Day 37 of our Green Year: Unplugging The Power

Today, we decided to do an easy one and it is one that every one of us can do in our own green years. When you turn off something like your television, Wii, DVD player, stereo and more, you do not necessarily keep it from using power. Many devices these days will have lights that will show they are still plugged in and to show that light, you need power.

Unplugging things when you go to bed, or leave the house is not only safe as it can prevent fires from shorts, but it can save you money. By unplugging everything in your house, you can actually save up to $20 to $30 on your energy bill, depending on how much you pay each month. This means that not only are you saving power, but you are also saving money. It is just one of the many ways that you can go green, and save green.

Unplug your electronics, your coffee makers and your microwave. None of these things need to be plugged in when you are not using them, so you can save some money by just taking the time to unplug them

As well, Layla and I decided to do a demonstration of the baking soda and vinegar drain cleaner, which works great, so we did a video. Enjoy!

Day 31 of our Green Year: Lovin' Lemons

We now enter our second month of Our Green Year and things are going strong. We have had some wonderful feedback from our readers, who have suggested some great ideas that we will be incorporating into our future blogs. As well, today we were interviewed by our local paper, The Trail Daily Times, who are doing a story on Our Green Year.

For today, we have decided to show the great environmental side of lemons, much like we did with vinegar, to show some of the great things it can do and to help prevent chemicals and other harmful substances from getting into our air, water and earth. It is important to note that when you use chemical cleaners, you are breathing the fumes into your body and it can stay there. Going natural is the best way. Here are some great tips:

• Take equal parts lemon and water and you have a great air freshener.
• Pour lemon juice on places where you have ants and they will stay away.
• Forget about cleaners with harmful chemicals in them, just mix equal parts lemon juice and water and you have an all-purpose cleaner. You can also mix it with vinegar and the lemon juice will mask the smell of the vinegar.
• If you need to clean chrome or copper, just mix lemon juice with baking soda and wipe away the blemishes on the copper or chrome with a towel.
• Use hot lemon juice with baking soda to clean drains.
• If you want to kill the germs on your chopping board, sprinkle lemon juice on it and wash it off.
• Lemon juice works great for cleaning glass and mirrors, as well as serving as a great furniture polish.
• On top of this, if you mix it with equal parts water, then you have a natural mouth wash, and it can also be used to disinfect wounds.

There are many uses for lemon juice in your home, and we are only scratching the surface. However, it is important to use natural products like this instead of chemicals because then you are not contributing to waste or putting chemicals into the environment.

As well, if you implement any of the solutions we have offered in Our Green Year, from the solar cooking to this, send us some photos. We will put them up on our website. Remember, this is not just our green year, it is everyone's green year and we are all in this together. E-mail pictures to crwbaird@gmail.com

Also, today I baked some dandelion leaves in the solar cooker and made some coffee out of it and I gotta say...mmmmm it is surprisingly good, and healthy. See how we made it in our tutorial section later this week.

Day 19 of our Green Year: Vinegar For The House

We are nearly to our twentieth day of our Green Year, and for this day we are going to talk about vinegar and how it really is one of the best environmental things you can buy for your house. The number of uses it has is really amazing when you think about all that it can do, and by using vinegar you can actually stop using many of the other cleaning products that carry harmful chemicals.

Now, when you buy vinegar, be sure to find out what brand you are buying because some come from fossil fuel products, which negates using it as an environmentally friendly solution in the house. To find out how to make your own vinegar, visit this site: http://www.vinegarman.com/VinegarMaking.shtml

So, what are the uses of vinegar around the house?

• Instead of using paint thiner, use vinegar as it is much better than turpentine and is safer for both your hands and the environment.
• Mix it with water as we did earlier this week and you have a product that is much better than most cleaning products bought at the store.
• If you burn yourself, or have a bit of pain, you can use vinegar by soaking it on a cotton ball and putting that on the bruise or burn to quicken the healing.
• Fido pee on the carpet? Use vinegar to deal with it.
• If you have a stain, you can put vinegar on the stain before washing it, which is better than using the expensive and environmentally-harmful stain removal products on the market.
• It serves as a better fabric softener and uses about half the amount needed.
• In the kitchen and bathroom, you can use vinegar to deal with mold, stains and soap scum.
• If you have clogs in the drain, boil white vinegar and pour it down the drain to remove clogs without the need for Drain-O.
• If you want to cleanse your face or deal with dandruff, you can use vinegar instead of other expensive products.
• One of the most toxic items you will use is oven cleaner, but vinegar can actually work better in the stove simply by soaking stains in vinegar and then scrubbing them off.
• If you have a stinky room, put a bowl of vinegar in there to deodorize it. Both the vinegar smell and the bad odor will disappear in no time.

There are so many uses for vinegar, that many people really do not realize it. Give a try to some of these uses for vinegar and let us know how they work for you.

Thanks to AboutMyPlanet.Com for all these helpful tips!