthier and easier to keep clean. Bamboo, cork, and reclaimed wood are far better to have in your home than carpet. Carpet collects dust and no matter how great your vacuum is, it doesn’t get it all. The air quality in your home will be substantially improved without carpet.
  9. Buy house plants. Plants are natures way of cleaning the air and producing oxygen.
  10. Use Green Energy. More then 50% of U.S. retail customers have the option to choose green energy from their energy provider. Should you choose to do so, you’ll be using energy created directly from renewable sources like wind and solar power.

More Information

Creating an Eco-Friendly Bedroom
Green Shopping

No comment »