This post is my submission to February’s APLS Blog Carnival. This month’s topic is how to stay motivated about green living. Check Going Green Mama on February 24 for the carnival round-up and lots of great ideas to keep your motivation levels high.

Recently I posted about the changes to our family’s life, which led to some changes for Greening Families. With the launch of my husband’s business, we have made the switch to complete self-employment, something we have been working toward for years. We are already reaping benefits in terms of flexible schedules (we both attended our daughters’ Valentine’s Day parties at school with zero guilt – amazing!) but the change has also meant longer-than-normal hours for me over the last few months as Rich’s business – and income – got off the ground.

When I am racing a deadline, I sometimes have a hard time maintaining my motivation for green habits, especially the ones that take a little extra time. Since I know many others are starting or growing their own businesses these days, I wanted to share some tips to maintaining green motivation in the workplace. (I also wanted to encourage myself to keep following the green path so this article itself is a form of self-motivation!) Here are my top twelve tips for greening your home office:

1) Buy only what you need. When starting a business, it is easy to be tempted into buying items that might come in handy since you don’t know exactly what you will need yet. Hold off on making any purchase until you absolutely know you need it.

As an example, I started my business more than 10 years ago thinking that I would need a monitor stand since I spend so much time working at my computer. Money was tight so other things – like a computer! – came first, leaving me no money for a monitor stand. I had to get creative and came up with a homemade monitor stand – a stack of several reams of paper. Here I am, more than a decade later, still perfectly functional with my homemade version.

2) Reuse everything possible. Along with stacks of paper serving as a monitor stand, in the early days my kitchen table was my desk and an old milk carton from college was my file cabinet. I still look for ways to reuse items. Folders from meetings, name badges and pens from presentations, and paper clips from handouts all get multiple uses in my work.

3) Consider used furniture. My current desk is a beautiful solid wood desk that we found in the used section of a local furniture store for about $100. Both my husband and I also found solid wood bookcases for our offices at equally low prices. We don’t have to breathe in the chemicals released by pressed wood, we have lovely pieces that will last our lifetime and beyond, and we saved a bunch of money.

4) Be thoughtful about work processes. This is where I really have a tough time when stress mounts. I’m a grant writer so I pour over Requests for Proposals as I’m working with clients on grant applications. These RFPs are often long – one hundred plus pages of densely worded text is typical – and most grant applications go through multiple iterations before they are finalized. I could easily burn through lots of paper in my work.

I’ve been focusing on limiting my printing in a couple of ways. I’m keeping more many more items electronic (thanks in part to the handy comments feature in Adobe). When I do print, I double-up pages whenever possible. I then recycle everything printed once the project is complete. My daughters are big artists so they find lots of uses for used paper!

Everyone’s work is different so think what you do and where you could easily make changes to green your work.

5) Utilize the Power Save options on electronic devices. One of the downsides of working at home is that I’m responsible for paying the utility bill. I work to keep it low by taking advantage of the Power Save options on my computer. Rich is a techie so he helped me figure out all the choices but there is a handy tool, called EZ Wizard, that will do the same thing if you need a hand (although you won’t get your fill of Star Wars humor with the software). ; )

6) Utilize renewable energy where possible. One of the advantages to working at home is that I have more control over the source of the energy I am using. We switched to renewable energy as soon as it was an option in our area. These days many utility companies now give their customers the option to purchase at least some of their energy from renewable sources. Check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency to learn about alternatives in your area.

7) Delete unused files and emails – even from the deleted folder. It takes energy to store information, even when it is in the deleted file. While it is hard to get a measure of how much energy it takes to store files and emails (see One Green Generation and Treehugger for two attempts), why use up energy on things you know you don’t need? I have also been (slowly) learning that keeping only necessary items makes the work environment more pleasant so the benefits to this action go beyond energy reduction.

8) Maintain equipment so it won’t have to be replaced. A little time here can save a lot of money – and headaches since equipment always seems to die right before a deadline. Helpful primers on maintaining computers and computer accessories are available here and here. If you utilize other forms of equipment in your business, ask how to care for them properly when you purchase them or seek out guidelines online.

