I found this recipe on Apartment Therapy (they credit Natural Home magazine with originally publishing the recipe). Seems to me you could go green AND save a bunch of money using this to clean your bathtub, instead of buying expensive commercial brands of cleansers.

Silky Bathtub Scrub

1 cup baking soda in a medium-sized mixing bowl
1/2 cup liquid castile soap
5-10 drops of antibacterial essential oil, such as lavender, tea tree or rosemary (optional)

Pour baking soda into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add liquid soap a little at a time, stirring continuously. Stop adding the soap after the mixture begins to resemble cake frosting.  Mix in drops of essential oil.  Store in an airtight jar for up to 1 year.

This sounds really interesting to me! I’m going to give it a go, this afternoon. Would you ever think about trying it? Do you have any money-saving or green tips for household cleaning tasks?

Make your own non-toxic bathtub cleanser is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. The New Normal: save money on laundry detergent
2. Use Green to make Green
3. Energy Use of Household Appliances

A while back I re-posted a money saving laundry tip from the blog HomeEc101. It mentions the many ways white vinegar can help you save money when you do your laundry at home. See the original money saving laundry tips there and over here too.  Then the super-awesome Sarah Cooper of CoopCrafts dropped by and mentioned that she makes her own laundry soap.

Wha???

I was baffled, and intrigued. I googled around her site and found the CoopCrafts recipe for homemade laundry soap. I got more intrigued. I went shopping. I decided to give it a whirl.

retail box of 20 Mule Team Borax household cleaner

retail box of Arm and Hammer "washing soda" laundry additive

Retail bar of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap

retail box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda

First you grate the bar castile soap very finely (this is especially important for cold water washing).

I used the smaller of the 2 lemon zester options on my kitchen box grater.

box grater for kitchen use

Then I mixed the soap crumbles with 1 cup each of the Borax, Washing Soda,  and baking soda.

Et voila! Laundry detergent.

Estimated total cost for about 5 cups of detergent = maybe $2.00.  Use 1 tablespoon per laundry load, 2 for big loads or very hard water.

GoogleCalculator tells me that’s 80 loads of laundry worth of detergent… for about $4! I stored it in my laundry room, in an old heavy-duty plastic bucket with lid.

Dr. Bronner’s isn’t the only castile soap out there. It does come in many scents, but it’s a bit pricey at a little over $4 per bar. I found a cheaper version at my local supermarket where Kirk’s Original Coco Castile soap is about $1.39 per bar.  I found all the ingredients I needed locally, at my regular supermarkets.

I also have begun adding about 1/3 cup of white vinegar to the rinse water and gave up my regular fabric softener. Holy laundry revelation, Batman! I can hardly even begin to describe the positive difference: Soft, fluffy towels. Super clean and clean-smelling laundry. No static cling. No more chemicals going down my drain into the public water supply. No more rendered animal fat on my clothes.**

Making my own laundry detergent and using white vinegar in the rinse water has been a revelation to me. I can’t believe I spent a fortune for all those years on commercial laundry soaps.  Never again will I buy All, Cheer or any of the others.

You should try this at home. It’s a ridiculously easy way to start if you’re baffled by how to live a little greener and reduce your carbon footprint on the planet. Plus your laundry will come out cleaner with no static cling.

**you do know that fabric softener is largely made of rendered animal fat, don’t you? that’s a bunch of dead, boiled animals all over your clothes

disclaimer – I do not own sticky-stain-makers, otherwise known as children. Your mileage may vary. Parents, you might want to try this on your own laundry first and work your way up to the truly nasty piles of laundry-like filth kids can create.

The New Normal: save money on laundry detergent is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Save money on laundry
2. Save money on your phone bill
3. Will a Discount Broker save you money?

(image courtesy of http://www.ipaa.org/Blog/?p=301)

There’s a lot of kerfluffle around the Interwebs lately about the supposedly dangerous levels of mercury released if you break a CFL light bulb.

I believe the most widely spread story crazy Internet rumor is about a woman in Maine who broke a CFL bulb in a bedroom, was quoted $2,000 for cleanup, and a month later that bedroom is still closed off with tape and plastic.

I did a little research, being the sort of library-law nerd that I am. Before I spring my findings on you, a question: how many times in your life have you broken a light bulb?** Me? Never. Not one broken light bulb in 22 years of living on my own. How about you?

On with the myth busting: The story above about the woman in Maine is only sort of true and blown way out of proportion.

The Maine resident did break a CFL bulb in her bedroom. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection says they told the woman that one option was to hire a HazMat team (at great expense, no doubt). How about that room being taped off for a month after the breakage? The homeowner did that herself.

Read the full report on Snopes.com <here>, which also includes links to the federal Department of Environmental Protection’s guidelines on handling broken CFL bulbs. In addition . . .

• see the EPA’s CFL bulb Fact Sheet and
• see EnergyStar’s CFL bulb Fact Sheet
• Chris wrote about the use & disposal of CFLs twice in 2008 including where to recycle them

**If you’re old like me, you might remember when most thermometers contained mercury too. My Mom broke one once. We scooped up the mercury blobs on a piece of cardboard paper, put them inside a plastic bag, wrapped the bag in paper towels and tossed it in the trash. It was kind of fun to see the little blobs rolling around the linoleum. I actually touched one. And I’m not <very> crazy. Yet.

True, you shouldn’t lie down and roll around in the stuff, but you don’t need to panic and succumb to crazy internet rumors either.

Are CFL bulbs dangerous? is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.

Other posts you might like:

1. Disposing of CFL fluorescent light bulbs
2. Recycle CFL light bulbs at Home Depot
3. Glendale Updating Street Light Technology

It’s nice to know that one family can make a difference.

Last year my wife & I decided to make a conscious effort to do a better job of conserving energy around the house.  We didn’t want to do any major home improvements, but we thought we could make an honest effort to do some good.  I wrote a few posts as we identified our goals and built our strategy:

My Family’s attempt to conserve energy – and our challenge to you.

Our energy savings plan.

Energy use of household appliances.

We started the process in mid-November last year, so it’s been almost a year.  I’ve reviewed our APS usage in 4 distinct categories:  Total kWh used, Highest Peak kW usage, Percentage of off-peak usage, and Billable charges.  Here are the results:

Total kWh Used.

This was the single most important goal.  Time-shifting is important, and hopefully all our effort would lead to saving money, but the driving force behind the project was to use less energy.

Result:  We used 15.4% less energy than the previous year, trouncing our goal of a 10% savings by more than 50%!

Highest Peak kW Usage.

In plain English, what was the most energy you needed at any one point in time, during peak hours, during the course of the month?  Obviously the more appliances you have running at the same time, the more energy you’ll require at that moment.  This is an important number, because APS uses it to calculate the largest percentage of your monthly bill.  (this means that if you have one bad hour, with everything running and the doors open, you’re going to pay dearly at the end of the month!)

Result:  Our average Highest Peak kW Usage was down by over 10%.

Percentage of off-peak Usage.

This matters for 2 reasons.  A) We have a plan that charges us less for off-peak usage, and B) by shifting our usage off-peak, we’re reducing the aggregate demand for Highest Peak kW Usage, which means we’re helping to reduce the overall amount of energy needed for our city.

When we started this challenge, our average off-peak usage was 57%.  We set our goal of raising that to 67%.

Result:  We exceeded our goal by averaging 70% off-peak usage!

Billable Charges.

This one was disappointing.  I had assumed that since we did such a great job of using less energy AND switching our usage to off-peak hours, we would have saved a fortune.  Not so fast, my friend (to quote football analyst Lee Corso.)

Result:  We saved a grand total of $124 over the course of 11 months.  (granted, APS had a rate increase at about this time last year, so who knows what our bills would have been like if we didn’t reduce our usage.  But still – I had hoped for better…)

Bottom Line – it feels good to know that we can have a significant impact on the environment without making significant changes in our lifestyles.  If everyone reading this could reduce their usage by 10%…  Talk about environmental impact!

Your doing his share Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

The Results are in: We met our energy savings goals! is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Our energy-savings plan
2. We’re saving energy – right on schedule
3. My family’s attempt to conserve energy – and our challenge to you.

Here’s a quick update to an earlier post I wrote about Disposing of CFL fluorescent light bulbs back in February of this year.  In it I wrote “I bet that before too long there will be enough public pressure that the places who sell the most bulbs (WalMart, Home Depot, Target, Lowe’s) will begin collecting them for recycling…”  One down, three to go!

There’s a Home Depot on just about every corner these days, so you shouldn’t have any excuses for not recycling your mercury-filled CFL light bulbs!

