5 Great Green Apps

The other day, as I scoured the web for good ideas for a home project we’re doing, it occurred to me that the process was far easier this time than the last time we collected ideas.  Why?  Because I’m using Pinterest to do it. I can pin any photo I find on the web to my Home Design bulletin board on Pinterest.  No more going through magazines, cutting them up, sticking the cut-out photos in a file, jotting notes on post-its to better explain what I liked about the images, etc.  That kitchen tile I liked in the photo I found on Houzz.com?  I can show the photo of the tile via the Pinterest app on my iPhone to my tile guy and he can help me find it.  That got me thinking about other apps I regularly use that help me to be less wasteful - and more efficient. 

Here are the five “Green Apps” I use most regularly:

1.     Pinterest: for the reasons indicated above.

2.     JotNot Scanner: take a photo with your smart phone of anything and fax or email it directly from there.  Now if you could only get other people to stop sending you faxes...

 

3.     iRecycle: hop on to www.earth911.com‘s app, iRecycle, and find out where the nearest place is to recycle your (hopefully) now redundant fax machine – or virtually anything else, for that matter!

4.     iRewardChart: set up paperless reward charts for your kids.  Award points for achieving certain goals and set up rewards your kids can earn using those points.  It’s helpful to be able to award points as they are earned (such as right after you leave a church service during which your child did not melt down), to really drive home the praise.  Similarly, if I’m in the checkout at the supermarket, I sometimes find it helpful to hold my cell phone up and calmly say to my four-year-old “if you ask me again for another candy bar before we leave this store, you’ll lose two ‘cooperation points’.  You do want to go on that camping trip worth sixty points, don’t you?”  Works like a charm.

5.     Evernote: whenever I need to create a grocery shopping list, I do it on Evernote.  I can create the list either on my desktop or on my cell phone and the two devices will sync up.  When I’m in the store, I just click the button next to the item to note that it’s already in my cart.  This is just one of many ways to use this great app.  It helps me use less paper and create less waste, helps me save money by NOT buying things that aren’t on my list, and my seven-year-old actually enjoys grocery shopping with me when he can check things off as we find them.

 You might also want to check out Light Bulb Finder and Hootroot – two apps that won the EPA's Apps for the Environment Challenge.

What are your favorite green apps?