Using Newspaper Around the House

To recycle is good; to reuse, divine. It’s great to recycle your newspaper, but if you can find a way to use it around your house, even better. Here are a few ideas for putting old newspapers to use:

1. Use them to wash windows. Make a spray of a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a quart or so of water, spray onto your windows or mirrors, and wipe with a sheet of crumpled newspaper. You’ll get a perfect, lint-free shine.

2. Packing material. If you are planning a move, or sending gifts through the mail, shred up some newspaper and use it as packing material in your boxes.

3. Add it to your compost pile. Newspaper counts as a “brown” in your compost pile. It adds carbon, and does a great job of drying out a compost pile that’s gotten a little too wet. Just rip it into strips and bury it in your pile. It will break down in no time.

4. Kill grass to make new garden beds. Simply lay three to four layers of newspaper over the grass, wet it down, and cover it with leaves, grass clippings, straw, compost or any other organic materials you have lying around. It will break down, kill the grass, and give you a perfect spot to plant. If you do this in the fall, you’ll have a bed ready for spring planting.

5. Use them to protect your tables when the kids work on craft projects. They’re free, absorbent, and plentiful—perfect if you have little crafters.

6. When hanging photos or artwork, make a template out of newspaper and tape it to the wall to get your placement right. This way, you won’t end up with a bunch of nail holes in your wall if you have to adjust the placement.

7. Use them as dropcloths when painting a room.

8. Wrap presents with them. If the recipient is into politics, or sports, or books, try using those particular pages of the newspaper to really personalize the wrapping.

9. Ball them up, and use them as filler in the bottom of large container plantings. It will save soil, make the container lighter and easier to move, and break down over time. Since it will settle, this is a better solution for containers that will be done in a season or so rather than a permanent planting.

10. Have a new puppy? ‘Nuff said.

There you have them: ten ideas for using old newspapers around the house!

Yes, Really, Unplug Your Electronics

I’ve written several articles now about saving energy (Save energy, Save the Earth—-sorry, I’ve been watching Heroes reruns lately…) and one of the simplest things we can do to save energy is to avoid the so-called “vampire” energy loss that occurs when our electronics and appliances pull power, even when powered off. According to some estimates, including the EPA, vampire loss can account for up to 15% of our total home electricity usage.

So, what is it? It’s the “standby” power that items like dvd players, computers, and televisions use when they’re shut off. It’s the power used to light up all of those little digital clocks on VCRs, microwaves, and coffee makers. It’s the energy that your cell phone charger pulls, even after you’ve unplugged the phone from the charger. And it’s all wasted, resulting in unnecessary greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere.

The simplest solution to the problem? Unplug any electronic or appliance that isn’t currently being used. If you have a bunch of stuff in one area, plug it all into a  power strip so you can just switch it “off” when you’re not using it. It takes a few extra seconds out of your  day, but it’s minimal when you consider what a positive impact it would have if everyone  started  doing it.

Back to those articles. A couple of  them have been submitted to Digg and Reddit, and it never fails to surprise me how much resistance this one simple step gets. I’ve seen comments ranging from “but then I have to  reset my VCR all over again” to “who has the time to do this  every day?”

The funny thing is that my mother-in-law, along with several of my aunts and uncles, do this anyway, and always have. It has nothing to do with being “green,” per se. It had, and still has, everything to do with saving money on the electric bill. My MIL’s been doing it her whole life, and it’s second nature. I’ve never once heard her complain about all the time and effort she wastes unplugging. It’s such a silly argument. The problem is, really, that it’s a different way of doing things, and we humans are, if nothing else, resistant to change.

So, today’s tip: Unplug your unused electronics! Give it a chance. It’s not nearly as onerous or time-consuming as some people make it out to be. And you can feel good knowing you’re preventing all of those greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. If nothing else, saving money on the electric bill never hurt anyone.