Kimberly Delaney

Kimberly Delaney is the author of Clean Home, Green Home: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Eco-Friendly Homekeeping, published by the Knack imprint of Globe Pequot Press. When she's not busy surfing, snowboarding, biking or running, her vices include dark chocolate, coffee and Oprah; but her virtues include playing well with others and laughing often.

If yoga is supposed to be all about connecting mind, body, and spirit, why is it that the first thing I think of at the start of every yoga class is how much I need a pedicure? This not-so-spiritual thought leads logically into looking around at everyone else’s feet, a bad idea in general and especially in yoga class.

Even Yoga Journal admits there is a problem — athlete’s foot running rampant through yoga studios. The symptoms are cracked, itchy, peeling and sometimes blistered skin. Mmmmm. Let athlete’s foot run its course, and pretty soon you’ll be the proud owner of even less attractive and harder to treat toenail fungus. Here’s how to avoid this yogi’s nightmare.

One of the easiest steps you can take to green your cleaning is to skip the neon blue window cleaner and switch to plain old vinegar and water in a reusable spray bottle. This simple switch will allow you to reduce your household’s impact on the environment by buying less packaging and to clean up your indoor air by releasing fewer toxins into the air and water.

The more than 50,000 life coaches in practice worldwide will tell you that money can, in fact, buy happiness — if you’re willing to do the work. Critics see them as unqualified, amateur psychotherapists, who might do more harm than good. Although there are training programs for coaches, it is an unregulated industry, and most coaches are not certified. So, can life coaches really deliver what they promise?

Have you seen the story about the cleaning woman who nearly blew herself up by lighting a cigarette? Her car was loaded with common cleaning products and when she struck her match… kaboom! The woman survived but was severely burned.

Have you noticed how far scented holiday candles have progressed from the old standard “pine” fragrance? This season you can fire-up your festive mood with scents as incredible as “eggnog,” “Christmas cookies,” “snow” and even “Christmas Eve” (but where are the “Hannukkah” scented candles?).

It’s one of those things in life that just isn’t fair. You slave all day in the kitchen, but spend just an hour or so enjoying it. Then just when the tryptophan or tofu buzz is kicking in and you really just want to chill out, it’s time to head back into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

With organic, fair trade coffee beans running nearly $10 a pound at my local natural food stores, I expect my morning joe to deliver a total sensory “mmmm” day after day. When that doesn’t happen, I walk backwards through the coffee making process to find the weak link. Here’s how:

Add up all the chemicals that go into candy, face paint, costumes and conventionally grown pumpkins and it’s easy to see that Halloween wins the most-toxic-holiday award hands down. So it’s no wonder that there is so much information out there these days on how to make it greener. In flush times, following these green tips seems like a no-brainer. But these days, I’m looking to cut the fat from my Halloween budget.

Here’s something it never even occurred to me to worry about: This month the Environmental Working Group released their report on fluoride levels in popular dog foods. You guessed it. In eight out of ten brands they tested, the levels are so high they pose a threat to your hungry mutt’s health!

Organic seeds and seedlings are becoming more widely available for home gardens. You still pay a little more but it’s worth it for the health of your family and the planet. So if your values were green when you forked over the extra cash to start your garden, you definitely don’t want to turn yellow in the face of a few measly bugs that may be threatening your crops.