This holiday week (for those of us in the US) think twice before disposing of waste before and after your event. You could be saving yourself some work in the garden come springtime if you start thinking ahead and start composting now!
You don't need a fancy gadget or special container to start composting -- just a space you can cover and maintain warmth and moisture with plenty of worms to start creating the best fertilizer for your spring plants. And what space would be better than your most-likely empty raised garden bed?
Even if you live in colder climates, you can utilize your already-constructed raised garden bed to begin a compost pile to use in the spring. All you'll need is something to cover it, and for good measure maybe a few worms to help the process along.
It happens to the best of us -- we go to hang our holiday lights only to find that they no longer work. Trying to find the burned-out bulb or shorted fuse is time consuming and frustrating, and often times strands of incandescent lights just go bad after a few uses.
So what do you do with your old holiday lights? Before you drop them into your trashcan and forget about them, consider recycling them instead. Not only will this keep electronic waste out of the landfill, but old holiday light strands can typically be ground down to particles that are divided by type (usually pvc, glass and copper) and used in other applications.
Not sure where to get started? Check with your city, town or municipality for recycling guidelines in locations. If you're in the Chicago area, for example, Naperville offers four light recycling locations in partnership with Elgin Recycling. A complete list can be found here, courtesy of the Naperville Sun.
We here at Charles & Hudson are always looking for ways to be as green as possible in our everyday choices, as well as be as economical as possible too. So when it was time to replace our old torn yoga mats, we got to thinking about ways to repurpose or upcycle them around the house.
Sure it's easy to recylce your mat with Recycle Your Mat or donate it through The Bolder Mat Company, both of which are awesome options to be green and generous. But we were curious about the different ways you could reuse your mat around the house to save money and help you in your DIY adventures.
So in no particular order, here are some ways your old yoga mat can be useful in home improvement:
This past weekend my husband and I were able to participate in Dayton's Urban Nights community event, during which many downtown shops, restaurants, arts programs, and residential communities open up late, encouraging the public to traverse our small city and see everything that downtown has to offer. While exploring beyond our own neighborhood, we came across a new townhouse development that's sprung up on the river near the minor league baseball park.
While the vibrant colors of the exteriors definitely were the initial source that drew our interest, we quickly discovered that the development by Litehouse Living is a completely green venture hoping to bring eco-friendly living to a rejuvenated industrial setting.
