4 Ways To Green Your Wardrobe

Be thoughtful about the clothes and accessories that you buy and the habits you use when buying them. Eco-friendly clothing is the better option, but don’t get rid of the non-green clothing you already own. However, when it is time to get “new” clothing. Here are a few things to consider from Green Chic by Christine Matheson. 

1. Edit your Closet:
Go through your closet and keep only the items that you love to wear. This way you’ll have an easier time getting dressed in the morning and you’ll always look fabulous without being distracted by the items that you dislike – this will only make you think you need a new wardrobe. If you do decide to edit your closet, please donate those clothing items to a women’s shelter, consign them or swap them with friends.

2. Opt for Organic Cotton:
Growing conventional cotton is the most pesticide-intensive farming process in the world. All the pesticides and fertilizers in the cotton fields translate to a 1/3 cup of chemicals (such as cancer-causing agents) remaining in the clothing that you wear right next to your skin. Think of your skin as if it is a giant sponge, soaking up all of those chemicals as you wear your clothing every day. Just remember when purchasing clothing to read the tag, if it’s organic, it will say so.

3. Be a Material Girl:
Consider choosing other great natural fibers when it comes to your clothing. For example;  wool is a renewable resource and can be grown sustainably if the sheep are allowed to free-graze. You will want to look for organic wool or wool that hasn’t been chemically treated or dyed. Linen is made from the flax plant which even when it’s not grown organically requires little in way of pesticides and chemicals. Still organic is even better, look for natural shades that haven’t been bleached or chemically dyed.

4. Consider Vintage:
Vintage clothing was crafted a long time ago so it costs nothing to the environment today. There are no pesticides sprayed to grow the fibers, no energy used in the manufacturing or shipping of the clothing, and no packaging material (usually). There are many great vintage and thrift stores out there, check them out. 

How do you green your wardrobe?

HOW TO: Natural, Organic Control For The Top 4 Pests

Each year Americans spend over $1 billion on synthetic pesticides and use over 70 million pounds of it. Synthetic pesticides are chemicals used to prevent, destroy, or reduce the severity of pests. Most synthetic pesticides have harmful risks to humans (especially children), animals, beneficial bugs (honeybees, ladybugs, and wasps), and the environment. Synthetic pesticides can vary in their toxicity, with effects such as cancer, respiratory illnesses, headaches, and dizziness. They also disrupt the balance of our environment and leach into our soil and water supply. So what can you do?

Either attract natural predators such as birds, bats, and beneficial bugs to live in your yard or choose a natural pest control remedy. (Remember beneficial bugs eat pest bugs, so you don’t want to kill the beneficial bugs.)

You can attract birds, bats, and beneficial bugs to your yard by providing them with the things that they love. Put out bird feeders, birdbaths, bird and bat houses, and leave parts of your garden untrimmed in the winter for beneficial bugs to live. Plant dill, cosmos, marigolds, coriander, and spearmint to attract beneficial bugs.

If you are looking for natural pest control remedies, try these recipes:

1. Natural Ant Pest Control Recipe
Locate the anthill and sprinkle it with salt. Dust trouble areas with baking soda. 

2. Natural Mosquito Pest Control Recipe
Carry a fabric dryer sheet in your pocket.

3. Natural Ladybug Control Recipe
If you have an infestation in your home, seal the windows and doors completely. Each Ladybug consumes over 100 aphids a day so they are very beneficial.

4. Natural Overall Pest Control Recipe
Mix 1 Tbsp. earth-friendly dishwashing liquid with 1 Tbsp. cooking oil and 1 quart of water in a spray bottle. Spray the trouble areas weekly or as necessary.

How do you naturally control unwanted pests?

Bringing Natural Materials into Your Bedroom

Your bedroom ideally is a place of calm. It should be somewhere that you can relax and unwind after a long day. Or perhaps spend a few hours reading or meditating in the afternoon. While modern interiors have a lot to be desired, you might not want to purchase an entire room of mass-produced items. Perhaps you have the notion of bringing natural materials into your bedroom, and the rest of your home. Finding a balance between some of the amazing bedroom furniture for sale online, and natural touches is a slow and enjoyable project. 

The option to bring multiple items from nature into your home is something that many homeowners have enjoyed for years. In general, humans love blue ocean waters, jade green trees and forests, and even cold stones. And when placed well in a home, they can make it feel welcoming and safe. 

Here are a few ways that you can bring some natural eco elements into your home. 

Stone Walls

Many people like to have an exposed brick wall in their home, but you can take it a step further and have more of a natural finish using more natural stones. The texture and the coolness that it brings into space can be a nice change from having wallpapers or painted walls. 

You could opt for more modern brickwork, they have a slightly more industrial feel but can be painted to match the rest of your interior. 

Wooden Furniture

While you can buy beautiful wooden pieces from some of the more popular furniture stores, there are many designers that create beautiful wood pieces. Artisan crafted wooden furniture can give you one-off pieces of furniture that can be an eye-catching centerpiece. 

