Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart's 25 Eco-Chic Ideas for Your Home

You know, actually some good tips here. I especially like how almost all the project focus on re-purposing or reusing things you already have or can buy second-hand at garage sales/thrift stores.

Tips include:
-Reusing glass jars for various purposes
-Giving completely new life to old clothes
-Creating functional dishes and kitchen helpers out of useless ones
-Many, many more

If you're feeling creative, or have things around your house you don't want to get rid of but don't use, consider giving this a read.

Sunscreen and Bug Repellent

Fall weather is on its way, and many of us will be spending more time in the lovely autumn weather soon. Keeping that in mind, you might be in the market for some sunscreen and/or bug repellent.

Sunscreen:
Primarily, you'll want to look for a sunscreen that uses physical barriers from the sun instead of chemical ones. And, as always, the fewer ingredients you can't pronounced/don't have a clue what they are, the better.

Bug Repellent:
We all know this by now, but be sure to stay away from DEET. And the unknown chemical thing again. Essential oils are a great substitute.

For example, catnip oil is reported to be an excellent option -- the order of 10 times more effective than DEET. Look for it in your store-bought repellents (often as "nepetalactone"), or make your own. Try mixing 6 drops of catnip oil in 3 oz of water.

Check out Low Impact Living's article Safe Sunscreen and Bug Repellents for more details about both sunscreen and bug repellent. She does an excellent job linking to suggested products, too. Grist's article Swat Team also has good information about DEET-free bug repellents, including her personal experiences with different brands through experimentation.

More Socks!

For socks, tights, scarves, t-shirts, lounge pants, and even sock monkeys, check out Maggie's Functional Organics. Made using organic cotton, Maggie's clothing is cute and affordable.

They even have a section for baby and children's clothes and socks. When your kid is growing a size a week (or so it seems, at least), you can reduce his or her impact by choosing organic (or consignment).

Now, before you go to Maggie's and get scared off, I'll warn you: they do offer tie-dyed clothes. Try to ignore it, and focus on the functional and/or the cute offerings.

I, for one, want a pair of those leg warmers. But, alas, I can't imagine where I'd need them...

Also, Nimli offers organic socks for women and infants, too. Just more options!

Plastics and Your Daily Toilette

Your daily hygiene routine is probably one of the major sources of plastic waste in your life. You use your shampoo and body wash. You slick back your hair with hair gel. Or perhaps you squeeze some concealer, foundation, and lotion into your hands. Plastic bottles all.

Eco-Chick's article Nix Plastic from your Beauty Routine to the rescue!
-Next time you run out of shower gel/body wash, consider replacing it with bar soap. Minimal packaging. Use a washcloth with it or get two bars if you can't stand to think about sharing one with your significant other.
-If you're feeling adventurous, experiment with solid shampoo bars. You can find them from Burt Bee's, Herbaria, Oyin, Lush, and more. Easy to use, and oh-so-much-easier to take on an airplane!
-Buy items like hand soap in bulk.
-Consider branching out to multi-use products. Again, this reduces packaging. Plus, it'll be great for your subconscious to have fewer "things" in your life. Many make-up products can be multi-use; many solid shampoo bars can also be used as your primary shower soap too; make sure your lotion has sunscreen in it; etc.

Greening your bathroom

A great article today on Planet Green today. "How to Go Green: in the Bathroom" features lots of important tips and topics that you wouldn't want to overlook.

The article talks about:
-Low flow shower heads and faucet aerators
-Dual flush toilets
-Toilet paper (even rolling "over" or rolling "under" matters!)
-Cleaning supplies
-Showering and brushing your teeth
-Using vinegar and lemon as natural cleaning agents
-Shower curtains
-Soaps
-Towels and linens

In the later pages of the article, Planet Green recommends lots of links for further investigation into whatever topic(s) you are interested in.

You've probably heard of most of the tips. But I can almost guarantee that there will be one or two points in this article that will be new and useful to you.

Also, remember that the goal is to phase out your not-so-green habits and products as they need replacing (with a few health exceptions, of course). The article says, for example, that bamboo or organic cotton towels are the way to go. True. But the towels you own right now are infinitely greener because new things take so much energy and so many resources to produce and ship.

Green Search Engines

Doing some research on the web? Check out some of these great green and socially responsible search engines.

Tree Hugger's article The Best Green Search Engines recommends the following:

1) EcoSearch.

• EcoSearch.org donates 100% of profits to charities named on the "About" page on the site.
• Users can request additional environmental charities be added.
• EcoSearch.org is powered by Google.

