I’ve written about recycling a lot of things – blue jeans, magazines, but here’s something most people just throw in the trash – coffee grounds. But, before you toss those grounds, think of some of the ways they may be reused. Why would you want to find a use for old coffee grounds? When they break down, they release methane, which is a more powerful gas than CO2. If you need to dry the coffee grounds for later use, spread them out on a cookie sheet and sit near a sunny window to prevent molding. You can use coffee grounds … Continue reading →

Recycling is important, but sometimes we get caught up in our day to day lives and forget just how important it can be. For example, over half a million trees could be saved if each household in America replaced just one roll of regular paper towels with one that was 100 percent recycled. If we recycled just one ton of cardboard, we could save 9 cubic yards in a landfill. In 2005, 79 million tons of waste was avoided because of recycling and composting. With those facts in mind, here are a few tips for recycling: – One easy tip … Continue reading →

If there is one thing we get in this house, it is a ton of magazines each week. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t get one and most days it is more than one. Considering my love for pop culture, I have to have my weekly People, Entertainment Weekly, Star Magazine, and Enquirer plus I get Ladies Home Journal, Readers Digest and that’s not even taking into consideration the magazines my husband and son get! Call me old fashioned, but I still like my magazines in paper form rather than reading them online. I know it isn’t very … Continue reading →

Being green starts at home and if you are like many of us, you have children. But, you can adopt green parenting strategies that can help the environment. Here are a few green parenting tips: Swap Kid’s Clothes Most kids outgrow clothes before they can stain them or tear them up, so swapping your child’s clothes with family and friends is a great recycling idea. Unfortunately for me, most of my son’s friends are girls, but there are a few younger boys he knows that we give good condition hand-me-downs to. Another great recycling idea is, as your child ages … Continue reading →

Okay, you may have read this blog headline and thought “ew,” but you can find a useful afterlife for your old socks. And how nice would it be to find a use for that sad little sock that somehow lost its mate in the washer or dryer? I know we always have mateless socks around this house. Here are a few things you may want to do with old, clean socks: Heating Pad I always read about how you can make a heating pad out of rice and material, such as a sock and I always think I will make … Continue reading →

I wrote a blog a while back about how you could recycle old jeans. But, I forgot about old t-shirts – something I have plenty of! What can you do with an old t-shirt? Here are a few ideas: Throw Pillows Old t-shirts, if they are not stained, make excellent throw pillows. Cut a square from the front and back body of the shirt, stuff, and sew together. You can even cut smaller squares from different colored shirts and sew them together to make a more decorative throw pillow. If you have a t-shirt with a logo you love, use … Continue reading →