Wood can be finished in so many ways, from shabby chic, with a whitewashed sanded down appearance. Or slick dark mahogany that can give an edge to the bedroom. Many people opt for darker woods for bed bases and headboards, as they feel and look luxurious.

Amish furniture has long been beloved, due to its classic yet timeless appearance and natural elements that blend effortlessly into modern living environments. A visit to an Amish furniture store will provide unique pieces you will cherish for years; Amish craftspeople use traditional methods and tools in creating their pieces making each one truly one-of-a-kind pieces that become conversation pieces as you watch their fascinating process of furniture making unfold before your very eyes! 

Going Green

Some of us dream of having a room as green and lush as a greenhouse, others appreciate the little pops of green through the home. The bedroom is a great place to have plants. They bring color and have air cleaning properties too. Green as a color is great for productivity and relaxation too. 

For some people a modern look with a natural twist is really what they’re looking for. You can go for a range of beautiful sculpted plants like cactus or bonsai. Or plants that have three boxes plaited and grow to huge heights. If you want a softer theme, perhaps more romantic feel and flowering house plants like peace lilies, or kids, can look stunning. Of course, if you have animals, you might need to consider what kind of plant could be poisonous to them.

But in general, plants can make a room feel welcoming, luxurious, and improve your air quality, which will improve your sleep.

Underfoot

There is something quite luxurious about cold marble floors, but one of the most common floor features is laminate wood flooring. This can be easy to clean, which means your bedroom won’t take long to get back into proper order. But sometimes a rug makes a big difference too. Woven seagrass natural flooring or sisal is both beautiful and durable. They are great in the winter as an insulator, and comfortable to walk on with your bare feet.

Bring More of the Outdoors Inside

Even when you have plenty of plants in the room, being able to see more green and some blue skies is even better. Humans respond positively to both blue, which is why we love the ocean water so much; and green, which is why walking in the woods is so good for us.

If you are surrounded by grass, trees, and more natural scenes, then consider changing your window style. Giant windows not only let in more light, which will give you a nice boost, but it can blur the lines between inside and outside. 

If you have small windows, and the possibility to make them more substantial isn’t available, using your walls to decorate with grassy scenes, photos and artwork can make a huge difference. 

You can make your window more of a feature, think about dressing your window with more relaxing pale colors. And let the greenery outside do the talking. If you don’t have a great view, you can add potted plants along the windowsill, and perhaps even window boxes.

You can go one step further here by making sure that you plant either natural plants or herbs and flowers that will support nature’s pollinators. This is great for your local ecosystem and local wildlife.

Wood Cladding

If you don’t like the idea of the exposed brick wall or natural stone walls, then perhaps wood cladding would be ideal. It will turn the sleeping space into almost one of those beautiful wooded cabins that often so coveted during the summer months. The wood will give a natural smell to the room for quite some time, and you can paint it or decorate it in any way you like later on. Although simple exposed timber and simply letting all the natural grain show can be beautiful too. 

Faux 

Not everyone has the budget to buy everything, or will have wood panels and expose brickwork. But the quality of the faux options is very high nowadays. This means you can benefit from those beautiful green flowers without the price tag and the maintenance. They last forever; you’re not going to need to water them, and they still have the feeling of freshness. 

You can also do this with exposed brick walls in the form of wallpaper, and artwork instead of expanding windows.

Wood, again

There are so many new ways to use natural wood in your bedroom and home in general. Wooden flooring, wood cladding, and even beautiful beach wreck wood can make a bold statement. However, some people have found a lot of joy in creating branches as decorations. They won’t die, and they need no maintenance. 

You can hang them on the ceiling, use them in an unused fireplace, or create your own mini thicket. 

Of course, it will depend on how much room you have, and you should always clean and well before you turn them into artwork. They can even be used to frame photos.

Woven Baskets

Woven baskets in a similar material as your floor can help tie your bedroom together. Not only are they handy, but they can also be used as plant pot and storage, they look great and don’t require much maintenance and cleaning. If you tend to have a lot of bits and bobs around your bedroom, woven baskets can provide the quickest storage possible. Ratten, bamboo, and we can all look great and hard-wearing. Which makes them an excellent investment. 

Base

To let all of these natural materials shine through, it’s best to have a clean base. White, pale grey, mossy grey greens are all perfect for keeping your space cool and calm.

Reclaim and Reuse

There are more online tutorials than ever before for recycling, using reclaimed materials and upcycling. You can turn doors into tabletops, and even replace door handles. Finding some old French window shutter and attaching them in your bedroom can be a real talking point. 

This is just as much about being eco-friendly as it is about being green. Giving things a completely new purpose means that they don’t go into a landfill, and you don’t have to purchase flatpack or factory-made furniture. It also means that each and every single piece that you create is entirely unique to your home.

Natural Fabrics

Rugs, throws, and pillows are a great way to add some natural fibers and fabrics. Of course, the bedroom has always been a place of comfort, but you can take that to the next level. Soften your natural theme with a range of fake sheepskin, soft cottons, and even wools. You can often source wool and other natural materials from artisans, and they can often come with a guarantee that no animals were harmed in the making of them.

