You know to separate your paper, plastic, glass and cardboard from your regular trash, and put it out on recycling day. But did you know that there are other ways that you can recycle beyond your curbside trash hauler? Here are four fresh ways, just with paper alone, that you can recycle or reuse paper. 1. Been noticing those green-and-yellow “dumpsters” in church and school parking lots lately? No, those aren’t new places for you to put your trash. They are paper-only recycling receptacles run through Abitibi’s Paper Retriever program. It rewards non-profit organizations with cash, based on the...

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I’ve written before how the website/subscription service Fly Lady helps me to keep my house in order (somewhat), and today I realized how much Fly Lady helps me to stay green. One of her “surprise challenges” was to identify clutter in my home that could “bless” someone else. That is, stuff my family no longer needs, uses or wants and which we could donate to someone else. This is usually a no brainer for me, because I already donate clothes to a local charity when I can’t sell them on eBay. However, today Fly Lady threw a little twist...

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This past weekend was a jumble of various green-related ideas, chores and other goodies, so today I’m just going to give you a smorgasbord of green-related thoughts–green food for thought, if you will. Hope you find some useful nuggets: * Green & Black = Delicious Chocolate The public relations agency that represents Green & Black’s Organic chocolate got wind of my green Valentine’s Day post from last week and then got in touch with me. They were interested in having me include Green & Black’s in my Valentine’s Day roundup, though, obviously, it was too late. Nonetheless, they shipped...

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For most people, the three Rs stand for reading, writing and ‘rithmatic (even though the 2nd and 3rd “r” aren’t “rs” at all). These days, though, the three Rs are all about reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s easy to remember this green mantra, thanks to Jack Johnson‘s song “The Three Rs,” which I believe appeared on the Curious George soundtrack. If you aren’t familiar with that song, check it out it out in this YouTube segment. I may include this song in an event I’m planning for my daughter’s middle school, which will be a recycling Olympics of sort, to...

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You know that old saying that goes something like, “I put my arm in my sweater, and my mother’s hand came out?” Yeah, well, it’s happening more and more these days. I started sounding like my mother when I began insisting that my children write their own handwritten thank-you notes after Christmas and birthdays. They’re not always timely in getting these notes out, but at least their getting them done. As I’d posted in an earlier blog, I’m encouraging my children to wear their jeans more than once to save on doing laundry. (They’re still having a hard time...

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When my first book came out, I learned something that many authors, in the throes of writing their terrific tome, don’t consider: when it comes time to get the word out about your book, it’s up to you, the author, to do as much promotion as you can. Once I discovered that my publisher’s publicity deparment wasn’t going to be doing the PR legwork for me, I turned to another book to help me with the task of promoting my book. The book I used was Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. Written for the small-business owner that is...

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It’s hard to believe it, but two months ago today, we closed on our dream house–and moved in. What’s not hard to believe is that, two months later, we are still living among the boxes. Little by little we are trying to unpack and re-sort our personal belongings so that they make some kind of sense in our new house. As we finish with a box, we toss it down the basement. Only problem is this morning I tried to get down to the basement but could barely open the door. If rabbits left alone multiply like crazy, then...

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