Your feeling greener Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

Recycle CFL light bulbs at Home Depot is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Disposing of CFL fluorescent light bulbs
2. Glendale Updating Street Light Technology
3. New Red-Light cameras go active tomorrow

T. Boone Pickens opened a website today: www.pickensplan.com. You might not have heard of it yet, but you’re going to hear about soon, and you’re going to hear about it a lot, during the next 4 months.

T. Boone Pickens made a fortune in the Texas oil industry. He made another fortune as a corporate raider. He’s garnered a lot of publicity for his efforts in shareholder-rights, philanthropy, and as a big-time contributor for conservative politicians. I read recently about his efforts to buy massive amounts of underground water rights in northwest Texas, as he believes water will be the next oil in Texas.

Well, this one’s going to trump them all. He’s proposing a massive shift to harness the power of the wind, on a national scale, and he wants it to be the cornerstone of this year’s presidential election. Wind energy isn’t new, obviously, but it’s never been done on a scale this large.

Anyone who’s read my blog for awhile knows I’m a big proponent of alternative energy – it actually drives me crazy that we have so much sun, and heat, that isn’t being harnessed for energy here in Arizona.. But that’s another topic for another day!

Give the video below a look – it’s an eye-opening 4 minutes.

Your thinking T. Boone Pickens is on to something big Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

[tags] wind energy, green living, t. boone pickens [/tags]

Pickens Plan goes live today is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Our energy-savings plan
2. Behind On the Mortgage? Call Lender TODAY!
3. Peoria Film Festival opens today!

Here is a picture of my old house – the one we moved out of a couple years ago.

Regardless of size, style, number of garage bays, or area of town, this is a pretty typical design for most homes built in & around Phoenix over the last 20 years. The garage is on one side, the front room with a big window is on the other, and in between them is the walkway to the front door. (it’s not always as long and narrow as my old house, but the point is still valid.)

Notice how anybody walking up to the front door is going to get drenched by 3 different parts of the roof!

Granted, it doesn’t rain too often in Phoenix – a couple of times in December (right after I hang my Christmas lights), a few times in February and March, and some summer monsoons in July and August. However, since it doesn’t rain very often, there’s a lot more buildup of dust, dirt and debris in between rains. This all gets washed onto our front walks, driveways, and patios, in addition to any erosion along the sides of our homes.

Rain gutters can help to alleviate all these problems – they’ll keep you and your guests dry(er) while helping to keep your property clean and well maintained. But if you plan ahead, they can do even more.

Use your rain gutters to direct water to strategic points in your yard, and then let your grading (along with some berms, bricks, rocks, or other natural tools) work to help water your plants and offset some of your sprinkler system – especially during the hot summer months. You can have healthier plants while conserving water!

Your getting into gutters Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

[tags] rain gutters, grading [/tags]

Rain Gutters are useful – even in Phoenix is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Frost-Bitten Plants
2. Ready for Summer?
3. It’s Raining. In Phoenix?

Coming Soon – luxury living, urban living, and sustainable living will come together at The Aura at Camelback.

I’ve seen lots of residential “green living” options, but they’re generally on the small side, and usually outside of town. I’ve also seen several commercial projects using a sustainable approach (we’ve even written about some of them before), so I know it’s possible to do larger buildings. This is the first time I’ve seen larger homes with extra amenities.

The Aura at Camelback will feature 36 three or four-story townhouses, with floor plans ranging from 2,469 to 3,147 square feet. Each home will have a 2-car underground garage, a 400 sqft underground air-conditioned storage unit, and a 400 sqft roof-top garden. Homes will range from $900,000 to $1.3 million.

The project will be located in the Biltmore area, at 25^th Street and Campbell (south of Camelback).

I expect this to be the first of many projects we’ll hear about over the next year or two. Solar energy is getting cheaper and more efficient; there are more options available; and there is a great public demand for sustainable living. (but that’s a topic for another post..)

Your looking forward to the future Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

[tags] Aura at Camelback, green living, sustainable living, Fletcher Heights [/tags]

Aura at Camelback: Green Luxury Living is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Green Living in Scottsdale
2. Green Living takes effort but can be rewarding
3. Use Green to make Green

I’ve been a big proponent of conserving energy around the house, and have written about it several times on this blog. One of the easiest energy “fixes” is to switch your light bulbs to Compact Flourescent Bulbs, since they are ultra efficient and last for a very long time. The bulbs say right on the packaging that they contain mercury, but that it’s safely contained within the bulb and will not cause any harm (much like a thermometer). However, that leaves two new questions unanswered – What to do if one breaks, and what to do with them when they eventually burn out?

