Green Living Tips – Paper Towels – Who Needs Them?

February 25, 2011 By Anne

I’d like to talk today about paper towels. You can help the environment and save money by reducing your paper towel usage.

What to use instead?

I went to Target and bought some cheap wash clothes. You can make your own out of old towels or clothes too. I use about one a day or so and then just throw it in the laundry. They can be used over and over. We hardly use paper towels anymore. I love it!

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

CleanFlame Fire Log Review

February 19, 2011 By Anne

Living in South Florida we do not get to light as many fires as we’d like. We do have a fireplace though, beautiful stone, one of our favorite features of the house. But who wants to use one of those fire logs with all the chemicals in it?

I was contacted a few months ago about doing a product review for CleanFlame products. CleanFlame products are safe, family-friendly, 100% recycled fire products. They re-purpose used waxed-box containers into ultra-clean burning firelogs and firestarters which save trees, relieve overburdened landfills, and clean up the air.

We are doing everything we can to be eco-friendly and this is another great item to add to the list!

So what did we think? WE loved it. I asked my husband what he thought, did the logs work different and all that. He said they worked the same as the old one did. No different, except for the fact that these were better for us and better for the environment.

Using CleanFlame™ products, you can have peace of mind knowing your cozy fire does not pollute our air, strip our forests, deplete our resources, or impact delicate rainforest ecosystems. No trees are sacrificed, no non-renewable resources consumed, no palm oil harvested for CleanFlame™ products. In fact, by using our products you are preserving forests and reducing landfills.

Our patented closed-loop production process offers enormous benefits for the environment and allows store chains and consumers to achieve their goals for a cleaner environment. The process starts when water-tight waxed-box containers are used to ship produce to grocery stores. Unfortunately, this highly weather-resistant material is not readily recyclable. And until now, the vast majority of these used containers have been routed to landfills, where they take up to 50 years to decompose.

CleanFlame offers Rapid Fire Firestarters, Firelogs and Campfire in a can. All are made from 100% recycled materials.

Check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

Plus on their website you can get a $3.00 coupon!

I received products from the company and /or PR company to facilitate this review. This did not affect my opinion.

Anne

Tips for Green Living – New Series – Cloth Napkins

February 18, 2011 By Anne

I’m starting a new series on Going Green. I’ve always meant to do this, but somehow never did it regualry. Well starting today, every Friday you will get 1-2 tips on Going Green. I may include tips on other days, but definitly on Friday.

Paper napkins – get rid of them! I decided about 9 months ago we were going to start using cloth napkins. I had a few in the closet and went to the craft store, bought material and made a few more. Everyone loved them, except my husband. He kept a few paper napkins to use for himself.

I talked to him about it and found out he’d like them to be smaller and have more of them. So smaller and more I did!

I even make them for the holidays!! Linen is the best, but can be pricey. I found some beautiful, brown, textured linen on clearance, that I love the best. It’s good for the environment and will save you money too!

Anne

My Green Christmas

January 1, 2011 By Anne

So what did you do to be “green” this Christmas?

I saved brown paper and all kinds of boxes from my work. I then flattened out the paper and and stamped it with lovely Christmas Stamps and added lots of curling ribbon.

The boxes were great! I did not have to buy any boxes and these were then recycled at my home. (otherwise these boxes would have gone into the dumpster and then landfill)

My cards will be saved for next year’s tags, I used card tags this year as well.

We tried to save the wrapping paper and tissue paper. I not sure I can reuse the paper for gifts – a little too wrinkly. ( is that a word?)

I did find a great way to reuse the paper though! We had so much fun making a pinata for Hunter’s birthday, we decided to make a pinata for Savannah’s birthday party and instead of using newspaper, we are using the used wrapping paper. (I’m not sure wrapping paper can be recycled through the county, so I thought this was a great idea!)

The tissue paper and ribbons from Christmas will also be used for decorating the pinata and wrapping the party favors.

Look for a post about making a pinata.

So – What did you do?

Anne

Making Your Home Environmentally Friendly – Guest Post

December 30, 2010 By Anne

This is a sponsored guest post.

Making Your Home Environmentally Friendly

There has never been a better time than now to go green. Besides there being government rebates for eco-friendly home improvements such as installing solar panels, climate change continues to get worse by the day, and eventually will be completely outside of mankind’s grasp. Therefore, it is your duty as an inhabitant of this planet to go green. Throughout the San Diego region, there are numerous construction companies with expertise in making homes energy efficient, so you can get started right away. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your environmentally friendly remodeling plan.

INSULATION: Insulation is a good place to start if you would like to make your house more eco-friendly. Most homes lose about half of their heat through the walls and roof. Upgrading your insulation will reduce your dependence on the thermostat, which will save you lots of money in addition to easing up the carcinogens released by the heater. Insulation upgrades are a common practice for green construction companies.

SOLAR PANELS: Custom home builders recommend having solar panels installed so you can create your own energy. Solar hot water heaters cut out all the pollutants created by conventional water heaters and can provide up to half of your hot water requirements. Now is a great time to invest in solar panels because the government is offering rebates to purchasers. If you buy solar panels, you will receive a significant portion of your money back, and will then be energy independent, powering your own home for free. (Assuming, of course, that you do not have to pay for access to the sun.)

GET A SMART METER: A smart meter is an ingenious tool that can list the energy consumption for each appliance in the house. You can use the smart meter to figure out which appliances use the most energy and where you can make the most effective cuts.

CLOTHESLINE: If you have a large enough yard and live in a relatively dry climate, then consider constructing a clothesline. You can greatly reduce your energy consumption by air-drying your clothes and also save quite a bit of money.

This should help you create a starting point for upgrading your home. To make your house truly eco-friendly, start calling up an environmentally friendly remodeling company today.

What are doing this new year to make your home more environmentally friendly?