9) Select office supplies carefully. When buying supplies for work, check to see if eco-friendly options are available. I’ve found paper with recycled content, pens made out of recycled plastic, and remanufactured printer cartridges, among other items.

10) Keep plants near your work space. Plants don’t only look good, some also help clean the air of toxic chemicals. And caring for a plant has been shown to increase people’s level of happiness so you could get two benefits for the price of one.

11) Store office supplies where kids can’t reach them. OK, this one may be unique to my family but, from what I have seen of kids and Post Its, I don’t think it is. After fartoo many fine-tip dry erase markers were mashed into oblivion by my preschool daughters, who were used to the fat-tipped markers at school, I moved my office supplies to a location they couldn’t reach. It saved a bunch of supplies and was much less frustrating since I always knew what I had, and where it was.

12) All the stuff you do in the rest of your house. Use power strips for your electronic items. Clean with non-toxic cleaners. Use CFLs. Dress appropriately for the weather. You know the drill.

I have to say, I feel more motivated to keep going on my green changes in my home office now. And the timing couldn’t be better since I am up against several more deadlines.  Thanks Robbie!

What suggestions do you have for maintaining green motivation in the workplace?

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After posting an earlier article on how to afford organic food, I realized that it may have given the impression that I believe organic food is healthy food. I do believe, based upon loads of research (like this and this) and my family’s own experiences, that organic food is healthier than non-organic options of the same items.

However, I don’t believe that organic = healthy. A diet of chips and cookies is not high quality nutrition, even if the chips are made with organically grown potatoes and the cookies contain only unrefined sweeteners. Choosing organic food is only one consideration of many for healthier eating.

It can seem like eating healthier is amazing complicated but there are some simple changes you and your family can make that will have you all eating healthier soon. Here are a few:

1. Make water your first beverage choice. Let’s be honest, soda is not a healthy option but more Americans drink soda than any other beverage. First there is the added sugar, much of which comes in the form of high fructose corn syrup. The same high fructose corn syrup that has been found to contain mercury and has been linked to a variety of diseases including diabetes and pancreatic cancer. Then there is the bone weakening effect of phosphorus and the extra calories, just to name a few more issues. And don’t think that drinking diet soda is better – studies have shown that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk of obesity than those who drink regular soda. Save your health, and a bunch of money, by drinking water instead.
2. Surround yourself with easy healthy options. One of the draws of many snack foods is how easy they are to eat. Help to level the playing field by making your healthy food more accessible. Put a bowl of pre-washed fruit on the counter so you can grab and go. When you get home from the farmer’s market or store, take a few minutes and cut up some of your veggies so they are ready for snacking or cooking. Keep nuts on hand for more than parties. The goal is to have a couple of healthy choices ready for those times when you or your kids just can’t wait to eat.
3. Make the hard decisions in the store. Part of surrounding yourself with healthy options is limiting the unhealthy options around you. If you don’t buy a bag of chips while you are shopping, only only have to deny yourself the chips once. However, if you buy them and bring them home, you have to make the decision not to eat chips every time you see them in the cupboard. Make it easy on yourself by setting guidelines for what you will buy and then stick with them.
4. When you do eat a treat, slow down and enjoy it. After we had a family chat about the Slow Food movement, our girls really latched on to the idea of enjoying the food we eat. I recently discovered my eldest daughter sitting at the kitchen table, eating with her eyes closed. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, “I’m savoring it, Mommy.” This is great advice! If you are having a treat, treat yourself to the time to really experience it and enjoy it on a whole new level.

What changes have you made to make your eating healthier?

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January is a time for resolutions, many of which focus on health and finances. To help people get off to a good start on their goals this year, I want to discuss a topic that comes up frequently as we chat with other parents. How the heck is it possible to eat organic food when finances are tight?

