Looking for a gift for your favorite DIY-er? Here are 7 eco-friendly stocking stuffers that any handy person will appreciate.

Glide Lubricant & Protectant – Throw out the WD-40! Glide Lubricant is the green alternative for oiling a squeaky door, bicycle chain, or sticky zipper. In fact, take a look here at all its potential household uses.  Manufacturers claim it can remove lipstick stains and erase crayon marks from toys, flooring, furniture, walls and television screens – plus unstick Legos!! Glibe Lube is non-VOC, has never been tested on animals, and is even NSF/H1 safe for incidental contact with food (in case you need to tune up a food processor, blender, toaster, juicer…you get the idea). Order it from the Glide store here.

EO Hand Sanitizing Gel – DIY-ers may like to make a mess, but they also like to keep it clean. This gel hand sanitizer both sanitizes and moisturizes, thanks to its jojoba oil and vegetable glycerin. But it’s unscented, so is perfect for the guy or gal who doesn’t want to smell like perfume.  It contains no antibacterials (like triclosan), so won’t add to the antibiotic resistance problem the way other hand sanitizers do.

LED Headlamp – If your DIY-er finds his or her head under a car, buried in a cupboard, or otherwise peering into a dark or hard-to-see space, this Streamlight Septor LED Headlamp could be the perfect gift. The 7 ultra bright white LEDs pack a lot of power; the settings offer three levels of lighting and up to 120 hours of continuous run time. The lamp does require 3 AAA batteries, so make sure they’re rechargeable.

Snacks – Don’t let your DIY-er run out of energy. Look for snacks with a minimum amount of sugar, no transfats, no hydrogenated oils, and non-GMO. My faves are Kind bars, and they come in a variety of combos, including nuts & spices, and dark chocolate with cherries and cashews. Yum!

Water Bottle With Filter – A DIY-er never knows where he/she might end up. Having a water bottle with its own filter is a good idea. I like the Ecoflo Stainless Steel Water Filter Bottle. It’s BPA free, has no phthalates, and the filter removes up to 99.99% of pollutants.

Hemp T-Shirt – Hemp is one of the most eco-friendly fabrics out there. It requires little in the way of water and pesticides to grow, and once it’s turned into fabric it is extremely durable and long-lasting. Guys can try this t-shirt that is 55% hemp, 45% organic cotton, and available in short or long sleeves. Here’s one for women.

Non-Toxic Hand Soap – Most DIY-ers spend a LOT of time washing their hands. Using a non-toxic, moisturizing soap is the key to avoiding dried out and chapped skin. This handmade all natural Castile Olive soap from Natural Handcrafted Soap, LLC contains cocoa butter as well as organic coconut. It’s actually mild enough to use on your face, too.

Do you have any favorite eco-friendly stocking stuffers? Please share!

The post Eco-Friendly Stocking Stuffers for Your Favorite DIY-er appeared first on Big Green Purse.

This year is going to be different. I’m not making resolutions, I’m setting goals – specific goals that will have real environmental benefits and that I can measure with real “before” and “after” statistics.

Though I hope I’ll reduce my environmental footprint in all sorts of ways this year, I’m only setting three specific goals in the hopes that a narrower focus will lead to broader achievements.

GOAL #1 – MAKE MY OWN YOGURT

I eat two cups of yogurt every single day – plain, non-fat, usually Greek-style yogurt that serves as the delicious base for whatever fresh fruit happens to be in season. It’s a healthy and mostly eco-friendly breakfast – marred only by the fact that I buy the yogurt in big plastic throwaway tubs. When I was in college, I had an electric yogurt maker and made my own yogurt every week. I also made yogurt by mixing milk and yogurt starter in a bowl, then keeping it in a warm oven for several hours until the whole mixture became yogurt-like. Over the years as I was busy raising kids, running a business and writing books, I’ve gotten away from making my own yogurt. But I’m appalled at how many plastic yogurt tubs I throw away every week. If I made my own yogurt using milk I can buy in glass bottles from my local food coop, I would go from three or four plastic tubs a week to zero. So one goal for 2013 is to start making my own yogurt.

Do you make your own yogurt? If you have a recipe you love, please share it!

GOAL #2 – USE NO MORE THAN THREE PRODUCTS BOTTLED IN PLASTIC IN MY BATHROOM

In my bathroom right now, I have various cosmetics, body lotion, hand cream, face cream, make-up remover, shampoo, conditioner, body soap, shaving gel, toothpaste, curl definer, hair straightener, nail polish remover, and hair color – and they’re all in plastic bottles or jars. My kids use different products, so they have almost the same number of products that I have in their own bottles! Beth Terry at My Plastic Free Life has written a great book about ways to reduce the amount of plastic we use in our day-to-day lives. Her personal example has inspired me to figure out how to cut down the number of plastic bottles I use in my bathroom to no more than three. Right away, I can replace the shaving gel and body soap with bar soaps that come wrapped in paper or with no wrapping paper at all. I can buy much larger sizes of products so that I’m using fewer bottles overall. But I’d like to set an even more ambitious goal and figure out how to make my own body lotion, shampoo, hair conditioner, and face cream, for starters. Do you make your own? What do you make, and how do you make it? I can really use your advice!

