Our Best Advice

GREEN TIPS – Ways To Go Green

Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

Photo: Courtesy of Porcher

Be Water Wise

When you turn on the shower, place a container under the showerhead. In the few moments it takes for water to heat up, you can gather enough for the dog’s bowl and the houseplants. We’re on water rationing in California so don’t waste a drop!

A leak is not just annoying, it’s losing water and energy bills with wasted gallons until a plumber comes to fix it. While you’re waiting to get it fixed on ASAP, use this old trick: Tie a string on the faucet allowing the drops to flow silently down into a cup or small bowl. Use this collected H2O to water your houseplants or outdoor garden.

A simple hardware store filter called an aerator added onto your kitchen (or bath) faucet cuts down on water consumption. Without sacrificing water pressure (or very little), and less than $15, you can install one yourself, and save up to 500 gallons per year. That’s a huge savings.

Growing Kitchen Greens

recycle cans into herb growing kits

Try your gardening hand at going green by growing herbs & salad greens in the kitchen. There are ready made kits you can find at your local nursery or online. Bringing in a natural element adds coziness to your home’s busiest room while naturally cleaning the air you breathe. Nothing beats adding your own fresh basil to pasta or mint to tea, and you get the kudos too.

Many Chefs we place raise organic herbs at our clients homes to season and garnish their nourishing and delectable meals. This saves on energy, makes food deliciously more meaningful, and provides added control for what you actually put on your dining table. It also allows kids in the household to participate as a means to teach them how to be more conscientious, enjoy their food, and an easy lesson on how sustainable living environments can be brought home.

available through Brooklyn Botanic Garden

A great children’s book on gardening published by the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens has over 40 hands-on activities and ideas (for all regions in the country), to share with kids you may work with for childcare, family members, or your kids to grow. Giving kids value and relationship to nature at an early age lasts a lifetime– forging a relationship early on to green. Explore the Table of Contents here.

raised bed green gardening

Missing these days for younger gens is the cultural knowledge of how to grow, to make our own food with your own bare hands. We’re not talking about fancy gardening here. Back 2-3 generations everyone knew a little about it, if you needed advice, you could ask your neighbor.  Better yet, you could ask the farmer himself, because he was local. Now we’re deprived of food that tastes like real food (before GMO took over US produce and related legislation). We all lament why European produce is so much more delicious when traveling abroad. Having life skills that preserve knowledge of growing your own food is imperative, along with being able to refine taste buds to learn when food has lost its nutrients, esthetic, and social bonding value.

HANDMADE SEED STARTER KITS are a great gift for almost anyone. You can customize a planter by covering or painting an aluminum can, a yogurt cup, or any other container with a bottom that can be punctured for drainage. There are great tips for types of soil and seeds to use for a starter kit online at organically grown food websites. To make it even more special, you may want to add a few plant markers to the kit. Design your own or use a template inserting the words sustainable design, green design, green eco gifts, or edible gifts. Enjoy our GREEN TIPS at home and gift them to others, Tell A Friend

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, California, CHEFS, childcare, children, dog bowls, dogs, domestic help agency, faucets, garden kits, Gardening With Children, green design, green gardening, green gifts, Green Tips, home cleaning, Household Care, housekeeper-childcare, Houseplants, ISA Staffing, kitchen garden, natural cleaning, organic food, organic herbs, outdoor garden, raised bed gardening, Saving Water, Seed Starter Kits, sustainable design, Water, water conservation

FIREPLACE CARE

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

Cinderella Suite with fireplace at Disney World. Photo copyright: Disney 2007

This is the time of year where everyone with a fireplace uses it actively. Who can forget Cinderella’s fireplace with all that cleaning? Remember to have a Chimney Sweep check out the one you use, which should be done annually. Tell A Friend Chimney Sweeps inspect and clean out the chimney, make minor repairs, and replace the interior lining. TIPS: When they clean, ask them to install a metal grid to mitigate birds and debris floating in. Fires of long duration may cause expansion of the masonry such as the cement crown, facial wall, and exterior chimney, resulting in clean breaks in the masonry. Our Best Advice cautions that holes and mortar bond breaks may be found in the smoke chamber and the chimney cover may be warped or damaged. Make sure its investigated thoroughly, burn only eco friendly products, then tuck yourself around the fire for warmth that cuts back energy bills.

modern fireplaces without wood still need care to ensure their safety

Some of my best memories are of those around the campfire and remarkable fireplace chats I’ve enjoyed with clients. I know my sustainable green friends won’t like this, but I won’t give up using a fireplace of hearth and home (and probably won’t live in a home without one). I have seen some of the most beautiful fireplaces in the world, a dying art form. In the future, we’ll tell kids about the days when fires were still allowed to burn in our homes. If you have one, don’t take yours for granted, new ones are not allowed to be constructed. Read your favorite books by the fire to also save on lighting. Our neighbors, Ann and Skipper (well into their nineties with Skipper just a couple years shy of 100) maintain a fire all winter long to help with energy bills. They’ve been living in the same home over sixty years watching in disbelief as energy costs rise, spiraling out of control.

When I run across an irresistible video it becomes a TIP, and this one is about another favorite subject that goes with fireplaces: books. It’s great viewing several times to enjoy the animation. Buy books! Publishers are having a really tuff time with sales dropping. You can find amazing deals for used books online, which keeps it eco friendly and further supports publishers. Use books lovingly around the fire, then give them away as gifts to others. If you live in Los Angeles visit the used bookstore at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore our friends own. Forward Our Best Advice link for more great TIPS to household care and our ISA staffing services.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: Bel Air, BEVERLY HILLS, Beverly Hills Housekeepers, Bodhi Tree Bookstore, Brentwood, Butlers, California, Chimney Sweep, Cinderella, cleaning, Clients, Disney, Disney World, domestic help agency, domestic help staffing, eco friendly, energy, Fireplace Care, green products, Hancock Park, Hollywood Hills, house cleaning, Household Care, housekeepers, ISA Staffing, Los Angeles, Los Feliz, luxury fireplaces, Maids, Orange County, Our Best Advice, Pacific Palisades, Santa Barbara, staffing services, sustainable, TIPS, used books