We’ve been able to switch almost all of our food purchases to organic items without increasing the money we spend on food. Here is what helped us:

1)    Shop only from a list. We keep a white board in our kitchen. As we begin to run low on an item, we write it down on the board. When we’re ready to go to the store, what is on the list is what we buy and nothing more. This helps us avoid the tempting, and often expensive, items that sing a siren song while also cutting down on our food waste.

2)    Identify areas of weakness. The list idea works great when it is followed. However, we learned the hard way that going shopping with two cranky children makes it much harder to stick to the list. After one truly horrendous shopping trip, we banned grocery shopping after birthday parties – the switch from cake and games to walking quietly by the cart was just a bridge too far. And I know that if I am facing a big deadline, I am much more likely to swing by the candy section where for some reason there aren’t a lot of healthy bargains. Now we try to be more thoughtful about who will go to the store and when they will go so we can stay strong.

3)    Select a couple of quick, healthy meals and keep their ingredients on hand. Some of our family favorites turned out to be easy to put together. One example is brown rice with refried beans and cheese. Another is nachos made with corn chips and cheese (just put in the oven at 250 until the cheese melts) with beans (black, pinto, and refried beans all work well), sour cream, and cheese. Both of these can be ready quickly, especially if there is cooked rice already in the frig, and the ingredients can be easily kept on hand. This makes it easier to avoid the last minute orders for pizza.

4)    Join a CSA. I’ve written here and here about our experiences with Community Sponsored Agriculture. Joining a CSA did more to save us money and shift our eating to organic options that anything else. Check out Local Harvest to find one near you.

5)    Explore farmer’s markets. If you don’t have easy access to a CSA, want to buy smaller quantities, or need to supplement your CSA share, farmer’s markets can be a gold mine for inexpensive organic options. There is no middle man between you and the grower so prices are often lower than in the stores. Make sure to ask if items are organic – just because someone is selling at a farmer’s market does not mean they grew the food organically. Also know that many small farms cannot afford the organic certification but may still utilize organic farming methods. It will give you an excuse to strike up a conversation and get to know the people growing your food! Local Harvest can point you to your area’s farmer’s markets as well.

6)    Buy ingredients rather than dishes. Whether you are shopping in a grocery store or at the farmer’s market, focus on buying items as close to their natural state as possible. Apples are cheap while apple pies are not.

7)    Cook more often. Buying ingredients means you’ll be doing more in the kitchen than opening a box and firing up the microwave. There are tons of sources for recipes online. I particularly like Cooking Light’s Recipe Finder because it is possible to search by ingredient – handy when a new item shows up in our CSA box. Richard is a huge fan of Alton Brown; here are his is most popular recipes from Good Eats.

8)    Use meat thoughtfully. Currently we are an omnivorous family. Vegetarianism does a lot to lower food costs, since meat is one of the most expensive items people buy. (This switch also does a lot to reduce one’s carbon footprint.) While we aren’t vegetarians yet, we purchase and use meat carefully. Our eggs come from a local family that raises truly free range chickens. When we buy beef, we buy grass-fed pastured beef. If you are not in the Austin area, check out Eat Wild to find humane sources near you. We then use meat more for flavoring than for the main entree. Think stir fry rather than a steak or pasta with meat sauce rather than sausages. And, as you can see from our favorite meals above, we simply don’t eat meat with many of our meals.

9)    Shop smart. These apply whether you are looking for organic food or not. Compare prices, be willing to try new brands, focus on produce that is in season (see the National Resources Defense Council’s food miles tracker for a helpful listing of what is in season in your area), use coupons (try Mambo Sprouts and VegWeb for organic food coupons), and watch sales.

If your pocketbook can only handle a small shift to organic food at a time:  First target the items that are located higher on the food chain (meat, eggs, dairy), then find organic options to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen (click here for a handy wallet-sized guide), and then work on switching out the foods your family eats the most. If you have a baby or are pregnant, however, these three options should shift down a notch and purchasing organic options for the growing baby should become the first priority.

Here’s to a fiscally sound and healthy 2010!

Do you have any other tips for eating organically on a budget? Please share them below!

