Myrecycledbags.com has tons of excellent ideas for reusing not only plastic bags, but tons of other items, check them out!

Instead of buying your valentine a stuffed animal or some cheesy plastic thing, give them something they won’t eventually throw away.  Tickets to a play, concert, or other event will be twice as nice.  Services like a massage are always enjoyed, or save some money and give the massage yourself, that would be more fun anyway.

Great used gifts abound, you just have to look for them.  Refinish a picture frame, and include a photo of the two of you.  Collector’s editions of books, vinyl albums, or antique candlesticks can all be wonderful gifts, and can cost less than new.

If you are buying jewelry for Valentine’s Day, there is a lot out there to reuse.  Pawnshops and antique stores usually sell previously owned jewelry, and at a discounted price.  Many (non-chain) jewelry stores also have estate jewelry they purchase, and resell along with new jewelry.  If you are concerned, have an appraiser check out your purchase first.

Please remember to not buy puppies or kittens for Valentine’s Day unless you know the recipient really wants one, and can care for it.

Have a great holiday everyone!

The average person creates about 1400 calories of food waste each day in the US. Keep some of that waste from hitting the landfill by using your leftovers, if you don’t eat them, try to compost them. Composting is a simple and effective way to improve your soil by adding organic matter. The organic matter will absorb and hold more water for your plants, reducing the amount you need to water, and adding stability to the soil and reducing runoff. Organic matter is also an excellent source for plant food, which means you won’t have to fertilize as much. Here is a guide to home composting.

With all that great soil, you may want to try your hand at growing some of your own food, even if it’s just a few pots of your favorite herbs. Growing your own food allows you to control any additives you may apply, you can easily grow a completely organic garden, and harvest the benefits yourself. You further help the environment by reducing shipping, you food hasn’t been driven in from California, Mexico, or some other far away place. If you don’t grow anything yourself, try to buy locally grown food from farmer’s markets in your area.

The next time you go looking for new cookware, go green. Hard-Anodized cookware is an excellent choice, steer clear of coated pans, such as Teflon, or aluminum which can release chemicals into your food as you cook. Also remember, glass and many metals can be recycled if they become unusable. Don’t go out and buy new cookware today as that is a waste of money and resources, just replace your worn cookware as you normally would. If you must get rid of older cookware that is still in good condition, be sure to recycle it by giving it to a charity, a thrift shop, or by selling it at a garage sale.

Many people spray their entire kitchen with poisons before and after cooking. Don’t do this. Use natural cleaners around your food, here are some recipes.

Here are a few additional ideas for free greening:

Don’t microwave your food in plastic. Many plastic containers will release harmful chemicals into your food when they are heated. Put the food into a glass or ceramic bowl before heating.

Check the lids on your pots and pans, a tighter fit will reduce the amount of heat lost during cooking.
Reduce cooking times and energy use by cutting food into smaller pieces, they will cook faster.

Don’t use disposable storage bags for those left-overs or that half of an onion in the fridge, use a reusable container. I personally like sour cream containers for this since they are a good size. Reduce that landfill waste twice, once with the container, and again with the disposable bag.

Cook more than one thing at a time. If you are baking cookies and bread, bake them together. If you are cooking pasta and steamed vegetables, cook the pasta in the steamer water at the same time. Need a few boiled eggs for tomorrow? Boil them with the pasta you are cooking tonight.

Now get out there and green up your kitchen on the cheap.

While ten dollars for a small pack of four batteries may seem excessive, work out the cost over the life of the batteries.

The example I’ll use is my LED reading light, since it’s the item I’m most acquainted with. About every six to eight weeks, I need to replace the batteries (two AAA’s).

If I was to go buy a pack of two AAA batteries the general cost would range from $0.99 for a cheap set at a dollar store, to $2.00 for upper end batteries at a box store. If I bought a large pack of batteries at a box store, 24 batteries would cost about $10-$20.

Now with the large pack at, let’s average $15 for 24 batteries, that works out to about $0.65 per battery, or for our book light example, $1.30 every six to eight weeks. After the alkaline batteries are dead, they are useless and discarded, hopefully recycled, but most people do not recycle the alkaline batteries.

