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July 29 2010
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Entries >> Shelter & Home life
Green living starts at home.  The best and easiest way to live a green life is to make your home and everything in it as efficient as possible.... and you'll save a load of money by doing it!
bathtub_en 
Let your tub soak...
Let your tub soak its water's heat into your bathroom! When you have a bath in colder months, leave the warm water in the tub and notice how warm the bathroom stays for a long while thereafter. The heat in the water (w...More

recycling-man 
Green Tennant
As a land-owner renting out an appartment to tenants, how do you convince these people who, usually, you barely know, to live in your home by your environmental standards? Or should you even bother? My wife and I have b...More

deer 
Urine my yard Deer! Natural Deer Repellant
Deer eating the leaves of your young fruit trees or your hostas? Here's maybe the most natural way to keep deer away: by urinating on the perimeter of your yard or around the particular tree or plant you want protected....More

windmill 
Governmental Incentives and Rebates
We've all heard about all these Incentives and rebates that governments and other orgs. are implementing to encourage sustainable living. But, for some reason, they never do a great job of providing us access to these ...More

CFL 
Are Compact Fluorescents the Greener Choice?
Lately, I've been hearing more and more discussion to suggest that CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) are actually worse for the planet than traditional incandescent ones. The argument is this: since CFLs contain small am...More

Diet for the Planet! 
Green Gatherings
It's always a challenge to entertain people in a green fashion. Anyone who's hosted a party or gathering knows just how much waste these good times can create. But here's a chance to look for yourself at how much waste...More

Compost 
Composting Basics and How-To
Back yard composting is great! Yeah, Toronto's got the green bin program going (which you still need to make use of even if you compost at home.. I'll get to that later) but that stuff gets picked up every week never to...More

Toothpaste 
Make Your Own Toothpaste
Keeping your pearly whites nice and pearly might be costing you more than the price of oral hygiene products. Fluoride, found in most toothpastes, (however effective it may be for preventing tooth decay) if swallowed ac...More

Examples of city owned street allowances 
Get a Free Tree!
Urban Forestry Services will plant a free tree on City owned street allowances fronting residential properties! All you have to do is mail them the request form found at this address: (http://www.toronto.ca/trees/pdfs/F...More

Bacteria-mania! 
Bacteria-mania: revisited
It's Bacteria-mania! I don’t know who started it, the media or the soap manufacturers (it doesn’t really matter they both have a lot to gain by scaring the pants off us) but at some point, some time ago we started to se...More

pretty-garden 
Green Yards... but not too green
Homeowners love a beautiful yard that they can call their own little slice of green. And why not, we all need a little oudoor getaway to refresh the spirit once in a while and the closer to home the better. But traditi...More

TP 
Clean up your toilet paper choices
Every year, thousands of acres of forests in Canada, Finland and Russia are logged to within an inch of the ecosystem's life just so we can wipe our butts! This point was nicely made in Vanity Fair's green issue, where ...More

laundry 
Green Laundry
Laundry is such a mundane part of all our lives that, as with other daily tasks, we forget how much energy and resources it requires. Detergents and softeners and harsh bleaches go down your home's drains and eventually...More

pests 
Natural Pest Control
Household insecticides are so widely used (especially here in Toronto) that we tend to forget that they're as toxic and damaging as the products used in agriculture, that we try to avoid by buying organic products. In t...More

weather-stripper 
Eight easy ways to reduce your energy use
There are many ways to make your home more energy efficient. Some are easy and inexpensive and others are more costly but are a worthwhile investment that benifit both the environment and your pocketbook. Here's a few ea...More

City-houses 
Some Costly Ways to Make Your Home Work for You.
Here are some more costly ways to reduce your home energy consumption. But remember these are investments that will see a significant return for the investor. So if you can afford it, do it!Install solar panels on your...More

natural-soap 
Earth friendly soap alternatives
by Michael BlochMuch of what goes down our drains winds up in the environment and potentially nasty chemicals from common soap residue are no different. There are greener ways to stay clean.Most of us use normal soap on ...More

dishwasher-man 
Green your dishes
Washing dishes with modern cleaning products does more than just make your fingers pruney. Toxic ingredients polute our waterways and can irritate the skin and leave unwanted residues on dishes. Everybody washes dishes ...More

mopnbucket 
Homemade cleaning formulas
It's easy to wonder when you're cleaning if you can be doing more harm than good by sticking your head over a slew of toxic chemicals. Ease your mind - and your lungs - with our environmentally sound cleaning formulas, u...More