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This post is a submission to December’s APLS Blog Carnival. Read about the journeys others have taken and are currently taking at The Conscious Shopper, one of my favorite green blogs, on December 18.

We’re deep into goal setting for 2010 around here so the topic for December’s APLS Carnival fit into our ongoing discussions perfectly. Below is an overview of the main vehicles that led us to begin making changes to live a greener life. I’ll be reviewing our progress towards our 2009 goals and laying out our goals for 2010 in a future post.

Our journey began more than ten years ago with finances as the impetus. As I wrote on our sister site, Family Profits, when we met both Rich and I were carrying significant student loan and credit card debt. The total when we finally added it up (it took us a couple of years to work up the nerve) was more than $180,000 worth of debt. That’s right, we were $180,000 in the hole even after making payments for several years. Not a good place to be.

We knew we wanted to pay off all our debt. Since we worked mainly in nonprofit organizations, we weren’t bringing home the Big Bucks so had to learn how to be super frugal. One of the unanticipated benefits of living frugally was that it was also a green lifestyle. We didn’t buy much of anything and the few things we did buy were often used. We were all over Reduce and Reuse because those actions saved us tons of money but we began to love the difference it made to our impact on the environment as well.

The next leg of our journey was spurred by medical issues. A week before our wedding, a driver ran a red light and T-boned my car, narrowly missing a direct hit to the driver’s side door. My car was totaled and I was injured pretty badly. My recovery took more than a year and led us to explore complementary and alternative medicine. Rich gave it a try as well and soon discovered that his back pain, for which surgery had been recommended, completely disappeared when MSG was removed from his diet.

We began to pay close attention to the food we consumed and as a result made many changes to our diet. We switched first to less processed foods, then to whole foods, then to locally grown organic options. Our spending on food remained fairly constant during these switches, in large part because we traded “convenience” for healthier options. A host of green living topics were revealed to us through these changes and we’re now huge proponents of organic farming, local food options such as CSAs, and the Slow Food movement.

The decision to become parents sparked the next shift. There is nothing like being completely responsible for the health and welfare of another living creature to get one’s attention! The more we learned about fetal and child development, the more concerned we became about items that had alwasy seemed innocuous. From baby lotion to sippy cups, there were serious matters to consider at every turn. While scientists argued about potential long-term effects and “safe” levels of exposure to various chemicals and compounds, it was clear to us that our first job as parents was to protect our children and so evoked the Precautionary Principle whenever we weren’t sure what to do.

New changes, like storing food in glass containers and making our own cleaning supplies, were implemented. And it became clear that the journey to a greener life was one that could last our whole lives.

Now that our daughters are a little older, the lives lived by other families is becoming the driver of change for us. We want all children, human and animal, to have the chance to grow up healthy and strong. We’re talking a lot this month about what we can do to help make that a reality but I can already see that more alterations will be coming to our lives soon. And I can’t wait.

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(1) Financial Benefits of Going Green

I’ve mentioned before that we started down the green path to save money and boy, has that worked for us! On our new site, Family Profits, you can read about how we have paid off more than $80,000 in credit card debt and the majority of our $100,000+ student loan debt, all while working in the nonprofit sector. By taking to heart the green mantra of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and paying particular attention to the order of those three R’s, we were able to focus our salaries on paying off debt rather than making another run to the mall.

While companies and advertisers want you to think that going green is expensive, the fact is that reducing consumption is the greenest thing you can do. Using less energy, less gasoline, and less stuff is much more green than any eco-friendly product.

(2) Environmental Benefits of Going Green

While it is clear that there are wide-spread environmental benefits to going green, what we has surprised us is how quickly our immediate environment improved. Several years ago we moved into our current home. Based on the items left in our shed and garage, the former owners used several pesticides and herbicides on the yard. We haven’t used any (there are those financial benefits again!) and the amount of wildlife in our yard has grown incredibly. We’ve gone from only seeing a few birds to seeing lots of birds, possums, tarantulas, lizards, snakes, squirrels, and hummingbirds.

