Learn How to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Another way to lower your carbon footprint is to look at the food you buy.

Is it packaged or fresh? Fresh, live, raw food usually is cheaper than processed and it helps lower than amount of garbage you are producing, for fresh food usually has little or no wrappings.

All food takes energy to produce or grow, but what happens to it once it is produced can significantly affect the overall carbon footprint numbers.

What about all those additives and preservatives that are added to processed food. Do we really need to add those to our bodies? These take resources to produce as well.

Putting live food through "processing" can destroy the vitamins and enzymes you are desiring from the foods you eat. Processing the food, "kills" the food and it requires energy to do so - causing us to lose in two ways, no vitamins or enzymes left and loss of energy needed to process it.

Health experts say eat as much live food as you can over dead processed food and you and our environment will be healthier in the long run.

A great way to get live food is grow a garden, even small raised gardens can produce a significant amount of food, especially greens - like lettuce, spinach, kale etc. You can even grow these in large pots on a deck if you don't have a place to grow a garden. I have planted tomatoes in my flower gardens when I didn't have space for a vegetable garden. Tomatoes are great container vegetables, or grow some herbs on a window sill.

Grow your vegetables in a raised garden. These are smaller, compact gardens, that are higher off the ground. These are great if you are handicapped or have difficulty bending all the way to the ground. Some people have been able to grow vegetables right from a wheel chair using this method.

Another way to get garden fresh food is farmers markets. Buy what is in season and save money. These local markets are generally cheaper than the supermarkets because you don't have all the shipping involved. Shipping is an energy consumer, increasing the carbon footprint for the product and ultimately for you.

So eat live foods, produced locally whenever possible, to reduce your carbon footprint and be healthier in the process.

In 2009 try using cloth napkins instead of paper and save trees!

Cloth napkins are reusable, saving on trees.

I measured a regular sized paper napkin - it is 12inches x 12inches when fully unfolded. You could use a 12 inch x 12 inch microfiber dish cloth or cotton dish cloth instead. A cloth napkin could even be used for more than one meal. You will have the initial expense in buying the cloths, but will save in the long run.

If you want a larger napkin, you could use a 12 inch x 16 inch microfiber cleaning cloth or a 16 inch x 16 inch microfiber all purpose cloth. My sister had gotten pretty Thanksgiving hand towels on sale and that is what we used for napkins at our Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Be creative, teach your children to be conservative and let them help you pick out cloth items you could possibly use for napkins.

Find your microfiber products at www.MerryMicrofiberCloths.com, home for all your microfiber cloth needs.

In our personal care we need to look for ways we can be more green also.

Here are a few ways to accomplish that:

1. Stop using disposable razors - in this way you will reduce waste - buy a permanent razor with refillable blades
2. Look at your cosmetics, read the ingredient list and then go here: www.safecosmetics.org/ to see if the chemicals in the products you are using are safe for you and the environment
3. Use cosmetics or write to the company you buy from, asking them to put the cosmetics in paper containers instead of plastic
4. Wear natural products over polyester
5. Buy clothes that can be washed over those that require dry cleaning - which is toxic to the environment
6. Clean/exfoliate your skin with a microfiber facial cloth and water over using harsh chemicals
7. Reduce the number of towels you use by using microfiber bath towels

Marcia Loofboro: owner of MerryMicrofiberBath.com, home for your microfiber pesonal care products

Want to cut down on your carbon footprint - try an alternative form of transportation.

If you are able walk or bike to work, to the store, to the park or even to go visit a friend. Burn your energy instead of fossil fuels. Plus by walking or biking you will save a considerable amount of money by not having to buy gas for your car, and maintenance on your vehicle will be less too.

Obtain a more energy efficient car - like a hybrid car.

Take a bus, ride the subway or train. Or like the Amish who live in our area - take a horse and buggy.

Some places have car sharing, if that is available in your area, take advantage of it. Some places have "Zip Car", where you can rent a car for an hour or more at a time. Don't need a car very often - try one of these.

Maintaining your home and furnace will help you to lower your energy costs.

