Compost on Shine

Bag It: How to kick the plastic bag habit for good

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When polyethylene plastic bags hit the American supermarket about forty years ago, they were hailed as convenient and easy to use.

A lot's changed in forty years.

Compost and its rewards

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On the first day of spring, in this corner of the Epi office, thoughts are turning to deck-, backyard- and rooftop-based urban farming. Some of us have a headstart.

Last winter my boyfriend and I bought an indoor composter. I was…

Staycation, all I ever wanted

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What do you do when you have three kids and your husband just got back from a 20-day business trip? You take a vacation. What do you do when you have three kids and in-laws who can only take about 24-hours of them? You take a staycation. It’s cheaper, shorter and surprisingly more…

13 Ways to Reuse Coffee and Coffee Grounds

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I run on coffee. Even my dog knows not to bother me in the morning until I have a few sips of java percolating through my system. That means I have a lot coffee grounds. In the spirit of the 3 green R's Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, Iâ€™ve found 13 ways to reuse those old coffee grounds....

Speak for Yourself: How often do you clean out your pantry?

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Yesterday, Apartment Therapy blogged Sunset magazine's story "7 organizing tips that really work," and although a lot of the advice, while wonderful and sound, is stuff you can more or less figure out with common sense, I did stop short at the instructions for organizing/cleaning out the pantry. Wait, what? I'll admit, fridge-clean-out day happens with some frequency at my house, as I have a nasty habit of not managing to eat all my perishables before they, um, perish, but it's possible that I have never in my life (save when moving apartments, which actually used to happen pretty often, too) cleaned out my "pantry"—or whatever served as a pantry at the time. Am I alone here? Does anyone else have years-old packages of Minute Rice (or the last forgotten packets of ramen from your undergrad days) tucked in the back corners of the cabinet? If so, set aside 15 minutes of your day and let's do this together.

1. First, pull all the food out onto the counter where you can see it. (This also means you get to see all the little left-behind stuff at the back of the pantry shelves and clean it out.)

2. Then, take Sunset's advice and sort the food into 3 piles: