Tuesday Tip for Greener Living: Paper

Lately I seem to have a problem with paper.  I keep printing things out.  Then I decide that I don't need it.  Or I print out a tutorial to proofread - and believe me there are some errors I only catch if I print - but then I have this pile of paper.  It seemed like such a waste.

Then I started (or really, re-started) to do something.  I started saving all that paper.  Now I print on the back.

Yes, it's really simple.  (Sometimes the best tips are!)

Sometimes we forget about such simple things.  I'll blame it on working at a law firm.  So much personal information is at the law firm and the papers with personal information have to be shredded.

At home, a draft of a tutorial with corrections on it does not need to be shredded.  I can print on the other side.  I can draw out ideas on the other side.  I can print another tutorial on the other side.

But, I certainly don't need to throw it away.

12 More Ways to Reuse Glass

1.  Candle holders:  Put Epsom salt in the bottom and place a candle on top to make Epsom Salt Snow Mason Jar Candles.  (Or use any jar or glass you have around.)

2.  Snowman altered bottles.  You can even take an online workshop to learn how to make these.

3.  Light bulb ornaments.

4.  Use as vases.

5.  Catch fireflies.

6.  Use empty wine bottles as candle holders for taper candles.

7.  Make a snow globe.

8.  Give gifts in them - chocolates, hot chocolate, little collections of crafty things for your crafty friends, homemade salsa.

9.  Fill them up with bath salts that you make yourself  .

10.  Ribbon dispenser. Just cut a slot in the top of the lid.

11.  Fill them with stones and sue them as bookends.

12.  Memorabilia specimen jars.

Previous posts on B.B. Bellezza about reusing glass:

Don't Throw Out that Broken Mirror (and don't recycle it either!)

15 Ways to Reuse Glass

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living: Buy Used

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living:  Buy Used

Ideas where to buy used:

• Thrift stores (stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army or others)
• Antique stores 
• Architectural Salvage stores (in Lancaster: BUiLDiNG CHARACTER)
• eBay
• Craigslist
• Freecycle (free stuff!  bonus!)
• Garage sales
• Rummage sales (usually at churches)
• Used furniture stores
• Consignment shops
• Newspaper listings
• Swap with friends 
• If you're in Lancaster (or some other great city that has one) check out Lancaster Creative Reuse for all your crafting needs
• If you're in Lancaster:  Habitat for Humanity Restore

You will find great stuff - sometimes even almost new stuff - in these places!

Where do you buy used?

Tuesday Tip For Greener Living: Houseplants

Houseplants are great for making your house for bringing nature inside and making everything a little prettier.  But houseplants also can get rid of the pollutants in your house.

Follow these guidelines from Life Tips to make your houseplants work for you:

• Keep one houseplant per every 10 square yards to help keep the air clean in that area;

• If you mix night synthesizing plants (like orchids) with regular plants, your plants will work around the clock to filter your air;

• Use a general mixture of plants to try to filter out as many pollutants as possible;

Different plants are good for different pollutants, for example:

• Philodendrons and aloe plants are especially good protection against formaldehyde; and

• Gerbera daisies, peace lily, and English ivy are good protection against benzene and trichloroethylen.

{Tuesday Tip for Greener Living} Green Your Clothing

We've talked about ways to recycle and reuse clothing on this blog before.  But did you know how to take care of your clothes in a more green way?

Washing:   80% of the energy that is attributed to our clothes is actually used when we're washing them.  In the U.S. 4.5 billion gallons of water are used each day in the U.S. just washing clothes.

Tips:

• Wash your clothes only when necessary.  Quite often we wash clothes when we really don't need to.  (Do you have an office job and change as soon as you get home.  You probably don't need to wash that outfit every time.)  Bonus:  your clothes will last longer, too!
• Wash your clothes in cold water.  Cut carbon emissions by 100 pounds and save up to $64 per year on your energy bill.
• Dry your clothes on the line in the spring and summer.  (I even set up a clothes rack inside in the winter!)  You'll save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide!  Again, Bonus:  your clothes will last longer!

