Instead of using synthetic sponges for your shower and dishes use a luffa! Sponges tend to collect bacteria and for heath reasons should be thrown out 1-2 times a week. But if they are not biodegradable, that is a LOT of waste filling up landfills. Additionally, the “antibactirial” sponges have a chemical called Triclosan which is officially a pesticide. Do you really want to be using that on your dishes? The best part about Luffas, are that they can be grown in your own backyard!

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There are some very beautiful wine bottles around and it seems a terrible shame to just throw them away. Here are a few ideas of how to harness that beauty and make your house classier as well.

Some fancy restaurants use empty wine bottles to serve water. It certainly looks more elegant than a plastic soda bottle and even nicer than some pitchers.

Do you ever make homemade sauces, cordial or liqueur? Fill your old wine bottles with one of your products. Make sure you clean and sterilize the bottles properly before you fill them. If you want to go the extra mile you can put a pretty label of your own design on it and give it for a gift.

You can also use them as a candle stick. As the candle burns it decorates the outside of the bottle with wax. As you use more candles it can become very colorful!

With the help of a wine bottle you can also save a lot of water each day. In fact, with every flush.

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Summer can be brutal in the Middle East, and not everywhere has EWA Technologies’ Air Conditioning. But no worries. Many homes DO have built in cooling systems that many people don’t bother taking advantage of. Cross breezes can be a very effecting way to cool down your house. The key is making sure that windows are open on multiple sides of the house, front and back, even if you are not in the room. Also make sure that there are no doors closed in the way. If you let the breeze blow through, the breeze will be kind to you

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I noticed a drip coming out of the base of my kitchen sink faucet. It was only a few drops, so I procrastinated. Over time it grew more and more. I thought: “it’s just a few drops, it can’t be too bad.”

Finally I went out to the store to get a new faucet. When I saw the prices I blanched, and put it off some more. But finally, my conscience got to me and I bit the bullet and got the new faucet.

My next water bill was 1/3 what it had been, saving more in that month than what I had paid for the new faucet…

“Just a few drops” can add up a lot!

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With the holiday season around, kids underfoot, family everywhere, now is actually the perfect time to do some greening. Collect the kids and do some projects to recycle throwaways. Also, with everyone around it’s a good time to discuss how to make your lifestyle more efficient and green.

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One of the best ways to save is by auditing your consumption.

• Take next month’s bill and set your energy/water usage as your benchmark
• As the month goes by make little changes to try and improve your consumption rate.
• When the next bill comes in see how you are doing.

Feedback is one of the best ways to check your progress. Your energy/water bills will give you cold hard numbers that you can use to check that you are on track. You’ll not only save energy and water but money as well.

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How many times have you printed out a final draft and found out that it wasn’t as final as you had thought? I always feel bad for the paper, the ink, well, lot’s of guilt. Now there’s a solution!

“How much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink. Free to download, free to use.”

Thanks EcoFont! And thanks for the tip Tanya and James!

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How’s that journal coming along? Not always easy to keep to, eh?

Try taking a page out of one of America’s founding father’s: Benjamin Franklin.

In his autobiography B. Franklin decided upon thirteen virtues that he would like to work on. After deciding upon his goals he made a chart listing them and for each virtue a box for every day of the week. For the first week he only worked on the first virtue, leaving the other ones behind, making notes for himself on every day that he found himself working on the virtue of the week.

After thirteen weeks he was able to work through all of the virtues, developing each of them more than what he would have had he tried working on all of them at once.

When taking on a big project of self development, as greening one’s life, this is good advice to keep in mind. Make a list of all aspects of your life that you would like to green, then tackle them one at a time.

Post inspired by: “Founding Father of Self-Help”.

Looking to green your life? Find out more! Have a green-living tip to SHARE?

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Greening your life is not an easy task. It’s about changing habits, and habits don’t always change easily. What DOES smooth the process along is by taking things slowly, don’t jump in head first, and slowly adding more as time goes on.

