dining & entertaining

Sam over at Best Cheap Weddings shares some ways to save cash and the planet with the post Best Cheap Green Weddings. Romance and Memories on a Green Budget. I am all for the “recycled” estate diamond ring! (Remember that, Mr. Green Your Apartment!)

MyMaria makes the case that “consistent menu planning means my family wastes less food, eats at home much more often and saves both money and gas in the process.” Sold! Check out the post weekly menu planning over at Menu Planning.

for the greenhorns

Some of us are on the computer so much that we forget how much energy it can consume. So Richard Adams reminds us, giving us 9 Ways To Make Your Computer Use More Eco Friendly posted at Eco Living Advice. Loved this so much, you’ve just been added to my RSS reader.

health & beauty

How I adore my certified tree-huggers, the do-it-yourselfers. Eugene Smith represents well with the How To Make Your Own Laundry Soap At Home posted at How to Make You Own Soap.

Girls, you know how much we love the jewelry. Well Heather Levin points us in the right direction by explaining What to Look For When Buying Fair Trade Jewelry posted at Earthdivas’s Blog.

New to our little carnival is paystolivegreen who gives us some eco-beauty Toothbrush Tips posted at Pays to Live Green. (I use Preserve, myself!)

June Tree is back with a Guide To Commuter Bikes: Bicycle Commuting Saves Money and The Environment over at (be still my heart!) The Digerati Life.

in the news

Oh Mrs. Obama, never has a garden been s controversial. Rich Maltzman, PMP asks Will ‘Bloom Boxes’ Bloom next to Michelle Obama’s Organic Garden? posted at Earth PM.

TSW talks eco-luxury with Tesla Electric Car For Fuel Efficiency: Would You Buy It? at The Smarter Wallet. To answer your question: out of my price range, hun! Still pretty though.

MrsMoney presents Is Climate Change a Hoax? posted at The Ultimate Money Blog. While this is a great post, I absolutely adore the comic that opens it. I’m laughing my butt off!

living spaces

Sandra Lopez has spoken to my soul – my bibliophiliac soul. Her post, 80 Awesome Ideas for All Your Old or Unwanted Books posted at Online Colleges.net, has inspired me to *gulp* minimize my library. I have a copy of The Film Encyclopedia that is just begging to be used as a block in my new AM yoga routine! But I could never imagine using a book as cat litter.

Case Ernsting discusses eco-friendly wood options in Go Green, Keep the Wood over at Home and Decor.

Julia Ritzenthaler presents Eco Friendly Furniture posted at Bathroom Vanity, Decorative Mirrors & Light Fixtures.

patio & garden

Renee Benzaim presents Guide to Compost Making – Compost Bins, Compost Tumblers, and Compost Crocks posted at Compost Tumblers & Compost Making. She comments, “Compost tumblers, compost bins, compost crocks, and open piles are all methods of compost making. Which is the best for you? If you are limited on space, a compact ‘backporch’ compost tumbler is your best bet.” Is it a good choice for your apartment?

Jamie McIntosh discusses how to Control Pests on Houseplants posted at Jamie’s Organic Garden Blog. It has been a hard winter, hasn’t it? But spring is almost here!

—–

Well, my dear Internet, that concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

________________

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dining & entertaining

Surbhi Bhatia talks about how to Dispose Mind Waste, Not Food posted at The Viewspaper.

for the greenhorns

You more East Coasters – winter has been pretty harsh for you this year. So Guffly shares How to Stay Warm This Winter the Eco-Friendly Way posted at Guffly.

Gracyqueen presents 50 Big Ways that Schools Are Going Green posted at Associate Degree – Facts and Information.

Luke Spencer wants to demystify your electric bill and the Kilowatt hour in Kilowatt Hours and Your Electric Bill over at That old house.

