Be Sustainable As You Do back to school shopping

How could we make school supplies more sustainable? Photo courtesy of Dvortygirl. Licensed under CC BY-2.0. Heading back to school means buying new school supplies like pens, pencils, folders, notebooks, etc, etc. However, as you do your shopping, consider trying a more sustainable route to choosing your supplies.  

• Eco-Friendly Erasers - These erasers made by Jet Pens are a great alternative to regular erasers. According to the website, they are "made of biomass polymer, and it reduces Co2 emissions by 50% in its product Life Cycle Assessment compared to the conventional plastic erasers." They're available here for just $2.50.
• Recycled Notebooks - There are many places to buy recycled notebooks, even at your local Office Depot or Target. They're made of recycled paper and work just as good as any other notebook. At Trinity, there's a program where we made notebooks out of recycled paper and old cereal boxes for the covers. If you're that dedicated to make a sustainable notebook, I say go for it. For a super cute alternative to the cereal box notebook, check out this notebook from ModCloth at $17.99.
• Recycled Dividers - For those of you who love dividers to keep organized, this is a great option for you available at Amazon. It's 100% recyclable so even after you use it, you can recycle it again. Check them out here.
• Sustainable Markers - Now we've probably outgrown using markers in our classes, but I use markers to decorate signs for clubs and use them for project posterboards. If you're looking for markers for your next semester, these eco-friendly markers are a pretty neat choice, available fom Sustainable Supply.

But the best way to be sustainable as you do back to school shopping is to do as little shopping as necessary. I use individual folders for each of my classes, but I reuse these folders at the end of every semester. I simply slap a big piece of masking or duct tape over the title I had written there four months earlier, and voila, I have a folder for my new subjects. Reuse your supplies as much as you can, and you'll be on your way to helping the planet one step at a time.

How do you recycle and use sustainable practices in your back to school shopping? Let us know in the comments!

[via Re-Nest]

Barnes & Noble Offers a Great Back to School Deal with the Nook

Barnes & Noble's Nook is so pretty. Photo courtesy of somegeekintn. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Nooks are pretty darn awesome (although I prefer my Kindle, but that's a different story), and Barnes and Noble has come up with a back to school deal that is about to make them even more awesome. If you purchase and register a Nook before October 31st, you will receive 12 free classic books, which include A Tale of Two Cities, Crime and Punishment, and The Metamorphasis. In addition to these 12 books, you will also get Spark Notes for a dozen books like One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1984, and The Catcher in the Rye. Additional features of this giveaway include study guides (like "50 Survival Tips: How to Win at College") and some Nook Color apps.

If you're considering purchasing an eReader, consider the Nook and this awesome package that comes with it. Total, this package is estimated at being worth over $100. Check out more details about this deal at Barnes & Noble.

[via Engadget and Barnes & Noble]

How To Eat Ramen so You don't look like a poor college student all the time

Ramen. The ultimate college food staple. Photo courtesy of heyjoewhereyougoinwiththatguninyour hand. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Whether you're a little bitty freshman or a big bad senior, as a college student, you know that an unhealthily large portion of your diet is usually made up of ramen noodles. Usually, this begins to taper off as you become older and learn how to cook for yourself, but Ramen is so easy to fix and it just offers a nice little meal whenever you reallly need it late at night.

However, eating ramen noodles does have its downsides. For one, it's not very filling. Secondly, you look kind of ridiculous when you have several meals in a row that are all ramen. So in order to cure those ramen blues, here are some great ramen recipes that you can cook with your favorite noodles to add some variety and something that will actually stick to your ribs to fill you up.

• Ramen Salads - What? A way to eat ramen noodles that is healthy? What is this? Well, there are actually a variety of ways that you can mix noodles and salads that are both delicious and healthy. A very common and tasty one, especially in the hot summer months, is a cabbage salad, a recipe for which can be found here. It can make a great side dish, or if you just add some beans or diced chicken for protein, you've got yourself a meal. For more ramen salad recipes, check out this site.
• Easy-To-Make Pad Thai - If you'd like a more authentic way to eat your ramen noodles, try out this delicious and easy recipe that is vegetarian friendly. Add some soy sauce, seseme oil, and you're good to go.
• Ramen Pizza - No, this isn't madness (nor is it Sparta), because here is an official recipe of ramen pizza from Top Ramen. This page also includes some other tasty ramen meal alternatives, but I'm pretty much sold on the pizza thing.
• Ramen and Egg - This is perhaps my boyfriend's favorite ramen recipe of all time just because it's so easy to make. After you make a cook a package of regular ramen noodles, strain them, and put them back in the pot, crack an egg into the pot. Mix it around for several minutes until the egg is no longer liquidy. The heat of the hot noodles will actually cook the egg as you stir it. This adds flavor and protein (which will fill you up). After you've done that, add in your favorite seasonings (he opts for garlic salt and soy sauce, which is delish), and you've got yourself a great new way to eat ramen.

 What are your favorite ways to eat ramen? Let us know in the comments!