Choose one aspect of your life that you would like to improve, environmentally, and work on it. Make a journal for yourself describing your progress. You’ll find that looking back on your progress can be a very rewarding experience and that your successes in this area will translate over to other area of your life.

Looking to green your life? Find out more! Have a green-living tip to SHARE?

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With the gift holidays officially open now is the time to reconsider gift giving, especially now with the current economic crisis!

• First, do you really need to spend so much on gifts? Be thoughtful, instead of spendful! It will make you feel so much more appreciated than stressing over credit-card bills for months.
• Can you make gifts? I used to like giving people jewelry, until one day I decided to start making simple items. Eventually I got good enough to sell my wares. Do you have a hobby that you can cash in on?
• Adopt a “Secret Santa” system. We used to give gifts to everyone in my home until we all got fed up with spending so much and not being able to really think about our gifts. A month before the holiday we all take a name out of a hat and set a price limit for the gift. When everyone gets together they are more excited to give than to receive their gift.

Keep in mind that holidays are supposed to be special. Instead of putting in extra money in gifts that will only add to your clutter, put the time into making the day special, the atmosphere and the company. If you do this you will find a much more meaningful holiday season for all!

Image Credit: brungrrl

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After your kettle has boiled and you’ve emptied it, before it cools down, add some water for next time. While the kettle is still hot. This takes advantage of energy you have already used and paid for, and will help the cold tap water warm up and so save energy next time you brew.

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Use the winter cold to your advantage!
We all know by now that thermal mass in the fridge is a good idea… so we have those plastic bottles filled with water and taking up space not occupied by food, right?! Well, when temps dip below freezing, put a couple outside. When they freeze, swap them out for unfrozen ones in the fridge.  it’s a manual heat pump!

Thanks Phillip for the tip! Looking to green your life? Find out more! Have a green-living tip to SHARE?

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Go to the park! Sounds cliched? Think again it’s totally the new mauve (which is the new white, which was the new pink which was the new black)!

With the Middle Eastern winters you don’t need a sweater, but even when it’s colder there’s nothing like a warm drink when bundled up. Bring a thermos along and enjoy the pink cheeks!

Westerners don’t breath enough. Rushing 24/7 we don’t take the time to enjoy the littler green our cities have to offer. And what a better way then with someone you care about! Once there, take a deep breath and enjoy the birds.

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With the traditional bi-annual Israeli university strike nipped in the bud a lot of students are on their way to their new dorm room. Here are a few tips to keep it  green.

1. Reduce – Moving to a new place is a great time to rethink how you do things. Just because it was done at home doesn’t mean that waste is justified. Think how you can cut back what you use, and how. Cutting back is also a much cheaper way to live, an attractive incentive to one living on a student’s budget.
2. Reuse – While there are many pimped out dorm-rooms out there it doesn’t mean that it has to be newly bought. Have in mind that you’ll be out of that room in a year or two. You’re not settling down. Nothing wrong with a borrowed or second hand couch or bed. I find that the mix-match look is funky and can help shape your new student image.
3. Recycle – You’ll find that you are using much more paper than you did before. Just remember that when you are done, recycle it!
4. Lighting – A brighter light is healthier for your eyes when studying late at night. Here’s a good time to switch to florescent!

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The best way to defrost food is in the fridge. It not only keeps the fridge cool, meaning the fridge itself will use less energy to stay cool, but often people leave food out too long with defrosting which causes their food to collect unwanted bacteria.

Many other people use their microwave to defrost food. While it’s debateable whether microwaves are bad for your health it certainly is energy-wasteful.

The only problem with defrosting in the fridge is that you have to decide the night before what you would like to eat for the next day…

Looking to green your life? Find out more! Have a green-living tip to SHARE?

