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Live Clean. Live Green.
While our business specializes in green home cleaning, our passion is green living. The planet, after all, is our most prized possession. Together, we can help protect it. Here are some simple steps you can take today to help build a safer environment for tomorrow. Read on for our green cleaning tips and favorite ways to live a little greener below:
Tips for Greener Living
Trim Packaging Pounds
Plant a Greener Garden
Keep Your Laundry Clean and Green
De-Lint, Save Money, Reduce Energy
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Tips for Greener Living
There are many creative ways for us to reduce our eco-footprint without breaking the bank. With the help of great resources like National Geographic’s Green Guide, we’d like to share some of our favorites:
Trim Packaging Pounds
Packaging from goods we buy adds up to about one third of all garbage tossed in the U.S. Here are a few tips for cutting down on waste:
Cut back on single-serving foods and beverages. Instead, buy items in bulk and portion them out into reusable containers.
Buy household items, like detergent and cleaning supplies, in concentrated forms so that you get more product per package.
Whenever possible, look for packaging made from recycled materials. The higher the percentage of recycled content, the better.
Check the plastic code number before you purchase to make sure the package is recyclable (mainly 1, 2, 4 and 5).
Plant a Greener Garden
While a blooming garden is beautiful, it can often consume huge amounts of water. Here are some easy ways to help conserve this precious resource and green your garden at the same time!
Consider your area's typical rainfall when buying plants and try to select varieties that require less frequent watering.
When you water your garden, minimize evaporation by watering at sunrise or sunset and reduce water loss by using a sprinkler that throws water closer to the ground in large drops.
Make use of old soda bottles by filling 2-3 liter bottles with water and pushing them upside down into the ground to water outdoor trees. The soil draws the water from the bottles when dry.
Mulching with peastraw or bark adds layers of plant material to keep the sun off your soil and therefore retain water. It’s one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of water a garden needs – up to 50% - and has the added benefit of preventing weed growth, deterring pests and providing nutrients to the soil as the mulch decomposes.
Keep Your Laundry Clean and Green
Detergents, fabric softeners and bleaches can be toxic to your family and to the environment. Some surfactants and fragrances in laundry detergents contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that can't always be removed by wastewater treatment plants and end up harming local wildlife. Chlorine bleach is not only poisonous for humans, but can create dangerous byproducts, such as dioxin, when flushed down the drain. Get your clothes clean without all of the pollution by switching to eco-friendlier cleaners from companies such as:
Ecover
Sun & Earth
Seventh Generation
OxyPrime
Try nonchlorine bleach such as OxyBoost or Ecover's hydrogen peroxide based option. The non-toxic, eco-friendlier detergents and bleaches cost no more than standard products.
De-Lint, Save Money, Reduce Energy
By cleaning your dryer lint screen with every use and not overloading the dryer, you can save up to 5 % on your electricity bill – a potential energy-equivalent savings of 350 million gallons of gasoline per year if everyone did this!
Save money by running your dryer during off-peak hours. Check with your utility company to see if they offer discounted rates during off-peak hours.
Weather permitting, the best cost-saving, eco-friendly option is always to use a clothesline for drying.
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Help conserve water at home without spending a dime:
Turn the water off while brushing your teeth
Fill a milk jug with stones and place it in your toilet tank to displace water
Dig up an egg timer from your kitchen and use it to cut showers down to 5 minutes
Turn off the water while shaving
Fix toilet and faucet leaks immediately
Don't use your toilet as a trash can for tissue paper– it requires excess water to flush
Source:
www.TheGreenGuide.com
, 2008
For more information about ways you can help protect the planet, check out these resources:
www.conservation.org/
www.thegreenguide.com/
www.ceres.ca.gov/
www.nrdc.org/
www.enn.com/
We provide complimentary house-cleaning estimates over the phone. Get yours today!
Every minute you cut from your shower saves roughly 5 gallons of water.