Snack Attack Part 2

Being a pretty busy family, one of the things we have done to make things easier when on the go, is whip up a basket of pre-portioned snacks each week.  We have been doing this for quite awhile now, in fact, I originally shared the process here.

Just to recap, when we get home from the grocery store, we spend a couple extra minutes making individual sized snack portions by dividing out bulk purchases into smaller grab and go baggies.  Why?  It's great for the entire family to quickly grab a healthy snack on the go.  It is easy for the kids to pick a quick, healthy and portioned snack out when they get home from school, or to toss one in their backpack for an after school activity.  I love that the items are portioned out and that no one is eating fist-fulls out of a big bag of chips or eating a couple crackers and forgetting to seal up the package.

What I didn't love was the daily/weekly process of washing out the baggies and hanging them to dry in the kitchen.  It was time consuming and unsightly and needed to be done frequently.  After a few washes, into the trash those baggies went.  I know, I know, it's an awful, very un-earth friendly thing to do.

I have been wanting to change our ways for awhile now, but I have been stumped as to what to do.  Individual grab and go containers run anywhere from $5-8 per piece for the good stuff, a couple of dollars for the cheapo grab and go stuff {which doesn't seem to have a long life either}.  We are a family of five and make up about thirty plus snack containers per week.  Doing the math, that could cost us about $150 for nice, long lasting snack containers.  No thank you.

So, I had been putting it off, discouraged about the price.  And yes, I even checked the dollar store but quite honestly, most items didn't seem like much of a step up from a plastic baggie and wouldn't last multiple washings before ending up in a landfill as well.

But, in the spirit of the recent Earth Day, I decided to spend a little more time researching options.  Although I typically prefer glass storage, it's really not ideal {or the safest kid option} for grab and go snacking.  What I ended up selecting were Ball Plastic Freezer Jars...

They come in different sizes {I went with the 8 oz and 16 oz}, they are BPA free and are freezer and dishwasher safe!  

I was a little hesitant at first since the price per container was pretty good and I was nervous I was getting another couple washes and then done type of container, but after I opened them filled them and we used them a few times, I was sold.  I think these babies will last us a good while.

A much better solution than all those baggies.  Easier clean up, and it protects the snacks when they are tossed into a travel bag or backpack.

I also love that they screw together, both the lids and containers, for easy peasy storage!

I just tossed them back into the green basket...

Which lives on a shelf in our pantry.

So that was one of the few things I decided to do to be more "green" around here.  More to come in the near future about some other changes we are making.  How about you? Anyone else make any recent updates or changes due to the recent special day?  

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How to Live Off Grid and Save Money With a Home Made Solar Energy System

Achieving the dream of off grid living and generating all your own electricity for free is ambitious, but not impossible. Achieving it with home made solar energy is even more challenging. Producing enough home made solar energy to power your entire home will require a serious investment of time, effort, and money-but it can be done. This article will give you some tips on how to do it.
Patience Is a Virtue
First, don't call your power company to disconnect you from the local power grid after building a single solar panel. Completely off grid living through home made solar energy requires a lot of solar panels, a lot of batteries, and most importantly a lot of time to build it all. At first, use home made solar energy to compliment your home's electrical needs and lower your power bill. Once your power bill is down to almost nothing, you'll know you can finally try off grid living without too much disruption to your lifestyle.

Do the Math
To achieve off-grid living, you first need to know how much electricity your home consumes. The average American home consumes an average of 588 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month, but this can vary dramatically due to the size of the home, the number of appliances, the number of residents, and even the time of year. For example, many homes may double their power consumption during the summer months when the air conditioning is running. It's time to pull out your old power bills, preferably a whole year's worth, if you have them. These will tell you how many kilowatt-hours of electricity your household consumed every month. Depending on your power company, it may also include your average monthly electrical consumption.

Now that you know how much electricity you'll need for off grid living, calculate how many solar panels you'll need to build. It's actually easier to calculate how many solar cells you'll need, and divide the cells up into panels full of solar cells later. Unfortunately, how much electricity a single solar cell can generate varies, depending on size, location, time of year, cloud cover, etc. Fortunately, if you contact the manufacturer or distributor you plan to buy the solar cells from, they can usually supply you with a reliable number of average watts produced per solar cell per day.
Finally, figure out how many batteries you'll need to store the home made solar energy generated during the daylight hours. During the evening, all you'll have to power your home are the batteries. Wet-cell lead-acid batteries (car batteries) are cheap, but ill-suited to solar power. Deep-cycle gel or AGM batteries are more expensive, but are designed to be drained and recharged thousands of time. They will last much, much longer than car batteries.

Based on the math you've done earlier, you know how much electricity your home requires daily. Once you've chosen a battery type, look up its storage capacity. Divide your home's daily power consumption by the battery's storage capacity, and you'll know how many batteries you'll ultimately need.
Minimize Your Power Consumption
Let's face it: we've all gotten used to unlimited electricity. We use as much as we want, and we worry about paying for it all at the end of the month. Once you switch to off grid living, you'll have a finite amount of home made solar energy. In order to make sure it lasts, you'll need to be more careful in how you use it.

If you really want to try off grid living, generating all your electricity from home made solar energy, you'll have to accept a few changes to your lifestyle. You won't be able to leave your computer on 24/7, for example, and you'll have to be very thrifty with your heating and air conditioning use. While building your home made solar energy system, gradually start equipping your home with more energy efficient appliances. Start by replacing your incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient CFL light bulbs. Now is the time to buy a new, energy-efficient refrigerator, freezer, hot water heater, furnace, stove... you get the idea. If you can easily and cheaply replace electrical appliances with non-electrical appliance, do so. For example, install a gas-powered stove, hot water heater, or even furnace.
The more difficult part, however, will be in changing your behavior. Start training yourself to turn off the light when you leave a room. Turn off any appliance when not in use. Shut off the central air/heating vents of rooms you don't regularly use. Hang your laundry out to dry instead of using a tumble dryer. There are lots of ways to save electricity with minor modifications to your everyday behavior.
Off grid living can be a challenge, but surviving off your own home made solar energy can also be extremely rewarding, and safe you enormous amounts of money over the course of your lifetime.

Anthony Stroupe pledged to live green and contribute to reducing the impact of human activities on the environment. Living off grid is a great way to start making our carbon footprints smaller. Visit my blog to learn how to make a home solar energy system that can produce up to 1KW of power.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Stroupe

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IHeart: Earth Day Challenge Link Party!

How did you all do on the earth day challenge I posed last week?  Anyone take an idea and run with it?

As part of last weeks "Be Greener Campaign", I posed a challenge to find something in your home, and re-use it to organize something in your home {vs. buying something new}.

I thought it would be fun to join in on the fun.  However, I also realized it was Easter weekend and we were insanely busy so my craftiness hit a time roadblock.  But I was still up for solving a problem in the home, without leaving the home, and I hope you all were too!!

So what did I come up with?

I have always wanted to ultimately move all of my painting supply storage to our laundry room since I seem to be painting ALL of the time, and our laundry room is better suited for painting cleanup than any other area in the home.  Plus, we have great storage potential in our laundry room and our utility room where it is stored now, isn't exactly ideal.

Whenever I complete a painting project, I head to the laundry room, rinse out my paint brushes, stick them by the utility sink to dry, and then pop them in a large ziplock baggie in a bin in our storage room.  Then, back to the bin I go about three days later to pull a brush back out to get my paint on.  Sad story right?

So, I went into my clutter cabinet and grabbed, you guessed it, an empty white vase!  You know where I am going with this don't you?

After adding a little pretty paper embellishment, I tossed my paint brush supplies into the white vase, which I placed above our utility sink!

I am so excited to have my paint brushes right in arms reach each and every time I get the itch to get crafty and whip out a painting project!!

The white vase was the perfect storage solution for the brushes and my lifestyle!  And it was an uber easy and quick under 5 minute fix!  Love when that happens!

And a button for you:






<center><a href="http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad14/iheartorganizing/Blog%20Images/weeklylinkupbutton.jpg"/></a></center>

Aside from organizing greener by reusing and re-purposing, did anyone make an additional earth day resolution?  Less paper towel usage?  Green bag shopping?  Make your own cleaning solutions?  I would love to know!

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IHeart: Our Earth and a Good Challenge

I am very excited about using this blog in a positive way to promote positive green living.  Am I the most eco friendly gal out there?  Nope, I have a lot of improving to do.  But I try.  I try big.  I want my kids and their kids and their kids, to have a lovely place to call home.  A place that's beautiful and green and smells good.  So we try and do our part and I also try and share the things we are doing to make a greener effort.

So how does living green play into organizing?  Well, a lot actually.  There is a lot we can do when we begin to organize our homes, to ensure we are being green at the same time.

Of course the obvious, which I have been mentioning this month as part of project purge, is to donate/sell your belongings vs. placing them in a landfill.  If you are unable to sell an item, you would be amazed at how many people wouldn't mind taking things off of your hands for FREE.  Try placing things curbside with a giant FREE sign and watch it disappear in moments, or list things on great websites, such as freecycle.org, and keep your goods from going bad.

Once you purge in a great green way, it's time to organize in a great green way.  How do you do that?  Well, reuse the common everyday already owned items, to be an organizing genius of course!

Ready for some awesome green organizing inspiration?

Pop some cork into an old frame to create a memo board!

Use an old Kleenex box for packet storage!

Use empty paint cans as in-boxes!

Use an ice cube tray to corral small jewelry pieces!

Mason jars are extremely versatile for any organizing project!

Use small dishes as drawer dividers!

Use clothes pins as memo clips!

Use berry baskets to corral toiletries!

Use a cardboard drink carrier as a utensil caddy!

Use muffin tins to organize small crafts!

Use soup cans to corral just about anything!

Use paper product rolls to corral cords!

My challenge for you today, find something in your home, and re-purpose it to organize your home!  Next week, I am going to hold a link party to share what we came up with!  Time to get creative!  I hope you all take a moment to be green and join in on the fun!  And I can't wait to see your incredible ideas for reusing common goods to organize!

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

I try my hardest to save a little moola and be a little more green at the same time {all though sometimes it feels as though the two don't always go hand in hand}.

When it comes to paper towel, I feel like I should just not buy it at all.  I mean really, at the end of the day, there are many ways around every reason I would ever use it....

However, when it is always sitting in it's pretty paper towel holder, upon my counter top... it will be used.  And replenished.

So I decided to take action.  Time to ween myself from paper towel tendencies.

I tossed the paper towel under my kitchen sink.  Now, each time I want to use paper towel, I have my hand towels looking at me as well, which helps me make better decisions.  And because it's out of site, I have already used mega amounts less!

Not to mention it's one more thing off my counter tops, which also makes me smile big!

I am such a fan of super smart and easy ideas that do good at the same time!  Anyone else up for the challenge?  How about any other quick and easy changes that makes a big difference?

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IHeart: Earth Day

It's an IHeart Happy Earth Day today!  I am SO excited for today, I have a ton of activities planned with the kiddos to teach them {above and beyond our typical speakings}, all the reasons why it's so important to take care of our earth.  It's great to get them motivated now, so that when they are our age, they have the same beautiful surroundings for their munchkins!

I know there are still so manly things that I could do to be more earth friendly, like not drive as often or buy ONLY organic foods and materials.  And I totally hope to get there someday, it's all about doing things in strides and making one change at a time.  EVERY little thing helps!

I know I am only skimming the surface, but here are a couple of things that can be done around the organized home, to help our friendly planet.

When it comes to organizing, whether you are cleaning out that cluttered junk drawer or taking on the whole garage, make sure you are aware of the items you are disposing of.  Check with your local waste company to see what guidelines they have regarding disposing specific products/electronics/paints/etc... It's also good to really consider if your items could be donated, sold or reused, vs. tossed away.  Freecycle.org offers up a way to locate someone in need of something or to post your unwanted treasures.  It's always better to reuse then to waste!

Take a peak around your home for things that you already own, that can double as storage!  For example, I have used the most adorable filing basket around my house in my living room, by my kitchen sink and in my office space for various purposes, meaning I didn't just settle for it being a file basket specifically.  Or snag an old Kleenex box to hold spice packets or remotes or a soup can for your tools, desk supplies or kid utensils.  You never know what you have at home that can be beautified and used to maximize your storage!

