Eat, Recycle, Repeat

Nothing is more satisfying than the easy, one-two bunch of homemade cleaners. Sustainable, safe, and effective, I don’t have to worry about recycling tons of plastic bottles or harming humans, animals, or earth with chemicals. I clean my entire apartment with baking soda, vinegar, lemons, essential oils, hydrogen peroxide, and sometimes (intentionally or otherwise): tea. [...]

We often hear some form of the statistic that 80% of the world lives on less than $2 per day. But what does that mean? Turning a person, a family, a people into a statistic cuts off our empathy and understanding. We make excuses, saying we’ll contribute next time or that homeless person is just going [...]

Sadly, all the junk in my life is not in my trunk, but in my mailbox. BUT there are two solutions I can take to resolve this problem – more squats and taking a few minutes to declutter my mailbox and save some paper. I’ll be talking about the latter in today’s Green Tip. I [...]

Throughout most of Japan, houses do not have central air conditioning or central heat. The same goes for schools. While this isn’t always the MOST comfortable, I’ve learned that we can tolerate a lot more than we think. Actually, the idea of convenience is SO prevalent in our culture, most of the time we don’t [...]

Inspired by the Paleo Parents, I am doing my own no-spend month in February. I want to concentrate on buying only what I need, using what I have in my fridge, thinking of other people’s needs before my own desires, and re-prioritizing. You can read all about the no-spend guidelines here. A few points that [...]

Picture Food Waste is my monthly initiative to bring my food waste down to zero. I keep myself accountable and aware of my food waste by photographing whatever I have wasted for the month and tallying the loss in terms of dollars and sense. I’ll also post simple and innovative ways to save food from the trash [...]

Let me get this out of the way first – I have a bias against Black Friday. I don’t like crowds; I don’t like stress; I don’t like competive jostling for junk just because it is on sale; and I really don’t enjoy shopping all that much unless it is of the grocery variety. But [...]

Ok, as promised last week, here is what I have wasted in October: I count the herbs because, even though I didn’t buy them, I didn’t take care of them for quite some time and neglect = waste in my world. Last week’s tip to avoid food waste? FREEZE IT. This weeks tip? If you [...]

While it might not take you three seconds to clean your entire shower, especially if you are as frenetic about it as I am, it will take you three seconds to grab the ingredients needed for an easy scrub. Ready? Lemon, salt, baking soda. Done. I had a lemon sitting in my fridge that was [...]

Knowing where your food comes from is a complex and worthwhile topic that deserves more smarts and coherence then I can sustain this evening! It’s too humid to do anything but eat pumpkin ice cream sundaes for dinner (oh have I got a recipe for you guys!) and thank the lord you’re not out in [...]