Category Archives: Eco Friendly Home

Auugh! How Do You Stop Junk Mail?

Junk mail is amazing, at the very least for the sheer quantity of it. You may go days without mail you want to receive, but it’s a rare day you don’t get at least a little junk mail for many people.

Talk about a pain! Thank goodness there are things you can do about it.

Take Yourself Off Lists

You can get yourself off the mailing lists that you don’t want to be on in many cases. Contact the companies that send you catalogs that no longer interest you or you’d rather just view on their websites. Tell them to take you off their list.

I’ve also posted in the past about getting rid of junk mail credit card offers. It’s not too hard and worth the effort.

You can also contact the Direct Marketer’s Association and opt out through their site. You can even pick and choose which companies you don’t want to get mail from, so you still get anything that actually matters to you.

Or You Can Pay Someone to Do It For You

There are companies such as Tonic MailStopper that will handle stopping junk mail for you. That particular service also plants 5 trees. It takes about 90 days to start working they say. That’s because it’s hard to stop things the companies have already scheduled, and many mailings are planned months in advance.

Pay Attention to Forms You Fill Out

To keep your name from being added to too many lists, pay attention to where you’re sharing your information. Most sweepstakes include that they’re going to share your information, but may include an opt out.

Similarly, if you order something, pay attention to anything that mentions sharing your information and be sure you opt out of it. These are places that can get your name and address onto new lists.

How to Find Organic or Local Produce for Less

People often complain about the cost of organic and local produce, and rightfully so. It’s hard to buy them on many budgets. Since I’m working this month on buying local and/or organic produce for my family this month, I thought I would share some tactics for getting it for less.

Join a Co-op

This is where I’m getting my organic produce right now. The co-op tries for local as well, but that doesn’t always work out since they run year-round.

What I like about them is that since they are not attached to a particular farm they can respond to member preferences. There’s a thread on the member discussion board for people to ask for things they’d like to see in their baskets. You also don’t have to worry about crop failures. They buy what they can find from a variety of sources each week.

The challenge is in learning how to cook some of what is provided. This group provided my first experience with collard greens, for example. But that means more excuses to experiment with recipes!

Join a CSA

A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a way to buy a share of a farmer’s production in advance. It’s much like the co-op I’m a member of, except that it’s attached to a particular farm.

You really don’t know what you’re going to get each week, so once again it’s an excuse to try new recipes.

Visit the Farmer’s Market

In my experience, some farmer’s markets have really great prices, others not so much. You may have to shop around a little to find the one that has the best combination of prices, produce and quality in your area.

Not all produce at farmer’s markets will be either local or organic, but you’re always free to ask. And even if the prices aren’t spectacular they can be cheaper than the prices for organic produce at the grocery store. Just know your prices well enough to be sure of what you’re getting into.

You can also check back late in the day to see if anything has been marked down so that the farmer doesn’t have to haul it back. This won’t always work, and of course it’s been picked over all day, but it can be worth a shot.

Start Your Own Garden

If you have some space, this can be a lot of fun. It can add up if you aren’t careful about the supplies you buy, but for organic gardening you shouldn’t be spending a ton on fertilizers and such anyhow. You’ll do far better if you can get a good compost pile going.

Gardening can be both delightful and frustrating. Sometimes you’ll get an amazing harvest. Other times you’ll get nothing, and of course everything in between.

If you live in an area with water shortages, gardening may not work so well. I found it harder to keep a garden really thriving when we had a lot of rules about which days and times we could water. Just kind of limiting and hard to deal with on the hottest of summer days.

Don’t forget to share excess produce from your garden with neighbors. Not only is it fun, if they have excess they’re likely to reciprocate.

First Week with the Organic Produce Club

As I noted in my post for the One Small Change challenge, I joined an organic produce buying club, and this past Saturday was our first pick up. It went pretty well, except I forgot my reusable bag and our produce had to just rattle around in the trunk. Not quite ideal.

But the produce looked and looks mostly good. A small container of blueberries was included, which delighted the kids. The selection was pretty good, including some fresh cilantro and some other herbs along with the vegetables and fruit.