Along the way we’ve added native plants to portions of the yard and those have attracted monarch butterflies, hummingbird moths, red wasps, garden spiders, ladybugs, and some bees (though we hope to see more bees in the future).

In just four years, this property has shifted from a fairly lifeless zone to one that is much more biologically diverse. Most of that shift occurred because we simply left the land alone and didn’t poison it. We marvel when we think of how much it could have changed if we had known more when we moved in four years ago.

(3) Health Benefits of Going Green

By cleaning with homemade cleaners and carefully disposing of hazardous household waste, we removed many toxic items from our home very inexpensively. By eating organic, local produce available through a CSA and avoiding plastic in our kitchen, we are ingesting fewer pesticides and harmful chemicals. And we have seen the difference in our health.

Richard used to get show stopping migraines on a regular basis. Those have ceased. I used to get a sinus infection several times a year. Those have also ceased. We feel better than we did when we first met, even though we are now ten years older. That is a true benefit!

(4) Parenting Benefits of Going Green

Although our family approaches going green together (thus our tagline!), I was really surprised by the parenting benefits of going green. Making our life more eco-friendly has allowed us fabulous opportunities to talk about important concepts like sharing or taking turns in a real world context. Empathy, patience, and thoughtfulness — skills that parents want their children to have — get lots of practice when going green.

I’ve also treasured the opportunity to slow down and experience nature with my children. There is an amazing world all around us. Taking the time to see it and talk about it with my children has been incredible.

(5) Time Management Benefits of Going Green

When we think about how our weekends used to be so rushed, we wonder how we maintained that pace for so long. We used to rush from store to store, running our errands and preparing for the week. There were groceries to be bought, drycleaning to be dropped off, items to be purchased. I get tired just thinking about it!

Now Saturday mornings usually start with buttermilk pancakes, made from scratch. (Try Alton Brown’s recipe – it is our favorite!) We hang out reading library books or playing games. If it is a nice day, we work in the yard while the girls play. No more racing from store to store for us!

And less stuff inside our house means less to tidy up and less to clean. Reducing our consumption has given us more time in several ways!

(6) National Security Benefits of Going Green

I’ve had the good fortune of working with military personnel and have seen first-hand how much they and their families sacrifice. The United States’ dependence on foreign oil is nothing less than a national security threat. And for our troops overseas, maintaining access to fuel is a life threatening job. According to “Pentagon Looks at Green Options”

The stakes are high, with the army estimating that reducing fuel consumption by just one per cent translates to about 6400 fewer soldiers in fuel convoys, a favourite target of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lots of people talk about supporting our troops. One very tangible way of doing so is reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

(7) Tax Benefits of Going Green

In 2009, there are some serious tax benefits for going green, many of which extend beyond this year. There are federal tax credits for items that improve energy efficiency in homes, such as approved windows, doors, insulation, and HVAC units. See the bulletins issued by the IRS on Credit for Residential Energy Efficient Property and Nonbusiness Energy Property for more information. There are also federal tax credits for hybrid and electric cars. And the details on rebates for energy efficient apliances will be announced soon.

What benefits of going green have you experienced? We’d love to expand our list!

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This post is part of August’s APLS Blog Carnival. Learn how to go green and save money by visiting Going Green Mama on August 19 to read all the submissions.

I appreciated the opportunity to write about this month’s APLS topic “Green on the Cheap,” in large part because it has given me the opportunity to make a public confession. I didn’t begin my green journey because I was troubled about the plight of polar bears or was appalled at the size of my carbon footprint. Nope, my initial reasons for going green had nothing to do with living an eco-friendly life. I simply wanted to get out of debt.

When Richard and I met, I was up to my eyeballs in debt and so was he. The combination of our student loans and credit card debt reached an overwhelming total. (You can get the still-embarrassing-to-me details here.) Once we stopped hyperventilating, we made a plan to pay off the debt. After many years of hard work, we are not only out of the red but are firmly in the black. And along the way, we also became green.

How, you ask? Through three R’s that may already be familiar to you.

