Category Archives: Frugal Living

Clean Green: Seventh Generation Giveaway

Now that Earth Day and the spring season have officially arrived, many Americans are in their eco-conscious cleaning modes, and while spring cleaning is necessary if not a little exciting (downsizing! de-cluttering! finding everything you once thought was lost forever!), the very products used to clean and protect your living space from germs could be harmful to both your family and the environment.

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, more than 50% of human poison exposure victims are children younger than six-years-old, and with sixty-three hazardous chemical products in the average American household-according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission-it’s no wonder so many kids are coming into contact with harmful chemicals on a daily basis at home.

Continue Reading »

Let’s Get It Started In Here: The Naked Binder Giveaway

History of Earth Day

Most of you have probably heard by now that Earth Day is just around the proverbial corner, slated for this upcoming Wednesday, April 22nd.

I’m sure you’ve seen television spots, heard radio announcements, and read other green sites preparing to embrace the day, and the entire week, with wide open hearts and minds, in the hopes that together we can make a difference for our one and only planet.

Here at 5MinutesForGoingGreen we’re preparing for our own Earth Day shindig of sorts, gearing up to offer a slew of green products for you to read about and win ALL WEEK LONG, in addition to links galore, and helpful tips for how you can maximize your contribution to making our planet a greener place to be, five minutes at a time.

Continue Reading »

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent!

In my opinion, the word “reinvent” should absolutely be added to the “R’s” of recycling- as in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent!

Okay, I know, it is similar to reuse, but really, when I think of the word “reuse” it just implies to me that I should use the same thing repeatedly-such as cloth grocery bags. Recycle is also a similar term, but it always conjures images in my head of blue curb-side bins and pop cans. Reinvent, on the other hand, involves giving new spunk and life to an old, or apparently unusable, item to make it useful once more!

Recently I have come across some fun ideas that will hopefully inspire you to look for ways to reinvent items in your own home.

Continue Reading »

Cloth for Mama-Are You Crazy?

Yes, you heard me, in addition to the last few weeks talking about using cloth for your kiddos, now I want to talk about cloth for you!

Alright, before you freak out and think, “Now this woman has totally lost it!” Hear me out!

Shouldn’t the same reasons we use for cloth diapering our little ones (reducing trash, avoiding toxins, saving money, pure comfort) be the reasons we consider using cloth for ourselves during that certain time of month?

Once again, I understand the aversion and used to have the same one! I used to think, “Wow, that is just way overboard and definitely only for hard-core hippie women.” Then I had my son and ended up using disposable pads for eight straight weeks after his birth.

Continue Reading »

Recycling Yarn For Green Knitting (And A Giveaway!)

As MacKenzie touched on in her February 5th article, knitting is a great and relatively green hobby. My mom has found a way to make it even more eco-friendly –- by using recycled yarn.

Recycled yarn can be purchased, but she takes more of a do-it-yourself approach, buying sweaters at thrift stores to unravel and reconfigure. Watching my mom and sister shop for sweaters to recycle is pretty funny. They barely look at the clothes, instead walking down the row and touching a sleeve of each sweater. If a garment feels soft enough to meet their standards, they’ll stop and examine it, looking at the color, the label (if it has one), and the seams.

Continue Reading »

A Step Beyond Cloth Diapers

Over the past few weeks I have been doing a little rundown on what modern cloth diapering really looks like, and a few comments have been made with curiosity about how early my son potty trained. If you don’t recall from earlier posts, by 16 months he learned to pretty much exclusively go poo on the potty and by just over two-years-old he was fully potty trained (aside from nights).

Now, I must admit, these early results were prompted not only by our cloth diapering (which I do believe helped tremendously) but also by our elimination communication efforts.

So, what exactly is elimination communication (EC), you ask?

Continue Reading »

Fighting Climate Change With Chocolate: Going Green Never Tasted So Sweet

It’s probably pretty safe to say that there are more people on this planet eating chocolate, than fighting climate change. Sad but true. A more encouraging statement would be that there are definitely a lot of people out there that want to do more of both.

Although there are many brands of organic and fair trade chocolate on the market (just browse the candy aisle at Climate Change Chocolateany natural grocer) and many of them are using their yummy products to promote good things, from the protection of endangered species to saving the rain forest, very few do more to impact their cause then spread awareness…until now.

Continue Reading »

Um, But What About The Poo?

(This is article #3 in MacKenzie’s series What’s Up with Cloth Diapering? Read article 1 and article 2.)

So, after the last couple of posts on cloth diapering, you are probably wondering how you clean the sure to be nasty cloth, right? Do you have to dunk them in the toilet? Are they REALLY sanitary? Are they all stained? Do they stink? What do you do with them when you aren’t at home?

Well, I will tell you!

First of all, washing cloth diapers isn’t nearly as laborious or burdensome as everyone seems to think it is. Honestly, I spend as much time washing diapers as I did emptying the darn Diaper Genie!

Continue Reading »

Skeeda Giveaway Winners!

With 297! comments our skeeda review and giveaway was our biggest yet. A big thanks! to everyone who visited both here and the skeeda site to support such a great green mom-owned business.

Now, onto our two! lucky winners (chosen at random) who will each be receiving a reusable skeeda bag of their choosing.

The first winner is: Commenter #286, Carra!

The second winner is: Commenter #34, Victoria!

Congratulations! ladies.

If you didn’t win today, be sure to visit www.skeeda.com to buy a few for your collection. At just $15.00 a bag, reusable bags never looked so good.

An original 5 Minutes for Going Green post.

Continue Reading »

But I Don’t Want To Use Pins And Plastic Pants!

(This is the second article in MacKenzie’s series, What’s up with Cloth Diapering?)

So, from my last diapering post you know why I decided to cloth diaper.

Today I will show you what modern cloth diapering really looks like.

My very first stash consisted of only 8 diapers! Yes, it can be done, although I don’t recommend it! I ordered 2 of 4 different kinds of diapers (from left to right- Happy Heinys, Fuzzi Bunz 1.0, DryBees, Bum Genius 1.0) to figure out what we liked the best. I subsisted on this stash of diapers for two months before I bought 12 prefolds and covers along with snappis to lighten my laundry routine- but we will get more into that later!

Continue Reading »