Suggestions on how to lower heating and cooling bills:

1. Caulk windows and doors, use weather stripping
2. Find out the necessary R value you need for your home and reinsulate if necessary
3. Install storm doors and windows
4. Replace cracked or broken window(s)
5. Filling cracks in around windows
6. Replace door sweeps
7. Use plastic window kits to help keep out cold
8. Caulk around plumping pipes, gas pipes, electrical wiring and dryer vents
9. Close off or fill with insulation exhaust vents if not being used
10. Cover up or close off window air conditioners.
11. Use your exhaust fans as little as possible, they will suck out allot of heat when being run, or close them off
12. Caulk where two surfaces meet: between bricks, or where a chimney and house trim meets
13. Fill in around electrical outlets with foam to keep cold out
14. Have separate thermostats for each room

Maintain Your Furnace:

1. Have yearly regular check ups done on your furnace by qualified furnace representatives
2. Clean permanent filters and AC filters, replacing disposable filters at least monthly
3. Close off radiators, register or close doors in unused rooms
4. Have furnace tested every 2 years for combustion efficiency

Clean with more natural products like white vinegar, lemon juice, salt or clean with microfiber cleaning cloths to clean your home, office or vehicle in a more natural way.

Clean with Natural Cleaners:

1. Cleaning with white vinegar can help deodorize, polish metal, remove soap scum and wax buildup. It helps to remove stains and dissolves mineral deposits. Shower head getting plugged soak in some vinegar and water. Make your own scrubbing bubbles with vinegar and baking soda. You can add some to water to wash windows and floors if not using microfiber. Microfiber will clean without it.
2. Baking soda helps to neutralize acid, deodorize, extinguish a grease fire, remove some stains and you can scrub shiny metal without scratching it. Got problems with a clogged drain, use 1 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup of baking soda to unclog. A suggestion I read once was to use the left over vinegar after cleaning your coffee pot to pour on the baking soda in the drain, it worked faster than cold vinegar. Got some stuck on food in a pan - fill pan with a solution of 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 1 quart of water and bring to a boil, then let set to loosen hardened food.
3. Lemon juice can be used clean glass and remove stains from aluminum, copper, porcelain and on clothes. It will also remove stains on Formica.
4. Table salt will remove rust, need to dirt, fleas and moth eggs from carpet, sprinkle the carpet with salt, work it into the fibers with a stiff broom and vacuum it up. (Rub tin ware with a peeled potato dipped in salt to remove rust, mix with lemon juice to clean copper, or with vinegar to polish brass).

With microfiber cleaning cloths you can clean with just water:

1. Dampen a suede microfiber cloth and dust your whole house without a dusting spray. As the towel fills with dirt just rinse it out in hot water and continue dusting. A microfiber all purpose terry cloth works too, wet or dry. I prefer to dust with a suede cloth myself. The static cling on the cloth will pick up dirt, but I like to dampen it slightly to dust. The little bit of moisture in the cloth will not leave a heavy enough film on your fine furniture to cause a problem. I find moistening it helps it to work better, especially since I don't dust often.
2. Sweep and scrub your floors with a microfiber mop. You can dust mop it first with a dry mop head, then dampen it to quickly clean up the extra dirty spots. Microfiber picks up even the fine dirt and dust, reducing the frequency of damp mopping. No more vacuuming needed after sweeping.
3. Wash all your windows and mirrors with microfiber. Wash with one and dry with the other, only water needed.
4. Clean your stainless steel appliances without having to use stainless steel cleaner when using a microfiber cleaning/dish cloth.
5. Reduce or eliminate the amount of bathroom cleaners you use, by cleaning with microfiber.

Cutting down on or eliminating cleaning chemicals can help reduce your impact on the environment inside and outside your home. Clean healthier without chemical cleaners; using chemical cleaners frequently can increase your chances of getting cancer and are harmful to plants and animals around us.

Marcia Loofboro, owner of MerryMicrofibercloths.com. Get all your microfiber cloths and mops here.