Green spring cleaning tips to help you freshen up your house just in time for summer

Springtime is here and many of us are opening our windows to let the fresh air in.  It is also the time of year for spring cleaning.  Give your house a thorough refresh by using healthy methods for your family and the environment and recycle all those unwanted items that have piled up around the house during the winter months.

Here are a few tips from Waste Management:

• Open the windows.  The best way to get air circulating throughout your house is to let the fresh air in and the stale air out.

• Collect and recycle batteries, compact fluorescent bulbs and printer cartridges.  Think Green® From Home recycling kits come with everything you need to recycle by mail.  For more information on how, visit http://www.wm.com/residential/recycle-by-mail.jsp

• Avoid the use of traditional air fresheners.  An open box of baking soda, dried flowers, and cedar blocks are all natural fragrances that can freshen up the air of a room.

• Dust off your old cell phones, laptops and iPods and sell them to us. WMPaysToRecycle.com offers you the opportunity to earn cash by selling your electronics.  Learn how by visiting http://www.wmpaystorecycle.com/

• Instead of using chemically based cleaners, choose vinegar.  Vinegar is a very effective cleaner and can be used to clean just about anything and everything.  Use it to clean a kitchen floor or wash windows.

• Make your clean up  easier by using Waste Management’s Bagster^®, Dumpster in a Bag^®, to haul away all your renovating and project debris.  You can simply purchase it at your local home improvement store, fill it up, then schedule your collection, and we’ll take it away. For more information and to see a demonstration of the Bagster® bag in action, visit www.thebagster.com

• Springtime is a great time of year to start compositing.  During the warmer weather, the contents in the compost bin are able to break down more easily.

• Use baking soda to deodorize your refrigerator, sneakers, hamper, closet and more.

• When disposing of any dangerous chemical products, don’t pour them down the drain, into the ground, or in the trash.  Read the labels or check with your waste management provider for options.

• Donate reusable old cabinets, doors, plumbing fixtures, and hardware to a local charity or building materials reuse center.

• Try to use durable items such as mops and reusable rags or sponges.

• Properly check and clean your home appliances to help ensure they run at peak efficiency.  Remove lint and dust from your refrigerator coils and freezer.  Clean up lint around your dryer, furnace, and any vents leading to or from them.

• Clean out your closets and collect old clothes and toys for donation or for a garage sale.

• Replace old insulation with insulation made from recycled paper, glass, and other recovered materials.

• Check caulking around windows and doors and do touch ups to conserve energy and natural resources.