Find out if you have a running toilet

We’ve all heard the prank call “Hello, is your refrigerator running?”  But have you actually ever thought maybe your toilet is running---and wasting water---without you even knowing it?

Anybody would realize their toilet has sprung a leak if water had gushed all over the bathroom floor. But it’s inside the tank---where the fresh water refills after each flush---that may be leaking fresh water slowly and consistently into the bowl of your toilet. You can’t hear it or see it, and you could be wasting hundreds of gallons of water.

It’s simple to find out: drop about 6 drops of a dark food dye into the tank of the toilet---red or blue work great---and then wait an hour or so.   Come back and look into the bowl of the toilet and see if it has changed color.  If you see any color, your toilet is leaking water. This is when you need to call a plumber to fix it or, it makes a great case to invest in a new water-saving toilet. 

Home Depot is now recycling your compact fluorescent bulbs for you

CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs are a great way to help save energy. But if you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, you know that there’s been some worry about getting rid of them since they have small amounts of mercury (which our greenkeepers say is a neurotoxic heavy metal and not good to have in the environment). Well worry no longer. Home Depot announced this week that they want your bulbs so they can trash them responsibly (dubbed their National CFL Bulb Recycling Initiative). That means you can turn them in to any Home Depot spot and they’ll take them off your hands for free. How easy is that?

Check out Home Depot’s site for more info.

Road Warrior Packing (Eco) Secrets

I’m constantly traveling---filming for TV, shooting a story for the magazine, giving a speech---so over time, I’ve learned a thing or two when it comes to making travel a bit less stressful.

When I’m packing my bag at home, I recycle old Fedex and UPS envelopes---the paper letter-size kind and the Tyvek material Pak size---to pack my clothes and toiletries. Freshly ironed shirts can be folded and inserted into a Tyvek envelope and protected while in-transit. Neckties can slide right into the envelope size and stay wrinkle-free, too. For when I’m not flying on a plane, I’ll pop lotion and sunblock into the Tyvek envelopes, too;  if they leak, the mess stays contained and not all over my clothes.

When I get to the destination, I like to save the morning newspaper and use it to detox my shoes. Basically, crumple up a few sheets of newspaper (be generous!) and stuff your shoes with the paper. It absorbs odors and excess moisture and leaves your shoes a bit fresher. I also recycle the coffee grinds from the hotel coffee maker and use a palm-size amount as a body and hand scrub in the shower; just be sure to wash it down the drain! And for those truly stressful days, nothing can ease tension like a rolled up hand towel soaking in a bucket of ice; add a drop or two of essential oil, roll-up, and press on eyes. Breathe in, breathe out.

Adam + Eric on Squeaky Green

Squeaky Green - the method guide to detoxing your home just hit bookshelves last month. The co-writers (and co-founders of method) Adam Lowry & Eric Ryan sat down at the method office to talk through the inspiration behind the book, sample some of the dirty little secrets you'll find in Squeaky Green, and show us easy solutions to detoxing our homes in order to create a healthy and happy environment for ourselves, our kids and our pets.

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out Squeaky Green yet, be sure to check it out on methodhome.com. First 300 people to order the book online get a free book cover that actually doubles as a reusable microfiber cloth (only available while supplies last on methodhome.com).

Method Mixology

We’ve been selling lots of products at our temporary “Detox Boston” pop-up shop, which is great, and we’ve been throwing some VIP’s (Very Important Parties), which is even better. If you’ve been a VIP at one of these VIP’s, then you already know all about our very own “Liquid Muse,” Natalie.

Natalie Bovis-Nelson travels the globe in search of the perfect cocktail and the best happy hour (how do I get that job?!?), which is why we went straight to her when we wanted to host our “Sustainable Sips” cocktail classes. The cocktails were all inspired by Method products and concocted using organic juices and liquors, so they’re just as sustainable as they are tasty.

For a Method-inspired, buzzworthy buzz, check out the recipes below...

(*we need to tell you that all recipes are intellectual property of The Liquid Muse, LLC and may not be reprinted online or in print without permission from Natalie Bovis-Nelson. Thanks kindly.)

Method Margarita Martini

1 1/2 ounces 4 Copas organic tequila
1 ounce lime juice
11/2 ounces grapefruit juice
1 slice jalapeno
1 tsp 4 Copas agave nectar
coarse sea salt

Rim a martini glass with course sea salt. Muddle jalapeno, lime juice and agave nectar in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add grapefruit juice and tequila. Shake well and gently strain into glass.
*****

Detox America Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Bluecoat gin
1 ounce Veev acai liqueur
2 ounces organic pomegranate juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1 teaspoon sugar (or 1/2 ounce simple syrup) pinch freshly grated ginger

Pour all ingredients, except ginger, into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Grate fresh ginger over the top of the cocktail.
*****

Method Mojito

1 heaping tablespoon organic cucumber
1 heaping tablespoon of diced organic lime
1 heaping teaspoon raw brown sugar
2-3 torn mint leaves
1 1/2 ounces Purus organic vodka
Organic Italian sparkling lemonade

Muddle cucumber, sugar and mint leaves in tall glass. Pour in vodka. Top with sparkling lemonade. Garnish with a sprig of mint or lime wheel.
*****

Green and White Summer Sangria

Organic strawberries, peaches, kiwis
Purus organic vodka
Veev acai liqueur
Lavender honey
Organic peach juice
Bonterra organic chardonnay

Finely chop fruit into a bowl or Tupperware container. Drizzle with honey then add a half-inch of each peach juice and vodka. Let marinate several hours. When ready to serve, spoon one tablespoon of fruit mixture into each glass, and top with Bonterra. Garnish with strawberry on the rim of the glass.