Reducing
One of the first things we learned was that we didn’t need as much as commercials and advertisements told us we did. All kinds of purchases, from a new car to a new pair of shoes, were nixed because the money was better spent paying down our debt. And most of those denied purchases were never missed. Even the items we still wanted to buy lost some of their luster when we calculated how much longer they would make our debt payback period.

Reuse
We also learned that there are lots of alternatives to buying new that don’t have the benefit of a marketing campaign behind them. Instead of the mall, thrift stores became the source of cute t-shirts. We even found a bonus since Richard prefers his t-shirts pre-faded! Rather than visit a bookstore or Blockbuster, the library filled our need for books to read and movies to watch. And driving through our neighborhood became a treasure hunt once we became comfortable with the idea of picking up curbside discards. On trash days, our girls scan the curb with their eyes peeled (“But my eyes aren’t really peeled, Mommy!” my youngest says every time), on the lookout for handy items. Just last week we picked up a file cabinet!

Recycle
We also changed the way we viewed our possessions. Where once a pair of old pants had been just a pair of pants, now they were pants that could be recycled into a pair of shorts, a yoga bag, and fabric for mending other pants. Anything that broke or wore out was examined for possible other uses and most of the time there were multiple possibilities.

While these changes were all made to save us money, they also triggered a re-examination of our values. When we stopped to think about what was important to us (rather than simply do what we did the day before), it turned out that having a happy, healthy family, and allowing others to do the same, was much more important than any possession. Which meant I was now worrying about polar bear mammas and my carbon footprint’s effect on families in Kazakhstan.

I deeply appreciate and admire all the folks who live a green life because it is the right thing to do but am glad there are many paths to becoming green. Whether people go green and save money, save money and go green, or travel another route to green living, we need everyone, no matter how they get there, to join in the push for a healthy planet.

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We thought we had planned well for this summer. We had a list! And a calendar! But then plans changed, as they tend to do, and the heat blasted day after day, which changed more plans, and we found ourselves with more time to fill than interesting projects with which to fill it. Add to that two parents with heads full of deadlines and work obligations (rather than fun ideas) and it was clear we needed some help.

Thankfully, I found the Future Craft Collective.

Based in Austin, they have a mission of

… inspiring children to become makers and create beauty, while simultaneously teaching them ways of minimizing our impact on this earth. We want kids to discover ways to create a world in which the belief in handmade looms larger than the messages of the marketing machine.The time has come to infuse our children with the message of appreciation, creativity and sustainability. It is our belief that this message can instill a great feeling of self worth and save a kid from a lifetime of seeking contentment through mindless consumption.

Exactly!

Even better, the folks at the Future Craft Collective have project ideas already laid out in a family-friendly manner. This summer they have partnered with Craftzine.com to create activities for Craft: Summer Camp so there are lots of projects from which to choose.

And the best part is their emphasis on using items that you already have. These crafts do not come with a $50 visit to Michaels but instead use items you already have around your home or can easily find.

One last note. I’m not a Super Crafter, nor is my husband, but these are projects we can complete as a family. We’re starting on the Gratitude Banner first. I’ll let you know how it turns out for us!

In the meantime, have fun exploring the offerings of the Future Craft Collective and making your own family project!

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If you’re looking for a project to carry your family through the start of school, check out our new booklet, One Month to a More Frugal and Healthy Life. It is available for free on our home page.

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This article was syndicated on the AustinEcoNetwork. If you live in the Austin area, or want to learn about eco-happenings in Austin, be sure to visit the site.

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So you’re recycling your bottles, cans, and paper, right? I think that’s a given for our faithful readers. Hopefully, you’re not even taking the plastic bags in the first place but, if you are, you can recycle those, too.

How about composting? My wife and I have been composting off-and-on for over a decade now so I thought I’d provide some thoughts on our experiences. I’m no expert, though, so by all means feel free to contribute your own comments and tips!

