Cheap Ways to Make Your Home Greener

Use less energy. Small changes, like closing doors to unused rooms or turning off the air-conditioning during the day, can make a serious dent in utility bills. So can unplugging appliances, turning off lights, and shutting down compu

Change light bulbs. Substituting compact fluorescent light bulbs for incandescent bulbs will save around $40 per light bulb over its lifetime, which means it pays for itself after six months. New developments means the bulbs offer a g

Make cleaning supplies from scratch. Even Martha Stewart endorses this technique. A bowl of vinegar or simmering lemon rinds can absorb smells just as well as manufactured air freshener. Scrubs made out of baking soda and water make k

Renovate with recycled products. Habitat for Humanity’s “ReStores” sell surplus materials at a steep discount. (Sales go toward funding more homes for low-income families.) Web searches for “architectural salva

Make toilets more efficient. If you don’t want to spring for a new low-flow toilet, then transform your traditional one by dropping a soda bottle filled with sand or water in the tank.

Insulate yourself. If you’re a homeowner, you can take advantage of federal tax incentives to make your home more energy efficient. A new HVAC system, insulation, roofing or windows could be eligible for tax credits of up to 30

Cancel catalog subscriptions. Shopping catalogs not only waste paper, but they tempt you to buy things you don’t really need (or want). The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that of the four million tons of junk mail we