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…

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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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As a special for the holidays, Guffly talks abouts Great Gifts for Men | Guffly posted at Guffly. Gotta say my guy would probably love that hemp messenger bag!

living spaces

I love all of theGreenGabber‘s suggestions in the post Easy Ways To Go Green, Save Money, and Help The Environment! Good, sensible stuff.

Chris presents 8 tips to cut your home bills posted at Home I Own. Though some of these options are not available to we the apartment-dwellers, there is some inspiration to be found. What can you do to make your heating more efficient?

And finally, TaraG over at Go Green Street presents some awesome decorating options in her post, Colorful Eco-Friendly Modern Living Room. I long for that bamboo tree and the gorgeous wing chair!

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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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Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Laundry, to be honest, is a chore I can just never keep up with. It seems that as soon as the weekly wash is done, there is already another pile that needs washing.

But does that have to do with being nice to the environment? PLENTY.

Being in an apartment, you have three typical scenarios you are dealing with: a local laundromat, an apartment complex laundromat or (I’m jealous if you have this) your very own washer and dryer in-apartment. But, believe it or not, my tips will be the same for all these three scenarios!

Newbie
Cost: it will actually save you money!
Time: seconds
Energy to do this: minimal

My tip for you is to get used to doing only full loads of laundry in cold water. Why is this a green tip? First, because there is no need to wash half a load of laundry. Save yourself the trip to the laundromat and the quarters by waiting a few days until you have a full load. Second, by using even warm water in washing and cold in the rinse cycle can save over three times the energy of washing and rinsing with hot water! The best thing is using the cold/cold setting if the washer has it because at least 3/4 of the energy used in any washer is to heat the water – so go colder and your clothes will be just as clean.

Sidenote: I still wash my whites (a full load!) in hot water and rinse in cold water. If you were married to a hockey player, you would too!

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: about the same amount you would have used on conventional laundry detergents
Time: seconds to decide on the brand you want
Energy to do this: minimal

Switch from the detergents chock-full of petroleum-based (as in OIL), phosphates (water softeners that damage bodies of water) and “optical brighteners” (chemicals to make whites appear whiter which are toxic to aquatic life and not biodegradable) to an eco-friendly, plant-based laundry liquid or powder that will clean your clothes just as well. There are several brands out there – Seventh Generation, Eco-Cover and store brands at your local health food store. The great thing about these liquids in particular is you don’t need to use as much as with conventional detergents and the scents aren’t so nauseatingly perfume-like.

If you are really serious about being more eco-friendly, then consider replacing your older washer and dryer with a newer, Energy Star rated washer and dryer. However, this can be expensive, so if you do not have the budget to replace them, there is still a way to be green and clean without draining your wallet. Consider replacing the older, inefficient parts in your washer and/or dryer. A makeover for these appliances can help them and the resources last longer. General Electric, Kenmore, LG, Whirlpool, Samsung, and Maytag parts are all available for purchase at most hardware and appliance repair centers. A few tools and a do-it-yourself attitude are the only other things you will need for this job.

You can also nix those dryer sheets. Trader Joe’s (my store of choice, next to Henry’s) offer these great little sachets full of lavender. You throw them in the dryer with your clothes and they nix the static, lightly scent the clothes and help repel moths. After the 6 dryer trips I rip open the sachet, pour them over the carpet and vacuum them up 10 minutes later to refreshen the room.

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: this will save you money!
Time: actively – 30-45 minutes depending on how many clothes you washed, passively – an extra few hours compared to the dryer
Energy to do this: moderate

Hang-dry your clothes. Yes, it is an extra commitment time-wise, but the sheer energy you save is pretty amazing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this is how you calculate this:

(Wattage × Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption

A typical clothes dryer is measured at 1800-5000 watts. We’ll take the mean of this for our calculations, guessing at 2 loads of laundry per week done once per week per person.

(3400 Watts × 3 hours/day × 52 days/year) ÷ 1000
= 530.4 kWh × 8.5 cents/kWh
= $45.08/year

I don’t know about you, but that’s one month’s electric bill for my household! That’s a lot of energy to save.

A little tip: I’ve noticed when I hang dry my jeans and sweatshirts, they get a little tough. To correct this, I’ve used 1/2-1 cup of white vinegar in the wash as a natural clothes softener which also helps with color-fastness and odors.

Happy laundering!

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Like the tips but have an even better one? Leave it in a comment!

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