Green Cleaning

It happens quite often throughout your home; juice spills on the kitchen counter, bathroom gunk build up, bacon grease stuck on the stove … Surfaces are difficult to keep clean and are often subject to being cleaned off using various disinfectant products.  Many disinfectant products are made of toxic chemicals that are hazardous to our health and the environment.  Sprays can harm our respiratory health and pollute the air and other cleaners can seep into our groundwater causing harm to the local environment. 

There are alternatives that are more environmentally friendly and save you some money.  Vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda are cheap alternatives and are extremely effective cleaners.  You can also try different lines of green cleaners sold in the store right near the “normal” cleaning products that are usually the same or cheaper in price.  One line of green cleaning product is JAWS.  JAWS stands for “Just Add Water System” and what makes these cleaners so special is that they are non-toxic, come in an empty spray bottle, and are reusable.  The empty spray bottle can be reused once the JAWS cleaner is used up by simply buying a cartridge refill and refilling the bottle with water.  This reduces the amount of plastic being produced and thrown away into the landfills and as well as reduce the amount of CO2 emitted during the production and transportation of more product.  It will also prevent you from spending excess money on more cleaners, when you can cheaply and conveniently refill the JAWS cleaners.  Visit jawscleans.com to learn more about where or how you can try JAWS.  Who knew cleaning that bacon grease off your stove could be so EGOlogical? 

Fix Leaky Toilets

Leaky toilets can cause a lot of problems for the environment and your wallet.  When there is a leak in the cistern (the top part of the toilet), drops of water are leaking into the bowl of the toilet, causing the cistern to continuously add more water to make up for what is lost.  This causes unnecessary water usage and increases your water bill.  Therefore, check to leaking cisterns to avoid this.

According to smarterhomes.org.nz, you can check to see if you have a leaky cistern by adding a few drops of food coloring into the cistern.  If the food coloring ends up in the toilet bowl without flushing it, then there is a leak.  If the food coloring stays in the cistern, then there is no leak.   To fix the leak, you can replace the “underwater valve seating washer,” the rubber piece that keeps water in the cistern, and these are found at most plumbing stores.  This will cost you a few dollars, however the cost is a lot less than how high your water bill would be if you didn’t replace it.  Visit www.smarterhomes.org.nz to find out more "easy ways to save water" in your home.  

How To (EGOlogically) Unclog A Drain

When your sink is clogged, the most common solution to clear it up that people turn to is to pour some expensive toxic chemicals down the drain!  Having a clogged sink is a hassle, however pouring chemicals is not the only option.  Next time you have a clogged drain, simply pour some baking soda and vinegar down the drain.  Let that sit for a few minutes, then pour boiling water down the drain and use the plunger to add some extra power and push all the gunk out.  This method will prevent toxic chemicals from entering the sewage, reduce sewage treatment costs, and prevent the chemicals from entering larger bodies of water that could impact aquatic life.  Using the baking soda and vinegar technique will cost only a fraction of the price of buying chemicals to fix a clogged drain.  Who knew simple kitchen ingredients would save the environment and a little extra money in your wallet?

Toothpaste Squeezer

We brush our teeth when we wake up and when we go to bed, and what do we put on toothbrush…TOOTHPASTE!  Toothpaste is a commodity we use in our everyday lives… at least I HOPE it is for everyone.  Since we use it everyday, we have a tendency to go through a tube of toothpaste quickly.  When it seems like you’re almost out, you might roll it up to get the remaining toothpaste to squeeze out or you might simply throw it away because it’s too much work to get a little toothpaste out.  So why throw away good toothpaste?  Well I have a solution for you!  Invest in a toothpaste squeezer to push all the toothpaste on the bottom to the top.  You’ll be surprised to find out how much toothpaste is still in the tube when you think it’s empty.  You can find a toothpaste squeezer typically anywhere you can buy toothpaste and you can find some for less than a dollar. 

Yes this is a piece of plastic you a buying, but the key element to this EGOlogical tip is the concept of REDUCE.  By investing in a toothpaste squeezer you will be prolonging the life of your toothpaste tube, therefore throughout your life you will greatly reduce the amount of toothpaste you buy.  This will reduce the amount of pollution since you are reducing your toothpaste consumption rate and it will reduce the amount of toothpaste tubes you throw into the landfills because you won’t go through them as fast.  Investing in a toothpaste pusher will also save you money because you won’t have to buy toothpaste as often.  You can reuse your toothpaste squeezer for a very long time as well.  I’ve had mine for over ten years and it still works amazing.  As hypocritical as it sounds, this little piece of plastic will save a ton of plastic from the landfills!    


