In honor of Earth Day and something for my techno-gadget friends

--In honor of  Earth Day--here are a few ideas of for making your life greener, as well as apps for my friends with smart phones.

Some of these are from an online article from Real Simple.

1.  Use greener cleaners.  Chemicals in many cleaners can cause air pollution inside and out. They can aggravate asthma and allergies.  The article recommends reading labels and choosing products that are plant-based.  One of my mom's favorite cleaners is vinegar and water.  It cleans the counters,mirrors and windows.  It can also be good a good way to help a slow drain or freshen up a smelly kitchen drain.  Pour in some baking soda and then the vinegar, then some cool foaming action occurs, and it helps most of the time.

2.   Leave your shoes at the door.  Excellent advice for keeping the house cleaner. It can be considered the equivalent of washing your hands, keeping outside dirt, exhaust, pollen, and chemicals from being tracked into the house.  For people with allergies, this is sooo helpful.

3.  Select fragance-free products.  People with sensitive skin and other allergies realize some of the benefits but there are other benefits.  Some of these products can cause hormone disruption and also mess with the water supply when they are washed down the drain.
For the full article, please click here.

iphone apps

Please excuse the lifted quotes, but it seemed that the Apple App Store said it best.

1.  "At the touch of a button, you will have instant access to the latest green information from one of the web’s most popular green technology and sustainability blogs, Ecoble."


2.  "Get the latest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics on your iPhone, including company scores, further information, videos and links."


3.  "GoodGuide’s science-based health, environment and social ratings for over 120,000 products. GoodGuide’s personalization features enable you to choose the issues you care about most - like nutritional value, safe and healthy ingredients, animal welfare, human rights, climate change, energy efficiency, and more. The app will then inform you whether products pass or fail on your key criteria."

Special bonus for those of you who use Kiehl products--tomorrow at Nordstrom's, if you bring in an empty Kiehl bottle, tube,or jar, you will get a sample lip balm.  While supplies last.

Happy Earth Day!