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living: My Move, How I Messed Up & What I Wish I Had Done

It's been almost 7 months since I’ve moved.  I moved from a large townhouse into a small apartment, maybe about 1/3 of the size of my original space.


While I did know I was moving, I didn’t know where. There are so many reasons for that, plus I was sort of in denial. Because I didn’t know where I was moving, I wasn’t sure exactly how to plan. I started to pack, but I knew if we ended up somewhere smaller there was no way to take everything.


So, at the very last minute we knew we were moving into a much smaller space, I had to start to purge things.

And I do mean “I”. My boyfriend didn’t have nearly the collection of “stuff” I have. (I am a green jewelry designer…I have to keep a lot of “stuff” on hand!)

Because of my lack of planning, I screwed up. And I have had guilt ever since thinking about it.

Here’s what I did, and what I wish I would have done instead. (Some of this kills me to write here!!)

Furniture:

I had a couch, chair, work table, 2 desks, a coffee table and end table – just in my studio. (I can’t believe I just typed that….I don’t even have close to that amount of stuff in my entire space in the new place – and I don’t have a studio!)

There was a couch, recliner, chair + ottoman, coffee table and crazy gigantic consol tv in my living room. …Well, I’m not going to go on with all the furniture…..


There was a lot.


And it was mostly in not great shape, but mostly in okay shape. On top of that, my parents knew a couple of people who were downsizing/moving, so they also brought me a new couch, love seat and a newer tv.


What actually happened:


I couldn’t possibly fit all of this furniture into my new apartment. I thought that I could get a couch and 2 chairs + my desk into my new living room. I had a hutch that I also needed to get in there for the storage.


It ended up that NONE of the couches could even fit through the door and maneuver in the hallway. So I ended up with a love seat, a couple of chairs, my desk and hutch. The tv sits on the hutch.


So we had to get rid of a lot of furniture, including a few couches, lots of end tables and coffee tables. So, we packed a load of stuff to take to donate.


They took all the coffee and end tables, but they wouldn’t take my extra desk. They wouldn’t take any of the couches or chairs.


So, we took a load to the dump and threw it in since I only had a couple of days with a trailer and my parents to help.


It makes me so sad to type it. The dump.


What I wish I would have done:

I wish I had been more organized and figured out that I wouldn’t have needed most of this furniture ahead of time. I would have put an ad on freecycle.

I could have had a yard sale a few months earlier when it was warmer and given away the furniture, or even just put a “free” sign on it. Unfortunately, I moved at the end of November.


Odds and ends:


I don’t have a lot of “knick knacks” per se. I did have collections of things, though. For example, I had a collection of baskets that filled an entire closet. I had tons of blankets. That sort of thing.

What actually happened:


I donated whatever I couldn’t bring with me and they took all of that sort of thing, although I do miss my baskets.


Craft supplies:


Like I said above, I'm a green jewelry designer.  I need a lot of "stuff" around.  And I certainly had a lot of "stuff"!

What actually happened:

I had to purge a lot of my supplies. I went from having a huge studio + tons of storage for all of my supplies to just having basically a shelf for my supplies and a smaller table to work.

A lot of stuff I did pack up and put into storage.


The stuff that could be recycled, I recycled.


The rest of the stuff, I threw out.


What I wish I would have done:

Donated everything I recycled or threw out to Lancaster Creative Reuse.


(Note, you probably have noticed a lack of coasters. This is precisely because I no longer have a large studio. I just have a table and a shelf with my stuff on it. I am working on ways to get the coasters back into production, but I certainly don’t have the space now.)


Kitchen:


I had an old microwave and toaster oven to get rid of (extra dishes, etc., did get donated.)

What actually happened:

The old microwave and toaster oven went to the dump. They separated them, but I actually don’t know what they did with them.

Plastic bags. We have used canvas bags for groceries for a while now, but we did have a pretty huge collection from before. We kept some and got rid of the rest in the dumpster.

What I wish we would have done:


Appliances:  I don't actually know what the dump did with them.  It's possible they recycled them.  However, I could have recycled them myself.