The organic carrots are gone already. One of my nieces came for a visit over the weekend. She’s an exceptionally picky eater but has learned to love carrots. At home she always gets those “baby” carrots that I’ll admit are quick and convenient, but lack any other advantages.

She loved the organic carrots. Nice, whole, just wash and eat carrots. It was really good to see that she could cope with them looking different from what she gets at home because that’s very often a big issue for her. And now her parents know that they can just buy her regular carrots if they want.

The produce included some collard greens, which I’m not so familiar with, but that’s a part of the plan, to have to figure out how to use certain foods. I didn’t want to do that this weekend with the picky eater possibly demotivating my kids, but now it’s all fair game!

I don’t know if we’ll make it out every week or so… that’s something I still have to discuss with my husband. The price is good for organic produce, I must say. We’ve been eating conventionally grown produce so long that the price difference is still there, and on our budget I do have to think about that. But we’re definitely doing more weeks. The exposure to different foods is worth it, as is supporting local farms with at least part of the purchase and getting organic produce.

Are You Ready to Clear Out Some Clutter?

This time of year makes me think of two things. The first is of course how I can do my Christmas shopping efficiently and with buying a minimum of junk. The second is… how do I get rid of the stuff that keeps accumulating?

I don’t feel that I do that badly overall, but still stuff that I no longer need manages to hang around.

I like thinking about how to get rid of things at this time of year also because it’s a good lesson for the kids. Even those times I’m not thinking about what I really don’t need anymore there are the toys they never play with. At this time of year it’s easy to get the kids thinking about less fortunate children.

And so, here are some ways to get the clutter out of your house. How you determine what is clutter is your own problem.

Have a Swap Party

This can work for children’s toys, clothes for people of similar sizes, even rarely used kitchen or garden tools. Just get together with some friends and see who can use the things you don’t really want anymore.

My sisters have even talked about doing this regularly with children’s videos. That way one copy can be enjoyed by many children, and it can always make its way back to the original owner when it’s really wanted.

Send It to the Thrift Store

This is the classic solution, of course. Just call up your favorite charity as soon as you have things boxed up. They’ll haul it away for you and it’s out of your life.

Pay attention to what they will and will not take. Working electronics are one thing. Broken are quite another, for example.

Craigslist and Freecycle

Two different sites, but you can use them with the same goal in mind – to get rid of things you don’t particularly want anymore. If you think you can get some money for it, Craigslist is a good option. If you don’t want money for it, even if you could get some money, try Freecycle.

Tips for an Eco Friendly Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is getting pretty close already, so it’s time to start planning. I posted last year on having a green Thanksgiving, and now it’s time to revisit the topic and see if I have any thoughts to add to it.

Hmm, no, not really. Guess I got it perfect last year.

Kidding folks, kidding.

Last year I suggested decorating with things you have on hand, using natural decorations, organic turkey & produce, less excess, borrowing, limit carbon from travel or stay home, recycle, compost, be thankful for what you have and sharing with the less fortunate. If you want the details, go read last year’s post.

What to add, what to add?

How about a reminder to bring your reusable bags when you go shopping for Thanksgiving supplies? It’s a crazy time of year, but don’t get so behind that you forget the little details like that.

Also consider turning your heater down just a couple degrees if you haven’t already. Sweaters are good for helping you to cope, and having company warms the house a little too.

If you’re buying a turkey it’s kind of hard to take the focus off of it, but do your best to have interesting side dishes that don’t include meat. All that meat can be used in smaller quantities for a number of meals if you don’t go through it in one nights. Just cut up the excess and freeze it for later use to avoid the inevitable turkey boredom.

The Eat Well Guide may help you find the right kind of turkey and produce in your area. It’s nice when you can get free range or organic. LocalHarvest.org is another good resource.

Candles are a popular decoration at this this time of year. Try to find beeswax candles rather than the usual paraffin ones. Beeswax burns much cleaner.

And of course, just do what you can to minimize waste. It’s easy to get caught up in the tradition of having too much, so just try to be sure that your “too much” isn’t so much that the leftovers won’t get eaten before they spoil.