Natural Window Cleaning Tips

How often you clean your windows depends on where you live. For most folks, cleaning your inside windows twice a year is enough. A good tip to remember is to clean your windows on cloudy days to prevent direct sun streaking. What should you have on hand to start your window cleaning project? Tip: 2 buckets, good squeegee, a sponge, clean, lint free cloth, chamois, a good quality 'green' cleaning solution:

1 cup rubbing alcohol

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vinegar

Using isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar together makes a quickly evaporating spray glass and mirror cleaner that competes with national brands. This can also be used to give a nice shine to hard tiles, chrome, and other surfaces.

or

1/4 cup undiluted white vinegar, 1 tbsp cornstarch, and 1 quart warm water. Put into spray bottle. Wipe with lint free cloth.

Ten Ways to Conserve Water in Your Home

(ARA) – Water is a precious resource and even though it flows readily whenever we turn on a faucet, it's important to conserve. Water is vital to the environment, and conserving water helps our critical ecosystems, but saving water also saves you money. You don't have to make major lifestyle changes to conserve water in your home; there are easy ways to accomplish the environmentally friendly task.

1. Don’t flush water and money down the drain. Fix leaks promptly. It has been shown that leaking faucets and toilets account for 14 percent of all indoor water use, which can add up to 20 gallons of water per person per day. Don’t forget to check outdoor faucets, pipes and hoses for leaks too, before winter sets in.

2. Take shorter showers by setting a time limit for yourself. Also, try and be aware of the amount of water you are using by turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth and washing your hands.

3. Faucets with one-piece waterways can minimize the places that leaks can form because there are minimal joints. Delta Faucet Company’s Diamond Seal Technology reduces leak points with its unique one-piece construction comprised of an integrated diamond-coated valve and InnoFlex waterways.

4. Look for water-efficient lavatory faucets certified by the EPA’s WaterSense program. Lahara bath suite by Delta flows at 1.5 gallons per minute at 60 pounds per square inch, saving about 30 percent more water than a standard faucet, which flows at 2.2 gallons per minute.

5. If your toilet was installed before 1980, install a toilet dam or filled bottle to save water during each flush (make sure operating parts are not affected by these installations). Consider installing a new toilet that uses less than 1.6 gallons of water per flush.

6. When shopping for showerheads, look for models that save water without compromising the shower experience. The Water-Efficient Showerhead with H2Okinetic Technology by Delta actually changes the thermal dynamics of the water, and delivers larger water droplets while using 36 percent less water than a standard showerhead.

7. Landscaping accounts for 20 to 50 percent of all residential water use, so choose drought-resistant and low water consuming plants. Your local home extension service can be found online and can help you choose plants appropriate to your geographic region.

8. Use a landscape watering guide to calculate how long and how frequently to water your plants for optimal growth. A calculator can be found at www.wateruseitwisely.com.

9. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway or sidewalk and save up to 80 gallons of water each time.

10. Check out other water-saving tips by visiting Responsible by Nature at www.deltafaucet.com/green.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Redecorating and Keeping it Green

(ARA) - The redecorating bug has bitten you hard, and you want to join the “green” society by making your home stylish but healthy and environmentally friendly.

You can start from the floor up, and environmentally-friendly decorative flooring is just what you need. Something that allows you to choose from many colors, have simple installation and follow up with easy maintenance. Materials like sustainably harvested hardwoods and ceramic tile aren’t your only eco-friendly choices. A better option might be Marmoleum Click, an all-natural flooring made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosins and limestone.

With a visit to www.themarmoleumstore.com, you can match colors, look at decorative designs already created or plan out your own. “Previously, linoleum was available only in large sheets and generally required professional installation,” says Scott Day of Forbo Flooring, manufacturers of Marmoleum and Marmoleum Click products. “But Marmoleum Click makes installing a simple linoleum floor -- or even a complex design -- very easy.” The product is available in 12-inch by 36-inch panels or 12-inch by 12-inch squares. The panels click together, much like most other floating floors, to create a durable, attractive surface.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when creating fashionable designs for the floor in a room:

* Room size and shape.

A dark color or busy pattern may not suit a small or long, narrow room, because it may make the room look smaller. Stripes or diagonal patterns, however, can create optical effects that completely transform a room.

* Function.

A living room or bedroom often lends itself to darker, warmer colors, whereas a clean, crisp environment may be more appropriate for a kitchen.

*Furniture.

The more furniture there is in a room, the smaller the floor area that is visible, so a simpler pattern is often the best choice. Amazing effects can be achieved by a well chosen pattern.

After the floor is finished, you can move onto furniture. Some green ideas are to reuse your current pieces that are solid in construction. A new color of paint, slipcovers, reupholstering or adding decorative furnishings can give the room an entirely new look without thowing anything away. If your furniture can’t be saved, look into garage sales for used pieces that have simple, traditional lines which won’t look dated in a short period of time. Also, look for furniture built from natural products and using stains or paints with limited environmental hazard.

When it’s time to tackle the walls, look for paints that contain little or no volatile organic compounds. Latex- and water-based paints with a flat finish typically fit into this category. These paints provide little to no chemical leakage from the walls to the air as the paint is applied and dries, keeping the air inside your home cleaner.

If you have a redecorating project planned, it’s not hard to keep the project green and environmentally friendly.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Purr-fectly Green Cat Care Tips

(ARA) – She can jump from the floor to the top of the refrigerator, or bound across your desk without disturbing a single sheet of paper. Your cat personifies the graceful, enviable sure-footedness of her species. But what about her eco-footprint?

With 88 million domesticated cats in the country (according to the National Pet Owners Survey by the American Pet Products Association), the question isn’t just academic. Like their human companions, pets’ modern lifestyles consume natural resources and can contribute to environmental issues like greenhouse gases and the waste stream.

”As consumers and responsible pet owners, we are all looking for ways to care for our pets’ health and their environment,” says Jill Cordes, host of America’s first broadband pet channel www.Petstyle.com. “Many of us are already putting eco-friendly practices into action in our own lives, from buying organic food to shopping with reusable bags and switching to natural household cleaners. Adopting ‘green’ pet care habits is a natural extension of our environmental consciousness.”

You can become a “greener” cat owner with 10 simple steps, Cordes advises:

1. Give them shelter. Overcrowding at animal adoption centers strains resources. You can help ease the problem – and possibly save an animal’s life – by adopting from a shelter rather than buying a cat from a pet store or breeder. You may also save money if you adopt from a shelter where many animals are likely to already be vaccinated, spayed or neutered. Visit www.aspca.com for more information.

2. Use protection. Get your cat spayed or neutered. Unplanned, unwanted ”deliveries” often wind up in shelters, contributing to the overcrowding problem. Plus, spaying and neutering can help reduce your cat’s risk of developing uterine, ovarian, or testicular cancer.

3. Tag, you’re it. Be sure your cat always wears a name tag (or license, if your municipality requires cats to be licensed). If he gets lost, the tag will help any good Samaritan who finds him return him to you. Plus, you’ll conserve the gas you would waste driving around the neighborhood hunting for him, and the paper for those ”missing” posters.

4. Keep it clean – and gentle. Replace traditional pet care and cleaning products that may contain harsh chemicals with gentle, all-natural products.

5. Potty all the time. Choose environmentally friendly cat litter like ARM & HAMMER Essentials Clumping Cat Litter. It’s made with natural biodegradable corn fibers which are sensible for the environment, and absorbs twice the liquid compared to regular clumping clay litter. Plus, the addition of baking soda eliminates odor problems instantly. Visit www.armandhammeressentials.com/litter.aspx to learn more.

6. Food for thought. Just as added hormones or pesticides in your food aren’t good for you, they’re not good for your cat, either. Look for pet food that is natural, organic and FDA-certified.

7. Quench their thirst. Change your pet’s water and food bowl regularly to eliminate potential disease, insect or other pest infestations. Be sure to use filtered tap water rather than bottled water, which weighs on your wallet and the environment.

8. Play ball. Purchase toys made from sustainable fibers or recycled materials, or entertain your cat with homemade toys crafted from recycled materials, like a scratching pole made from old carpeting. And remember, you will always be her favorite – and most eco-friendly – toy.

9. Into the wild ... or not. Try to keep your cat inside as much as possible to avoid exposure to injury, illness and predatory wildlife. If your cat craves the outdoors, however, try to keep his outside time supervised in an enclosed area.

10. Purr-tanical gardens. In an enclosed space, plant a small garden in your backyard for your cat and stock it with cat-safe herbs and flowers. Just be sure kitty is always supervised, and stays in her own yard – otherwise you may find yourself having to explain her embarassing visit to your neighbor’s tomato patch.

Courtesy of ARAcontent