Go paperless!  Paper not only can take up a TON of space around the home, it's also a source of many missing trees.  Switch all of your statements to paperless options that can always easily be accessed online.  Or scan in old statements, greeting cards, receipts, etc.. and store them on an external hard drive and recycle the paper version.  Your old paper can be turned into new paper, and going paperless for your bills will save a ton more trees besides!

 

Stash a supply of green bags into a handled storage tote in your pantry or vehicle trunk for easy grab and go when heading out for any shopping trip.

Or better yet, snag an uber adorable basket for your bike and ride to the store instead of taking the gas chugger 'burban in your driveway.  I am guilty as charged, I am hoping to do that more this summer!

Aside from organizing, when cleaning, there are now tons of earth friendly products on the market for any chore, most I have found work just as good or better than non earth friendly options.  Or, you could save some mega moola and vow to make your own?  That's my plan Stan!

And of course, when cleaning, it's always good to have a bin full of reusable microfiber sponges and rags, vs. using paper towels.

Another completely obvious option is recycling!  Place a easy to access basket in all rooms in the house that are frequently used and create any waste.  Especially home office and kitchen spaces.  I really heart these cheapo stacking plastic bins for holding paper to be recycled.

And finally, another something I vow to take on this year, is to create a yard compost and plant a veggie garden.  Of course I will post on the projects along the way.

 

For other ways I am going green, check out my green kitchen post, my green office post and my cleaning post.  The feeling you get when you know you are working to do the right things, is reward enough for any life changes that are being made!  And this gal hearts rewards!  Of course, as I feature more spaces around the homestead throughout the year, I am hoping to add to my list of "live green" posts!

I am going to finish off where I started.  Kids.  They are our future.  I am a strong believer that getting them into the right habits now, will make it easier for them to continue down a green path.  To get my kiddos excited about helping out in a "green" way, I gave them each ownership of one task.  One is on "water" patrol, one is on "recycling" patrol and one is on "electricity" patrol!  It's amazing how well this works, three boys all in charge of something!  And I added in a little competition, in hopes of making this fun task stick!  For each time one finds a light left on, or water running too long in the shower or while brushing teeth, or if something is in a waste basket that should have been recycled, they get a dime.  And of course to make it even more about the earth, their nickles & dimes will add up and be put towards purchasing their very own personal tree to plant in our yard!

All it took was a glass jar and label for each little earth keeper, and some spare nickles & dimes, and we were all set to start the challenge!

And P1 already found three lights left on {shame shame!} so he is having fun sticking his $ into his jar!

And of course, once they earn half of the tree cost, then mom and dad will happily cover the rest!  And once everyone is all loaded up with their dinero, we will head out as a family, pick out our new family trees and have a happy family day planting them in our yard!

IHeart how excited they are to do good!  Hears hoping it sticks!

How are you fellow friends making changes in your lives for the sake of our planet?  Any easy peasy small changes you can share, that make a huge different for our earth?  Anyone reuse or re-purpose anything unique and different for the sake of getting things organized {like a cereal box or empty paint cans?}.  Do share your green tales, for we would all love to hear how to give this earth a happily ever after!

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February Featured Space: Kitchen - Going Green

Some of you may recall that during the Home Office featured space, I through out a couple of ideas/ways to go green.  And I also mentioned that I would try to do the same for each space I feature each month.

The reason being is that it was part of my new year's resolution list, to start living more green and take better care of this great earth we live upon.  And, now that I have a couple of absolutely amazing and fabulous blog readers, hopefully a couple of you can snag a couple of the tips and tricks as well, and together, we can find ways to reduce our carbon footprint!

And man oh man!  There are insane amounts of things that can be done in the kitchen space.  More than I could list here without creating a new record for longest blog post, but believe me, it's super easy to get boatloads of tips and tricks for going green in any space, by using my bff search engine, Google, or check out this article which also has some pretty great information!  That being said, I have to share some easy peasy lemon squeezy options, that are completely easy and do-able by anyone!

