One of the most important items to have in your home is a fire extinguisher. But fire extinguishers require maintenance to remain in working condition. Metal extinguishers have a gauge to determine if the pressure is in the proper operating range: If the needle is pointing to green, the unit is fine; if it's pointing to red, the unit is overcharged or needs to be recharged. The good news is that many fire departments have refill programs that will fix your extinguishers for a small fee. It costs significantly less than buying a new one, and the fire department will also recharge and inspect your extinguisher. If your local fire department does not offer the service, it should be able to recommend a company nearby that can do it for you.

You have an old car; a charity wants it, will pick it up for free and sell it to support its good works. Seems like a win-win situation, right? Unfortunately, many nonprofits that have car donation programs are operated by for-profit towing companies. The towing companies pick up the car and sell it to dealers or as scrap metal, and then give a tiny portion of the proceeds to the charity. If you have a car you would like to donate to support a charity, do this instead: Sell it yourself and donate the cash you make directly to the charity. This way you know it's going to your favorite cause, and you get the full value of the cash donation for tax-deduction purposes.

When it comes to making a weekly trip to the grocery store, the easiest way to green your supermarket visit is to stay at home. If your community has online supermarket shopping from companies like PeaPod or Fresh Direct, for example, you can use them to deliver your food, cutting your carbon emissions from not driving by as much as 50 percent. Because the delivery vans are designed to do cluster deliveries to multiple homes on a single route, it is the greenest way to shop for your weekly veggies, eggs, bread and milk.