Green Girl

We’re all worried about the ways that the rapidly-rising gas prices are going to hurt our pocketbooks, so here’s some tips from a fellow Today.com blogger on how to save gas. Check it out to find out new ideas to help your pocketbook while helping the planet at the same time.

I also thought that these tips were helpful, as well as these . Give them a thumbs up if you’re a Stumbler, and help spread the word!

Living in the drought-plagued Southeastern United States has turned me on to a whole new world of areas where I can live cleaner and greener in my own daily life. From the mandatory water restrictions to the programs that are encouraging us to upgrade our shower heads and incorporate devices like rain barrels into our homes and gardens, the city governments have been doing an impressive job of handling the dangers we’ve been facing. Minimal efforts, such as turning the shower nozzle off when you’re lathering yourself up with soap, can save as much as 15,000 gallons of water a year if you do it diligently.

This drought is just one more example of how our present crisis causes us finally to take some action to change our ways. It is regrettable that it took a crisis that threatened our well-being to make us change, but what is important is to realize that we are changing.

I reported not too long ago about my light-switch flipping ways . I tend to follow behind folks in my home and office turning off lights that they leave on carelessly. It started with my need to save money, but it has grown into much more than that as I’ve come to understand the real ecological effects of our collective carelessness.

I felt gratified for my small efforts when I went into the bathroom at my office building, and lo and behold, the building manager had installed a motion sensor light switch! From now on, it won’t just be me turning off the lights after I exit the restroom…we’ll all be turning them on and off just by going in and out! It’s neat to see people taking small steps to make a difference, and I’m excited to see if other small changes start popping up as well!

I thought this article from SKNVibes was interesting, suggesting that skipping breakfast in favor of frequent snacking is not only bad for your body, it’s also bad for the planet. If you find yourself skipping breakfast at home because you don’t think you have the time to stop and take care of yourself in the morning, consider this: The snacks you might purchase to fill up the hole left in your belly from your lack of breakfast often create needless waste. From fast food containers to plastic wrap to (ghastly) Styrofoam packaging, eating on the go creates more waste than when we take the few extra minutes to have something nutritious at home. Not only do we create more waste, but the crumbs that we leave when we eat on the run can attract rodents or breed bacteria that can cause other kinds of environmental (and unsightly) problems.

So think about it next time you’re rushing out of the house thinking that you’ll grab coffee and a donut…slow down and enjoy your time at home, and do something good for yourself and everyone else!

Save some green while going green! If you want to do your part to help preserve our natural resources for the generations to come, try growing your own food. Planting a few simple crops that you can use yourself, such as a few tomato plants, which will yield enough tomatoes to feed your family all summer long, will save you money while contributing to taking care of the planet. You save gas on your own end by cutting out trips to the grocery store, and you cut down on gas-expenditures globally by discouraging the shipment of produce across long distances. If your brown thumbs keep you from growing your own, consider checking out community gardens and local farmers’ markets to find your produce.

It’s one more example of how the rising price of gas is going to back us all into a corner where we have no choice but to try newer, greener approaches. I’m going to buy myself a few tomato plants this weekend!

For those of you unfamiliar with Carbon Rally , it’s one of my favorite sites for easy, environmentally friendly tips and challenges that can make a big difference with very little impact on your day-to-day routine. Their new challenge is to clean the coils of your refrigerator.

Who knew that the refrigerator often accounts for 20% of the energy an average household uses!  When we let our refrigerator coils collect dirt, pet hair, dust, and other debris, we force our fridges to work up to 25% harder to regulate the internal temperatures.

Instructions for how to clean your coils follow:

“Compared with other household chores, cleaning the condenser coils on your refrigerator isn’t such a big deal. If you still have your owner’s manual, scan it to find where your coils are located. If you no longer have the manual, the coils are likely to be found behind the little grill at the base of the fridge. To be on the safe side, temporarily cut off the power to the refrigerator before you clean the coils. Either unplug the appliance or flip the appropriate circuit breaker. Next, remove the grill and locate the coils. (If you don’t see any coils beneath the fridge, they must be on the back of the appliance. You’ll need to slide the refrigerator away from the wall so you can get to the coils.) You can either use a bottle brush or your vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment to gently remove any dust and dirt that covers the coils or fins. The more dust you find under or behind the fridge, the happier you’ll be with the results of this Challenge!”

Sign up for the coil-cleaning challenge here.

Around my home and various offices, I like to think of myself as something of a light-switch warrior…If I enter and leave an area, I turn off the lights stealthily. I have heard some grumbling in the public restrooms about someone constantly turning off the lights; however, I bet if they knew that leaving lights and fans on when you’re not in the room costs money unnecessarily while also contributing to the carbon emissions that cause our climate change, they’d join me in my light-switching endeavors!

According to How To Save The Planet, the Discovery show Mythbusters has proven that the power surge that occurs when you switch a light on only uses as much power as leaving it on for a fraction of a second, with the exception of fluorescent lights (and the power surge required to start one of those up is only worth about 23 seconds of the energy wasted by leaving it on unnecessarily).  So that old yarn about wasting as much money turning lights on and off as leaving them on is a big old myth.

So how about it? Make it a game…attack the light switches in public restrooms when you’re out to eat, at work, or at home.

Via GreenUpgrader

I love this idea, found and explained through the video above from GreenUpgrader . These traditional Japanese carrying cloths, “Mottinai Furoshiki,” can be worn as hair wraps, shawls, or any other interesting cloth-garment, and torn off, sexy-secretary style, to become a bag for your groceries, your books, your cases of beer, or whatever you might need. These would be great for city-living or students, and they keep you from feeling compelled to hang on to plastic grocery bags in case you might need them around the house. Are you as excited as I am to put your scarf collection to work?

Check out GreenUpgrader for many more exciting tips on how to upgrade your lifestyle to clean and green.

Eliminate your idle threats! CarbonRally has issued a challenge to encourage all of us to turn off our cars while we are idling at stop lights or while waiting for a passenger to run a quick errand. By cutting down on your idle time in the car by just 5 minutes a day, you can reduce your monthly Carbon Dioxide emissions by 27 pounds.

When you’re shopping next time, keep an eye out for packaging that you can reuse in your home. This weekend, I picked up a sugar container from Domino Sugar that has a great lid. I’ll use it in the future to store my sugar or other household items. Glass jars that hold spaghetti sauce make great storage as well for kitchen items, and they can also be used as sturdy storage for household goods such as nails or other fasteners.

I heard a commercial this morning where Ellen DeGeneres said that she recycles the tin foil that she uses for baked potatoes. Her suggestion was to save them and use them when you frost your hair, but they can also be used again in the kitchen. Rinse the tin foil well and let it dry, and you’d be surprised how many times you can re-use it. It’s remarkably sturdy stuff.

Two or three times I year, I go crazy for crochet. Nothing can soothe my addled mind like getting a big ball of yarn and making something fun. It’s a hobby I took up as a child, and it’s stuck with me through the years. I was surfing the net a few weeks ago looking for ideas for a new crochet project, and I found tons of links from folks using old plastic grocery bags as a new kind of yarn! I’ve started cutting my own bag collection, and it’s proving to be sturdy, easily workable material.

I’ve collected a few links for you crafty greenies to take see for yourself. Happy crafting!

• Paula Chavis at Needlepointers has a few fun ideas for seasonal-themed projects and others for household decorations.
• Michelle Ryan at NezumiWorld recommends a few tips for how to cut the bags to make them into the most workable yarn.
• Jeanne at DreamingPrinter has a pattern for plastic bag hats.

And finally, I found this video with some hints for how to get started! Enjoy!