recycle

Can your yearly waste fit in a quart-size jar? Check out this amazing story from LearnVest about how a woman transformed her home into a zero-waste household.

Five years ago Bea Johnson and her husband and two sons were looking for a home closer to the restaurants, shops and school in their coastal California town.

Related: 6 Ways to Save Money–by Going Green

During the year they spent house hunting, the family of four moved into a small apartment, took only the possessions that were absolutely necessary and left the rest in storage.

“After living with just the necessities, we realized that we had much more time to spend with our family when we weren’t spending it caring for a large house and lots of belongings,” says Johnson.

Then, when they did decide on a house, they chose one half the size of their previous home and simplified by selling most of their old stuff.

Around that time, Johnson and her husband began investigating environmental issues. “We read books, watched documentaries, and what we learned worried us and made us sad for our kids’ futures,” she says. “So we decided to do something about it. My husband quit his job to start a sustainability consulting company, and I tackled greening our house.”

Read on for more.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're not going to save by drinking vodka! However, the liquor actually has a couple of household uses that will come in handy. Not to mention, you won't be splashing unnecessary money on products and you'll be doing the environment some good because it's less toxic. Invest in a bottle of cheap vodka to stretch your dollar in these ways:

• Clean Your Clothes: First, do a spot test on the piece of clothing just to be on the safe side. If the material stays in the same condition, spray vodka on the outfit. It'll keep your clothes fresh in between laundry loads and kill any lingering odors. The liquor is also a good stain remover, so dab some on stubborn stains before throwing your clothes into the washer.
• Get Rid of Mold: Spray it on the mold in your bathroom, and after letting it soak in for a good while, wipe it clean. The alcohol will kill the mold.
• Air Freshener: Make a one part vodka and three parts water solution and pour it into a spray bottle. Start spraying away to get rid of any odor in the room.
• Prevent Flowers From Wilting: Add a few drops of vodka into your flower vase to preserve your lovely bouquet. Vodka lengthens the life of the blooms because it inhibits ethylene production, which is what helps the plant mature, according to the Scientific American.
• Repel Insects: Use vodka as an ingredient for a bug repellent. DIYlife.com recommends to mix it with apple cider vinegar and drops of citronella or eucalyptus essential oil. Spray it on yourself or areas you don't want bugs to come crawling, such as your patio furniture.
• Polish and Shine: Take a piece of cloth, wet it with vodka, and clean your eyeglasses with it. Alternatively, you can also mix it with some water, then spray the liquid on windows and mirrors to make them shine. So long, Windex!
• Glue Remover: Remove the sticky residue left from peeling the label off jars by rubbing the leftover glue with a soft cloth soaked in vodka. You can also use this to dissolve the sticky residue that Band-Aids leave on your skin.
• Preserve Razor Blades: After shaving, leave your blades in vodka for a while to disinfect and prevent them from rusting.
• Treat Dandruff: Mix one cup vodka with two teaspoons crushed rosemary, then strain the mixture through a coffee cup filter and let it sit for two days before applying it to your head and letting the solution dry.

Remember, getting an inexpensive brand is key — you don't want to shill out big bucks and waste money on something you'll be wiping your windows with!

Source: Flickr User Darwin Bell

The iPad 3 (or iPad HD is being announced tomorrow, and if you're ready to upgrade from your first-gen iPad or iPad 2, now's the time to sell. But before you post a listing on Craigslist or eBay, get all your ducks in a row first. Here's a few tips on how to prep your gadget for resale, and get top dollar for your efforts.

• Back up your data and do a clean sweep — First thing's first — make sure you connect your iPad to iTunes and back up all of your data. You'll be able to sync it with your new iPad after you bring it home. And just like a computer, before you sell your old tablet, you'll want to wipe it clean of any sensitive information, apps, and contact lists. Erasing all of your content and settings (go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings) is great, but go ahead and perform a full restore in iTunes as well.
• Polish the exterior — Cleaning your old iPad is kind of like cleaning your LCD monitor — you don't want to use any harsh chemicals or, even more damaging, water. Using a tried-and-tested cleaner like iKlear ($30) will ensure you won't damage your iPad's sensitive bits. Use the included microfiber cloth (or one of your own) and shine that baby up.

To see the rest of my list, including tips on how to get your gadget sold quickly online, just keep reading.

No more excuses for cluttering an apartment (or worse, a landfill!) with unused electronics as Target has expanded the amount of stores offering their electronics trade-in service.

Bring calculators, DVDs, video games, iPods, iPads, iPhones, cell phones, and Nintendo DS units to more than 1,400 of Target's 1,762 stores. These products are evaluated for their current worth at the store and customers can walk away with a prepaid Target gift card with the value amount.

If you have electronics that are too old to qualify for Target's buy-back system, not to worry; there are many options to ease your e-load.

• Electronic recycling — To ensure electronics don't end up in landfills or are otherwise improperly disposed of, find a certified e-waste recycler near you, who can properly strip the devices of their recyclable parts. 1800Recycling.com provides nationwide resources. It can also be as easy as searching Google or Yelp for organizations that will recycle and delete and sensitive information from your goods.
• Give it back to the manufacturer — Many technology manufacturers offer recycling of their own goods. Dell, Samsung, and Apple are among those that offer recycling solutions, and sometimes a discount on future goods, to customers.
• Donate — Donate old computers to schools in need and charity organizations like Goodwill, which uses an online donation calculator to immediately show how the product will benefit the community.

There are many tech treats that were on holiday wish lists recently, and if you now have that fancy new Macbook Air or tablet in your hands, you may now be faced with a dilemma: what to do with your old laptop?

The pace of technology can make it seem like your old machine is obsolete, but sometimes donating it is the perfect solution; non-profits can use a working laptop by either selling it or using it for daily operations. No matter if you're recycling your laptop along with your old phone or donating it, check out a few tips before you say goodbye to it — and let me know what you plan on doing with your new one, if you were so lucky — after the break.

You've heard me go on and on about properly recycling and trading in your gadgets (even tipping you on how to get top resale dollars), but Ebay is making things a lot easier with its new eco-friendly trade-in program.

Called Instant Sale, you can get cold hard cash for your old gadgets in a snap. Just answer a few questions about the gadget you want to pawn, then Ebay will give you an instant offer, even paying your shipping costs, so you can just click "accept" and go. Once you send in your tired gadget, Ebay will properly recycle it and deposit cash into your PayPal account. Easy, fast, and truly eases the stress on Mother Earth. How can you go wrong?