7 creative ways to save energy costs, even in your rental!
With a little practice, I have been able to save around 20% on my energy usage each month. Imagine if your electric bill for your one-bedroom apartment is $100 in the winter, these few tricks will save $20 right away, which means an extra $240 in your yearly budget. You could do things like: treat yourself to a cheap dinner out, buy yourself that fancy new tablet, or just load up on the geeky swag of your choice! Here are some things you may not have thought of to help you use less in your rental…
Use tube-free toilet paper to cut down on waste
If you are like me, throwing the cardboard tubes in with the bathroom trash is not an option because they go into the recycle bin. So a line of empty tubes line up on my windowsill, and it’s just not pretty. We switched to the tube-free kind of toilet paper, and that problem disappeared.
A great lesson in DIY, eco-friendly, backyard art studios
If you’ve ever thought about building an art studio in your backyard, you can really learn a thing or two from Chris and Jean’s hand-made art studio. But tell me, is this making you realize YOU could build your own art retreat in your backyard?
Work clothes that aren’t made by little hungry children putting in 18 hour days
Good news, Homies! I just acquired my first white collar job in a while. My wardrobe is almost completely unprepared for this, and I really feel strongly about not buying sweatshop-made clothing.
I am normally a big thrift or vintage shopper, but as everyone who does this knows, it’s kind of luck-of-the-draw on whether you’ll find anything. I’m a mediocre seamstress, but not good enough to produce my own clothing en mass. Combing the internet for non-sweatshop goods, I find a lot of men’s bike clothes, a legion of organic hemp t-shirts, and a variety of beautiful things which are way too hippie to be my regular style, and not a lot I can wear to work.
If non-sweat shop clothing is also a priority for you, how do you make it work?
How doing chores makes me feel empowered
This might seem paradoxical, and it probably is, but adding more chores to my daily life has actually given me the feeling I am more in control of my life. Some might call this backwards. Isn’t evolution supposed to drive towards a simplified life, with fewer and fewer chores?
Use a window to solar charge your USB gadgets
Got a window in your office? In the airport? In a foreign country? These little solar-powered stickies may be what you need to keep your USB gadgets up and running.
Solar Roof Shopping? Things You Should Know
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Massachusetts, green is the new black. The state continues to offer rebates and special deals for folks who decide to put solar paneling on their roofs to help the environment. But as I learned, it’s not one-size-fits-all shopping. Here are some things to keep in mind…
Would you ditch paper towels for this re-usable “unpaper towel” roll?
Thanks to KP who uploaded her super colorful and quite eco-friendly paper towel roll photo into our Flickr pool, I learned what an unpaper towel roll is. We talked about going toilet paper free. But would you ditch your paper towels?