Nobody wants mosquitoes roaming around their homes. The mere sight of them can already irritate and annoy anyone. What’s worse, mosquitoes can also transmit serious diseases like West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever. Unfortunately, you cannot completely get rid of all mosquitoes in your home but you can somehow minimize their population. Here are some tips in preventing mosquitoes at home.

Mosquitoes need stagnant water to lay their eggs. As much as possible, remove any stagnant water around the house. Empty all the containers and corners that can hold water inclusing wadding pools, wheelbarrows, bottles and cans. Also, check that the roof and gutters are draining water properly. Clear all obstructions immediately upon spotting them.

Goldfish and other small minnows can eat the mosquito larvae. Add them to your ornamental pools and you don’t have to empty the container everyday except on days when you have to clean the pool. Also, if you have enough space in your backyard, consider having a purple-martin or swallow birdhouse. These birds can eat thousands of mosquitoes per day.

To ensure that no mosquito would find ts way inside your house, put up screens with a fine mesh on windows, doors and other openings. There should be no holes and gaps in between the screens and the wall that the screen is mounted on. The screens will also give you the option of keeping the windows and doors open to let the breeze for a cooler atmosphere inside the house.

Nowadays, almost all our water sources contain pollutants — both natural and man made. You can buy bottled water to ensure the cleanliness of the water you drink but no one can’t possibly have your bath and cooking water outsourced without destroying one’s savings. Here are some tips on ensuring clean water for daily use.

Call your local health or sanitation department if you have a well as a water source or old plumbing. They can rightfully asses whether the water from the well and through the old plumbing is still safe for daily use. If you have your own septic system, have them checked by your local sanitary engineer as well. The idea is to have a professional assessment of the water system that you use at home.

Septic tanks and wells should be properly construced and well-maintained. These should have complete concrete linings and sturdy covers. Wells should be at least 100 feet from a cess pool and 50 feet from a septic tank.

Consult your local government on how to dispose hazardous materials such as paint and solvent. As much as possible, do not dispose them by emptying the contents down the drain since these can find their way into the water source and contaminate the water supply.

Be careful when swimming or boating in a pond or lake. Seemingly clean water can still be contaminated by bacteria and waste. Be sure to take a good bath before and after the swim or the boat ride.

Paper clutter is sch a tiresome chore to deal with. And you can’t just simply throw them away. You might end up losing a very important document at the time you need the most like an official receipt when claiming warranty. Here’s a list of papers that you should keep and you can throw away. A word of advice though, if you have one, shred all papers before putting them in the trash.

Papers to save:

• Insurance policies: Keep copies of your insurance forms and all supporting documents and correspondence. Old auto and home insurance polices should also be saved for at least three years.
• Work files: Keep all documents stating the all employee benefits aside from salary and leaves. Keep the current status of company profit shares and statement of retirement amount. You can also use these as basis of comparison should the new ones sent to you contain any errors.
• Bank accounts: Keep all written memos, letters and information received when your accounts are opened, monthly statements, six month’s worth of past canceled checks, passbooks and fee and interest rate disclosures.

Papers to (shred and) throw away

• Receipts for regular bills and utilities: If the next bill comes stating that your last payment has been received, you can toss the receipts away.
• Deposit slips: Once the statement comes and all deposit entries are indicated, you don’t need the deposit slips anymore.
• Old receipts and warranty statements: You can discard them completely if either you don’t know the item anymore or the warranty period has expired for more than a year.

Here are some tips on how to save money on electricity:

Try doing laundry using cold water. Using a lot of hot water can only
add to your electricity consumption. There are detergents available
that can be used in cold water. As for using hot water on other
things, you can just lower the thermostat so that it won’t be too hot.
Too hot water means it used more electricity to heat it up.

Use a programmable thermostat so that it can adjust or set your air
conditioner and/or heater to a certain temperature when the air
reaches a particular temperature. These thermostats are also energy
rated so even if they are a little more expensive, they can actually
save you more money in the long run. Keep the warm air in by sealing
windows, doors, and other small cracks.

Change your incandescent light bulbs as they get very hot. CFL light
bulbs  or compact fluorescent light bulbs will save you more money as
well.

Turning green in the office? Here are ways on how to reduce waste in the workplace:


Since everyone is going digital nowadays, minimize the use of paper and instead put files on computer (have back-ups for sure). You can also use electronic sticky notes and personal organizers.

Try reducing waste by making sure that your office printers are set in which they can print on both sides.

Encourage employees to reuse. This can be applicable from office suplies like ink cartridges, envelopes, batteries to tea or coffee cups. For the latter, you can also hand out personal mugs to use.

Also consider buying in bulk and buy office items strategically. This will not only help save supplies, it can also save time and money.

One ecologically friendly solution to waste problem in the office is by having vermicomposting – which is keeping worm bins in the building wherein hundred of worms are used to decompose waste such as food scraps, coffee grounds, and shredded paper. They produce rich soil in return.

The green revolution needs more supporters, and you can do a lot to help. You don’t have to join an official organization because there are small practical things which can have a big impact to the environment. Take a look at these tips.

