We’re passionate about our environment and care deeply about providing a safe, healthy, and equitable planet for all. One of the ways that we can work towards this goal is by focusing on large-scale advancement of clean energy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels that pollute our land, poison our communities, and overheat our planet. In this post, I’ll introduce you to a clean electricity advocate, Olivia Nedd, who is the Policy Director of the Access & Equity Program for Vote Solar who will speak to the importance of why we need to bring all races and incomes along in this energy shift. We’ll also talk about the US’s electricity sources and environmental racism, and how you can make a change for the better.

Countertops are major workhorses and one of the biggest design elements in a kitchen. So, there’s a lot of thought that goes into the material, style, and design of them. But you know me, I have to research even further. In addition to picking a pretty countertop, I factored in the environmental footprint, worker health, land reclamation of the quarry, and the way it fits into a historic home. Ready to get into it? Let’s!

With concerns for our planet and the folks that experience climate injustices, we’re all making purchasing decisions with ethics in mind. Appliances are no different. Electric and induction cooktops are becoming a popular environmentally friendly option, but I'm taking a hard look at all of the considerations to make the most conscious choice.

I sat down with Stacy of the blog Blake Hill House who runs the podcast True Tales From Old Houses to record an episode! We chatted about old homes, energy efficiency, sustainable improvements, modern upgrades, old window efficiency, and weighing the pros and cons of green updates like solar panels. This was a great conversation because I got to share some things that I’ve never discussed in much length on the blog or on Instagram. You’ll definitely want to listen! And I guess I’m overly chatty because Stacy had to split up my interview into two parts! In part two, I chat more about my experience living in a designated historic district, so stay tuned for that.

I went on the San Diego Green Homes Tour this weekend, which is a two-day ticketed event that allows folks to explore “green” homes all over the San Diego region. The goal is to spread awareness about environmentally friendly design to homeowners, designers, or just curious humans - it was open to all. The houses range from being showy multi-million dollar new constructions in beach-front communities, to small semi-homesteads with modest DIY improvements.

I’ve never been too big on decorating for the holidays. Sometimes I’m into it, but I mostly get tired of the tchotchkes and want my home to be clutter-free again. Partly I don’t like the look, but I also just don’t like buying decor that’s cheap and will ultimately end up in the trash. BUT! Enter trash pumpkin. The decor that literally takes rubbish out of the bin and keeps it out of the waste stream.

Over the weekend I attended an event to learn about straw bale home construction - a sustainable building material that benefits the planet instead of hurting it. The organizers also talked about regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and ethically sourced mezcal. It was really cool, and I want to share just a little bit of what I learned about a unique construction material with you!

Guess what! We’re about to start talking about my kitchen renovation. Can you even believe it? I can’t. In the first edition of my kitchen renovation story, we’re talking salvaged windows and loving old house plus old house parts.

You know I love cleaning, and there’s nothing like squeaky clean windows! Now that summer is truly upon us, I know there’s no more rain in the forecast for several months, so I feels good to shine those windows up.

Window cleaning can be a struggle, they can turn out super full of streaks, and the process can create a lot of wasteful paper towels. But, as someone that ditched single-use towels years ago, I’ve found a technique that uses no waste and is 100% streak free! I also use this technique on my mirror, too.

I have lots of front yard gardening posts to share with you so I’m breaking them up into a few pieces. In this one, I want to share with you the goals for our front yard landscape. A a serial over-thinker, you can bet that I had multiple goals that I thought long and hard about when planning what to plant to replace our pathetic front yard. From trying to save the planet to wanting to enjoy all the pretty things, here are my garden goals.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably noticed that I've been traveling quite a bit lately. I'll admit that it feels odd for such a serious homebody to be out and about so much, but, while I do miss home, I've found ways to make traveling easier.

I've collected a few of my favorite travel essentials that I recommend to everyone. Now, this isn't going to be a round-up of travel gimmicks that give you more stuff to carry around. I like to travel as minimally and as ecologically as possible, so here it goes!

The more I dive into the low-waste, environmentalism, and energy conscious worlds, the more I think about alternatives to basically everything I do. I also have dreams of being a homesteader and recluse. So, a project I did last fall was install an exterior clothesline!

Air drying clothes is a great way to save on energy when doing laundry and I’m the perfect candidate for air drying clothes in my sunny San Diego climate. Plus, sunshine is the nature’s bleach. So, why not?

Among my top 10 hobbies is deep cleaning my house. Call me crazy, but it’s just my jam. I’ve spent ages perfecting my routine to be as efficient as possible, years finding my favorite non-toxic cleaners, and just a few months to learn how to do it all without any waste. I filmed a quick video of me doing a kitchen deep clean and wrote out my step-by-step cleaning process. Check it out!

I wrote a blog post last year with a list of unique ways to donate a bunch of things when you’re decluttering. Things like dingy towels, toiletries, cleaning products, paint samples, light bulbs, eyeglasses, houseplants, and so so much more. Check it out even if you read it last year because I added a few more tips, and we can always use a refresher.

I mentioned the Buy Nothing Project in that post but I want to give it a big shout out and profess my love for this group. I mean LOVE. I’m in this group’s page literally every day and I’ve decluttered a bunch of hard-to-get rid of items (read my trash - I’ll explain later), plus I’ve saved oodles of money in the group, too. What is it, you ask? Well, I’ll tell ya.

Energy consumption has been on my mind lately as we’ve been gearing up to add solar panels to our roof and as we continue to think about our footprint on this lil’ world of ours. We hear lots about how we should use LED bulbs instead of incandescent and we should get energy star appliances instead of energy guzzlers - both of which I firmly believe and included in my list of ways to make green energy improvements at home. But, I wanted to know exactly how much energy each of my lights, appliances, tools, and electronics around the house were actually consuming. Because I’m type-A like that.

I’ve been hinting for awhile that I’ve been striving to reduce waste and go plastic-free so I got oodles of requests for a zero waste gift guide. And I’m happy to spread the low-waste, eco-friendly, world-saving love!

I love finding creative ways to recycle and I especially like using waste byproducts. When I learned that I could tap into my air conditioner to gain recycled water it was an easy and cheap no-brainer for free water that we use in the garden. Here’s how!