In case you don’t know already, composting is just taking organic material (non-farmers, like me, stick exclusively to plant-based stuff) and allowing it to decompose somewhere on your property so that you can use it as fertilizer. I live in a warm climate (106º of warmth  today) and it seems to take at least six months for it to decompose to the point that  there aren’t any “recognizable bits.” I think it would take longer in a cold climate, right? I’m not sure that’s the sign of ready-to-use compost but that’s what I look for.

What can you compost? Fallen leaves, grass clippings, orange peels, coffee grounds, that vegan meal that went wrong, the “hairy carrots,” and the stinky-slimy spinach. We throw our eggshells in, too, but avocado pits don’t seem to break down well and you’ll have a lot of fruit flies if you throw in a bunch of banana peels.

We keep a stainless steel, lidded container on the counter and it usually fills up by the end of the day. The kids take it out after dinner and, since we adamantly avoid anything animal-based (other than the aforementioned eggshells), we have no problems with flies even though it’s about 10-15 feet from the back door. And, I assure you, there is no unpleasant odor.

Why would you compost? First, a huge amount of yard waste unnecessarily ends up in landfills. I don’t bag my grass clippings and my city offers curbside leaf pickup and composting (how cool is that?) but even with just the food waste, it’s amazing how much composting keeps us from throwing away.

Second, it will make your yard and/or garden plants do a little happy dance. We used a huge amount of compost on our wildlife garden last year and, I’m proud to say, it has grown like crazy this year. We even had our first hummingbird visitor last month! But I digress….

We took the low-budget approach with our first attempts at composting. You know–the big bin made of chicken wire and wooden stakes. That held a LOT of stuff but you’re supposed to turn it every so often (I was shooting for once a month) and it proved to be, shall we say, arduous. So arduous, I’m embarrassed to admit, that it basically never happened.

When we put our house on the market, I just took away the chicken wire and spread it all over the lawn as best I could. It wasn’t fun (or pretty).

We now use one of the compost tumblers and it has served us well. The one we use can be seen here. I’ve never ordered from this company so I can’t personally recommend them but I was amused at the embedded video. Yes, it spins and that does make it quite a bit easier but they show it spinning freely like a bicycle wheel. When it’s loaded with 50+ pounds of decaying material it WILL take some effort to turn it over! The whole “compost in two weeks” thing is optimistic, too, methinks, but I’m sure I would have better results if I gave my decaying vegetable waste a little more TLC.

My next big project is to start a vegetable garden this year (more on that later) and my currently-rotting herbaceous material is ear-marked for that. Talk about completing the cycle! I can’t wait to eat my first tomato grown from this year’s unused Jerusalem artichokes that came with last week’s CSA box (really—what WAS I supposed to do with those things??)

Anyway, give it a try. There are ways to get started that range from free to $500. Choose one that’s right for you and take the next step in recycling. And please, if you have comments fire ‘em our way!! (Anybody know anything about worm composting?)

Lucas is a professional children’s author and songwriter from Austin, Texas. Check him out at www.lucasmiller.net. He is currently working on a song about composting – we’ll let you know when the decomposing ditty is fully composed!

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We’ll start with cleaning supplies.

Conventional cleaning supplies: Homemade cleaning products can get your home just as clean as conventional products for far less money and with far less toxic exposure. They also smell better! Here are recipes for a few multi-tasking items.

Glass cleaners can be made with white vinegar and water. Simply mix equal parts of each and place in a spray bottle. If you have been using commercial glass cleaners for a while, you may want to add a drop or two of liquid dishwashing soap to the first batch. Commercial glass cleaners often leave a waxy film on glass, which the soap will help remove. This works well on windows, mirrors, and chrome.

Cleaning powders can be replaced by simple baking soda. Sprinkle on your sink or tub after wetting it and scrub. If grime has built up, make a paste of baking soda and water, apply and let sit for 10-20 minutes before scrubbing.

For those who prefer sprays, mix 1/4 cup ammonia, 1/8 cup white vinegar, 1 Tablespoon baking soda, and 1 quart water. Put in a spray bottle and enjoy the savings.  Note: Do not use this product on varnished surfaces.