Not Just Green … Squeaky Green!

Congratulations – it’s a … book!  It’s our first one, and we’re so proud.  We’ve named it Squeaky Green: The method Guide to Detoxing Your Home.  (Kind of a mouthful, we know. We hope it doesn’t get teased too much on the playground.)  In a nutshell, it’s a room-by-room guide to lots of easy things you can do to rid your home of toxins so you and your family will breathe easier.

In celebration of Earth Day, here are five easy and inexpensive tips – all pulled from our very own Squeaky Green.

1. Exercise that green thumb by picking up a plant, or five.  Plants are nature’s detoxers and can actually boost oxygen levels in your home.  Some real botanical champs are philodendrons, green spider plants, dracaenas, palms, ferns, English ivy, peace lilies, mums and daisies.

2. Slay the energy vampire.  OK, we know you don’t want to come home every day and reset the time on all your appliances.  Neither do we.  But for those times you’re leaving for a while, plug everything into a power strip and simply switch it off.  (Er, you might want to make sure you haven’t lost the manual for your DVD player.)

3. Open a window.  (Seriously, that’s it.)  The way our houses are built today, the air inside is usually more polluted than outside.  Open that window and breathe easier.

4. Change your furnace and air conditioning filters.  Oh, so sexy, we know.  But the seasons they are a-changin’, and we’d be willing to bet you haven’t done it for a while (every three months is a good rule of thumb).  Really pressed for time?  Turn the vacuum on it.

5. Play outside!  Whether it’s 18 degrees or 80, get out there and kick up your heels for a few minutes at least.  And for goodness sake, take someone with you.

Squeaky Green is now available at Target, Barnes & Noble, Borders and lots of other places, and you can also order it from our web site.  It makes a great gift for Earth Day – but then, we think every day is Earth Day.

Winter Weather Care

Brrrr!  It’s cold outside. If where you live is freezing cold and your driveway and sidewalks are covered with de-icing/salt mixture, you might be experiencing white marks all over your hardwood floors.   

A Warm Holiday Gift

Shopping for a good holiday gift can be hard enough just trying to find the perfect gift for the most finicky person. Now trying to find that perfect gift for the finicky person and making it green and gorgeous choice?  Forget it.  But I think I found the perfect, universal gift.

Method Butterfly

Check out this beautiful piece of art work done by 7 year old Veronica Judson in North Carolina!

recycle your Christmas tree

Looking for a way to dispose of your faithful, but now prickly Christmas tree? You can access local information from www.Earth911.org or call 1-800-CLEANUP to find areas where you can recycle your Christmas tree.  Some areas even offer a pickup service.

common sense food handling

We all are familiar with the headlines about foodborne illness outbreaks in the US. I just read a Breaking News piece on an E. Coli outbreak in eight states, with one fatality, 50 very ill victims and the numbers expected to rise. This subject got a whole lot more personal for me several years ago when I discovered that I had got Hepatitis A after eating a cold sandwich from a local deli. The sickness was very unpleasant but not life threatening.. Sadly, this happens hundreds of thousands of times a year, and about 5000 of those cases end up fatal according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

clean pressed

I'm notoriously cheap when it comes to dry cleaning, and lazy when it comes to ironing (who isn't?). But who knew cheap and lazy can sometimes mean green?

I came to this realization some months ago when my doctor noted that he liked how cleanly pressed my dress shirt was. It was a Brooks Brothers, Non-iron button-down. I told him that I can literally pull the shirt out of the dryer and it will retain its drill-sergeant-pressed look, no ironing needed. Whenever I travel home to Michigan, I pick up one or two at the factory store in my hometown (as aforementioned, I'm 'thrifty'). The next month, he asked me to pick up six for him.

the benefits of child labor

No, I'm not advocating child labor practices per se, but familiarizing your child with cleaning can have several benefits. In my previous life I was a preschool teacher. I taught children to tie their shoes read, and not hit their friends, but one of the most valuable parenting skills I learned was how to teach children to clean.

At the Montessori school I taught at each child was given their own small spray bottle full of non-toxic cleaner (watered down) and a wash cloth. We taught them how to spray the bottle right above the surface of the table - only one squirt. Then we would show them how to wipe the surface clean.

The key to making cleaning fun is all in the presentation. To help a child feel important and valued, give them their own cleaning kit. Presented as a gift and not a chore can help build pride in the process. Making it special can help your child that understand that they are valuable helpers in the family.