In just a few months, the cost of the alkaline batteries will have surpassed the five dollars I spent for the rechargeables. The batteries have more than paid for themselves over the three years I’ve used them, and I haven’t noticed a decrease in performance of the equipment, or the batteries.

Now, the environmental cost of all of the discarded alkaline batteries is possibly enormous. Batteries are made with many heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and nickel. When discarded, the batteries can slowly leak these metals into the soil and ground water. Which means large amounts of pollution. So, even if you don’t switch to rechargeable batteries, please make sure you at least recycle your single use batteries.

Going Green all at once can be a daunting task, frequently ending in overload and frustration, so here is a little help.

1. Choose 12 things you want to do to Go Green this year. These can be anything you want, but only start with 12 on your list. Some suggestions are: carpool to work 2 days a week, buy all your music online, make your own cleaning supplies, recycle those unwanted books at the used book store, take shorter showers, buy organically grown clothing, or buy only CFS bulbs from now on.

2. Now, instead of trying to do all 12 things at once, start one each month. Write them on your calendar, or enter them into the digital organizer of your choice so you remember each new project.

If you want, feel free to make a list of 24 things, delegating two to each month instead, but the idea is to commit to living greener, and to finally achieve that goal of lasting positive change.

1. Did you receive a box in the mail with lots of styrofoam beans? Keep them to reuse them next time you need to ship something.

2. What are you going to do with all of that wrapping paper? Here’s an idea, reuse it. If you have large pieces, you may be able to fold them up to use again. Shred them and use them for packaging material or for the hamster cage. Be sure to contact your local recycling center before setting out the paper, the glossy holographic paper may need to be recycled in the magazine bin, or it may not be recyclable in your area. Any paper that’s not chemically treated and printed with vegetable ink can be shredded and composted.

3. Be sure to buy recyclable batteries for all those toys instead of the single use batteries.

4. Don’t forget to mulch or compost your tree this year instead of leaving it curbside. Some areas have tree collection areas for mass mulching, drop it off there if you don’t have any use for it after the holidays.

5. If you don’t have reusable dishes for your parties, be sure to get green disposables, The Green Office has a large collection to choose from.

Be sure to enjoy your holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Not every hobby out there can be greened up, but many of them can be. We’re going to start with these. If anyone wants assistance with additional hobbies, feel free to ask in the comments section.

Gardening

Old fashioned gardening techniques frequently leave much to be desired. Here are a few tips to green up your garden inexpensively.

Start a compost pile for your garden. Compost adds needed nutrients to your soil, and added organic matter, which helps keep moisture from evaporating as quickly. The only thing you have to have to start is vegetable garbage. If you wish to, you can purchase composters or build one yourself, or just start your own pile.

There are many pest deterrents you can make straight out of your pantry or refrigerator. Here’s an aphid spray.

Combine 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper with 5-6 chopped cloves of garlic in 1 quart of very warm water. Steep for about an hour, or until the solution is cool. Strain the solution into a spray bottle, and spray your plants. PLEASE be careful as cayenne pepper will be extremely painful to get into your eyes, wear gloves when you use the spray, and watch your spraying direction to avoid yourself, others, and your pets. (You’re making pepper spray.)

Reading

Reading is a fairly environmentally friendly hobby, but we can make it greener and cheaper. Instead of purchasing books new, check out some from the library instead. This helps cut down on the natural resources used to make books, and you can read the book for free. You can also buy books used from garage sales or thrift shops. Used book stores are great because you can buy books used, and most will buy books from you and give you a credit to use in their store.

Another option is ebooks. Many publishing companies are working on getting more books available for computer downloading. This eliminates the need for paper to print the books (and all the processing waste involved), and the ebooks are usually cheaper to buy. Be sure to check any software you may need to open and read the books, and only buy ebooks from reputable sources. Here’s an excellent place to start for Del Ray books.

Fleas

The easiest and cheapest way to avoid flea problems is to routinely groom you animals, checking for fleas or bites.

