michelle kaufmann designs

Do you love having fresh scented air at home but hate the idea of using artificial air fresheners made from all sorts of unpronounceable chemical substances?  That’s a perfectly understandable sentiment, especially considering that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns that a chemical compound found in many air fresheners called dichlorobenzene may be harmful to the lungs.

So instead of using artificial, potentially dangerous air fresheners, go for a natural alternative such as a branch of real eucalyptus, a bunch of lavender, or a bundle of mixed fresh herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme.

The trick is to tie the bottom of the branch or bundle with some natural hemp twine and then string it up near your shower - but not where it will be directly exposed to water - or your kitchen sink. That way, when you shower or run hot water in your sink to do dishes, the steam will help release the plants’ essential oils and send their scent out into your home. Just be sure to then replace the plants every week or two.

In the U.S. we toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times. A lot of that waste results from Americans’ obsession with take-out food. So no matter whether take-out is a once in a while treat or an everyday occurrence for you, the green thing to do is to make sure your meal is contributing as little waste as possible to the already enormous stream we produce.

Let’s start with the basics.   When you’re ordering food to pick up, let the restaurant know you don’t need any forks, spoons, knives, napkins, chopsticks, parmesan, ketchup, soy sauce, or sugar packets, etc.  You can use your own reusable utensils and napkins at home and break out your own condiments from your fridge and cabinets.  And when you go to pick up the grub, bring your own bag to pack it all in.  This style of take-out ordering is called “eco to go.”

If you really want to go the extra mile, ask restaurants if they are willing to pack your food in your own reusable containers.  For some foods, like sushi, this isn’t so difficult to do.  Then just arrive toting your containers and hand them over.  This is also something you might consider doing when you dine out and want take your leftovers home with you.

What do an urban apartment balcony and a rural plot of rolling farmland have in common?  Both are outdoor spaces that can be made into thriving wildlife habitats.  No matter how big or small your garden, you can cultivate it in a way that attracts and protects local wildlife, thereby helping to restore habitat that’s been lost to residential and commercial development in your neighborhood.

Wildlife has a few elemental needs when it comes to a suitable habitat: food, water, cover, and a place to raise their young.  For creating food, the best strategy is to plant native grasses, shrubs and trees since these will naturally provide the foliage, nectar, pollen, berries, seeds and nuts on which many native wildlife species thrive.  Birdbaths, puddling areas, and rain gardens are great ways to provide water if your land lacks natural sources of surface water.

Almost as important as food and water is protective cover and safe places for wildlife to rear their offspring.  Conveniently, you can include features in your garden that double as both cover and places to raise young, such as meadow areas and thickets, bushes and shrubs, and even fallen trees. Equally important is to not create any health hazards in your wildlife Eden.  That means banning all pesticides and other harmful chemicals that can directly and indirectly poison wildlife.

Depending on how wildlife-friendly you make your garden, you could even have it registered by the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat™. Certified or not, a garden designed to protect and even restore biodiversity is one that will help make the world a little greener!

With summer fast approaching and demand for electricity on the rise as AC units start to get turned on again, it’s becoming more important to time your own household’s energy use to coincide with off peak hours.

Peak demand hours are those during which the most electricity is consumed.  In the U.S., peak demand occurs during the afternoons, and is especailly high in the summer. To cover the heightened demand, peak-load power plants (aka “peakers”) as opposed to base load power plants (which provide a steady flow of power regardless of total power demand by the grid) are used. Because a peaker may only operate just a few hours a day to as little as a few hours per year, it’s not considered economically practical to make it as efficient as a base-load power plant. The higher demand gets during peak hours, the more of these inefficient peakers need to be built in order to meet it.

You can do your part to avoid adding to peak electricity demand by shifting energy-intensive tasks, such as doing the laundry and washing dishes, to off-peak hours like those during the mornings, nights and weekends.  Just be mindful of the clock whenever you decide it’s time to put those big appliances to work.  Visit Flex Your Power’s website to learn more.

Now that it’s spring and the days are getting warmer, more sandals and other toeless foot apparel will be making its way from the back of closets where it passed the cold winter months and onto the streets once again.  Now that it’s time to start showing off our toes again, many of those toes are going to be painted all sorts of beautiful, vibrant colors in celebration of their 2009 debut.  So our tip for all you toe painters out there is use natural nail polishes that are better for you and the planet.

Conventional nail polish actually has a lot of frightening ingredients (something you might have guessed based just on the smell) like solvents that are known neurotoxins, some of which can also trigger asthma attacks. Acetate, a toxic heavy metal lead, and formaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen that’s a big no-no when it comes to the building materials we use at MKD, are also common ingredients. As are phthalates, controversial plasticizers that are increasingly thought to be hormone disruptors, with a number of studies now linking them to reproductive harm.

But if you’re the type who can’t stand the sight of a naked nail, don’t worry; there are tons of great nail polish on the market that are free of all the above described junk and that are also more Earth-friendly. These polishes are usually soy-, water-, or corn-based and are often vegan, as well, meaning they involve no animal testing or cruelty. We love/recommend Suncoat (water-based), Priti (soy-based), PeaceKeeper (mineral-based), and the SpaRitual collection.