What to do if a CFL Bulb breaks?

The frightening thing is how few people know the right answer. The NBC affiliate in Chicago did a survey recently, calling various stores and governmental agencies, and their answers varied greatly. According to the EPA’s website, the correct response is:

1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
2. DO NOT VACUUM.
3. On a hard surface, carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a sealed plastic bag. (wear gloves or other protective gear – no bare hands.) Then wipe the area with a damp cloth or wet-wipe, and place it in the plastic bag as well.
4. On a carpeted area, pick up the larger materials (no bare hands), then use a sticky surface like duct tape to pick up the smaller pieces and the powder. Place everything into a sealed plastic bag.
5. Seal the plastic bag, and seal that bag inside a second plastic bag. Then you may properly dispose of it.
6. Now you can vacuum, but you’ll want to throw out the vacuum bag, or empty and wipe out the container (for a bagless vacuum), and dispose of those contents in the same manner.

How to properly dispose of a CFL bulb?

This is where it gets tricky, and the EPA’s website isn’t very helpful edited April 2010 to add that EPA now has a Fact Sheet on CFL bulbs’ use and disposal, and what to do if one breaks. You can see it <here>. There’s a second Fact Sheet produced by the EnergyStar folks which you can view <here>.

1. I can’t find any Arizona laws against throwing them away with your regular trash, and Peoria’s website does NOT list CFL Bulbs in their list of Household Hazardous Waste. Yet, filling the landfills with millions of lightbulbs containing mercury can’t be a good thing, so I’d like to recycle them.
2. Click <here> for a list of places listed as recycle centers.
3. Edited Sept 2008 to add that Home Depot now recycles the CFL bulbs for you. Take them back there, hand ‘em in.

Your hoping not to break a bulb Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

[tags] CLF Bulbs, recycling, compact fluorescent light bulbs, Fletcher Heights [/tags]

Disposing of CFL fluorescent light bulbs is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Glendale Updating Street Light Technology
2. Our energy-savings plan
3. Holiday Household Safety

We’ve had an old computer sitting on a shelf in the garage for a long time. To give you an idea of how old, it was an IBM PC (remember when people actually had IBM brand computers?) which ran a high-tech operating system called Windows 98. (who knows when that came out…?) At some point over the years technology moved far enough ahead of this computer, whose speed & memory (measured in Mega, not Giga) just couldn’t keep up.

Well, it turns out that your neighborhood Staples store has a computer disposal program for just this case. Well, for any computer, really. They will see to it that your old computer is recycled as much as possible, and that any non-recyclable parts are disposed of in the most environmentally friendly manner. They charge $10 per major component (computer, monitor, printer) for the service, and all peripherals (mouse, keyboard, speakers, wires) are free.

Way to go, Staples!

Your trying to do his share Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

[tags] computer disposal, recycling, Staples, Fletcher Heights [/tags]

Proper disposal of old computers is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Household Quickie – Garbage Disposal Smelly?

Last month I challenged us all to use 10% less energy, and then I outlined my family’s plan for achieving this goal. Yesterday our APS bill came in the mail, and I’m optimistic our plan is working.

Good news is that our usage is down by 9%, and we didn’t implement our plan until the middle of the month! (I’m measuring usage in Kilowatt Hours per Day, and comparing to the same time period last year.)

Bad news is that it’s really hard to compare with only one month’s data, especially since our A/C unit is the biggest driver of our energy usage, and that’s very dependent on what the weather is like. We had perfect weather this month – I don’t think we ran our A/C or the heater at all.

In addition, we actually went backwards in our attempt to shift usage from peak to off-peak, but this is explainable. We started practicing restricting our usage between Noon and 7:00pm, but APS did not adjust our meter until the end of the month. So by using electricity in the morning and evening, we were driving our peak usage up. I expect this to get better next month, now that we’re officially on the new plan.

Your one step in the right direction Realtor,

Chris Butterworth

We’re saving energy – right on schedule is a post written by The Phoenix Agents at Thompson's Realty. If you're reading this anywhere other than a feedreader (rss subscription) of ThePhoenixAgents.com, the site you're reading this on is guilty of copyright infringement.

Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. Soccer Dad. Big fan of technology, efficiency, and the Arizona Wildcats.

Other posts you might like:

1. Our energy-savings plan
2. My family’s attempt to conserve energy – and our challenge to you.
3. Energy Use of Household Appliances