That aside, it looks like pennyroyal, lemon, rosemary, and wormwood are said to be good for flea repellent. Wormwood can be difficult to get a hold of, so you’ll probably need to work without it.

For pets, making a rosemary or pennyroyal tea to add to bathwater can help (make sure to rinse well).

Adding dried pennyroyal, rosemary, bay leaves, and/or dried peppermint to pet bedding can keep fleas out of the pillows.

Lemon oil seems to work if you soak the pet collars with the oil. You can make your own lemon extract inexpensively by steeping grated lemon rinds in some hot water overnight, then soaking the collars or handkerchiefs in it.

You should be able to make a dust of the pennyroyal, rosemary, bay leaves, and peppermint to sprinkle around sheds, windows, crawl spaces, or anywhere else you’re worried about to keep the fleas out. A light dusting on your pets might help, as long as they don’t chew on themselves (some of these herbs might be poisonous to animals, so check with your vet first).

If fleas are a serious problem, natural remedies may not be enough.

You may want to try any of the essential oils (lemon, rosemary, or peppermint) on a handkerchief around your neck if walking in the woods. Different solutions are going to work for different species of fleas, so they may not all work for your location.

Ticks

Since ticks are larger, prevention and checking is going to be your best bet, and the cheapest. Always check for ticks, even if you were only out in the trees or bushes for a few minutes. Dress to avoid ticks. And check your animals too, groom them regularly with flea and tick combs.

The only things I could find for ticks were a spray and bedding repellent.

For a spray, use a good handful each of peppermint, basil, and eucalyptus and make a tea with three quarts of water. Allow to cool and spray (watch your eyes, and try to avoid your skin).
The bedding repellent is similar to the flea repellent. Dried peppermint, bay leaf, eucalyptus, rosemary, sage, and cloves (about 3-4 ounces total) crumbled and sewn into the pet bedding.

I know many people who swear that bay leaves will keep bugs out of your flour, so they may keep bugs out of your home as well. Citronella oil is traditionally an insect repellent that may work for you. There is a lot more information out there, some will work, some won’t, but I hope this at least gives you a place to start.

The easiest, cheapest, and greenest way to deal with insects in your home is to try to keep them outside. Seal up the cracks in your house, all houses have some, the older the house, the higher the likelihood of cracking. Check your window screens, replace ripped screens or patch them. Trim the shrubs and trees away from the house and dump all standing water. In your house, keep your food in sealed containers, and put it away after using it. Keep the kitchen and dining room floors swept and mopped.

It is reported that most crawling insects, as well as mice, do not like peppermint and will avoid it. Make a peppermint mixture to spray along baseboards, in garages, sheds, and garbage cans, wherever you have problems. You can also make a solution with peppermint oil and water, add 10-15 drops of essential oil to a quart of water, shake to mix, and spray away. You can also use Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap, using one tablespoon to one quart of water. Feel free to add peppermint to your mop water. Please keep in mind not to get peppermint oil on your skin or in your eyes as it is a serious irritant, do not spray the solution on anyone or your pets.

If you do not wish to make a spray, another option is to crumble dried peppermint leaves and sprinkle them around problem areas. You can also put a few drops of peppermint oil on cotton balls to place in sheds or garages, or the garbage cans. You might also consider growing peppermint around the house, or outbuildings. Do not use peppermint candy as the huge amount of sugar will actually entice more pests into your house.

Both the essential oil and the peppermint soap are a bit pricey, but you won’t use much to make the spray, and they should last a while. The Dr. Bronner’s soap is sold in many health food stores in bulk, so you may be able to purchase small amounts as needed. Peppermint leaves are very inexpensive, especially if you grow and dry your own.

If you have a lot of flying insects around, an excellent method to get rid of them is to encourage bats to live around. Contrary to popular stories, bats don’t attack people or fly into hair intentionally. Bats are no more likely to become rabid than the cute squirrels or the mice in your yard. They do however eat a lot of bugs, so encourage a few to live in a tree nearby. You can buy or build your own bat houses to hang in a tree. Consider getting together with a few neighbors to reduce the expense, and to figure out the best places to put the houses.