Stop Throwing Money Away Book Review
Aug 25, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
I can be a pretty disorganized person. I’m getting better at repurposing things I already have, but it would be nice to do better.
That’s where Stop Throwing Money Away
One of the amazing things is how many things you will discover that you can reuse, sell or trade with someone else to get something you need.
“Shopping at home” is what Jaime Novak calls it when you go through the things you already have to find what you need. It’s too true that many people don’t realize how much they already have, and buy a new version of something they already own because they can’t find it.
She also notes how many things people hold onto that they’ll never use but don’t think they can part with for one reason or another. Often these things can be sold for money needed elsewhere. Given how tight times are for many families, this is a great tip.
She’s a great fan of repurposing. The glass jar that gets thrown into the recycle bin is one of her examples as something that can easily be reused. I really get this one, as I already repurpose my glass spaghetti jars, keeping several on hand so that when I need one, it’s there. Organized, not clutter, though. They have a place that’s not in the way of anything else around here.
You’ll learn about the “one in, two out” rule that can really help you decrease clutter. This is a great way to decrease the number of things you own and is a huge help in decluttering.
This book will help you to get organized without telling you to buy new stuff to organize the old stuff. More repurposing comes from figuring out which items can be stored in which containers you already own. It doesn’t need to be fancy, it needs to work.
I have to love how she discourages storing things in a rental unit. If you need something so little that you can store it away from your home is a point I’m very much on board with. Once in a while you’ll wish you could have something back you got rid of for lack of space, but not that often, and the savings on storage fees will make up the expense of replacing most things.
If you’re suffering from clutter, Stop Throwing Money Away
Tags: book review, clutter, decluttering, stop throwing money away
How Much Does Buying Local Food Really Matter?
Aug 24, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
I came across an article in the New York Times over the weekend about the real costs of food transportation. The overall point is that eating local foods may not be making as much of an impact as you think, because transporting it from one state to another can be more efficient in terms of energy use than growing it locally, especially if a heated greenhouse is needed to grow it.
The article makes some very good points, such as the fact that the energy to grow the produce is a bigger part of the energy cost than transporting it to the store. The energy cost from the store to your home is also usually one of the bigger costs – depending on where you live in relation to the store and how you get there, of course.
Then there’s refrigeration and preparation. Having food and preparing it to eat can add quite a bit to the energy used in dealing with that food.
I can’t say all of it works for me. The argument about the greenhouse simply points up that you should eat foods in season. Produce in season won’t need a greenhouse. There’s energy saved right there.
I’ll grant that cutting back on food miles is only a small impact. The size of the impact isn’t the point. It’s decreasing the environmental impact of your food in the ways available to you. That it’s small doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
The article says that transportation is about 14% of the energy used in the American food system. Why shouldn’t we try to decrease that number? It’s one of the areas where a decrease is possible.
Fortunately, the article does admit that there are some benefits to eating locally. Not very specifically, but at least the author isn’t entirely against it and just wants people to really think before they eat local. That’s a good thing.
Tags: eating local, local eating, local food, locavore
How Much Should You Worry About Eggs and Salmonella?
Aug 23, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
The recent major recall of eggs for salmonella has a lot of people wondering about how much they should worry. It’s hard to believe that it took so long for the recall to get started when so many eggs are a potential source for salmonella poisoning.
I’m feeling pretty lucky in that at the moment we’re out of eggs. If any were contaminated, clearly I cooked them well enough that it wasn’t a problem. Lucky us.
That’s one point to remember. Even without a recall, eggs are sometimes contaminated with salmonella. Cook them well and it won’t be a problem for you. That said, I’ve had foods with raw egg plenty of times without trouble. Raw cookie dough, for example.
Of course, if you have any eggs that are effected by the recall, get rid of them or return them to the store. There’s no point in taking a chance with contaminated eggs.
Will Free Range Eggs Help?
I love free range eggs. My sister has chickens, so I get them from her occasionally. She doesn’t live close enough for this to be a regular thing, however.
While eggs from free range chickens are not a part of this recall, they can still become contaminated by salmonella. You can’t see the difference, so looking at the eggs won’t help.
On the other hand, really free range eggs (not just chickens set free for a short time then recaged) are a good thing in general. Better for the chickens and you get better eggs. There’s a lot to be said that’s positive for finding a source of free range eggs.
I would suggest that there are better sources for free range eggs than the grocery store, however. If you know someone who raises chickens, that’s a good source. A farm that you can visit and see how they treat their chickens is a good source.
The grocery shelf, not so much. Free range is too loosely defined.
When to Worry
The only thing you need to worry more than usual about is if you have eggs directly effected by this recall. Otherwise, temper your new reminder of the potential for salmonella poisoning from eggs with your lifelong experience. Odds are good it hasn’t been a problem for you before.
Tags: egg recall, food poinsoning, salmonella
12 Ways to Naturally Keep Your Home’s Air Cleaner
Aug 16, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
I posted the other day about how to keep the air in your home smelling better naturally. Controlling the smell is only a part of the battle. You want to keep the air in your home clean and healthy. These are some steps you can take to help the air inside your home stay cleaner.
1. Take off your shoes when you come inside.
Shoes track in a lot of dirt when you come into the house. That’s anything you walked on that was outside. Even if you don’t use them yourself, others in your neighborhood probably use pesticides and fertilizers, which make their way into the dust and dirt around everyone’s homes. Your shoes track these and other dirt into your home.
