Do a lot with just a little.

It’s a journey, not a leap.

No one is going to wake up one morning, throw out everything that makes their lifestyle healthy and comfortable and then rebuild their whole support system from the ground up in the name of sustainability. Change doesn’t happen like that, it happens one thing at a time as solutions present themselves and are adopted. That’s why we published the list below of our favorite easy-to-adopt green home maintenance ideas. Each idea is not “how this is normally done” but is lower impact, often cheaper, uses common household items so safe that many are edible and does the job equally well or better. Click on each picture for more details about each idea. Did we miss your favorite? Let us know.

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Prefer a plain paper look? Use the same procedure, just change the direction of a single fold. Got kids are home who like to color? Add art mid-mailer creation for a one-of-a-kind result.

Make two 8″x7″ mailers from one standard paper grocery bag! Here’s a way to use paper grocery bags one more time prior to sending them for recycling or disposal. Click on the picture for detailed directions.

Leaving the door open so the machine can dry out a little when not in use can also help.

And another idea is to run your sponge through the dishwasher.

The sponge with the smallest environmental footprint is the one that wasn’t manufactured in the first place.
As far as we know, this is the world’s only biodegradable stainless steel cleaner whose effectiveness relies on an abrasive.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall


Texas A&M entomologists tested the effectiveness of this DIY safer solution.
This one is trash into treasure! And yes, we know that Mr. Rooter is not a person but rather a registered trademark of Mr. Rooter LLC.

“No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment.”     –John Denver

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We’ve found it works for wine stains, too.
Root cuttings, store your own spice mixtures, centralized paper clip storage – and clean the old label adhesive off easily with any of our nutshell-based cleaners!

Use nutshells and baking soda to clean porcelain sinks and toilets…

This unique septic-safe non-toxic toilet scrub solution combines the natural abrasive power of black walnut shells with the cleaning and deodorizing power of baking soda. Two simple ingredients and an optional vinegar rinse can replace approaches that mostly score a D or F on the Environmental Working Group’s guide to healthy cleaning.

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She shares with complete transparency.

“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”
– Annie Leonard

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There’s always free plain cardboard available somewhere.

Wondering about our basis for claiming these ideas are lower impact? Impact is considered from a cradle-to-grave perspective vs probable common practice. We’ll keep updating this list, and if you want to send us an idea that you think we missed, please do. We may update this page and credit you.