Category — Green Home

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, it’s time to start planning for green Holiday celebrations.  To get things kicked off, I’ve scoured the web in search of environmentally-friendly holiday frills.  Here are a two ideas for getting started.

Do you send Holiday greeting cards?  Here’s an eco-friendly option for you…and one that kindly reminds the recipient to celebrate green this year.  The card above is  made from 100% recycled paper, 50% of which is post-consumer content.  These recycled greeting cards are available at Cards Direct. [Read more →]

You may have recently read our energy saving tips for your refrigerator.  Just to recap- they included keeping your refrigerator full, but not overly full, and selecting an Energy Star refrigerator.  But, did you know there are even more things you can do turn your refrigerator into an earth-friendly green machine?

Glass Storage Containers:  Storing food in glass containers, such as the Pyrex storage containers above, naturally keeps food colder, and reduces your refrigerator’s work load.

Vacuum Coils:  Every few months, use your vacuum cleaner to remove the dust and cobwebs from your refrigerator coils.  Clean coils make for a more efficient refrigerator.  A soft bristled brush may also be handy for cleaning tight areas.

Avoid the Sun:  If your refrigerator sits in a sunny spot, either move it, or cover the nearby window with window blinds, or insulated curtains.  Source:  Ideal Bite.

The Pyrex containers above are available at Cookware.Com.

Are you using a wood burning stove or fireplace to keep warm this winter?  Here’s a great way to conserve energy by converting your household waste into recycled heating fuel.  The Logmaker is a plastic gizmo for making tightly rolled, compressed logs out of burnable lawn waste, or even junk mail.

Using the Logmaker begins with creating an outer shell made from newspaper.  Then you can fill the outer shell with any burnable household waste, and tightly compress it with the Logmaker’s plunger.  Finish by tucking in the edges, and your log is complete.  It’s the tightly compressed, and rolled composition of the homemade logs that allows them to burn much longer than the same materials would if burned loosely.

This would also be handy for using with outdoor fire pots, chimineas, and camping gear.

The Logmaker is made in the U.K., and it is available in a recycled plastic model.  For complete instructions, and more info, visit the Logmaker website.

We’ve all heard of shower heads that conserve water by restricting the flow of water, but this one  goes about things a little differently.  This shower head, made by Oxygenics, oxygenates the water flow through 16 ”air entrance ports”   which results in water that contains 10 times the oxygen content of normal tap water, and reduced water consumption.

Manufacturers claim that highly-aerated water is more refreshing, and rejuvinating spa-like experience (Hey, I like the sound of that).  In addition, oxygenated water promotes healthy cell reproduction, and promotes a youthful appearance.  Water conservation and the promise of youth?  What more could you ask for?

Oxygenics shower heads also include handheld units which allow you to pause the water flow when you need to….another great way to save water. I found the Oxygenics shower head at Home Depot for $49.99.  No shower is complete without some fluffy organic bath towels…check them out.

Wow! Even toasters are getting green makeovers.  As soon as I got over the glee of finding this, all I could think of was “DUH” why hasn’t anyone thought of this before!  The Ecolectric 2-slice toaster uses a third less energy than regular household toasters due to the auto-close lids over the bread slots. Ingenious!  The lids hold the heat in, which cooks the bread faster.  Hey- and that means less time spent waiting on breakfast.

Besides the lid feature, this energy efficient toaster looks like most other toasters.  It includes a reheat setting, a bagel setting (yay!), and a defrost setting.  The Ecolectric toaster is available at Ethical Superstore. Watch a video of this toaster in action.

If you’ve read much about green living, you’ve probably heard about the environmental dangers of batteries.  Household batteries contain mercury, zinc, cadmium, maganese, and other components which are harmful to both your health, and our earth.  Over time batteries left in landfills break down, and leech these substances into our water and soil.

If you want to reduce your household’s need for batteries, you should check out some of the wind-up gadgets now on the market.

Universal Remote Controls:  This universal remote control will run for 7 days on just 30 revolutions of winding. It will also control up to 6 of your home electronics.  The wind-up remote control is available at Nigel’s Eco Store.  [Read more →]

After a long day of work at home or at the office, you really deserve a comfy and tranquil place to rest at night.  So, if you’re working on turning your home into a truly green home, non-toxic bedding like mattresses, bedsheets, and organic pillows are a great place to start.  Here are some organic pillows that made me want to stop blogging and take a nap!

The neck pillows above are encased in a 100% silk cover, and filled with organic buckwheat hulls.  Apparently it’s not just for pancakes anymore!  These organic pillows are actually sold as yoga accessories, but I think they would be a great addition to a bedding set, or handy to keep in the car for long trips.  I found the buckwheat neck pillows at Yoga Accessories.Com.  [Read more →]

With Thanksgiving preparation, and whirlwind of cooking plans underway, you may be wondering how to reduce energy use in the kitchen.  Here are a few green living tips for saving energy while preparing your Thanksgiving dinner….or any dinner!

Scrub, Baby Scrub: A blackened cooktop on your kitchen stove absorbs heat, and causes you to consume more energy, but a shiny stove top efficiently reflects energy into the cooking pan.  Now’s the time to clean your cooktop, and get ready for the Holidays.

Join the Hoods: Range hoods can help you quickly whisk away the extra heat in your kitchen, before you’re prompted to turn on the air conditioner!

Ugh…Clean the Oven: The last thing you wanted to hear, right?  Just like a dirty stove top, a grimy oven steals energy, and can cause foods to cook unevenly.  Ahem…just do it.  [Read more →]

Every home needs 1 or 2 wall clocks, so why not look for ones that tout your green living priorities?  The wall clock above is made from the reused chain sprocket of an old bicycle.  Each is hand made from recycled landfill parts, and measures approximately 6 inches in diameter.  The face of the recycled bicycle clock is made of paper, and it requires 1 AA battery. I found sprocket clocks at Green Home for $64 for a set of 2.

Here’s another recycled clock, known as the Juice Clock.  This one is made from recycled HDPE, the same plastic that many laundry soap bottles are made from.  The Juice Clock comes in lemon, orange, and grapefruit, and it is available at Re: Modern for $45.

Add either of these clocks to your green home decor, and you’ll have quite a conversation starter.

If you’re worried about the environmental concerns and health issues related to chemical-packed traditional household cleaners, you may want to consider steam cleaners as a green cleaning option.  Steam cleaners hold water in a storage tank, and a heating element boils the water which creates pressurized steam.  Then using a wand or other attachment, you can clean with powerful blasts of hot steam, without detergents or other additives.

There are many ways to use a steam cleaner for environmentally friendly household cleaning, including:

• Ceramic Tile Floors
• Showers & Bathtubs
• Carpet
• Lawn Furniture
• Eliminating Odors
• Disinfecting
• Decks
• Grills
• Upholstery
• Hard to Reach Nooks & Crannies

The steam cleaner above is made by Euro-Pro.  It holds enough water for 30 minutes of cleaning time, and includes several attachments.  The Euro-Pro Shark steam cleaner is available at Ace Hardware. Here’s an interesting article on the benefits of steam cleaning.