When I started becoming more of a health nut, I stopped drinking coffee in the morning and started drinking tea more frequently.  I am a a little emphatic about it now because I loved that they combined taste with health benefits.  I had echinacea  tea, detox tea, ginger tea, and others that I can barely remember.  At one point I had 8 different varieties (yes, I was that obsessed!) 

I usually like to buy Yogi Teas because I like their tastes and health options.  My favorite one is Skin Detox, because it helps clear up my skin.  But once I bought some Celestial Seasonings tea, and noticed the difference in packaging.  Each Yogi Tea bag had a wrapper, a string, and a tag.  Celestial seasonings only had the small pouch that carried the tea; there was no tag or string or wrapping.  Yogi Tea I have only found at natural food stores (or in the organic section of the grocery store if they have any), while Celestial seasonings seems to be widely available at any grocery store.  I read the side of their box and realized the reason there is less packaging is because the company wanted to be more sustainable.  I think it’s a bit odd that Yogi Tea, which is usually mostly organic, would be wasteful with unnecessary packaging.

Anyway, being the “GreenMinded” person that I am, I started to read into options to be more sustainable in my tea-drinking habit.  I never even flirted the thought of buying myself loose leaf tea and using my own metal “infuser”, similar to what I found here.  That uses virtually no packaging, which is the “greenest” of the options.  Of course, you can also buy teas similar to those of Celestial Seasonings: no wrapping, no strings, no tags. 

Next time you’re at the grocery store or natural food store, look in the bulk section.  Last time I visited my favorite organic store, I found that they had loose leaf tea that was way less expensive than the packaged loose leaf tea, even though it was also organic.

I must say, I still do enjoy a couple of my Yogi Teas.  I haven’t been able to find certain benefits in any other brands (i.e., my Skin Detox tea).  So the way I try to make it “greener” is by using a trick my thrifty Polish grandmother taught me: reusing tea bags!  I usually drink my Skin Detox tea in the morning, and then store it in an airtight container.  I usually stick the container in the fridge because I am paranoid about bacteria growth in the “danger zone.”  Another tip I should mention is the first time you use the tea bag, make sure that you do not brew your tea for too long-maybe 3 minutes maximum.  I know that I like my tea stronger; however, if I brewed my first tea bag as long as I generally do, the next time around my tea would be very weak.  This reusing tea technique also helps save money, because my box of tea will last me 3 or 4 weeks instead of 2 (depending on how much of the tea I drink in one day).

We often hear the term reduce, reuse and recycle, but I feel like reuse gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. Finding ways to reuse stuff is a great way to help out the earth – and it’s also very friendly on the wallet.

We are big “reusers” in my family. I am always looking for creative ways to make leftovers more appealing to our toddler, and we’ve repurposed many objects as toys recently.

But you don’t need a toddler’s creativity to find ways to reuse items you no longer want. You just need craigslist, freecycle or your local paper’s classifieds.

All of these services are easy to use, and the first two are free. If your area isn’t big enough to have a thriving online classifieds option, newspaper classifieds also offer many great options in the form of garage sales, etc.

We downsized with our last move and had lots of furniture and stuff that we didn’t have room for. I’m not one for wasting anything, so we put LOTS of items up on craigslist. And found takers for everything from a couch and piano bench to a bedspread and throw rug. These all went to people who wanted them and we knew they would get used, and not take up space in a landfill.

Using these services does take more work than throwing them out, but it’s well worth the effort.

For craigslist, go to the website and select the area where you live. Once there, you can click on post to put up your unwanted items, and follow the prompts to post your ad. Or you can click on any of the links to see what other people have for sale or are giving away.

Most of the ads on craigslist are sent through an anonymous email, so you shouldn’t get any spam for posting on the site.

As for freecycle, you also search for your area. I had to apply to be a member for the freecycle in our area. But I don’t think that’s the case for every area. Once you’re in, you also just have to follow the prompts for posting.

As with all free services offered to the public, there are people who will abuse the system, so be careful.

If you get a query from someone who wants you to mail your product, make sure you get payment for shipping FIRST.

If you’re worried about people coming to your house, set up a time during the day and meet at a public place.

If you are selling items, insist on cash or a cashier’s check.

And be prepared for people to not show up. As a frequent poster, I can tell you that this is a whole lot more common than I would like. But I realize this is a free service, and it’s helped us clear out a lot of clutter (as well as add a whole lot of new-to-us clutter.)

Do you have any tips for using online classifieds?