Tea lovers have been chatting up a storm online about the dangers of steeping pre-bagged tea. If you look at tea bags, they are either made from bleached paper or a plastic mesh, attached using a staple or adhesive. While effective at steeping the tea, the scalding hot water can leach out hazardous chemicals into your tea from the plastic, paper, staple or glue. While the jury is out on this one, a simple thing you can do to avoid it is to brew loose tea. There are many smartly designed infusers today that take the mess out of brewing loose tea. All you do is scoop it into a compartment and add water; it filters the tea instantly for you.

If you shop online and want to give money to your favorite charity, listen up. The iGive app makes it easy to shop from more than 1,600 online stores like Amazon, Best Buy, Staples, Walgreens and many more. When you buy something through the app, around 3 percent of your total purchase price is given to the charity of your choice. The donation is paid by the retailer, not by you, and to date over $7 million has been given to various charities. All you have to do is download the iGive software. Learn more at igive.com.

Is bubble wrap recyclable? It sure is, and it's easy to do. First, if you have old bubble wrap, consider reusing it the next time you need to ship something fragile. But if the bubble wrap is past its prime, do this: Pop the bubbles first. Then take the flattened plastic to any recycling bin that accepts plastic shopping bags for recycling. It's the same type of plastic, so you can be sure it will be recycled.