Suzane Smith presents 56 Healthy & Natural hacks you should be using in the Kitchen at MRI Technician Schools.

health & beauty

savvybrown wants you to Clean your dishes with Kool-Aid. Yeah, Kool-Aid. It’s actually a green option over at savvy brown.

Suzane Smith presents 100 Healthy Remedies That Are Right In Your Home posted at Pharmacy Technician Certification.

Eugene Smith writes about gentle alternatives to commercial soaps with the post How To Make Natural Homemade Soap, at (surprise, surprise) How to Make You Own Soap.

in the news

Thinking about getting into that new and growing green job sector? You better study up on what the tech actually is. GreenJobsGuru explains the Solar Energy Facts at Green Jobs Ready.

Did you miss “Word Wetlands Day” on February 2nd? Yeah, me too. But Morgan Schwartz brings us up to date with Nebraska’s Wetlands posted at Nature Boy on Omaha.

Who hasn’t been thinking about Haiti? Well, Katy Unitek returns to tell us about Sol: A light in the darkness of Haiti posted at Boots On The Roof. Thanks Katy for yet another interesting post!

marjorie talks about food and the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign in the post Let’s Get a Move! at Green Thinking Blog. Um, I thought this was a green blog carnival? Ah, but it is… what is more green than fresh fruits and veggies and prepared foods with less preservatives? Now you get the picture!

living spaces

Now here’s a post that took me by surprise. Vera Lang tells us about Back to School: Make a Dorm Bean Bag – Free Video Tutorials at Fine Craft Guild .com. In her own words: “Bean bags are ‘always in’, and according to the free tutorial with videos here, can be made with 100% recyclables. The sky is the limit, but in a bean bag you get to lay low and … relax. Pick a neutral cover and it’ll be a welcome addition to any room.” Who knew?!

savvybrown gives us another post, this time proclaiming I ♥ Dryer Balls over at savvy brown. Apparently these little guys eliminate the need for dryer sheets and fabric softener, which are both not eco-friendly. I’ll have to try these!

Beverly Saltonstall tells us about Six Home Air Misconceptions posted at A Green Lady Blog. I love this topic as it is not discussed as much as it needs to be. In fact, I wrote about in the post Breathe Deeply with the Indoor Air Pollution. Thank you Beverly!

Angela Martin presents Teaching Green: 100 Tips, Toools & Resources for Every Kind of Classroom posted at Online Degree Programs.org: Top Online Degrees. Mr. Green Apartment is working on becoming a high school teacher, so this will definitely be passed along!

For you dorm-dwellers, Angela Martin also offers up 101 Ways to Go Green In Your Dorm Room posted at Online Degree Programs.org: Top Online Degrees.

patio & garden

Renee Benzaim gives us some Tools & Tips for Compost Making at Compost Tumblers & Compost Making. If you have enough room in your small yard, garden, or patio, then you better pay attention to this!

Have some room? NHE presents How To Grow Blueberries In Your Home Garden posted at Natural Health Ezine. Now who wouldn’t love some fresh blueberries for a smoothie or in your morning oatmeal? Yum! But I wonder how they fare in container gardening…

—–

Well, my dear Internet, that concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

________________

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But, I do have a fabulous carnival for you!

dining & entertaining

Mrs. Green presents Price vs principles – 6 tips for eating organic on a budget posted at Little Green Blog. It’s funny, I already implement a lot of these tips but I just can’t find a co-op we’d really benefit from yet. Ideas?

Mrs. Green also gives us another post, 11 reuse ideas for coffee grounds posted at MY ZERO WASTE. Make my hair smell like coffee? You may be my green soul mate, Mrs. Green!

Pumpkin lasagna? Yeah, she said it! Kathy Hester, a.k.a. GeekyPoet, gives us the recipe for a Slow Cooker Protein Packed Pumpkin Lasagna posted at Healthy Slow Cooking. Wow!

for the greenhorns

Need some educating? Sandra Lopez can help! Her 100 Amazing Lectures to Follow the Future of Energy is posted at Online Degree Programs.org. My bookmarks just got so much bigger!