Plastic bags:  I wish we would have taken them to the grocery store to recycle. Again, we were in a hurry.
(I’m happy to announce that we are almost completely plastic bag free in our new place.)


Conclusion:

I’m telling you this to (a) come clean and (b) hopefully help you when you move.


Planning ahead for where you can most greenly dispose of items is the best way to not run into these problems.  I felt rushed and was under time contraints and began to worry that I didn't have enough time to get everything moved and disposed of in tme.

Another tip that would have helped me:  Be realistic about where you are moving and how much stuff you can really bring with you.  Don't go into denial thinking everything can go.  When you wake up from that denial, things are much worse than if you would have just had that time to plan.

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living: 8 Easy Ways to Recycle in the Bathroom

Most of us have some sort of recycling system in place in the kitchen. You probably don’t even give it a second thought to rinse out a bottle and place it in the recycling bin.

But, do you recycle in your bathroom?

Maybe you do maybe you don’t. I know I don’t have a separate bag, but I do reuse or recycle most of my bottles from the bathroom. What about the rest of your family, though? What if they are feeling lazy and just throw them in the trash?

Here are some tips for recycling in the bathroom:

1. Set up an extra bin for recycling in the bathroom, just like you have in your kitchen. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just something that reminds you and your family to recycle in the bathroom. (You can separate it out further in your main recycling area. Just make sure you have a bin for recycling in the bathroom.)
2. Just like in the kitchen, there are some things that cannot be recycled. For example, most deordorants cannot be recycled. Some chemicals shouldn’t even go in the garbage, such as nail polish remover or hair dye.  Find out where to take hazardous chemicals locally and dispose of these items there.  Here's an environmental guide to more beauty products.   Of course, you can always not use these items or find more eco-friendly solutions to start with.
3. Easy things to recycle: cardboard from toilet paper, tissue boxes and packages from cosmetics. You can also recycle the plastic wrappers from toilet paper or soap packaging.
4. Any plastic bottle with a number on it: shampoo, conditioner, other hair products, shower gel, etc. can be recycled.
5. Magazines and newspapers from the bathroom can be recycled.
6. You can compost many items from the bathroom as well, including hair from your brush, q-tips with cardboard sticks (not plastic) and many other items. Here’s a list of 163 Things You Can Compost.
7. Use items in your bathroom made from recycled packaging.
8. I don’t want to sound like a commercial here, but Scott has come out with a toilet paper that doesn’t have the cardboard roll inside. (How have we gone this long without this being invented?) 

Recycling in the bathroom is as easy as recycling in the kitchen once you get organized and know what to recycle!

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living

Keep your toes warmer this winter!

This is a really simple tip to save on your heating this winter (or for those of us who have really cold toes, this autumn!) Use a hot water bottle to warm up your sheets when you get into bed or even while you're cozy on the couch. They are safe - no electric to worry about.
When the bottle cools off, you can use the water for watering your plants!

I also really like handmade rice heating pads for this purpose. Once upon a time I made and sold them. I don't do that anymore, but I do have some of my own. If you can sew, they are simple to make. Just sew a little pillow the size that you would like out of fabric. You can deconstruct old worn out clothes or an old sheet if you like for this. Then fill up the pillow with rice and sew it shut. You can add some lavender for relaxing (or other herbs if you like.)

Then you just heat it up in the microwave, being careful not to overheat because you can burn yourself.

You can get fancy and sew sections in your pillow to control the placement of the rice better, but that is really optional.

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living

While I was cruising around Craftig yesterday, I found this tutorial for making an Eco-Friendly Drawstring Produce Bag by Indie House. How often do we use the plastic bags in the produce isle just to put all of our groceries in canvas bags? This is a great way to save even more bags! And in very super-cute way!

Tuesday Tip for Greener Living

This week's tip is to check out an awesome website, "How Can I Recycle This?"

Each day they bring a question of how to recycle something, and people chime in with comments of what to do with the item.

It's fun to read the creative ideas, get suggestions and also to chime in and give suggestions. You can also ask how to recycle something and get some suggestions.