Many of us are looking for alternatives to plastic straws. Obviously, the simplest thing is to stop using straws. But for parents of small children, sometimes a drinking straw is necessary to keep fruit juices from getting all over their clothes. One alternative to consider is a silicone straw. They work just like plastic straws, but are reusable. They are dishwasher-safe, BPA-free and can be boiled to sterilize them.

In the past, people thought you could put used hypodermic needles inside plastic bottles, screw on the cap and toss it into the trash or recycling bin. But since trash bags and recycling bins aren't completely secure, neither are the used hypodermic needles. As trash and recycling haulers are manned by humans, these used needles pose a serious health risk to them. Dispose of needles in secure containers designed to collect them.

When buying old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs, we often looked at the wattage to determine the brightness of the bulb. But with modern LED bulbs, it's important to look at the lumen rating and not the wattage to figure out the brightness. The wattage on an LED bulb reveals only how much power the LED bulb actually uses. The lumen rating measures the brightness; the higher the lumen rating, the brighter the bulb.