In the spirit of practising what we preach…

We have a subscription to the awesome and informative Wired magazine and for some random reason they sent two c of the same issue this month so we thought we’d have a giveaway, all you need to do is answer a simple question…

The feature article in this issue of Wired is about ‘Money’, what would you do if found an unexpected $50 in your wallet?

Respond via comments, and best answer received by March 13th wins!

Green Renters run workshops for sustainable living in rental property.

We take a room by room tour through the average rental property looking at simple and cost effective ideas that can be implemented in a short amount of time that will help make your property more energy efficient, sustainable and save you money.

We also look at general lifestyle changes, ideas and advice for greening your life.

The workshops are practical and friendly in nature with plenty of visual examples, discussion and samples. They generally run for two hours.

Here’s the line up…

I was interested when a friend of mine Gauri started a blog on how she would cease from shopping for non-essentials for a year. We all know that shopping and buying things we don’t need are big problems when it comes to reducing our environmental footprint. She kindly consented to an interview for Green Renters.

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1. Stay home and celebrate
Seriously, I ‘ve always suspected that NYE is the night for people who don’t go out any other night of year.

As green planet suggests

if you stay home and host your own ring-in-the-new shindig, you’ll save transportation emissions—and, of course, money. You’ll also be able to better control the environmental impact of your night, from sending out email invitations to preventing the food and paper waste that comes from bars and restaurants.

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II was excited to see this living wreath on Design Sponge this week. It looks pretty easy according to the tutorial but I’m going to amend a current wreath I have rather than buy any materials. I’m making one of these tonight. It’s a great way to reuse garden cuttings from the last few days and looks great!

Rooting a plant in water allows you to add more green around the house without buying more plants. Simply take a clipping from an existing plant and place it in water. In one week, roots will have begun to grow. Not only do we like the fact that we can spread the greenery (and green) around our house this way, we love the look of rooting a plant in a transparent glass container.

via Apartment Therapy.

We’ve done this at home to good effect with mint and geraniums.

Over the next few weeks, here at Green Renters we will be taking a look at:

Handmade and homemade gift  giving

Shopping locally and Ethically

Eco friendly Christmas decorations

Christmas wrapping the green way

Dealing with non ‘green’ relatives

Preserving your plants whilst you are away…

Also we will be having a very special giveaway next week!

Stay tuned for more details!

I’ve been reading alot about toilets lately. It’s exciting to see that the enthusiasm many people have for cloth nappies and reusable sanitary cloths has extended to other bathroom activities.

There’s  Crunchy Chicken’s annual cloth wipe challenge which involves using fabric cloth instead of toilet paper for either number one or number two depending on your enthusiasm. Even those the cloths need to be washed, it reduces the use of water in manufacturing toilet paper, oil, energy and of course tree production. It also saves money.

pic from Treehugger

I was interested by her comment

I know when I first started out, I felt like I was doing something illicit. Like wiping my ass on the bath towels and not telling anyone. Or picking my nose and wiping it on the carpet. Well, you get the idea. Once you get over that strange feeling of wrongness and embrace the softness of cloth wipes, one can become rather giddy with excitement. Or something like that.

There’s also a murmur of interest in DIY bidets, either clip or or more organic means such as a garden hose trigger gun (hehe). Find out more here

I found these cheap gardening tips in the Simple Savings Newsletter for September. It provides lots of tips on living cheaply and sustainably rather than consumer driven.

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Article from the Herald Sun

Amazing compared to 2004 when Free Range Eggs made up only 9 per cent of the eg market in Australia! Whilst it’s not a complete phase out of cage or barn laid eggs everywhere, it’s a start and certainly evidence that as consumers, we have a lot of power to dictate the world we want to live in by what we buy and what we consume.-Cate