Go natural

Start cleaning your home with all-natural ingredients to begin your green lifestyle. Before cleaning products were available at retail stores for cleaning glass, people used lemon juice or vinegar for cleaning. Not only do these natural products get surfaces squeaky clean, they do not impact the environment like the harsh additives found in man-made products. Additional go-to products include baking soda and white vinegar, both of which can be used for everything from scrubbing tub grout to cleaning metal.

Energy answers

A simple way to cut back the cost of electric and gas energy is change your laundry methods. To conserve water, regulate how often you wash clothes. Wait until there is enough clothing to run a full load instead of tossing one pair of jeans or two towels into the washer. Save additional energy costs by cutting down on dryer time. Allow items to dry on hangers or a clothesline. You’ll even lengthen the life of your clothing and prevent shrinking.

Ironing uses energy, both yours and electric. For casual or everyday household items, use a wrinkle releaser to smooth out wrinkles instead of ironing them. The product is readily available at grocery stores and drugstores; cost is minimal; and the convenience and energy savings are significant.

Waste no water

Have a low-flow toilet installed to conserve water without losing efficiency. Incorporate a timer for showers or switch to a low-flow showerhead. No matter how good it feels to take a long, hot shower, each minute the water is running costs money and wastes water.

The heat is on

Two of the biggest energy consumers in the home are heaters and air conditioners. Whether you are using a central system or stand-alone unit, running the heat or air at full power, 24 hours a day is costly. To avoid high energy bills, close vents to any rooms not in use. Adjust the temperature, so the system switches on only periodically when you are not at home. There is no reason to have a cool or warm house if no one is there to enjoy it. Regulating your home’s temperature will also prevent heating and cooling systems from being overtaxed and requiring repairs or replacement. Take advantage of low-cost cooling aids, like blinds or curtains, to block wind and cold during the winter.

Using a few simple procedures can save you significant dollars throughout the year on utility bills. Living green is not just in vogue — it’s a money saver.

Guest blogger Holly is a soccer enthusiast, travel addict, avid baker and concert goer. She blogs on behalf of Sears and other quality brands she trusts.

I might find myself camping out in an area where it’s almost impossible to find recycling and some recyclable materials go into the garbage and before I know it I’m using more paper products or buying a bottled water — all the little things I feel I’m typically good about.  In general, being more eco-friendly typically takes a little extra work or money and I think when you’re lazy once, it’s easy to be lazy again.

It’s Hard To Be Perfect

I move around a lot, go for a lot of road trips and don’t live a lifestyle where I can bike to work, so I do find that I log a lot of miles on the road.  I use a good amount of gas.  I drive a Subaru Outback, which is probably one of the more efficient cars I can have for the amount of gear and the 2 dogs I take with me everywhere I go; however, just because I use a decent amount of gas doesn’t mean I call it quits in every other aspect of my life.

React To Each Small Decision

I think a large part of being greener is reacting to each situation you encounter as best as possible.  Whenever you encounter a situation where you could go one way or the other, stop and make the right call.  I’m thirsty; I could get the quick convenience in the store or make an effort to find a faucet to fill up my container.  I just made a mess on the floor; I could use half a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess or grab a few old rags to take care of it.  I have some weeds around my patio; I could buy some weed killer or take an hour to hand-pick them and keep the herbicides out of the picture.

Food

One area that I find it hard to make greener decisions is when it comes to food.  Believe me, I would love to eat all organic or local fruit, vegetables and meat, but especially at the grocery store it’s very clear that one simply costs more than the other and I, like many others, don’t have an unlimited budget.  Still, as is the point of this article, it’s not an all-or-nothing decision.  Purchase what your budget allows at the grocery store. Personally, I spend the extra money for organic foods I consume in raw form versus cooked.  Furthermore, organics are nice, but if you really want to make the right decision, buying local certainly saves the most fossil fuels and additives needed to preserve your food for a long journey.

Most of us aren’t perfect, and it’s hard to always be perfect when it comes to making green decisions in life.  Don’t let yourself make multiple poor decisions just because you made one.  Face every situation one at a time and do the best you can at every stepping stone.

Cooper Elling is passionate about health, fitness & blogging. When he’s not working out, he writes about Sono Bello, cooking and a myriad of other topics. He’s also active with Sono Bello on Twitter and Sono Bello on Facebook.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Have a Namaste.

Alternatives to chemical-laden shampoos

I’ve often extolled the virtues of my favorite Lush shampoo bar, so I regret to report that, after looking more closely at the ingredients list, Lush uses Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) in their shampoos.

I’d heard about the dangers of SLS before, but hadn’t really researched it until recently, when I wrote articles about natural hair care for both Green Diva Mom and AltGlobe. I’m hoping the Green Diva Mom post will be live soon; here’s the one I wrote for AltGlobe:

Choosing Natural Hair Care

SLS and its close relative Sodium Laureth Sulfate are foaming agents found in shampoos, detergents, and toothpastes. They are also skin irritants that are sometimes tainted with carcinogenic dioxins during the manufacturing process. They can cause skin and eye irritations, contribute to frizzy hair and split ends, and build up in the internal organs, doing who knows what kind of damage.

