Do not wash your hair with coffee grounds. I don't care if you read on the Internet that doing this will give your brunette hair beautiful softness and luster, in addition to making use of something that otherwise would be garbage. This is not a good idea. Here's why: The process of applying coffee grounds … Continue reading Things Not To Do, Hair Care Edition
reusing
Pizza Box Stained Glass
My five-year-old son loves to play games , but there's another reason he looks forward to attending the same game convention every year: the individual pizzas in the convention center food court! I think they're not that great, but I'm willing to let him eat one each year. Like many fast-food pizzas, it's served in … Continue reading Pizza Box Stained Glass
Washing Plastic Bags
It's Works-for-Me Wednesday , so here's a mundane but easy tip that saves a lot of money and helps the environment, too! We wash and reuse plastic food bags, like zip-top freezer bags and sandwich bags. I always used to shake out crumbs or maybe rinse them a little, but if there was any significant … Continue reading Washing Plastic Bags
A Four-year-old’s Treasures
Nicholas loves stuff. He's constantly collecting things that he wants to keep. I get frustrated with how little he uses most of this stuff and how much it's underfoot or visually cluttering our house. But last night I noticed a little box of his treasures that he'd left on the dining table before going to … Continue reading A Four-year-old’s Treasures
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
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!!!
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
Semi-disposable sippy cups
You might be surprised to see EnviroBecca touting the virtues of anything disposable. After all, I'm all about cloth diapers and hankies and reusable menstrual gear and real dishes even at picnics and just generally reusing everything! Notice I said semi-disposable. The sippy cups we prefer are lightweight polypropylene similar to those Gladware and Ziploc containers … Continue reading Semi-disposable sippy cups
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 Cheap Thrills of Thrifty Fashion
Last night, our three-year-old night owl conked out at 8:00!! Daniel and I did a little dance of glee and launched into an evening of companionable adult pursuits, which of course included sorting through our wardrobes, getting out the winter clothes and putting away the summer ones, and deciding the fate of unwanted garments. What? That's not … Continue reading The Cheap Thrills of Thrifty Fashion
What Do You Reuse?
This question was posted on a discussion board recently. Not only do I reuse many physical objects, but I can reuse the list I made for that discussion as an article on my own Website! I love reusing glass jars so much that my ravings on the subject got too long for this article and … Continue reading What Do You Reuse?
Packing for a Picnic or Potluck: Reusable Gear!
Picnic/barbecue season is here, with mounds of disposable tableware: soggy paper, bendy plastic, skidgy foam, spoons that scratch our mouths and melt in our coffee, forks whose tines snap off, knives that won't cut anything, cups that are too cold or hot to hold without adding a layer of cardboard. Everybody's cup is identical, so we have to write our names on them. What convenience! What convenience? We've started bringing our own dishes, utensils, and napkins when we go to picnics and some potlucks.
To You, They ARE Underwear!
This article is part of my Tastes Like Somebody Loves You! series. I wrote it in 2003, but it falls into that category of things I wasn't allowed to say when I wasn't a parent. Toddlers learning to use the toilet used to wear cotton "training pants" that were just like underpants but made of thicker … Continue reading To You, They ARE Underwear!
Cloth Diaper Details
I already explained some of the advantages of using cloth diapers. Now, for those who are interested, I'm going to give all the details of how we did it. Many different styles of cloth diapers are available these days, so there's a lot to choose from, and it can be daunting. Pre-motherhood, I found it very useful … Continue reading Cloth Diaper Details
Our Green Christmas Tree
"How to have an enviro-friendly Christmas" seems to be a hot topic in the media this year, so I won't bother with an extensive list. I'll just describe one idea that is, as far as I know, unique: We don't use a real tree as our Christmas tree, nor do we have one of those … Continue reading Our Green Christmas Tree
Handkerchief season is here!
My father uses handkerchiefs. I'd always thought of it as one of his idiosyncrasies. Normal people used paper tissues. I always found it kind of weird, though, that so many people use a tissue just briefly, to remove a few drops of watery stuff from the nose, and then throw it away. What a waste … Continue reading Handkerchief season is here!
Household Hints
Add a slosh of white vinegar--about a tablespoon--to the sinkful of hot soapy water when washing dishes. I started doing this last spring, when we'd all been sick, because vinegar kills germs. I found out that it also cuts grease and makes the dishes really squeaky clean! (Vinegar has many other uses, too!) Here's some … Continue reading Household Hints
The Evolution of an Environmentalist
No matter how strongly you feel you should do your part to save the planet, it can be difficult to change your lifestyle. We recommend a gradual approach: Do one new environmentally-friendly thing every few months. This gives you time to get used to each change and incorporate it into your daily life. As an example, here's a list of changes I've made in my own life.
The Earthling's Handbook 