When mopping, add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water. If you like, add a drop or two of essential oil for scent. Mop the floor with the mixture. The best part is you don’t have to rinse!

And this one isn’t multi-tasking but is so easy I had to share. To clean brass, simply coat with ketchup, let sit for 10 minutes, then wipe off with a soft cloth.

Air fresheners: One of the simplest and cheapest air freshening ideas is to open your windows and air out your living space. However, this is not an appealing option when the temperatures are over 100° as they are here!

Another inexpensive option is to pour 1/2 cup of white vinegar into a bowl and place it in the necessary area. If you have a stubborn cooking smell (fish comes to mind), you also add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of water, place in a pot, and bring it to a boil. Vinegar eliminates the odor without replacing it with a vinegar smell.

Drain openers: If you notice your drains running slowly, an easy and inexpensive option is to pour boiling water down the drain. If that doesn’t work, try pouring 1 cup of baking soda into the drain and flush with 3 cups of hot water.

For even more stubborn drains, you can pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into the drain, then add 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Cover the drain so the mixture can work on the clog. Leave it for an hour, then flush with hot water.  NOTE: Do not use this method if you have used a commercial drain opener and it may still be present in the drain.

Another option uses 1/2 cup salt, 1/8 cup cream of tartar, and 1/2 cup baking soda. Mix them together and pour the mixture directly into the drain. Follow with 6 cups of boiling water. Allow to sit for several hours (overnight works well). Flush with cool water and you’re done.

For more ideas and recipes, visit Pioneer Thinking or check out Karen Logan’s book Clean House, Clean Planet: Clean Your House for Pennies a Day, the Safe, Nontoxic Way. This informative book, written by a mom, makes navigating green cleaning options very easy. You can read an earlier review on the book if you want more information.

If you would prefer to utilize pre-made cleaners, the Austin-based company The Purple Fig Cleaning Company sells green cleaners in their online store. I met the owner of at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market and it was clear she was very passionate about this topic. You’ll save some time while supporting a small business!

This article was syndicated on the AustinEcoNetwork. If you live in the Austin area, or want to learn about eco-happenings in Austin, be sure to visit the site.

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Vacations and warmer weather can increase the amount of time various battery operated devices, such as video games, cameras, and electric shavers, are used. Rather than blowing through batteries, which are expensive and can leak their toxic contents (including lead, cadmium, and acid) if not disposed properly, check out rechargeable batteries. Since experts report that 180,000 tons – more than 15 billion batteries – are discarded in American annually, this small change can make a big difference.

You’ll also save yourself those last minute trips to the store to pick up more batteries!

Last but not least, the money you save will add up nicely. Since rechargeable batteries can be charged up to 1,000 times, the savings can be substantial. Grinning Planet ran a cost breakdown and estimated that buying a charger and eight AA batteries would lead to a cost savings of more than $600.00 during the life of the batteries. If you already have a charger tucked away into a kitchen drawer, you’ve already born the largest expense.

When possible, pick lithium-ion or NiMH or nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries over NiCd or nickel-cadmium, rechargeable batteries, as the latter contain more toxic metals.

When disposing of any battery, be sure to utilize your local Household Hazardous Waste facility. In fact, the City of Austin received a Recycling Leadership Award in 2007 from the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation. Batteries Plus at 7915 Burnet Road in Austin also accepts used batteries for recycling.

If you live outside of the Austin area, visit Battery Solutions or Earth 911 to find a battery recycling site near you. Battery Solutions also offers iRecycle Kits.Their description says:

Each iRecycle Kit includes everything you need to recycle your batteries and handheld electronics. You simply collect all dry-cell battery types and hand-held electronics together—without separating—and mail them to us. We do the sorting, logistics, shipping, receiving, and recycling.

Sounds like a easy solution to me. I’m definitely looking for easy this summer.

Enjoy saving money and the planet this summer with rechargeable batteries!

The bulk of this article was originally posted on the AustinEcoNetwork. If you live in the Austin area, or want to learn about eco-happenings in Austin, be sure to visit the site.

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