We love dimmers for all kinds of reasons.  They give you total control over the light levels in a room, so you can, for example, set the mood for a romantic evening or watch movies without having to sit in total darkness or blinding light.  But best of all, dimmers save energy.

Unlike the dimmers of old, today’s dimmers don’t convert excess electricity (that which isn’t used to fully illuminate the bulb) into heat at the dimmer switch. Instead, by using what’s called a “Triac Switch”, modern dimmer switches cut the flow of power to a light fixture up to 120 times a second. The circuit is switched on and off many times a second, but the human eye and brain don’t register the flickering and just see a constant light output.

For incandescent bulbs, dimmers can be a big energy saver. By dimming your lights an average of 50 percent you can cut electric use an impressive 40 percent over time and make bulbs last 20 times longer. Just don’t use CFLs in fixtures controlled by a dimmer switch because CFLs aren’t compatible with dimmers. But dimmer switches are a great a way for people who really don’t want to give up their incandescent bulbs to still save energy.

One of the messages you hear over and over during Christmastime is that we should try to keep the generous, loving spirit of Christmas all through the year.  Well this past Saturday the world celebrated a holiday (of sorts) with a similarly estimable spirit behind it: Earth Hour, a worldwide event that people and cities observe by turning off the lights for one full hour in order to bring attention to the threat of global warming.  In our opinion, that makes Earth Hour equally worthy of being kept all through the year.

Some of you more devout greenies may be capable of celebrating your own mini Earth Hour once a week and if so, more power to you!  For others of us, that’s asking a little too much, but maybe doing it once a month or every other month isn’t, even your just turning off the lights for as long as it takes you to eat a lovely home-cooked (or ordered in) dinner by candlelight. You can time your lights out hours for nights during which the moon is full so that you can enjoy its natural luminescence.

At the very least, try to remember to turn off the lights whenever you leave a room.  It may seem small, but ever little bit helps when it comes to combating global warming!

Now that spring has officially sprung, it’s time (we hope!) to pack away those wool sweaters until next winter. But you might want to think twice before whipping out those stinky old moth balls to protect your woolens from cloth loving pests. Traditional moth balls don’t just smell bad - the napthalene they contain is a carcinogen (registered by the U.S. government) and highly neurotoxic.

So instead of using this caustic poison to keep your sweaters intact, try this more natural, healthy solution.

First and foremost, make sure your sweaters are clean and totally dry before storing them. Then mix together 2 ounces of dried rosemary, 2 ounces of dried mint, 1 ounce each of dried thyme and ginseng, and 8 ounces of whole cloves.

Using natural fiber cloth with a tight weave, make little sachets sewn on three sides and fill each one with the herb mixture. Tie off the fourth side with a piece of lovely ribbon.  Pack sweaters in sealable bags or boxes, placing at least one herb sachet in each bag or box. If you have one, use a cedar chest to store the sealed bags or boxes of sweaters until sweater weather returns.

Having just returned home from a much needed two week holiday south of the border, green travel is something that’s been on my mind for days now.  So here are a few tips that can act as just a general guide on how to make your vacations or any sort of travel greener.  Before even stepping out the door, make sure you leave your house in order, meaning you turn down the heat or AC, unplug whatever electronic devices can be unplugged (i.e. not your fridge), and put a hold on your newspaper delivery.

Book etickets on airlines that make it a point to recycle the waste produced during flight, airlines like Delta and Southwest.  This one is huge since, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the United States airline industry throws away enough aluminum cans each year to build 58 new 747s. Other airlines with commendable green attributes to their name include Jet Blue, Continental, and Virgin Atlantic. You might also consider buying carbon offsets to make up for the pollution your flight causes.

Once you’re on the ground at your destination, try to stay at a hotel with a recycling program in place - and use it!  If you have to rent a car, go for a hybrid, but also try to do as many car-free days as you can. Walking around a new city or small town is a great way to get to know it and to find unique local foods and shops. And be sure to carry a reusable water bottle so you can stay hydrated without needing to buy plastic water bottles everywhere you go.

Diaper changing is rarely a task that new or expectant parents much relish.  Besides the obvious reasons, diaper changing, at least when it comes to disposable diapers, can be a source of concern for parents due to the clear and seemingly unavoidable environmental impact it has.

An estimated 18 billion single-use diapers, which can take as many as 500 years to decompose, are thrown in landfills each year.  After newspapers and food and beverage containers, disposable diapers are the third largest source of solid waste in landfills.

On top of that, manufacturing disposable diapers takes about 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, which translates into a quarter-million trees. One study has shown that single-use diapers use 3.5 times as much energy, 8 times as much non-regenerable raw materials, and 90 times as much renewable material as cloth diapers.

Which brings us to the point: parents whose kids have yet to reach the potty training stage may want to consider switching to washable cloth diapers. In answer to the nose scrunching that suggestion just caused, let us say that in addition to being better for the planet, cloth diapers can also be the healthier, more comfortable option for babies. And using them doesn’t need to be messy or inconvenient. Visit the National Association of Diaper Services to find a diaper service in your area and to learn all about how to use cloth diapers.  We love Bumkins’ 100% pure cotton, PVC free diapers and Little Beetle’s organic cotton and hemp diapers, as well.