Bathroom Idea

I love this great bathroom storage idea for small spaces from Shelterness.com!

Make it Green

Couldn't say it better myself! Kevin and I are trying all of these options, except buying a high-efficiency car due to the lack of cash for one. This list incorporates most of the things that you can do to make living an Eco friendly experience. The only things off hand I can think of to add is changing your appliances to Energystar and to change shower heads, faucets, and toilets to low flow. Also to switch to a digital thermostat.

http://www.greenlivingapartments.com/

"Energy

Unplug the "secret energy addicts" in your home: TVs, VCRs, DVD players, cable TV boxes, computers and printers, video game consoles, microwave ovens and AC adapters for cell phones, digital cameras and other electronics. Most electronic equipment, including anything that uses a remote control, is designed to consume energy when it is turned off. That "off" setting is actually a "standby" or "idling" mode. Standby power in the average household consumes 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That's enough energy to power an entire home for two months, or more. The solution? Unplug anything that isn't being used.

Swap out incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. CFs use about 66% less energy and last up to 10 times longer.

Turn down your thermostat by two degrees in the winter (and up two degrees in the summer). You'll save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide this year!

Switch to cold-water washing and save 80% on laundry energy.

Reducing, Reusing and Recycling

Recycling is important, but first and foremost: Use less whenever possible. And don't think you can't make a difference by recycling... recycling just one aluminum can saves the amount of energy required to run a TV for three hours! Here are a few suggests that will help reduce our use of precious natural resources.

Many computers, monitors, cell phones and other electronics include toxic materials that should not sit in landfills, and you'd be surprised how many retailers and other companies will take your old gadgets for recycling. The Environmental Protection Agency (link: http://www.epa.gov/) an help you find local electronics recyclers.

Say no to junk mail - 100 million trees' worth are sent out each year. Visit www.dmachoice.org/MPS/ to opt out of the Direct Marketing Association's member mailings.

Packing peanuts and other loose fill will sit in a landfill for centuries, but there are lots of places you can bring them for recycling. Call the Peanut Hotline at 1-800-828-2214.

If every household in the US replaced 1 roll of 1000 sheet bathroom tissues with 100% recyclable rolls, we could save 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water.

Cleaning

Use non-toxic, environmentally safe, biodegradable cleaning products, including laundry products, which you can find at any natural grocery and even many mainstream stores. Just read the labels carefully.

Don't pollute your indoor air or mask odors that could alert you to a problem. Choose fragrance-free products.

Transportation

Buy a high-efficiency car if you can afford one. Check the U.S. Department of Energy's list of most fuel-efficient cars to find the one that's right for you.

Rather than driving your car to work every day, try other ways, even if only one or two days a week. You can walk, ride your bike, take the bus or the train or join a car. You'll be cutting down on air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, oil consumption and your the costs of fueling and maintaining your vehicle. And mixing up your commuting routine helps you avoid falling into the workday rut.

Urge your workplace to have a van-pool, environmentally responsible purchasing policies and an improved indoor environment. Rid your workplace of secret energy addicts. They are everywhere.

Personal Practices

Buy locally produced items, including produce and other goods. It reduces the amount of fossil fuels required to transport the things you buy from other parts of the country or the world. It also reduces the amount of plastic and paper products consumed in the packaging of such far-traveling products.

Instead of using grocery stores' disposable plastic or paper bags, bring your own reusable tote bags, which are available for sale at many grocers and other retailers. The bags are sturdier than disposable bags, making the trip home easier, and they don't waste resources or end up in landfills. You alone could keep up to 1,500 bags per year out of landfills! If you must use disposable bags, ask your bagger to avoid double-bagging whenever possible.

Only run full loads in the dishwasher and the laundry machine. You use the same amount of energy to power these machines if you have a 1/2 load or a full one- so wait a couple of days to make sure you have a full load.

Be careful not to leave the water running when you brush your teeth or wash the dishes.

Scrape - don't rinse! When using a dishwasher, pre-rinsing is no longer necessary with today's technology and detergents. You may be using more water to pre-rinse than the dishwasher uses for a full wash cycle.

When you go out for coffee, bring a reusable insulated mug."

The First Footprint

I've been on a eco crazy this past few weeks. It happens often; something will remind me of the state the earth is in and continuing to head toward, and I will plunge full force into green living. Then the crazy wears off and I begin to do little things again that arn't so eco friendly like forgetting to recycle that newspaper and throwing it out. What a waste. So on this day I have decided to create a blog to keep myself in check.

Let's just put this out there now, both Kevin, my fiance, and I are college students about to begin living together without help from our loving parents. Money is tight! Eco is pricey! We are on an adventure to be green and save some green at the same time.

Yesterday at Oakland University, it was eco day. A nice size tent was set up in the main area of campus to celebrate this day and bring awareness to the students. There were many things to do and knowledge to be gained. For example, I dyed my first shirt today! And the best part was that the shirt is 100% organic cotton and the dye was eco friendly! There was also potting of plants available in 100% recycled material pots. I planted beautiful Marigolds! Henna tattoos, free organic cotton t-shirts with recycle logos, free facials with organic products from Origins, and fliers for free fabric tote bags from Trader Joe's lined the tent. Options such as canoeing with the Six Rivers Regional Land Conservancy and areas around the University to buy reasonably priced eco products were available. What a wonderful setup!


Kevin and I are looking for an apartment to move into in September after our wedding. We have both been doing massive amounts of research on where we would like to live. I feel that being green in a very important factor in our process. The apartment that we currently are hoping to get into suites the bill overall. Sure we won't be able to get everything we are looking for but there is great promise and we are willing to do our part as much as possible.


Appliances are big energy hogs. The appliances in the apartment aren't the newest gems, however, the management are replacing them as they break with new and better efficient brands.

Also Kevin, my fiance, and I are planning on buying two Belkin Conserve Smart AV Power Cords, one for the TV and one for the Computer; and we will be replacing all of the light bulbs with CFL bulbs.

DTE has a wonderful package; "Complete a free online home energy audit and receive a FREE Energy Efficiency Kit by mail, a $25 value!" (One kit per household). This will be a for sure!
How to get your kit

These will just be a few of the changes we will be making in out quest for green energy.

I love to paint! I'm an artist to begin with, so give me paint and I will go to work! I love color and I think that all homes need a bit of color to add to the mode of the rooms. So paint is a big deal. Paint can be a hazardous chemical supplier though. Of course I did some research.

What we want in paint is: VOC Free, glycol Free, solvent Free, odor Free, no dubious chemicals, entirely non-toxic, and of course we want to minimize our Carbon Footprint. Now on a low budget this is a lot to ask for.

There are a few really nice paints out there that will fit this, like YOLO Colorhouse, Ecos Organic Paint, and valspar Plus. These however were a tad bit to expensive for our budget so I looked a little harder and found Dutchboy Refresh Paint. It can be purchased at True Value, Aco Hardware (Michigan) and Sears at around $23 per gallon.


For more options, check out: Eco-Friendly Paint, The Complete Guide


That's all for now. Let's go paint the world green!