In my search for a safer shampoo, I ran across Ohio-based Chagrin Valley Soap and Craft Company, which offers an extensive line of all-natural, SLS-free soaps and solid shampoos. I ordered a few samples, which start at $2.40 and are a decent size at 1.5 to 2 ounces. Full-size bars are 6.5 to 7.5 ounces and range from $6.50 to $6.80. So compared to Lush’s 1.9 oz bars that sell from anywhere to $7.95 to $14.95, they’re a much better deal. Even better, they contain all natural ingredients and essential oils such as coconut, lavender, clove, and ylang ylang.

I tried my Café Moreno sample bar today, which contains fresh brewed coffee to add shine and luster to brown hair. Washing with SLS-free shampoo takes a little getting used to. It doesn’t foam like traditional shampoo, but foaming isn’t actually necessary to achieve cleanliness. A good foam just makes us feel like a product is working better. Manufacturers know this, which is why they put these dangerous chemicals in their products in the first place. Some testimonials on the Chagrin Valley Web site even state that the natural shampoo bars deliver so much moisture and nourishment that separate conditioners aren’t even necessary, so I experimented today and skipped the conditioner. Although my curls don’t have as much definition as I usually like, my hair is soft and frizz-free, and has a nice herbal scent.

I also ordered a Chamomile and Citrus shampoo bar, so I’ll probably alternate the two. I’ll post the GDM article as soon as it’s live; it contains links to other SLS-free solid soaps available for order online. And if you don’t want to pay for shipping, check your local health-food store for locally made or other smaller brands. Burt’s Bees offers a Rosemary Mint shampoo bar, which is listed as 99.9% natural and is SLS-free. Just read the ingredients and opt for short ingredients lists with recognizable names. The general rule for natural beauty products is, if it contains anything you wouldn’t eat, don’t put it on your skin! Your skin absorbs whatever you put on it, and dangerous chemicals go directly into your bloodsteam.

What Are Natural Products?

Happy Friday everyone!

Ten Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

I also recently posted this piece about keeping your family healthy during the economic downturn … it was one of those things where I didn’t know what I was going to write when I sat down to work on it, but it kind of took on a life of its own, which can be some of the most fun projects to work on. I pulled a few random things out of my brain and I think it turned out alright.

Economic Crisis Survival Guide: Your Happy Family

Happy Earth Day everyone!

As with a bar of soap, when the shampoo bar starts to get worn down to a sliver, it can be hard to use. If it breaks into smaller pieces and you drop them, there goes your shampoo down the drain. To avoid this, I started keeping my shampoo puck in its little tin in the shower when it starts getting small (the tin is sold separately, but I got mine free with the purchase of two shampoo bars). As the tin collects water, the shampoo bar will start getting gooey. Just a tiny dab of this goo is enough to wash your whole head of hair — I actually think it works better than the solid shampoo itself because it’s already soft and slightly sudsy. As more water collects in the tin and more of the shampoo dissolves, you’ll be left with a milky paste. Don’t dump it out! I poured some of this sudsy water over my head and was amazed by the lather I got from it. To preserve it (and to make it travel-friendly), I transferred the water into a tiny squirt bottle (you can usually buy them at Target where they have all the mini travel sizes of shampoo and whatnot). So now I have a few more days’ use out of my shampoo bar, and truly use up every speck of it.

I’ve also started using my Jungle conditioner bar as a leave-in styling product, and I LOVE it. I keep it in a soap dish in the shower also, so that it gets gooey on the bottom. Then I mush up a little bit of the goo between my hands, run it through my hair, and don’t rinse. It gives soft definition to my wavy hair that’s never sticky or crunchy like mousse. And a 2-in-1 conditioner/styling aid means I’m buying fewer products, which is good for the environment and good for my wallet.

I’ll be writing about “green hair care” for Green Diva Mom. I’ve written two articles for them so far but am still waiting for them to be posted to the site so will keep you updated.

Have a weekend day, everyone. I am off to South Dakota!

If 1 in 5 people in the US switched from liquid shampoo to solid, about 22 million plastic bottles would be saved from the landfill. On top of this, 6 million tons of preserved shampoo would be prevented from entering the environment.

That’s all pretty convincing. Still, I wondered, would a solid shampoo really clean my hair while keeping my waves soft and taming my frizz? The answer is a resounding yes! My hair is soft and bouncy and frizz-free. Plus, the shampoo bar smells great and lathers more than I expected. I probably used a little more than is necessary (the saleswoman told me to swipe it once around the top of my head and then once down the back), since like most people, I like a good lather (even though know lather isn’t necessary to achieve a good clean and that too much lather can even be indicative of harmful chemicals).

