The Lighter Footstep (http://lighterfootstep.com/) is a great site for tips and tricks to green your home and generally leave a lighter footprint, so to speak. It’s a fun, informative site – not preachy or boring like so many eco-sites. Check it out -lots of quick easy ideas for everything from cooking and cleaning to buying used items.

White vinegar! Is there any other “eco-friendly” and cheap product that has so many amazing uses? Here are just a few of the things I use white vinegar for:

• Laundry fabric softener – no more fabric softener sheets. We throw vinegar in the fabric softener compartment in our washing machine. Clothes come out clean and fresh and odor-free. Then I toss them in the dryer with those funky dryer prickly ball-things and our clothes are soft and cushy. Can’t beat it!
• Cleaning shower heads – this may seem like a strange one but since I think we have “hard” water, we get crunchy gook on our shower heads. I put white vinegar in a ziptop bag and submerge the shower head in the vinegar – attaching the bag with a rubber band. Leave it there for a few hours then remove it, brush with an old toothbrush and it’s sparkling clean! Nothing I have ever used for that works as well.
• A drop in the water when I wash my wood floors. I don’t wash them often as water isn’t good for the floors but when we had our house remodeled, I asked the floor guy how to take care of the floors, and he said warm water with a dash of white vinegar. Then barely moisten the mop. Works great!
• Washing windows – works like a charm. A drop of liquid dish soap, a little vinegar and some water. Who needs to buy all that garbage from the store that doesn’t even work as well as this?
• Cleaning the coffee machine – run it through the coffee machine then do a couple rinse runs with plain water. Keeps coffee tasting great!

It’s easy to start reducing the toxins in your home. Even if you just do it one step at a time. Plus – it’s nice when being eco-conscious also means saving money and getting the job done!

I love finding new ways to use eco-friendly, kid-safe products around the house, and I recently came across an article that outlined some great uses for baking soda. Yep – just regular plain old baking soda. So I wanted to share them:

• You can use baking soda as earth-friendly alternative to unclog your drain. It’s simple to do, less expensive than the store bought product, and just as effective.

Here’s what you do: Pour one cup of regular table salt, one cup of baking soda, and half a cup of plain white vinegar down the drain. Leave it alone for 15 minutes and then pour two quarts of boiling water into the sink. Follow this by running the hot water into the sink for at least one minute.

You’ll be amazed how effectively this combination works. The drains will be clean and you won’t have added anything toxic to the drain system. For tough clogs you may need to repeat the process.

• Baking soda, when mixed with salt, is also an effective stain remover and scouring powder. Mix one cup of baking powder with one cup of salt. Then use this mixture the same way you would any other scouring powder. Again, an effective mixture that is less harmful to the environment.

• Sprinkle some baking soda on your carpet and let it sit for 10 minutes. When the time is up, vacuum away any stale odors that may have settled in your carpet.

• Add a little baking soda to your dishwasher the next time you’re loading it. The baking soda will give your cleaner an extra boost to get your dishes sparkling clean.

• Making an equal mixture of baking soda and laundry detergent will stretch your detergent and make your laundry smell fresh.

So next time you’re at the grocery store, buy one of those bigger boxes and check out some of these tips!

I just took a fun trip to Miami Beach with 2 of my college roommates. We had a great time relaxing in the sun and catching up. On the flight home, I started reading the Delta Sky magazine. I am always amazed at how great the airline magazines are. Truly – every time I read one, I have at least one article that I want to save. This time, there were a bunch. It was all about “going green.”

One thing that I found particularly interesting (and disturbing) was a set of stats/facts about US consumption. I thought I’d share a few of the most interesting points that were made:

• The people of the US represent less than 5% of the world’s population but we account for more than 25% of the consumption of the world’s resources. That alone is just plain sad.
• If everyone in the US lowered their thermostats by 1 degree in the winter, the nation would save 230 million barrels of crude oil – enough to fill an oil tanker 400 times.
• One gallon of used oil – the amount from a small car engine – can pollute 1 million (!!!!) gallons of fresh water and create an 8-acre oil slick. YIPES. Each year nearly 200 million gallons of used oil are illegally dumped on the ground, tossed in the trash or pound down storm sewers and drains.
• If every American switched to receiving just ONE bill as an electronic statement instead of a paper one, the one-time savings would be nearly 218 million sheets – enough to completely blanket the island of Key West in a single layer of paper.

And this one had the biggest impact:

• One out of every 3 pounds of the waste that Americans generate is just for packaging, which each year adds up to 77 million tons – enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans 37 times.

Lots of food for thought.