Clean Green:

 

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a small addiction to cleaning.  It's a small problem, not like Charlie Sheen rehab worthy problem, but let's just say it's not normal to see me without cleaner and a rag as part of my daily apparel.  Knowing that, over the last year, I have done everything possible to only purchase cleaners that claim to "Be Green"

 

I do say claim, because it had been brought to my attention that some green cleaners are really more green than others.  So, I have gotten better about reading labels closely to ensure I am doing what's right for the earth.  The one drawback is that all natural cleaners tend to run on the more expensive side, and although I bite it and do it because I know how truly harsh non-natural cleaners are for both my family and the earth, I am also recently being turned on to common household items that can also be used to get the homestead squeaky green {such as lemons!}

I have also been educating myself more on the impacts of many of the chemicals in our home, by reading through a scary but eye opening book: Squeaky Green

And let's not discount necessary second half of using the cleaners, their counterparts - dusters, rags, sponges, and mop heads.  The good news, ALL of these disposable items can now easily be replaced with non-disposable versions, call microfiber.

Yes folks, it is the cat's meow.  And not something new, but something so wonderfully good for cleaning, because you aren't filling the landfill with disinfecting wipes, sponges, duster refills and mop heads.  Oh yes, microfiber comes in all those versions, pare a rag with some dusting solution, nothing gets wood looking better!  Snag a microfiber sponge for washing dishes or wiping down bathrooms and counters, oh yes, we are really onto something now.  And lastly, when it comes to floors, I totally HEART the Method O-Mop, with a microfiber cleaning pad:

 

Not only does microfiber lock in dust and keep it there, it's also completely washable by just tossing it into your washer/dryer, and when it comes out, it looks like new again!  It really is a miracle cloth.

Wash Green:

 On a very similar note, the kitchen floors, buffet tables and counters aren't the only things getting scrubbed in the kitchen, but equally important, are the dishes we eat from each day.  This one is an easy no brainer for me.  During the day, after each meal with the kiddos, I actually, enter gasp here, wash all of the dishes by hand.  

 

 Oh yes in deedy.  I throw on some gloves and scrub scrub scrub after each and every meal during the day.  Saves us SO much water and energy from washing the dishes through the dishwasher.  

However, for those big family meals, I am not going to lie, I am a fan of my dishwasher.  It gives me more time with my family after dinner, and I can definitely appreciate that!  However, since I am a dishwasher addict, the fact that I am only running it for one meal a day, allows me to get away with only running it every 2-3 days.  Plus, I also use earth friendly dishwasher detergent and finally, I run it at night when I put the kids to bed, and open it up to let air dry over night, while the hubs and I are resting our eyes.  This saves on using the heat drying cycle.

 

Shop Green:

You may have noticed in the pantry reveal, a not so fancy bin of green bags resting on the floor.  This not so fancy way of shopping, is one of my absolute favorite ways to go green, literally, in the kitchen.  About a year ago, I invested in a 10 pack of green sacks from bagsontherun.com.  A little skeptical at first about the whole green bag thing, the second I received my little buddies in the mail, I was SOLD!  These bags hold an AMAZING amount of groceries, like up to 22 lbs of them!  And here are some scary facts for all of you to munch on {courtesy of bagsontherun.com}

• The petroleum used to make 18 plastic bags could drive a car for 1 mile?
• The EPA estimates that it takes a plastic bag over 500 years to decay in a landfill?
• The average person's plastic bag legacy will be 4.175 million years?
• The worldwide consumption of plastic bags is over 500 billion, over 1 million per minute?

So, I took my new found friends, and put them into a nice little lidded bin like so:

And every time that we go shopping, into the trunk goes the bin.  And yes, we even fill that up too, when the bags are full, or for carting out jugs of juice or cleaners.  Waste not!

And of course the bags don't just get used for groceries, they are also great for long car trips/vacations or for trick or treating!  

These days, there are a lot of fancier pretty options from envirosax.com or containerstore.com, or you can even find them at just about any grocery or department store.  At any rate, there is no longer any excuse not to use these amazing multi-tasking earth savers.