[via Wisebread]

How To Make Cleaning a Habit Instead of a Chore (Part Two)

If you don't make cleaning a habit, this is what could happen to your work space. Photo courtesy of Inha Leex Hale. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Yesterday, I wrote the first part of this cleaning series that is teaching students to turn cleaning into a habit, rather than an annoying chore. By making it a habit, it becomes second nature and we become more organized without even thinking about it. Check out these additional tips to help you turn into a cleaning fan.

Everything Has A Home

This is something that my mother has told me since I was old enough to pick up my stuffed animals and put them in a box-- "Go find your giraffe a home." It is the single most important rule of cleaning. Everything must have a home, no matter what it is. If it doesn't have a place to be put when you're not using it, either find it one or throw it away. Find places for your cleaning supplies, for your fruit, for your scissors, for your shoes, for everything. If things don't have a home, then they will continue just to sit randomly on the ground, on your bed, on the coffee table, and your place will continue to look messy and unorganized.

It is a remarkably simple concept, but putting into practice can take a lot of time and organizing. However, once you do find everything a home, your place will be completely organized.

Create a Daily Routine

At the end of every day, I like to go through my apartment and just do a quick clean up of everything. I put my shoes in my closet, my jackets on hooks, my dishes in the dishwasher, etc, etc. I found this nightly routine extremely helpful when I lived in dorms because they got so messy so easily after a day of hard studying. Put your books back on their shelves, your notebooks back in your bag, and just generally tidy up your area. This will make everything more organized right away, and will be less for you to do whenever you need to do major cleaning.

Create a Weekly or Bi-Weekly Routine

Some people can do the weekly routine, but I'm much more of a bi-weekly routine person. It's whatever works for you. Your bi-weekly routine should involve some bigger cleaning tasks like cleaning your bathroom (toilet, sink, mirror shower), kitchen (wipe down your fridge, microwave, sink, and mop your floors), and desk (trash old, unnecessary notes, get rid of non-working pens, and organize your useful notes).

Everyone has their own version of this more major cleaning routine, but mine usually involves the above tasks plus laundry and changing my bed sheets. On weeks I'm feeling especially ambitious, I vacuum too (I hate vacuuming). Create a routine that works best for you and that addresses the areas that you're most messy in.

What do you do to make sure your area is always clean and organized? Let us know in the comments!

[via Pick The Brain and Re-Nest]

Things Your New Apartment Needs That You Probably Forgot

Congrats on the new apartment! But you might be missing a few things... Photo courtesy of crschmidt. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Okay, call me crazy, but when I moved into my apartment on Monday (!!!), there were a few things that I had forgotten to bring or buy for my new place. I would go to grab something from a cabinet and drawer and all of a sudden realize, "Oh. Dammit." So here is a list of a few things that I found that I didn't even think about needing until I all of a sudden needed them. Hopefully you remember them as you move into your new place.

• Toilet Paper - Clearly, this was a stupid thing to forget. But let me just tell you, it is super awkward to take a quick bathroom break as you are moving in all of your stuff and then realize that you didn't bring any toilet paper with you.
• Kitchen Garbage Can - I packed my dorm room trash can that I've had since freshman year, but it's pretty bitty and is definitely not study enough to be my kitchen trash can. Until I went out to Target to buy one, I just used a plastic grocery bag hung on my pantry door handle. However, having a kitchen trash can is pretty important, especially when you start cooking.
• Paper Towels - It's really annoying to try to find something to wipe up a drop of milk and realize that you have nothing.
• Dish Detergent - Again, this is so obvious. You need dish detergent now that you have a dishwasher. DUH. However, never having a dishwasher when I went back to college, I completely blanked, and realized I couldn't wash my dishes until I ran out to the grocery. Again.
• Salt and Pepper - Usually when I go on my grocery runs, salt and pepper aren't on my list because they're just always there. They're the ominpresent seasonings. However, in a new apartment, they are, quite obviously, not there. Put them on your shopping list to avoid dinner sadness.
• Soap - Another thing that I took for granted as always being there was soap, both dishsoap and hand soap. It's hard to wash anything when you don't have it.

What were some of the things you totally spaced on packing or buying when you moved into your apartment? Let us know in the comments!

How To Make Cleaning a Habit Instead of a Chore (Part One)

If you don't clean all the time, your kitchen sink could start looking this icky. Photo courtesy of alancleaver_2000. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.If you've gone more than a week or two without cleaning your room or apartment, you'll realize very fast that disorganization and messiness can get out of hand right in front of your eyes. Cleaning and organizing may not be your favorite thing to do (unless you're one of those people), but it is a necessary evil, especially for college students who are living in very small spaces that get messy very easily. On HackCollege, we've given you tips on various cleaning methods, but in this two-part article, I'll explain some tips you can use to turn cleaning into a habit so that your space is consistently clean.