Now who doesn’t want to save money on gasoline? Yeah, I thought so and so does The Smarter Wallet. The post Save Money On Gas With These 10 Tips posted at The Smarter Wallet tells you how! Makes me think I really should clear out the trunk of my car.

Here at Green Your Apartment, we like a bit of shock and awe every now and then. This time, Emily Moser over at Online Nurse Practitioner Schools tells us about 20 Weird Allergies That Actually Exist just after allergies attacked our apartment all last week. But allergic to water? Oh yes, people, it can be that crazy. Green? Not so much but fascinating nonetheless.

Looks like Katy Unitek is back with her inspirational post The Dream of a Child Changes a Community posted at Boots On The Roof. Amazing what some tenacity can do!

Stuff With A Purpose, a newbie to our carnival, introduces us to the Reu$e And Save Series: Plastic Bags posted at Stuff With A Purpose. This is the very reason you need to become a bag-person!

health & beauty

Ambitious much? Emily Moser is! She discusses the Top 25 Soap Making Resources Online posted at Becoming A Radiologist.

living spaces

Ah, to cook and clean. paystolivegreen talks about Being Green in the Kitchen over at Pays to Live Green. All great stuff, especially about reducing waste.

I’m going to be honest – it is a rare instance for me to find a green tip or reuse suggestion that I haven’t thought of or read about before. But Annette Berlin shows me up in this terribly clever post, 12 Crafty Ways To Reuse Phone Books posted at Craft Stew. Amusing and helpful!

To me, clutter is the antithesis of a green life. June Tree agrees in her post Cash In On Clutter over at The Digerati Life. Fabulous! (By the way, I <3 your blog!)

patio & garden

Have a pet and feel guilty about their droppings? Have no fear, Renee Benzaim is here! She explains What is a Worm Compost? posted at Compost Tumblers & Compost Making noting that “worm composting … is good for small spaces and also works for animal feces.” So looking into that…

—–

That concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

________________

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Know What’s in Your Shampoo
Do you know what chemicals you are exposed to through your beauty products?

Bag the Plastic AND the Paper – Go Reusable!
Why “Paper or plastic?” shouldn’t even be a question while in line at the store.

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“You want to WHAT?”

Immediately she set to discouraging me. “The endless laundry!” she exclaimed. I shrugged it off and said I’d be home with the baby anyway. “But the cost!” I explained I had calculated it out and figured it was actually cheaper, even including the laundry room quarters. Seeing that she was not going to talk her stubborn daughter out of this debacle, she emailed me a link to a website with the simple remark: “Use these instead.”

The link was to gDiapers. We used them religiously up until my husband lost his job and we were living on the kindness and charity of family members.

I love these things! To quote from their site:

For the last 40 years there have been but two choices in diapers. Cloth or disposable. That’s it. Now gDiapers offers a third option. 100% biodegradable*, flushable diapers. gDiapers puts waste where it belongs, in the toilet. Not the landfill.

gDiapers have no elemental chlorine, no perfumes, no smell, no garbage and no guilt. In fact, our gRefills are so gentle on the Earth you can even garden compost the wet ones in one compost cycle, approximately 50 – 150 days. Just think of the standing ovation you’ll get from the planet.

You wash the soft, adorable covers and compost, flush, or toss the soiled inserts. It’s that easy! My daughter loved them and couldn’t pull them off (those brilliant people put the Velcro in the back!) despite all her trying.

I can tell you right now that for the next kid in our household, gDiapers will the only way to go. Convenient and earth-friendly – that’s what I like to hear. Thank you Kimberley and Jason for this great product!

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Being a good green blogger, I asked, “A plastic bottle?”

My Dad looked at me oddly. (Granted, the water bottle was not the point of the story, the nine-inch-across bear track was.) “I was probably being more ‘green’ than you are because I was eating the clean snow right from where it was!”