Keep a mat
Fortunately, going barefoot is pretty good for feet. It gives them a break from being confined inside your shoes. If you really don’t like going barefoot, buy some slippers or other comfortable house shoes to wear only indoors.
2. Have hardwood, tile or other hard floor materials.
Hard floor surfaces are much easier to keep clean than carpets. You can keep your carpets looking clean, but they trap a lot of dust and dirt that make it into the air of your home.
You’ll probably still put in some area rugs, so pick ones that have low piles or can easily be taken outside to be cleaned.
For the carpets you can’t take out, use a vacuum with HEPA filters
3. Use natural cleaners around the house.
The more chemicals you use to clean your home, the more chemicals will build up in the air inside your home. Natural cleaners may still contaminate the air in their way, but their ingredients should be safer for your lungs..
4. Open the windows.
Outdoor air in most places is cleaner than indoor air. Let the air flow through when weather permits.
5. Use low VOC paints when repainting.
If you’re painting inside your home, choose low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints. They don’t smell as bad and release fewer compounds into the air of your home. Varnish and carpets also contain VOCs, so pay attention when buying any of these.
6. Check your air filters.
If you have a heater or air conditioner, check the filters regularly. Some filters can be cleaned
7. Don’t allow smoking indoors.
If you, anyone in your family or anyone who visits you smokes, ask that it be kept outside. The rest of the people in your home don’t need to breathe those chemicals.
8. Don’t let the car idle in the garage.
Air from the garage gets into the rest of your home. You know how bad car exhaust smells and that it’s unhealthy for you. Why would you want that inside your home? Be ready to pull the car out of the garage shortly after starting it to minimize the pollution it add to your home.
9. Keep the humidity down.
Daily life inside a home can increase the humidity of a home. Just think how humid the bathroom is after a shower. Humid air makes for good conditions for mold to grow. Run bathroom fans or open the window after showering or bathing to let the humid air out.
10. Don’t use pesticides indoors.
It’s tough finding out you have bugs in the house, especially hard to control ones. If you can at all help it, don’t use pesticides inside your home, as they will contaminate the air as well as the areas you sprayed them.
Prevention is best to keep the bugs away. If you’re starting to see them, figure out what they’re after. If you can clean it up, they aren’t going to be as interested, although you may need to take more steps to get rid of them.
Some pests can be gotten rid of more easily than others. You can get rid of some kinds of ants with a mixture of borax and corn syrup, for example. Others you will need to set bait traps.
11. Rethink your personal care supplies.
Some of the supplies you use in your daily personal care routine aren’t too good for your indoor air quality. This is especially true of anything you spray, such as perfumes and hair sprays. Look for options that you still like but don’t have as many VOCs.
12. Grow houseplants.
Houseplants
Tags: clean air, fresh air, indoor air quality
Are You Replacing Too Much in an Attempt to be Green?
Aug 10, 2010 Eco Friendly Home
Living an eco friendly life is complicated at times. There are usually a lot of things you want to buy that are more eco friendly than what you own now, but when is that the right choice? When does it make more sense environmentally speaking to buy new?
Appliances and Electronics – It’s Not All About Efficiency
Replacing appliances and electronics can be a tough decision, and much of it depends on just how bad the old version is. Really old refrigerators are likely good prospects for replacement when you’re ready. Newer models are much more efficient and you should quickly see a decrease in your power bills. Just make sure the old one is sent off to a good recycling program.
Laptop computers
Electronics can be problematic in general due to recycling issues. When it comes time to replace some of your old electronics, make sure you think about how you’re disposing of the old. There are some pretty toxic metals inside them.
Plastics
Getting rid of plastics is an environmental issue and possibly a health issue as well. People can argue about whether or not BPA is a problem, but there’s no denying that plastic is an environmental problem. Search for pictures of the Pacific Garbage Patch if you doubt that.
They’re incredibly hard to get rid of completely. Plastic comes into our homes in so many ways.
Plastic wraps some of the foods we buy from the grocery store. It’s used in the bags many stores use when you make a purchase. It’s used in water bottles and food storage containers. It’s used to make bottles that hold cleaning and personal care supplies. It’s all over the place.
Some areas it’s easy to say that you should buy something to replace the plastic you’d be using otherwise. A good quality reusable shopping bag – not one of the cheapies sold by the grocery store for a dollar, but a good one – should last a long time, be washable and keep you from having your purchases put into a plastic bag.
A stainless steel water bottle is a great replacement for buying disposable plastic water bottles. Pick good quality and it will last for years. You’ll even save money over time in comparison to buying water in disposable bottles. And I don’t mean all that much time if you’ve been buying a lot of water.
Invest in a good filter if you really aren’t used to the flavor of tap water. Plastic may be involved in at least the casing of the filter, but as I’ve said – it’s really hard to avoid plastics.
Clothes
If you’re replacing perfectly good clothes with eco friendly versions, you may be doing it wrong. What you have has already done whatever environmental damage inherent in its creation. So long as you choose eco friendly laundry detergents, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to use what you have until it wears out.
When to Replace?
In general, save the eco friendly shopping for when something really needs replacement. Don’t go chasing after the latest, greatest eco friendly whatever. That’s called consumerism and it’s very easy to fall for.
When you’re replacing something, think about how you’re disposing of it. Could you or someone else reuse or repurpose it? Can it be recycled? Is it honestly just trash?
Use things until they really aren’t worth keeping, and then think if they need to be replaced. Sometimes reduce is the real answer. Buying just because it’s the latest eco item to catch your attention is not a good reason to buy anything.
Tags: green shopping, reuse