In the end, your bedroom is meant to be somewhere that makes you feel safe and calm. You can let go of the day that you’ve just had, and slowly recharge to relax and rest getting ready for the day ahead. Bedrooms should be luxurious and personal spaces. But they can also be a great starting point for creating a natural and eco-friendly feeling throughout your entire home. 

Getting experimental with natural materials like sackcloth, bamboo, and even adding cactuses can see a room become comfortable and almost glamorous, but without all the extra effort. And Pinterest is brimming with incredible ideas on how you can make your bedroom feel more natural and a range of ways to use organic materials in your bedroom decor.

4 Low Effort Ways to be More Eco-Friendly

NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: This article wasn’t written by me. Thank you for supporting the companies that keep Sweet Greens in business.

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We all want to reduce our carbon footprint on the environment. We need to be resourceful in order to carefully steward this planet we call our home as science continually shows us that much of what we do on a daily basis has a direct and negative impact on the world.

Thankfully, we can all do seemingly small things consistently over time that will add up to do the most good. In this article, we will discuss four ways that you can easily be more eco-friendly:

Eat Meat Less Often
One does not need to become a vegan or live a stringently vegetarian lifestyle to make a difference, but making the choice to eat meat less often can have a significant global impact. It has been calculated that it takes more water to produce a pound of meat than it does to produce an equivalent amount of vegetables or grains. For example, producing a pound of Tofu requires 832 liters of water, while it takes between 6,800 and 9,400 liters to produce the same amount of meat. It also takes about 15 times the amount of fossil fuel to produce meat as it does vegetables or other foods.

All of this additional energy usage contributes to greenhouses gases that cause global warming and other deleterious effects on the planet. If everyone simply cut back on their meat consumption a little, it would have a tremendous impact overall.

Being Responsible with Your Waste
It’s understandably difficult for people to make the time to recycle the things that they no longer want or need. It takes a great deal of time and effort to collect and sort your items, as well as hauling them all the way to the recycling facility. It can be equally time consuming to load these items into your car for disposal in a landfill dumping area, not to mention the negative impact dumps can have on environment.

If you don’t have the time, do some research into alternative waste removal solutions. There are many companies out there who would be happy to pick up your recyclable waste, such as this London based rubbish removal company. They may cost a little more, but it would have a very positive impact on the environment.

Plant Some Trees
If you want to do something that will last for future generations, the best way is to plant a tree. Not only are they beautiful, but they provide our planet with necessary oxygen and are a habitat for the many creatures that depend on them for food and shelter.

In addition, you can save on your cooling bills by strategically planting trees to block against the wind while also using them to provide shade for your house. By doing so, you will require less planetary resources and fossil fuels to cool your home, making your carbon footprint that much smaller.

Change the Way You Travel
Changing your mode of transportation is one of those ways you can make a huge difference, as it is something that you do every day. The effects will be cumulative and will, hopefully, over time, become a habit.

If you drive a car, you can take the bus or subway if there is one in your area. If you do need to drive your car, try to figure out the most direct route you can take. Riding a bicycle is great for your health and for the planet, and when and if you are able, you can try walking to work!

If you want to reduce your impact on the environment, try implementing some of these methods and habits. We all have to do our part, and together, we can help preserve this planet and save our environment for all of our children.

3 Ways To Green Your Personal Care Items

Earlier in the week, I shared with you, ingredients to avoid when purchasing personal care products. There are also many things you can do to green your personal care regimen. Green Chic touches on many areas, I want to share my favorites with you. I thought these were the simpler things that you can do and the reasons why you should.

1.  Green your Toothbrush + Floss 

50 million pounds of toothbrushes are thrown away annually. Minimize your impact by using a toothbrush that’s not made from virgin plastic. Choose either a toothbrush that is made from 100% recycled #5 plastic-like Recycline’s Preserve Toothbrush or throw less away by using a toothbrush that has a permanent handle and replaceable head, like Eco-Dent. Also, try to choose floss that comes in a recyclable package or compostable flossers. (Which are my son’s favorite, fun to use, and even more fun to put in our composter.)

2. Green your Razor

2 billion, yes that’s billion, disposable razors are thrown away annually. Choose a razor with a reusable handle and changeable heads and if possible choose one with a recyclable handle like Preserve’s Triple Razor. It’s package doubles as a reusable travel case and can be returned for recycling using their postage-paid label.
 
3. Green your Tampons

Typical tampons are made from non-organic cotton and rayon, which is derived from wood pulp in an energy-intensive process that wastes about 2/3 of the wood’s material. The tampons are then bleached with chlorine that releases dioxins. (This is not healthy for us or the environment.) Not to mention many have plastic applicators that are not recyclable. There are companies making organic cotton tampons with recyclable applicators like Natracare or an applicator free product like Seventh Generation. If you are adventurous, you can try reusable products or a Diva Cup.
 
What other ways do you green your personal care products?
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