Chaya Kurtz

Chaya is the former editor of Networx.com. Her work has also been published in the Sourcebooks anthology Jewish Daughter Diaries and on a bevy of websites. Chaya's goal is to help people to make greener, more efficient home & garden choices. She is based in NYC and enjoys urban gardening, DIY home design and healthy cooking.

Passionate about recycling and helping people go green, Chaya has written countless articles on Networx.com about simple tips and tricks for recycling things we would normally toss in the trash without a thought. She also gives valuable advice for cleaning your home without using harmful chemicals.

In her article “Eight Ways to Reuse and Upcycle Milk Jugs” (https://www.networx.com/article/reuse-and-upcycle-milk-jugs) she gives many ideas about alternative uses for milk jugs, such making colorful lanterns, creating a slow-drip irrigation system for your plants for while you’re away from your home, and even making jewelry boxes and halloween decorations! She also provides equally creative ideas for ways to recycle plastic bread tags in her article, “Six Clever Re-Uses for Plastic Bread Tags” (https://www.networx.com/article/clever-re-uses-for-plastic-bread-tags). She suggests reusing bread tags for labeling cords, scraping hard-to-reach cracks (like the corners of a baking pan), labeling plants, marking the end of a tape roll, and using it as a makeshift guitar pick.

Chaya details several non-toxic cleaning solutions in her article “Bathroom Cleaning Ideas Without Air Contaminants” (https://www.networx.com/article/bathroom-cleaning-ideas-without-air-cont). In her article, she explains that you can restore your toilet to it’s pure, unscented glory simply by pouring one cup of vinegar into the toilet bowl, squirting castile soap under the rim, followed by scrubbing and flushing the toilet. Similarly, she writes that tubs can also be cleaned with vinegar and baking soda. She also reveals in this article that a mirror can be cleaned just using water and a black and white newspaper, of all things.

Check out more of her articles below for more green tips for your home!