He laughed and I frowned. “You know you could get a good stainless steel container that you could keep with you for cheap.”

“I know, I have a thermos for my coffee!”

“Yes, Dad, but I mean for your water too.”

“But how would you refill it?” my brother piped in. “You can just take a couple of extra plastic bottles with you but what would you refill the steel container with?”

“A sink?!” I said.

This is a typical conversation with my family. My father does not believe that global warming/the climate crisis is a fact. He firmly believes that it is put out by the left wing media to… but I digress.

I am not a political animal, Internet, I’m really not. What I am is an artist and a philosopher. I think about specific circumstances, dilemmas of the individual, and personal solutions. I happen to firmly think that no change can come about unless individuals decide to change. And while, yes, you can influence people en mass in media platforms (like blogging), political change and the like, I don’t write for the masses. I write for YOU (yes, you, switching tabs in your web browser between this and MSN’s Wonderwall).

So, for those individuals who happen to believe that the climate crisis is a ploy by the <insert group here> to <insert dire and horrible controlling action here>, I want to ask you: Does it matter?

Does it matter if the scientists and liberal media et alii are wrong and the climate is just doing its thing? What would be wrong with conserving your (I’m assuming) hard earned money and the resources we have? Abundant or otherwise, shouldn’t we wisely use as little as comfortably possible so we do not tax our resources unnecessarily and spend more of our personal resources (time, money, energy) than necessary to live a comfortable life?

I guess my point is here at Green Your Apartment, I do not advocate any political party or agenda. I hope you have learned to think for yourself and have your own opinions.

What I use Green Your Apartment to advocate is ways to, yes, save our natural resources, but also ways to save your time and money. Ways to enhance your life instead of dampening the senses. Ways to set you free of harsh (and unnecessary) chemicals, expensive habits, and wasteful modern mindsets that fly in the face of pre-20th century thinking. To live well and tread lightly.

So Dad, if you’re reading this, don’t be surprised if you find a BPA-free, stainless steel water bottle like Kleen Kanteen’s 40-ouncer in with your Chanukuah or Christmas presents this year – I don’t think anyone will doubt who it’s from. While I respect your opinions, please just use the damn bottle so I won’t dream of its disposable plastic counterparts choking our landfills and littering our forests. And Mom, I swear it’ll save you at least $20 a month on groceries. (I knew you’d like that!)

EDIT: 9 Dec 09

I have been informed that canteens do indeed exist at my parents house and plastic water bottles are rarely used. I will still be razzing my father about using them and I’m sure he’ll come back with some witty, smart aleck response that I will roll my eyes at. Ah, the family dynamics.

And my Mom would like the record straight: only $5.99 a month is spent on bottled water, if that. Consider the record straight.

Happy drinking!

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for the greenhorns

Autumn Beck presents New to Cloth Diapers? Part 1 posted at All About Cloth Diapers. Such a great post, especially since there are so many options now!

Heaven forbid we be left out of the iPhone obsession: Gracie Turner presents 100 Best iPhone Apps for Students Going Green posted at Online Courses.org.

jerklogic presents a “Humorous article about littering and how it affects our environment and peace of mind” called Litterbugs, beware! posted at Jerklogic.

in the news

Mark Donovan presents Green Window Treatments Reduce Home Heating Bills posted at HomeAdditionPlus, saying, “Mark Donovan of www.HomeAdditionPlus.com discusses a new Green Window Treatement product that is Eco-Friendly, and that can reduce home heating bills by up to 35%.”

Let’s welcome back Katy Unitek with her post on Historic Energy Legislation posted at Boots On The Roof.

