We bought a few sets of white towels to cut down on our use of paper towels. We also bought a few sets of white wash cloths to use instead of sponges, wipes and paper towels. We use them to wash the counters, table, floors, children's hands. We pop them right into the washing machine- we bought enough for a full load.

Buying several sets of Pyrex Storage containers has allowed us to drastically reduce the amount of ziplock bags and plastic wrap we use. Also glass is better for you (and the world) than plastic.

This is a nice compost keeper for the kitchen. It has a filter to keep the smell - and the gnats- away.

You still have to be careful not to add phosphates to the environment. Most dishwashing detergents still add them. This one doesn't.

To cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by aerosol cans, I switched to this shaving cream. It lathers well and it moisturizes so much better than the women's aerosol shaving gel I had used for years.

We don't buy aerosol cans, but for spraying oil this has the same convenience as an aerosol can. It uses an air pump.

This is a beautiful book that's full of wonderful ideas for holiday gifts and decorations. My children are 3 and 5, so I hope that using this book all throughout their childhoods will help them to learn that homemade gifts are better for the world and the soul.

We are trying to replace most of the grass in our front yard with gardens, fruit trees, and fruit bushes. They'll be a more productive use of the land and they won't need as much water. You can order wonderful New England fruit trees and Bushes from Fedco.

Drip Irrigation is a great use of water for your veg garden and raised beds. We bought this one, but I see that others have gotten higher reviews. Remember that watering is best done in the early, early morning.

Stainless steel is BPA-free and phthalate-free, of course, so we bought some of these Crocodile Creek water bottles for our children.

We bought Tupperware for our girls lunches- but I hadn't been able to find these when I had originally searched for a stainless steel set of lunch containers. For next school year, we will buy these. Using Tupperware, cloth napkins, a thermos, and a lunch bag cut down on our daily lunch waste by just about 100%.

We bought one of these for the days when there's a mess on the floor but we're not dedicating the hour or so it would take to give the house a thorough vacuuming. We bought it for our rugs- it works fine on the hard-wood floor also, but there a broom works better. This is what carpeted restaurants use when they need to clean the floor and there are customers around. It works quite well.

We bought a few power strips with power switches for items that are nice to have plugged in, but don't need to have wasted electricity running through them when we're not using them. We should probably buy some more of these.

We haven't actually purchased these yet, but we do one day want to light our walk-way with solar powered lights. Right now we just don't bother with our front lights- it cuts down on electricity and light pollution, but it would be nice for people to be able to see our walkway.

Reducing your meat consumption (especially beef and pork) is wonderful for the environment. Also, although Fish is good for you, you shouldn't eat too much- I did hear Mark Bittman say on the radio that eating vegetarian fish such as anchovies is supposed to be the most renewable and least contaminated.