GOAL #3 – IMPROVE MY COMPOST

My compost is not the best. I use a composting barrel, and ten  months out of the year (March – December), I just collect my kitchen scraps and throw them in the barrel. Then I flip the barrel around a few times and hope the stuff decomposes. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve never been very scientific about adding the right proportions of dry and wet material to it so that the compost heats up the way it is supposed to and turns all that food waste into the black organic gold that would make my garden thrive. Right now, the kitchen scraps from the last several months are all lying frozen in the bottom of my barrel. But as soon as the spring thaw hits, I’m going to empty out that barrel and start from scratch. Do you compost? Do you use a barrel? Please let me know what works best for you. I can easily compost 100% of my kitchen scraps, apart from the occasional fish or chicken remains I have. But what I’d really like to aim for is somewhere between two and three big barrels full of rich organic compost to add to my garden by the end of 2013.

So there you have it: use less plastic by making my own yogurt and personal care products, and enrich my garden by creating better compost. Please share your own goals and resolutions for 2013, and come back often to help me overcome the obstacles I find as I pursue my own.

RELATED POSTS

New Year’s Goal – Shift Spending to Eco-Friendly Products and Services

Environmental Resolution: Do Less, Do It Better

The post My Green Goals for 2013: Less Bathroom Plastic, More Home-Made Yogurt, Better Compost appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Plus, you can’t beat the price. For a couple of dollars in seeds, you can enjoy an entire summer’s worth of crops. In fact, gardening can save you hundreds of dollars in food each season you grow your own.

Top Tips

1) Plan your garden – Keep in mind that vegetables need full sun. Flowers span the range of full sun to full shade; check the seed packet or plant catalog for guidance. Once you have your location, consider not just how much space you have, but how much time you have. The larger the plot, the more time it will take to manage. Does your spot drain well, or will you need to build a raised bed so that water can easily move through the soil? Does it have access to water? Know what you’re getting into before you plant the first seed.

2) Clear out the weeds – If you’re trying to convert a patch of grass or a section of field, you”ll probably need to dig the weeds out, to be sure they’re gone. You can also cover the area with a couple of inches of newspaper. Lack of sunlight will kill weeds and grass and make them easier to remove from your garden plot.

3) Add compost and other organic matter – If you’re not impatient like me, you can test the soil first (see these handy tips from Lowe’s). When you get the results back, you’ll know how much nitrogen, phosphorus and/or potassium you’ll need to add. You may also need to add an inch of sharp sand if your soil is clay.

4) Rake your soil into beds or rows – Leave paths in between so you can walk through your garden without trampling the dirt. Mulch with shredded pine bark or other organic material, then leave the plot alone for about a month before you plant it.

5) Set up a watering system – If your plot is small, you can probably water by hand with a garden hose. Otherwise, install an inexpensive DIY drip irrigation system so you deliver water directly to plant roots and don’t waste it using one of those sprinklers that has such a long spray it sends more water to the sidewalk or driveway than your plants. If your garden is next to a garage or shed, you can set up a rain barrel to catch water coming off the roof.

6) Meanwhile, start a compost pile – Use leaves, grass clippings, other yard debris, and kitchen waste. Making compost at home like this is probably the single most cost-effective way to turn dull-as-dishwater dirt into rich, black earth.

7) Pick your seeds and plants – Consider plants that grow well in your climate; most likely, those will be ‘natives’ that have evolved to take best advantage of the temperatures, rainfall, and soil conditions you have. Choose disease-resistant species for vegetables as well as ornamental plants. Buy organically raised seeds and seedlings so you’re chemical-free from beginning to end.

8) Plant, then watch and weed – Plant your seeds and seedlings to maximize growth. Keep a hoe handy to scratch out weeds before they take over. Keep an eye out for insects and diseases so they don’t become a problem.

9) Don’t get bugged by bugs – Some gardeners can’t stand to see even one little bug on one little leaf in their garden. Hence the continual bombing of their plants with insecticides and herbicides that, by and large, only serve to make the bugs that survive tougher than ever before. Most plants can tolerate a small insect invasion and still produce to abundance. Don’t even start gardening if you don’t like a few bugs with your plants.

10) Enjoy your garden! – Stroll through your garden every day. Position a chair, stool or bench close by so you can sit peacefully and watch the butterflies and bees enjoy the fruits of your labor! Then get out a basket and start picking.

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