Recycling can seem like a lot of overwhelming work at first. Depending where you live, it may involve lots of sorting. You may have to get used to cleaning something up before tossing it in the recycling bin. There are some steps you can take to organize your efforts and make things easier.

But remember that the #1 tip will always ...Read More

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I’m a fan of the idea that going green shouldn’t be painful. It’s not an either/or proposition, in which either you’re making enormous personal sacrifices to unburden the planet a bit, or else you’re supposed to feel deeply guilty. It’s mostly about consuming less, and not consuming things just for the sake of consuming them.

This is a list of 50 ...Read More

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Before you rip into all the presents, remember that you can repurpose used giftwrap (and boxes) before recycling them. The less torn the wrapping is, the more options you have for repurposing. But if half the fun for kids is actually ripping into the presents, don’t worry: there are plenty of things you can use torn gift paper for, too.

Repurposing ...Read More

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UPDATED: While I stand by everything I said when I originally published this article, I think using this toilet paper eventually led to some, shall we say, posterior irritation for me, and it wouldn’t be fair to my readers not to share that. I’m sure it works just fine for many people, but if you know you need a soft ...Read More

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Doe-c-doe questioned whether this might be obvious to everyone else, but it definitely wasn’t to me. She took a pair of screwback earrings – the kind you can wear without pierced ears – and converted them into dangling leverback (you could also use french hooks) earrings. Without removing the screwbacks. She integrated them into the set up:

I bought these on ...Read More

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In a few weeks, I may have a patio or balcony of my own where I can grow some potted plants. When you do this with herbs and vegetables, it’s called “container gardening” and you can grow a surprising amount of food in a very small area, if you pick the right plants for the amount of sunlight they’ll be ...Read More

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About nine months ago, I started using a mineral deodorant. You know, the ones you find at the health food store that look like a piece of quartz crystal. Some of them are roll-up in a little plastic bottle, some are just a piece of mineral in a pouch, and some are a spray-on version (which I have not tried).

The ...Read More

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Instructables is always a fun and useful site, but lately they’ve had a lot of really smart ideas for DIY energy savings.

DIY Double Glazing. Double glazed windows are amazing. They can cut down both on your energy bills and on the noise you can hear from outside. Shanitan found a way to get the same effect DIY-style (and it looks ...Read More

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Four years ago, I bought a pair of ankle boots on sale for $50, and they’ve been awesome. A few months ago, some stitching came loose, and I realized they were a bit scuffed, but the lining inside and everything else was still great. From a frugality standpoint, I could’ve tossed them out (I can’t find a charity shop that ...Read More

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By definition, going green is a good thing. But there are better and worse ways to go about it. One thing I found recently was that I was stacking up ridiculous piles of clutter by setting aside my recycling to be sorted later and never getting around to it. Cara at Repurposeful has a great article about the pitfalls of ...Read More

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