Angela Martin gives us 100 Exciting Lectures on All Things Green posted at Online Colleges.org, you know, if you can sneak it in between your holiday preparations!

living spaces

Ivan Gomez presents Raw Business Talk: COW! Simply Clean Beverly posted at Raw Business Talk, saying, “An excellent example of how you can wash your car with little to no water and absolutely no run off into the drainage systems.”

patio & garden

Here’s some money-saving (and green!) advice from The Backyard Grower on Saving Seed posted at Bobbie Whitehead.

—–

That concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

________________

Tips for Green Living logo image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Well, recycled toilet paper to the rescue! What a great idea! Recycle all the paper we use anyway and recycle it into something we’ll also use. The problem, however, is at most grocers the recycled toilet paper is often more expensive than the regular paper. So what is an eco-friendly apartment dweller to do short of purchasing a bidet?

Well, you can buy Trader Joe’s 100% Recycled Toilet Paper – twelve rolls for only $3.99! It is 80% post-consumer product recycled and scored an impressive “green” rating with the Environmental Resources Defense Council tissue guide. For that price, I can purchase a four-pack of recycled toilet paper at my conventional grocer. Hm, twelve versus four for the same price…

Thank you Trader Joe’s for yet another fabulous product, not to mention the amusing bathroom reading.

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for the newbies

Condo Blues gives us 8 Steps to Reducing Household Trash posted at Condo Blues.

Chris presents Green homes explained posted at Home I Own. While a little out of our usual prospect, I did find Australia’s take on greening homes fascinating and thought it was too interesting not to share.

June Tree talks about Green Living: Ways To Recycle And Buy Used posted at The Digerati Life. Always a good topic.

health & beauty

Sheila V. Flores presents Affordable Natural Face Scrub posted at Eco Glamourista.

mike marlow presents Overeating Keeps A Belly Busy posted at Raw Food Recipes. While I don’t personally subscribe to the raw food movement, I have great admiration for those who do!

in the news

Looks like Katy Unitek can’t get enough of us! She has a new submission,  California Leads the Charge! – Boots on the Roof posted at Boots On The Roof.

Steve Faber presents Check Out These Fun Diesel Cars – High MPG / High MPH posted at super gas saver, saying, “Just because you want be green behind the wheel doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, too. Sip fuel to the tune of 40+ mpg, but don’t get bored doing it.”

living spaces

TSW presents a post on the issue nearest and dearest to my heart: Green Cleaning Products: How To Clean Your House The Eco-Friendly Way posted at The Smarter Wallet.

patio & garden

Guffly presents Autumn is the Time to Fall in Love with Cleaning | Guffly posted at Guffly.

—–

That concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

________________

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But why that order?

1. Reduce

Here is a great example we have all come across: if you can get one one-hundred-ounce bottle of concentrated laundry detergent why buy two fifty-ounce bottles? It is a simple answer: you shouldn’t. A general rule when purchasing a product is that if it will not go bad or go to waste, get the economy size. It reduces the packaging used and often, the burden on your wallet.

2. Reuse

I have a confession: it has been awhile since I have purchased food storage containers. Why? Because I reuse those huge glass pasta sauce jars for my pastas, soups, and side dishes. For main courses I have large glass bowls with a plastic lid that have served me nicely for years.

Another confession? I have reused cereal boxes to ship my eBay items which are cushioned by ripped up magazines I have already read and junk mail flyers. An old tea pot that was stained and burned beyond repair? That can quickly become a colorful planter for a houseplant. In fact, you could even reuse that one-hundred-ounce jug that had laundry detergent in it as a jug to water your plants with (after a thorough cleaning, of course).

The key to reusing is to “think outside of the box” and ask yourself how you can reuse what you already have to fulfill the needs you have elsewhere. This also helps save you money and time by not having to shop for new items!

3. Recycle

Now we finally come to recycling. The milk jugs you did not turn into bird feeders should be recycled. The glass jars you just can’t use, recycle them. But since you have already reduced your waste and reused what you can, even the amount you recycle will be reduced. Less money spent and less stress on the environment – go you!

Image courtesy of Stock Vault.

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