• These days, there are a lot of hand wash products and hand gels especially made for cleaning hands, that you might have forgotten that good ol’ soap and water combination is enough.
• Reuse glass jars or bottles so you won’t have to buy new vase or containers.
• Buy grocery in wholesale when you have the money. When you buy in retail, you consume more grocery bags. By doing this, you can also save on transportation costs because you don’t have to do your grocery often. Post a blank sheet of paper in the ref and take note of things you have to buy in your next grocery schedule. This should help you to never forget anything.
• Grow your own garden. If you have a free piece of small land in your backyard, why not plant your own green? Tomatoes and strawberries are easy enough to grow.
• Use public transportation when you can. Sometimes it’s even more convenient. You won’t have problems on parking and traffic.
• Don’t print documents when you can review them on your computer screen. Ink prices can be costly. But some people need a hard copy to review a material. If that’s the case, so you can print a fast draft so you can save on ink.
• Don’t buy food items which are under threat of extinction, like fish and other sea foods.
• Dispose your waste properly, especially the toxic solutions so they don’t end up flowing to our water supply.
• Support your community’s program to segregate waste.

It’s not enough to limit what you do for economy in your home. If you can stretch your efforts a bit further, why not help the world save its resources? It’s time to go green.

Make use of your old plastic bags. Whenever you go to a store, it seems you always go home with a plastic bag. How many of these bags do you actually re-use? Or do they just add up to the world’s garbage?

The world doesn’t have to produce more plastic if only people would stop being careless with it. A very practical way is to re-use your bags. When you’re out to buy, bring your bags. Inform the baggers in the cashier that you have brought your own grocery bag. Or you can get one of those cloth bags which you can wash.

Also, there’s a growing tradition of buying recycled stuff–paper, home decors, and many others. Why not support this? Recycled items are precious because it helps the world with its problem on waste management. You can also buy such things as gifts to other people. This way, you can get your friends to like recycled stuff too.

Segregate. Garbage should be categorized according to paper, glass, plastic, metal, compost, and hazardous. Or simply biodegradable and non-biodegradable. Help your community by making sure you’ve sorted out your refuse before you leave them out for collection.

Got a lot of scratch paper? I usually have problems with my printer, so I always have a pile of printed paper. What I do is I contribute it to our HR department to support their recycling program. You can do the same. Don’t just trash unsuccessful print-outs. Compile them and donate it to a paper drive.

Going green is always a good idea. If you support the government’s campaigns to reduce the pollution in our environment, you’ll need help. Start inside your home. Change starts from bottom up. It would be pointless if you can’t have your own time to do your own green goals. Here are things both of you can do to double your green efforts.

Switch from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs because fluorescents use two-thirds less energy. What’s more, the fluorescent bulbs can last ten times longer tan your incandescent.

Turn off and unplug appliances when not in use. Sure it takes a bit of your time but it wouldn’t really hurt. And not just because you pressed that lovely “off” button on the remote doesn’t mean that your appliance stops sucking juice. Some appliances use up electricity when left plugged in. These wouldn’t only allow you to save energy but cut your bill too.

Use your Starbucks mug? You have your cute Starbucks mug yet you only use it at home. Why not avail your coffee discount by bringing your own mug to Starbucks everytime you buy coffee! Now that’s easy and cost-effective. That’s one paper cup less for the recyclers to deal with.

Bring your own bags when you do your grocery. You’ve no use for all the plastics and paper you take home every time you do your shopping and grocery. So just buy one reusable grocery bag. Plastics just add clutter to your house, anyway.

Go for eco paper towels instead of the usual tissue paper for your bathroom. Trees are better off saving people from a landslide than getting rolled up to wipe your face (or other body parts for that matter).

The air you breathe gives you more than just air. The air in the atmosphere has been outnumbered by chemicals, and other particulates that are not good for your health. Air pollution have caused death in many cases, and when it didn’t, it brought respiratory diseases. With the emissions of all the cars in the world plus smokes from the factories, how much more life can the air give?

Recently there has been a motion to amp up efforts to clean the air we all breathe. Apparently the smog is becoming a little too alarming to ignore. The Clean Air Act will be pushed further and more aggressive to campaign and take actions so that people’s health will be more protected. There will be new pollution controls that aims to reduce air pollution.

Air pollution branches out its harmful effects. It also contaminates our water through atmospheric deposition. The government is doing regular inspections on several factories whose industry are likely to contribute greatly to air pollution.

There are things you can do to help clean our air!

Your car is a culprit. Don’t take your car anywhere you want to go. Support public transportation and ride a bus or your bike at times when driving your own car isn’t really necessary. Walk! It helps you get a bit of exercise.

Talk to people in your community who may want to help out. There are more people in your neighborhood who, like you, are willing to do their own part to save the air but they just don’t know how to do it on their own.

Back in the old days when the ozone layer didn’t really have a huge hole in it and acid rain was practically unheard of, rainwater was collected and used for drinking purposes. And no one really got sick. But today, with all the pollution, you can’t really use rainwater for drinking purposes or for personal purposes at that. But rainwater is something that you can use for other purposes such as cleaning your driveway and watering plants. It’s a great way to save on utility bills and conserving our fresh water supply.

The easiest way to collect rainwater is through barrels or container drums. All you have to do is to place it below a drain spout. If your drain spout leads to underground sewer, you can trim the drain spout with a hacksaw so that the container fits perfectly below to collect the rainwater.

A few caveats with this method is that first, if you are using container drums, be sure that they never contained toxic waste. You can get discarded drums that used to contain vegetable oil, these would be perfect for rainwater collection use. All you have to do is wash it with warm water and soap. Another caveat is that you should place a cover on barrels and drums when you don’t expect rain. Stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Intricate collection systems can be made eventually if you are really serious about it. You can do some piping that would connect a series of containers. You can eventually design it as a dispensing unit by fitting more pipes and faucets.

Rainwater today contains several chemicals like dust, ions, even biological traces like animal feces. While these may prompt you not to use it for personal purposes, rainwater can still help you with other tasks that do not necessitate super clean water like gardening.