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With the cold creeping in it is tempting to do all you can, no matter how wasteful, to stay warm. The good news is that you don’t have to be wasteful to be warm! Typically, energy bills climb in the winter months due to the use of heaters. But if you are cold, and the heater isn’t doing the trick, the trick is not to turn the heater up, but to make sure it can work effectively.

Make sure that you don’t have any drafts. Holes around windows can cause loss of much-needed heat, a little bit of electrical tape around your windows can make a BIG difference. Also, proper insulation is a great investment. While the initial price might be steep, what you save of electricity will cover it in the long run. If you can’t replace your windows for double paned, consider covering them, curtains, can do a great job.

Finally, make sure that your heating system is running efficiently. If you are going with a space heater, some models need less energy than others. If you have central, have a technician come at the beginning of the season. A small maintenance bill can save you the cost of replacing the whole unit!

Happy winter!

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Cold is on its way in, as tends to happen this time of year, and along with it different driving conditions. Rain and snow seriously inhibit a car’s performance and with it the mileage. Here are a several tips to help you save for these upcoming months:

• Tune up! Make sure that everything is in tip-top shape. If your car is not running smoothly it wont give you the bang for your buck that you are relying on.
• Add weight – While during the summer it’s a bad idea, making the engine work more burns more gas, but during the winter it has the opposite effect. If your car has proper traction it won’t have to struggle to get a grip.
• Check your pressure – For every 5 degrees Celsius the temperature goes down, the air pressure in your tires reduces by one pound per square foot. Keep tabs on your tires for easy riding.

Thanks Daniel for the tips!

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With the holiday of Sukkot midway through now is the time to start thinking about what to do with your four species when the holiday is out. I would suggest composting the leaves. I know this is controversial, since they were used for a mitzva, but considering that usually they are thrown onto the ark and left to dry out and give asthma attacks to the pollen-sensitive members of the synagogue, composting begins to sound more respectful. Some people use the leaves as starter for the burning of the hometz before passover.

The Etrog (citron), ahhh, that is a different story. I’ve seen several wonderful uses for the etrog…

• Keep it in your clothes closet. As it slowly dries out it releases a wonderful smell and will make everything smell nice.
• Some people take an afternoon and push cloves into it, covering the entire etrog. They then use the finished product for havdala. If you opt to do this, make sure you do so in one sitting since the etrog will dry out very quickly and you will not be able to continue later.
• Make Etrog Jam!

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The Jewish Day of Repentance, Yom Kippur, is a day of introspection and self-evaluation. While doing so make sure not to sin in the green realm. On a day that no one showers and most people are out of the house for most of the day, in synagogue, there is a relatively low eco-print. But there are a few areas to be aware of:

• Check ahead of time when the break will be and set your air-conditioner’s timer to match. It’s a shame to waste on such a day.
• Same with lights, no need to leave them on the whole time. Many modern houses have timers int he fuse box. You can easily set your timers so that the waste in minimum.
• On the flip side be careful not to be over-wasteful as well. While you will probably be hungry from not eating all day it is easy to over-compensate with wastefulness when one has been frugal the entire day.

While contemplating ways in which you can improve how you treat others think as well about how to improve your relationship with our home – Earth.

Have a meaningful fast!

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It has been estimated that a single gram of dog waste can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness, and serious kidney disorders in humans. EPA even estimates that two or three days’ worth of droppings from a population of about 100 dogs would contribute enough bacteria to temporarily close a bay, and all watershed areas within 20 miles of it, to swimming and shell fishing.

Aside from being bad for your health it isn’t much better for your garden. Dog excrement does not make good fertilizer. It is actually toxic to your lawn, causing burns and unsightly discoloring. If you leave it in the streets, even if it does not end up on someone’s shoes, it will inevitably be washed away and more often than not ends up in the wrong places.

So clean up after Fido. The ideal is to flush it with your own in biodegradable bags. The runner-up option is tossing a biodegradable poop bag in the trash; composting dog poop is controversial, since its bacteria could make you sick if it’s spread on your veggie garden.

Source: Doody Calls

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