Eat Green:

Another endless subject, but there is so much you can do in this department as well!  And I am not just talking about eating completely organically {bowing to those of you that do, I am not there yet, but getting closer year after year}.

First way we started eating more green, and saving mucho moola, was by planting our first veggie garden last year!  No green thumb needed either; it was surprisingly easy to do!  Last year we successfully grew onions, peppers, tomatoes, celery, herbs and leaf lettuce, and plan on doing the same plus, this year! 

Nothing is better then freshly grown veggies straight from your garden!  Delish!

Aside from eating green from a technical perspective, there is also a lot of things you can do to be green when preparing foods!

First, eating at home is a lot more green than eating at fast food restaurants.  The amount of waste created from grabbing food on the go, is quite insane.  And for you coffee on the go individuals, snag some reusable travel mugs and cups:

These days you can get kinds that work great for both iced and hot coffee, and I haven't found a coffee joint yet that won't be happy to fill up the personal cups vs. giving you ones that later end up taking up space in a landfill.

And as far as cooking at home goes, this year we received an amazing Christmas gift, that is actually helping us green up in a little way:

Yeppers, this bad boy is a multifunctional cooking machine, both a rotisserie and toaster oven in one.  And how is this "green" you ask?  Well, this little puppy uses far less energy than our oven, and can definitely hold tons of food to feed our huge family of five!  Pretty amazing!

And when we do use the oven, a couple of things do help, like shutting your oven/burners off early, and letting the already built up heat, finish cooking the food.  And when using the oven, I cook everything inside at once vs. one thing at a time.

And when baking, to preserve the cookie sheets, vs. lining the cookie sheet with tinfoil, I found you can actually get these totally reusable nonstick baking tray liners.  And they are GREAT!

And for lunch on the go or for school:

Reusable Lunch Bags, Totes and Boxes are far better than brown bagging it.

And even better yet, we have found using these little guys, are great for using less sammy baggies:

 

And such an obvious one, like think Britta commercial obvious:

 

Instead of using bottled water, snag yourself a water pitcher with a built in filter, or add on to your faucet, or use that fancy water from your fridge door.  Whichever you choose, this route is much better for the environment than bottled water.  So snag a reusable water jug for each family member, and fill 'em up at home before hitting the road to that soccer game or jog around the lake.

Another obvious one is food storage:

Opt for storing leftovers in good quality food storage containers vs. those couple time use containers that end up getting tossed after filling them up with spaghetti sauce.  Oh, and a quick tip for keeping your plastic food storage containers looking brand spanking new after storing a red sauce, hand wash the container in soapy ice cold water.  So far, it's been a no fail solution for us folks!

And remember my snack storage suggestions?  Buying in bulk is much more green than buying individually wrapped items, and even greener, is re-using the storage bags that you divide your snacks down to.  They even have these cool devises made specifically for drying your sammy bags:

Live Green:

Yep, I said it.  I either say Live Green or Recycle Recycle Recycle!  Either way, think about each thing you are tossing away.

 

And these days, there are so many great storage options when it comes to recycling.  Broken record or not, IHeart using these baskets in tons of rooms in my home for papers:

 

And for all other kitchen recycling {cans, glass, cardboard, etc...}, we have a recycling bin tucked under the sink, that pulls out easily for access:

 

And to get your little munchkins excited to help with organizing, check out this book from your local library, they will be sure to HEART it and learn a lot about keeping our planet green: Michael Recyle 

 

It's amazing what my little sponges of knowledge can tell me about what I should recycle, I actually laugh that they are constantly on "Recycle Patrol" and I couldn't be more proud of that fact!

Lastly, something I haven't done yet, but have full intentions of starting in the kitchen, is a counter top compost:

 

And because I also resolute to spend less this year, I am going to attempt to make a homemade DIY compost for the kitchen, vs splurging on a spendier version.  And the benefit will be that I will have amazing soil for this year's veggie garden and creating less landfill waste at the same time.  Gotta love two for ones!

So there you have it!  Now it's your turn!  Anyone else resolute to be more green this year?  What are you doing around the kitchen to green up, and what else can I do that I didn't mention above?  I would be gratefully joyous to hear what you have up your green sleeves as well!  

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