2) GoodSearch

• GoodSearch donates 50% of revenue to charities chosen by the users of the site
• GoodSearch searches via Yahoo!.

3) GoodTree

• GoodTree gives 12.5% of revenue to charities chosen by the users of the site.
• GoodTree publishes independent audits and shows the disbursements made, by charity.
• GoodTree is a meta-search engine, searching over Yahoo, Google, Ask Jeeves, and MSN.

Or to help you do comparative green searching, try GoodGuide. An EcoGeek article says, "Drawing from over 650 data sources, GoodGuide is building a database that figures out what is physically healthy, socially healthy, and environmentally healthy, so that people can compare products and make their priority decisions." Give 'em a try!

Volunteering on Organic Farms

Treehugger has a fascinating idea about how to spend some of your vacation days. The article "Volunteer on an Organic Farm" features the WWOOF organization, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

The article reads, "You can't give up your day job to start that organic farm that you have been dreaming about and you don't have any land for an organic vegetable garden--but you really want to give it all a try. What to do? The answer is easy: volunteer for a week or two on someone else's. Through WWOOF-World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms--you can live the life, work the work and learn all about the organic movement. Plus you meet fascinating, like-minded people. WWOOF is a world-wide organisation [sic], with branches all over Europe, North and South America and Africa. Volunteers are not paid, but are given meals and accommodation and valuable training in new skills.

"Browsing through the listings is fascinating--there are so many people out there living on farms and in the countryside working to grow their own food, sell it, develop markets and make their way. Volunteers can go to Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, Austria. They can work on one acre or 200 acre farms, Georgian houses, or small cottages, a stud farm in Spain, harvesting wild herbs in the south of France. Volunteering and living with a family is a wonderful way to learn about new cultures without being an intrusive tourist and at the same time you are giving back something to that country. It's really a form of eco-tourism at its best."

What a unique way to spend a vacation. Think about how much you'd learn. Working at a WWOOF farm in the USA could teach us about farming and the importance of the organic food movement. Nearly all of us are completely removed from the sources of the food we eat, so working on a farm could help us to respect the work that goes into our food a bit more. It would be an excellent way to network with other passionate, committed people, which may be just the inspiration many of us need to re-energize.

Working at a WWOOF farm internationally, of course, has all these benefits and more. Depending upon which country you travel to, you may also be able to learn or practice a new language, discover a new culture, and gain a new perspective on work and/or your relationship with your sustenance.

Organic Intimates

It's a good idea to think organic next time you're in the market for a new outfit. (Second-hand or vintage is great too from a sustainability standpoint!) However, it is even more important to choose organic when picking out your next pair of underwear or socks. These are items you wear day and night right next to your skin (and in the case of underwear, it is some very sensitive skin). You'll want these articles as natural as possible.

In the Loop writes the Ultimate Guide to Eco Undies. It gives us links to lots of cute lingerie. Much of it is fancier than daily wear, but it is an excellent place to start.

For other more casual options, check out some of these online retailers:
-Pristine Planet
-Rawganique
-Faeries Dance
-GreenKnickers

Check out White Apricot's Best Eco-Undies list, too. It has some different leads for eco-friendly underwear, as well as lots of sleepwear.

As for socks, Green Loop's article Sock It To Ya: Organic Socks that Rock suggests a handful of options. Check out some of the links next time your socks are getting a little holey! Also consider visiting Sock Dreams.

Seafood

Choosing your foods carefully can greatly influence your environmental impact. One important arena for responsible eating is in the area of seafood. In fact, overfishing and irresponsible fish farming are major problems worldwide.

The Food Luvin article Top Ten Sustainable Fish Choices and Ten Fish You Should Avoid Eating gives a thorough overview of the issues as well as, obviously, an enumeration of some responsible types of fish and some of the worse.

Likewise, Green Is Sexy's Plenty of Fish in the Sea links us to a Canadian seafood guide you can carry with you for shopping and eating out. The famous American equivalent is Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood WATCH. A great, simple list format makes it a quick and easy guide. Just print it out and enjoy dinner responsibly.

Vinegar

A few weeks ago, we did an article about the multiple uses of lemon as a substitute for chemical products. Lemons, of course, aren't the only miracle product. Take vinegar as another example.

You can use it for a million different cleaning, laundry, hygiene, lawn/garden, edible, and pet applications. Examples include:
-Killing weeds
-Cleaning toilet bowl
-Washing mirrors and windows
-Cleaning up cat urine

For details on all that and more, please read "Vinegar, the #1 Cheapest and Most Versatile Product for your Home" on One Green Generation.