I’ve been trying to buy skin care products that contain fewer chemicals, but I hadn’t been putting much thought into product packaging. I never even realized there was an alternative to shampoos that came in plastic bottles! So I’m glad I’ve discovered Lush’s solid shampoo. I know it seems like a strange concept at first, but if you’re interested in reducing your carbon footprint and supporting companies that are ecologically responsible, I highly recommend it.

Then my mind went to the collection of shopping bags in my closet. Because I tend to hang on to things that may someday be useful, and also because I try to limit what I send to the landfill, I have bags full of … more bags. I don’t purchase trash bags — ever — because the plastic bags from Target work just as well. Paper grocery bags (of which I amass very few, because I take my canvas bags to the supermarket 99.9% of the time) are used to hold and transport all my recycling. And shopping bags from department stores or the mall are great when you need to tote something large. But the small paper bags (the kind you get from specialty stores such as Bath & Body Works or Victoria’s Secret) seem to keep piling up. I have dozens of them. And I realized, they’re about the same size as those Christmas gift bags I was planning to pick up at Target.

So I decided to try my hand at refurbishing some of the bags I already owned. While at Target, I picked up some spray adhesive (probably not the most eco-friendly choice, I admit, but glue sticks are messy, and I had a lot of affixing to accomplish). Back at home, I set myself to the task of tearing out Christmas images from magazines and catalogs. I’m a magazine junkie, so I had plenty of material on hand.

I approached the project with some trepidation, fearing it would be too difficult and time-consuming and I would have to give up and resort to a more commercial Christmas. It did take some time to collect the pictures, especially since I was trying to group images together in complementary arrangements. I may have to be less choosy if I have any hope of making enough bags to accommodate all my Christmas gifts. I may also have to abandon the effort to hide the fact that the images came from magazines, and just embrace the look of articles and ad copy mixed with images (which will probably actually look really cool, now that I think about it). Adhering the paper to the bags was much easier than I anticipated, thanks to the wonder that is spray adhesive (seriously, have you ever used it? It’s amazing stuff).

By the end of the night, I had completed my first bag and started on three others. I completely covered the first bag with Christmas tree scenes. For some others, I used brown paper bags from Aveda and covered only what was necessary, letting the rustic look of the brown paper show through. Now that I know how to approach things, I should be able to complete several bags at a time. I’ll be glad to be rid of my bag collection, and even happier to be taking what would have been trash and make something beautiful and useful out of it.

Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart.

Some more advanced hypermiling techniques are considered dangerous or even illegal. In June of this year, CNN correspondent Miles O’Brien received a hypermiling lesson from Gerdes, who is shown push-starting his car and taking turns at high speeds. Hypermiling.com labeled the segment a mockery because it demonstrated more dangerous techniques such as killing the engine while coasting and drafting behind big trucks. I didn’t find O’Brien contemptuous at all — in fact, he declared himself convinced of hypermiling’s legitimacy — but the video did sensationalize the concept a bit by primarily showing advanced techniques. CNN might have shed a better light on the practice by focusing on safer, more easily attainable tactics.

Hypermiling isn’t hard, but it does require putting a little more thought into your driving than you may be used to. The basic principles are simple: accelerate slowly and smoothly, minimize breaking, coast when possible, and use cruise control on the highway. Most of us are probably aware that driving slowly consumes less fuel. So do accelerating more gradually and breaking slowly. Gerdes states that forethought is key; he is always thinking two or three stoplights ahead. As I started paying more attention to my driving habits, I began to wonder: How many of us have gotten behind the wheel of a car and started to drive almost on autopilot — maybe even arriving at our destination without much recollection of how we got there? Hypermiling forces you to focus more on the process, making you more aware of other cars and potential obstacles.

As someone who frequently curses other drivers for going too slow in the passing lane, I have a hard time remembering to go slowly. It’s difficult to get used to being the person that other cars are impatiently passing. But I’ve started coasting more and taking my foot off the accelerator as soon as I see a red light or stop sign ahead of me. I’m frequently amused to see other drivers accelerate to get around me, even though we may be 200 feet from a red light. When I roll to a stop behind them, I have to smile. They haven’t gotten any further than I have, but they’ve used more gas getting there.

After driving more mindfully for just over a week, I can’t say with any certainty that my gas mileage has increased. One of the foundations of hypermiling is knowing your gas mileage, so that’s something I’ll have to start monitoring. But I can definitely say that it looks like the needle on my gas gauge is falling more slowly. And I’ve noticed that when I’m not impatiently switching lanes and getting annoyed with slower drivers, when I pay more attention to the way I drive and think ahead, I feel calmer and more prepared to react. Hypermiling is something that takes constant diligence. Whenever I let my concentration slip or feel rushed, I start pushing down on the gas pedal and impatiently changing lanes. But I’m becoming accustomed to observing my fuel gauge more closely, and I often remind myself to stick to the speed limit. It might take me a little longer to get where I’m going, but I’ll arrive a little calmer, feeling good knowing that I am being proactive to reduce my fuel consumption. And since buying a hybrid isn’t currently in my budget, I’m doing everything I can with the resources available to me now. Just don’t expect to see me push-starting my car anytime soon.