Tips

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Conserving Water In The Home

Spring is here, and with it comes the need to conserve water. Already we are at the end of March and the snow is melting. Environment Canada reported a few weeks ago that this

Using shower water for pet water.

past winter was not only the hottest on record, but also the driest. Less water during the winter means less water in the winter and already drought forecasts are being predicted for our area.

Hence, it is very important to save water this spring and summer. The great thing about saving water is that you also save money when you do so. There are several ways you can save water in your home without greatly affecting your life.

• Watering Lawn: It is almost the time of year when the lawns will start getting sprinklers on them. Unfortunately, many people over water their lawns by watering their lawns several days a week. Typically your lawn only needs one inch of water a week. By reducing your lawn watering from four hours a week to one hour a week, you can save 66,000 liters of water a year. In addition, pay attention to the weather. If you know it is going to rain tomorrow, don’t water today.
• Reducing Shower Time: During Our Green Year, we reduced our shower times by upwards of 10 minutes and that helped to save a lot of shower water. By reducing your shower time by just 10 minutes, you can end up saving over 135,000 liters of water a year.
• Switching to a Lo-Flo: Lo-Flo toilets are getting better and do not face the same problems that they once did. Many homes are not getting Lo-Flo toilets installed when they are built. If you switch from a typical toilet to a Lo-Flo toilet, you can save 37,320 liters of water a year.
• Brushing Your Teeth: When you brush your teeth and leave the water running, you waste a lot of water. If you brush your teeth twice a day with the water running, you waste several liters of water for nothing. By switching off the water until you have to rinse, you can save nearly 19,000 liters of water in a year.
• Dripping Water: If you have a leaky faucet, it is not only annoying, but it also is bad for the environment. Drips of water may not seem like a big waste, but if you left a leaky faucet for an entire year without fixing it, it would waste 18,927 liters of water. By fixing a leaky faucet, you can save that much water from being wasted each year.

If you make the changes above, in one year you can save over 216,000 liters of water from being wasted. That is not only good for the environment, but it is good for your wallet as well.

Forget About Disposables

We live in a disposable culture. Every day, millions of items are being thrown away after only one use, and the concept of using something and throwing it away has become a staple of our world. The disposables are meant to make our lives easier, but what effect are the disposables having on our world? When we use paper plates, plastic forks, disposable razors and disposable diapers, what happens when we throw them away?

What happens is these items stay around, for a long time. In the case of the plastic items, they stay around for essentially forever, while the diapers stick around for 400 years or more.

This is why disposables should not be a part of your lifestyle if you want to go green. It is not even that hard to eliminate disposables from our lives, and sometimes it can save us money in the long run. Here are just a few ways you can make disposables history in your life.

• In the kitchen, choose to use biodegradable dishware and utensils, or reusable plates and utensils. Instead of using disposable takeout containers, use reusable containers when you go out for take out.
• Some things are supposed to be disposable, but you can at least make sure they are not environmentally-unfriendly. Choose to buy recycled toilet paper instead of regular toilet paper for one. Instead of disposable diapers, buy cloth diapers.
• Instead of buying disposable batteries, buy rechargeable batteries. One rechargeable battery over the course of its life can take the place of as many as 500 batteries.
• Forget about disposable ink cartridges, go and have your cartridges refilled instead of throwing them away.
• Every year 7 TRILLION plastic bags are thrown away and they wreak environmental havoc on our planet. Choose reusable bags instead that can be used for years. At the very least, recycle your plastic bags.
• Instead of buying a vacuum cleaner that uses bags, get one that is bag-less.
• Instead of buying disposable razors, buy an electric razor. Yes the electric razor uses energy, but it can take the place of literally hundreds, if not thousands, of disposable plastic razors.

Disposables are a serious problem and they make up a lot of the trash in our lives. Change your lifestyle from a disposable one, to a sustainable one, with these tips.

Going Green With Newspapers

Many feel that newspapers are a dying art, something that may disappear forever as more and more information moves online. However, if you still buy newspapers, as millions of people do, there are things you can do to go green with the newspapers beyond just recycling. One of the most important things you can do is called reuse then recycle, so that you reduce your consumption before you recycle something. Follow these tips to go green with your newspapers at home and work.

A bunch of newspapers

1. Why not use the newspapers as a great way to block weeds? There have been several people who have laid down newspaper in their backyard, after digging out a bit of space, then putting dirt and compost over top of the papers. This helped prevent weeds from growing, and allowed beautiful flowers that were planted on top of the newspapers to bloom nicely.
2. If you have kids, nothing works better for them to scribble on than paper.
3. You can line cabinet bottoms with newspaper instead of buying cabinet paper.
4. We have already shown how you can clean windows with newspaper, but did you know that using newspaper to clean windows prevents streaks on the window?
5. You can also use newspaper in a seed starter pot? It is truly amazing how this can be put together and it eliminates the need for you to buy pots for the seeds. Here is a great tutorial.
6. It can be used as wrapping paper, instead of wrapping paper from the stores.

Seed Starters

If you have a short growing season like we do here in Canada, then you may not be able to get as many things as you want grown in those short spring and summer months. However, there is a way to get a jump on the growing season, help your inside air and reuse egg cartons.

Egg carton seed starters. The cartons are made of paper and cardboard and housed organic and free range chicken eggs

It comes in the form of seed starters. Seed starters can be grown at any time and that means you can start growing your flowers and vegetables early in the season, so you just have to transplant these into the soil.

Just take some egg cartons, put dirt into the egg pockets, put the seeds in and water when you should. Give them lots of sunlight and you will see your flowers and vegetables springing up in no time!

Bring Your Own Napkin And Utensils

If you like to eat out, then one simple green thing you can do is bring your own utensils and napkin. Usually restaurants will use paper napkins, when you use those paper napkins they are usually thrown away. Add up all those napkins over the course of eating out in a year, and that amounts to a lot of paper being wasted.

A good solution to this is to bring your own reusable napkin. By bringing your own napkin or

The napkins and utensils my wife and I use

cloth, you keep that paper from being used and you can wash the napkin when you get home before you take it out to a restaurant again.

The reason you bring your own utensils is because you want to make sure you have something to eat with in case the restaurant wraps its utensils in the paper napkin. If you have to rip the paper to get to the utensils, then they will throw away the paper even if you did not use it. Hence, bring your own utensils with your own napkin!

The other great thing about this is that you know your utensils have been cleaned well and the napkin has only been handled by you. If you worry about other people touching your napkin or utensils (which then touches your mouth) this is a good solution.