One last tip, when shopping for a new tube of toothpaste after you've squeezed everything you can out of your old one, go ahead and buy the bigger tube.  You know you're going to use it all anyway so you might as well.  Buying in bulk reduces the amount of packaging over time and will also save you money.  

Never Let the Water Run

I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase from our parents, grandparents, maybe even Barney …, “Never let the water run.”  This was often repeated when you were brushing your teeth or washing your hands and kept the water running when it wasn’t in true use letting money drip down the drain.  However, I am repeating this tip to you not as a common money saving tip, but as an environmental tip too.  Less than 4% of the world’s water comes from fresh water systems and with common water misusage and a growing population the danger of running out of fresh water is becoming a slow reality.  Therefore, we must be smart with our water consumption by not wasting it.  Saving water will also greatly reduce your water bill.  Visit www.watersmart.net to learn more and find other ways to conserve water and save some extra money.  

Yes... Beautiful Hair For Less

Taking a shower is part of everyone’s daily lives and that usually includes washing your hair.  Most people have the common tendency to fill the entire palm of their hand with shampoo/conditioner and then proceed to scrub their head.  However, I guarantee your hair will still be beautiful without THAT much product.  When washing and conditioning your hair, try reducing the amount of product you use.  For example, instead of using filling up your hand with shampoo, just use about a quarter size.  Or instead of taking two pumps of conditioner, take only one pump.  If you have more hair, I understand you might need to use a little more so adjust accordingly.  It may take a few tries to see how much product your hair will need, but overall just be aware of how much you used to use and try to reduce the amount you use.  This will make your shampoo and conditioner bottles last longer since you are using less.  In time you will buy less, reducing the amount of product produced/consumed by you and it will save you money too!  

LESS Truly is More... More Money in Your Wallet!

This is sensitive, but serious topic and I’m only going to say it once: You do not need a HUGE wad of toilet paper to wipe your bum!  Only take what you need to use after using the toilet.  This is a difficult pattern to change, but start by taking one or two squares less to eventually figure out how much you really need.  By reducing the amount of toilet paper you use, you are saving more for the future.  Eventually, the amount you have saved will add up and you will have to buy less and less for the future.  Buying less will reducing your environmental impact and also keep some extra money in your wallet.

Don't Move!

In today’s modern society, many public college bathrooms have automatic toilets to promote a more hygienic environment.  We are saving more people from spreading the germs built up on flushing toilets manually, however, automatic toilets have their downfalls as well.  Have you ever been sitting on a toilet and all of the sudden it flushes but you’re not done?  Then when you’re actually done it flushes again, in time using twice as much water as it should have.  Each flush can use from one to two gallons of water.  So next time you use an automatic toilet, try to sit really still so you reduce the risk of setting off the automatic sensor.  This will save your school a lot of money on their water bill, which in turn can be used for possible future projects on your campus.  

Paper Towels

After you wash your hands, if the public bathroom you are in does not have hand driers and you are forced to use paper towels, limit the amount of paper towel you take to dry your hands.  You don’t need 3 feet of paper towel to dry off your hands, so just take the amount you need, which should be about 6 inches. Some may argue that a small amount does not “dry your hands all the way.”  To avoid this, try shaking off the excess water and then dry them off with the small amount of paper towel.  If your paper towel dispenser is automatic, rip the paper towel before it is released all the way.  There will be a little hanging out, but then the next person won’t have to waste as many paper towel releases if they have enough.  Your little step can go a long way. 

I’ve heard many arguments in the past that, “it doesn’t matter how much I take they already chopped down the trees and made all these paper towels.”  My answer is: True, however the key word here is reduce.  If you reduce the amount consumed, then there will be more for other people to use, reducing the amount of time it takes to replace the dispenser.  Eventually, the amount of paper towel the school uses will decrease and they won’t have to purchase as much reducing their costs.  

Hold It

I know this may sound odd… but try sometimes holding going to the bathroom until you REALLY have to go.  Each flush uses approximately 3 gallons on water and if you go to the restroom 1 time within a 2 hour period instead of 2 times within that time, you save twice as much water.  I’m not telling you to hold your human waste in for TOO long, just don’t waste a flush unless you truly need to go.