Love Indoor Plants? Want to Conserve Water? It Can Be Done!

One question we often encounter is how it is possible to properly maintain and care for plants while also trying to conserve as much water as possible.  It definitely can be done, and here are some tricks to caring for indoor plants:
Many homeowners love taking care of potted, indoor plants.

Be sure to care for low-maintenance indoor plants!  Some examples include:

1. Succulents- the easiest houseplants to keep alive. They like dry soil, so they almost beg to be ignored. Generally, they need to be watered every three to four days, but it depends on the humidity in your home. Aloe Vera is a particularly good choice in succulent, because the gel from the leaves can be used in a variety of ways (most notably soothing sunburn). Succulents like sunny spots, and a row of them looks charming in a windowsill.

2. Spider plants are also very easy to care for and notoriously hard to kill. These also do great as hanging plants, which is a bonus if you have pets or small children that can’t resist digging around in soil (or eating leaves). Spider plants can even survive without natural light, so it’s a good choice if you don’t have a particularly sunny home.

Your New and Improved Green Life

So, you want to live a green lifestyle?  You've come to the right blog!  This week, we are discussing several personal practices to live green. You might even be on your way to living green already and not even know it!

Some simple ideas are:

1. Buy locally produced items, including produce and other goods. It reduces the amount of fossil fuels required to transport the things you buy from other parts of the country or the world. It also reduces the amount of plastic and paper products consumed in the packaging of such far-traveling products.
2. Instead of using grocery stores' disposable plastic or paper bags, bring your own reusable tote bags, which are available for sale at many grocers and other retailers. The bags are sturdier than disposable bags, making the trip home easier, and they don't waste resources or end up in landfills. You alone could keep up to 1,500 bags per year out of landfills! If you must use disposable bags, ask your bagger to avoid double-bagging whenever possible.

It's More Than Recycling!

Last week, our blog post was about the importance of recycling!  While it is important to recycle, living a green life isn't just about recycling and sorting out re-usable supplies; there are a lot of other ways to live green!

From cleaning your home to getting to work, read these tips for simple ideas to go green!

Cleaning

1. Use non-toxic, environmentally safe, biodegradable cleaning products, including laundry products, which you can find at any natural grocery and even many mainstream stores. Just read the labels carefully. 
2. Don't pollute your indoor air or mask odors that could alert you to a problem. Choose fragrance-free products.

Simple Energy-Saving Tips!

Read some simple, energy saving tips below!  Anyone can do these in their own home to reduce energy used!

1.   Unplug the "secret energy addicts" in your home: TVs, VCRs, DVD players, cable TV boxes, computers and printers, video game consoles, microwave ovens and AC adapters for cell phones, digital cameras and other electronics. Most electronic equipment, including anything that uses a remote control, is designed to consume energy when it is turned off. That "off" setting is actually a "standby" or "idling" mode. Standby power in the average household consumes 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That's enough energy to power an entire home for two months, or more. The solution? Unplug anything that isn't being used.
2.   Swap out incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. CFs use about 66% less energy and last up to 10 times longer.
3.   Turn down your thermostat by two degrees in the winter (and up two degrees in the summer). You'll save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide this year!
4.   Switch to cold-water washing and save 80% on laundry energy.

Welcome to Our Green Tips!

Hello everyone!

Thank you for reading Grady Management Inc.'s first blog post on our brand new Green Tips blog.  This blog is a step in our process to inform more people about Grady Management news and initiatives through social media and a brand-new website (debuting later this month!).

Here at Grady Management, we know that you would always "do the right thing" for yourself and the planet if it were convenient, fun, inexpensive, and made you feel good. Being green doesn't have to be complicated or difficult! Let’s go beyond recycling and replacing light bulbs and take a look at a few ways to truly make an impact on the environment with green apartment living.