Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on one of them and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thank you for your support! A couple years ago, I had the brilliant idea to make my own flower basket liners out of fabric so that I didn’t have to keep shelling out for those coconut coir liners. My DIY fabric liners worked fine for the first year, but by the second year, they were looking a little ragged. And after two years, they looked like this: Yikes. So anyway, they clearly didn’t hold up as well as I had hoped. I decided to just bite the bullet and ..read more

Earth Day 2024 is happening on April 22, 2024, and we have compiled a bunch of ideas to celebrate Earth Day and everyday sustainability. Start a garden and grow some of your own food. If you don’t have the space, start with a few pots of tomatoes, peppers or herbs. Make a donation to an organization that champions sustainable causes, like Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund or 350.org (climate action). Plant a tree. Plant wildflowers native to your area to support local pollinators. Use the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder to discover which plants are native to your area. S ..read more

When you buy a product that touts its recycled content, you may see terms like “30% pre-consumer recycled content” or “50% PCR” or “made from post-industrial recycled content.” What do all these terms mean? Let’s discuss the difference between pre-consumer, post-industrial and post-consumer recycled. The difference in these terms basically comes down to one factor: Where does the recycled material come from? Some materials have actually been used out in the world at least once and then are returned to be processed into something new. That’s the type of recycling most of us think of. But manuf ..read more

I am a big proponent of composting our food scraps and yard waste and using that to fertilize my garden. But my veggie plants have still struggled a bit. I recently discovered that even with all the composting I do, our soil is lacking in some nutrients, especially nitrogen. So I went looking for a good organic fertilizer to try to improve the health and output of my vegetable garden. I found this Dr. Earth Organic Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer at Lowe’s and decided to do a small test to see if Dr. Earth fertilizer will help me grow more and bigger vegetables. Fertilizer contents an ..read more

The fact is, chip bags, snack bags and candy wrappers can’t be recycled with regular recyclables. There are a few ways to recycle chip bags, snack bags and candy wrappers, but they will require some extra effort and sometimes cost. Why are Snack Bags and Wrappers So Difficult to Recycle? Most chip and snack bags are made from a material called metalized polypropyleyne, which is a thin aluminum laminated in plastic. If it were possible to separate those two materials, the metal and the plastic, then they might be recyclable. But since this multi-layer packaging is melded together, they are not ..read more

Recently, I did a little experiment where I attempted to use garden soil to make my own potting mix for indoor plant use. Then I decided to do a test to try growing houseplants in this soil, and see how it performed against commercial potting soil. A few months have passed, so let’s take a look at my results at attempting to grow indoor plants in garden soil. Preparing Garden Soil for Indoor Potted Plants Making Potting Soil from Garden Soil If you’d like some detailed background on how I sterilized and prepared my garden soil for use indoors, visit my article, Making Potting Soil from Garden ..read more

I really hate the look of plastic hanging baskets, but the problem with the nice metal wire baskets is that you have to keep buying new liners, usually every year. I have been trying to come up with more sustainable basket liners I can reuse and I think I found a winner. I am going to show you how to make some rustic style and super-easy fabric flower basket liners that can be washed and reused next year, no sewing skills needed! Why make fabric flower basket liners? Flower basket liners are usually made with coconut coir and have a few issues. One, suppliers of coco coir claim that it is sus ..read more

CDs and DVDs can’t be recycled curbside with the rest of your bottles and plastics, but they can be recycled by companies that specialize in recycling these types of materials. Here are your options if you want to recycle CDs and DVDs. Sell them at secondhand stores. How to Recycle Cell Phones Don’t toss those CDs and DVDs if they are still in working order! (Well, not the burned CDs from your middle school clarinet recitals, but you know, any commercially produced media.) Many secondhand stores that sell books and media will offer you something for them, or at least give you some store credi ..read more

During the early days of the pandemic, it seemed like growing your own food was all the rage. I saw these mushroom growing kits mentioned by people and I was pretty curious to try them but never got around to it until now. My S.O. loves mushrooms and it seemed like a cool idea to grow your own. I decided to see if mushroom kits are worth it in terms of the cost and time involved. So come along with me while I try it out! What is a Mushroom Kit? How to Grow Garlic First of all, I decided to start with the easiest way to grow mushrooms – from a kit. There are other methods for growing your own ..read more

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on one of them and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thank you for your support! Does Vinegar and Baking Soda Unclog a Drain? Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I have been on a quest for a non-toxic, environmentally-friendly way to unclog our constantly-clogging bathtub drain. First I tried the vinegar and baking soda drain clearing trick. Then I tested the Dawn dish soap drain hack. Next I tested out a product called Eco Punch Drain Clog Dissolver. I haven’t been super impressed with the re ..read more