Have a Stock of Cleaning Supplies

Clearly, you can't clean if you don't have cleaning supplies. It's really easy to say, "Ah well, I don't have any cleaning stuff so I guess I can't clean." In order to avoid that excuse, stock up on some good cleaning supplies now. My favorites include Clorox wipes (which can be used for basically anything), a Swiffer, Windex (for mirrors and windows), paper towels, and 409 (a good tile and kitchen surface cleaner). Also, you should also have an ample supply of laundry and dishwasher detergent. To make things even better, keep some smell-good stuff around your place. For non-chemical fragrance options, check out this article, and for additional articles on cleaning supplies, check out these two articles.

Clean As You Go

It's a lot easier to clean up a mess as soon as it happens. If you spill spaghetti sauce, for instance, on the kitchen counter, it's super duper easy to just wipe it up with a paper towel. But if you wait even just for an hour or two, it's dried and now you might need cleaning supplies to get it off the counter. The same goes for things like toothpaste. It's really easy to wipe extra toothpaste off the sink just after you've brushed your teeth, but leave it there for a whole day and now it's all gross.

Instead of waiting three days to wash your dishes and now having to put away three times the amount of dishes, just clean your few dishes right after you use them. This way, your sink is always clean and clear, and you won't have nearly as much to do when you finally do decide to clean. When you clean as you go, it turns cleaning into a habit and soon you won't even have to think about it.

Break Cleaning into Chunks

When your space is really out of control messy and dirty, it can feel entirely overwhelming to even begin to clean it. How the hell are you supposed to get through all of this shit? The easiest way to do this is just to systematically go through it by breaking up what needs to be done into increments or chunks. For instance, spend an hour cleaning one part of your space, whether it's the kitchen, bathroom, or your desk. Keep moving onto different sections of your room or apartment until you've done it all.

The chunks you break your cleaning into can be time-based or area-based. I prefer to do area-based. When I moved into my apartment Monday, my stuff was everywhere and needed to be organized desparately. I first started in the kitchen. Yesterday, I did my bedroom and closet, and today, I'll finish up with the bathroom. By chunking areas, you'll see a great improvement in one specific area, which will probably make cleaning feel less overwhelming. If you are in a time crunch, try time-based cleaning. Spend 15 minutes in each of the messiest areas to do some damage control.

Make Cleaning Fun

Okay, so maybe that sounds oxymoronic. But it isn't. Cleaning can actually be fun, if you have the right attitude. Put yourself in the right mood by putting on some awesome dancing-cleaning music. Dance, sing, and clean all at the same time. It's a great stress booster too. I like putting on a mindless TV show when I clean too (Millionare Matchmaker is my total guilty pleasure right now. Patti, I adore you). Having something else going on in the background will make cleaning go by faster, and you'll be amazed how much you can get done when you're on a roll.

Look for Part Two of this article tomorrow!

[via Pick the Brain and Re-Nest]

Startino Offers a Clean, Simple Task Manager and To Do List

Startino is a pretty sweet, free task manager.I've never really been one for online to do lists. I'm much more of a physical notebook kind of to-do-lister. It's always there when I need it, and I just think better when I write things down. However, I am pretty intrigued by Startino, which is a free online task manager that has a very simple interface that actually make organizing your stuff easy. Some sites that provide task managing features actually end up complicating the whole thing. Startino, however, is very simple to use and understand.

According to its website, "Startino is a free web-based to-do list. It is designed to be straight-forward, with a simply interface and layout. Therefore, by design, it doesn’t offer any sophisticated features . However, it is quite sufficient for managing one’s daily personal and/or professional tasks. An advantage of Startino is that it incorporates a Google search box, so that if you set up Startino as your browser’s homepage, you will always have your tasks right in front of you."

You can sign up for Startino's features for free with any Google account. I think the most interesting thing about Startino, besides its easy to use features, is that you can share tasks and to do lists with other people. If there is every a major group project that you are working on in a class, you can start a new list with your group members and assign everyone a list so that everyone knows exactly what he or she is responsible for.

For anyone who has had a group project nightmare, Startino might end up helping you in future group projects. (And for kicks, here is some bonus reading on group projects.)

What do you think of Startino? Let us know in the comments!

[via Addictive Tips]

What the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Hack Attack Means for Students

How safe is your identity? Photo courtesy of mikebaird. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last week, hackers breached the security of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee by planting malware in the university's computer systems. The result was the exposure of social security numbers of students, faculty, and staff. Though forensic experts don't believe that the motive behind the hacking was identity theft, the social security numbers and names of over 75,000 people associated with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

As college students, we are required to give our social security numbers to a variety of institutions for financial and background reasons. However, when a computer attack like this one happens, it can cause unease for us to feel vulnerable to attack and identity theft. The lesson college students should take from this incident is to always be cautious when dealing with personal information. Even when you trust the institution you are giving your information to, like your university, be aware the things can go wrong. Even upstanding places like colleges aren't safe from hackers.

To protect yourself against stolen identity, follow your credit reports closely and check up on anything that seems out of the norm. Always check your bank statements to make sure that there aren't any purchases listed that you don't remember making. Constant vigilance!

[via Maximum PC]