I live in Southern California where summers easily reach 100-plus degrees fahrenheit so for me, I say air conditioning is a necessity as I prefer not to spend a majority of my days taking a siesta to beat the heat.

Unfortunately, as an apartment-dweller, Energy Star efficiency isn’t always available to us. Sometimes it is just that horrible fifteen-year old window unit in one room. So how is a person supposed to beat the worst of the summer heat?

Once upon an early-90s jingle, kids were taught to “Reduce, reuse, recycle and don’t pollute!” by a singing cartoon. It was cute and kind of clever, but it may not have quite hit the message home. What that catchy tune didn’t explain was the importance of doing things in that order – reduce, reuse and then recycle.

But why that order?