A year or so ago, my church's assistant pastor began a sermon by saying, "You may never have really noticed our stained-glass windows." My jaw dropped. How could anyone not notice our stained-glass windows?! They're beautiful! They're very colorful, they depict a variety of Biblical characters and saints and symbols from obvious to obscure, and … Continue reading The Bluest Blue
Environment
Lazy Composting
This is the composting method that works for me! It's really simple, and it produces rich dirt for my flowerbeds quickly enough to suit me. If you are serious about making really high-quality compost or doing it quickly or being certain it is safe for growing food, then you should seek out instructions from somebody … Continue reading Lazy Composting
How to Clean a Basement or Porch Floor AND Use Up the Last Dregs of Liquid Laundry Detergent
This technique is suitable for any floor that has either a drain or an open side where water can spill onto the ground. I learned the cleaning technique at Girl Scout camp, and years later I realized its wonderful compatibility with those "still very soapy on the inside but with not enough soap to pour" … Continue reading How to Clean a Basement or Porch Floor AND Use Up the Last Dregs of Liquid Laundry Detergent
Line-drying Laundry
I already wrote about clotheslines, but that article is ancient now; I wrote it for a college class in magazine writing in 1995 and later put it online. Line-drying all my laundry is something that still works for me, and now that I have 20 years of experience, I have even more to say about … Continue reading Line-drying Laundry
7 Things I Don’t Do
These aren't necessarily things nobody should do. They're things I don't do, and I'm glad I don't, and I'm going to explain why. 1. Cell phone. I do not own one and very rarely use one. I spend most of my time in my home or my office, both of which are equipped with landline telephones … Continue reading 7 Things I Don’t Do
7 Ways to Eat Less Meat
Reducing the meat in your diet can save money, reduce environmental impact, improve your health, and reduce the calories per meal. (Obviously, all these things are affected by what you eat instead of meat!) You don't have to become a total vegetarian to experience the benefits of eating less meat. Here are some tips for … Continue reading 7 Ways to Eat Less Meat
Making Pants into Shorts
This week's Works-for-Me Wednesday is a special edition for organizing tips, so I'm linking to my old articles about the rule of One Thing and Three Things and how to organize your Girl Scout troop records, as well as posting this new article that isn't an organizing tip but works for me! This past spring, my … Continue reading Making Pants into Shorts
Diminishing Dishwashing Drudgery
I'm the dishwasher in our household. We have a mechanical dishwasher, but it's about 50 years old. It looks really neat--straight out of The Kitchen of Tomorrow, Yesterday!--but we're afraid to use it because the rubber gasket around the door is hard as a rock, so probably the water would pour out onto the floor. … Continue reading Diminishing Dishwashing Drudgery
Donating Dish Detergent
Do you ever want to help an organization, but feel like you can't spare enough money to make a real difference? Are you an environmentalist, wishing that everybody would switch to plant-based cleaners to help conserve our irreplaceable petroleum, but feeling like nobody ever listens to your ravings about how great these cleaners are? Buy a bottle of … Continue reading Donating Dish Detergent
Menstrual Cup Mania!!!
WARNING: People who are offended by graphic discussion of menstruation should go read something else. One of the very first things we put into The Earthling's Handbook was an article about alternatives to disposable pads and tampons. I've often been tempted to write a newer article with even more details about just how fabulous these … Continue reading Menstrual Cup Mania!!!
Ham Binge!
This is the fifth day in a row I've eaten the same lunch: a salad of lettuce, spinach, cheese, and ham. Wait a minute! HAM?! EnviroBecca is a pescatarian (eats no meat except occasional fish) for environmental and health reasons--ham should not be in her lunchbag, especially not five days in a row! Hang on. I … Continue reading Ham Binge!
Hand Towels for a Crowd
Here's a way to use washable cloth hand towels for a group too large and/or germy to share a towel hanging on a rack: Get a bunch of small cloth towels or terry washcloths. Stack the towels in a box or basket near the sink. Hang a laundry bag or place a laundry basket or hamper … Continue reading Hand Towels for a Crowd
Eternity in Your Hand
When you hold a styrofoam plate, you hold eternity in your hand. Plants and animals died millions of years ago and slowly turned into oil. Dozens of machines and probably a hundred people worked to find that oil deposit, bring the oil to the surface, transport it, refine it into polystyrene, produce that foam plate, package … Continue reading Eternity in Your Hand
7 Product Recommendations
Here are some things I really like that I don't think I've mentioned before (I'm not affiliated with nor paid off by any of these companies): 1. Maggie's Organics cotton crew socks. At first I bought a few pairs because organic cotton is better for the environment, but then I found them so comfortable that … Continue reading 7 Product Recommendations
Our pets protect us from identity theft!
Here's an idea that works for me this Earth Day: We have two pet gerbils. The conventional wisdom is that you're supposed to give your gerbils lots of wood-chips to nest in (I always want to say, "to munk in," but that's chipmunks, isn't it?) and you have to buy these wood-chips at the pet … Continue reading Our pets protect us from identity theft!
Take in for take-out!
When we know we'll be eating in a restaurant where we might have leftovers to take home, we bring our own containers. This is better for the environment because they're containers we've already used several times and will use again, instead of new containers provided by the restaurant that might be a single-use type. It's … Continue reading Take in for take-out!
The Five-Part Furniture-Finding Plan
It's Works-for-Me Wednesday, so here's the system by which Daniel and I have furnished our home: When there's a piece of furniture you'd like to have, Wait for it to come along. When you can wait no longer, See what you can scrounge from what other people are discarding. Go to yard sales. Go to … Continue reading The Five-Part Furniture-Finding Plan
Vinegar Hairwashing
UPDATE: I also wrote a newer article on vinegar hairwashing as a guest post for The Greenbacks Gal. Check it out for even more detailed information! If you have comments, please post them here so I'll be sure to see them. I wash my hair with vinegar instead of shampoo. Why? The original reason was … Continue reading Vinegar Hairwashing
An Everyday Educational Game
As we walked along our neighborhood's main street this afternoon, my four-year-old son asked me about a strange-looking contraption on the sidewalk. I explained that it's for the safe, sanitary disposal of cigarette butts. Sadly, Nicholas knows all about cigarettes, even though nobody in our family smokes them, because in our urban habitat we routinely … Continue reading An Everyday Educational Game
Tips from The Lightbulb Ninja
When I was about 12 years old, I became quite a stickler about shutting off unnecessary lights. Suddenly all the adult nagging and public-service announcements I'd ever heard got through to me (I can't recall why) and I began to see how amazingly wasteful it is to leave a bunch of extra lights on, just … Continue reading Tips from The Lightbulb Ninja
The Earthling's Handbook 