Summer is coming and that means the bugs are going to start buzzing. However, if we're not careful about how we keep our kitchen, the flies and ants start coming inside. That's where the tip from Green Options reader Chloe comes in. She says, "To keep your compost bin from smelling and attracting fruit flies indoors, keep your container inside the refrigerator until it's full enough to take it outside to the composter."

Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Chloe probably only has to deal with bugs in the summer, but for those of us in tropical climates, this is a great year round tip! (The City of Jacksonville, FL agrees with Chloe, by the way.)

Want to start composting, but you don't know where to start? Green Options has lots of resources to get you started. Try our Composting wiki or Build Your Own Worm Composting Bin. Or try How to Start a Compost Pile from our friends at Groovy Green.

Rebecca says: Living in Florida and having only one trash pick up a week, our family has long been in the habit of "freezing our trash". Composting down here has it's extra challenges, but it can be done! Though I would love to try out an indoor composter.

Want your name in bright lights like Chloe? Suggest a tip!

We know that the children are our future. We know we need to teach them well, and with good values, so that they will grow up to appreciate the earth. But sometimes it's tough to see how to put that into action. This past weekend, I got a glimpse into how it can work.

Please humor me as I format today's tip into more of a story. Let me set the scene: Orlando, Florida. Hot as heck. Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I went up to see a friend who was there with her husband and two small children, a 2 year old boy and an almost 5 year old girl. This was the first time we had really met the kids and you never know what to expect. They were the sweetest things.

After lunch, we swung by the bathroom to change a diaper and well, use the facilities. I washed my hands and helped the little girl wash hers as well. Another girl was in the bathroom, maybe around 10 years old; she pulled the lever for the paper towels a couple of times and tore off a piece. Then she handed it to me. It was such a sweet act. I then tried to hand it to my friend's daughter, so that she could dry her hands, which were currently being dried on her pink dress. She wouldn't take it. And here it comes, the six little words that made a huge impact on my day, and really, on my way of thinking.

"We don't need to waste trees."

You have to understand, this was said in the littlest, softest, little girl voice you can imagine. She's not even 5 years old and she really made my jaw drop. Of course, she didn't come up with that by herself - that's her parents' doing. You see? If you start young enough, and with the right lessons, it just becomes second nature to these kids.

How else can we teach our children well?

We'd never thought of it this way, and maybe you hadn't either. Once again, it's a simple tip: chop your veggies small. The smaller the piece, the faster it cooks. That's right, it's another energy saver!

We couldn't help think of Dana Carvey & Chopping Broccoli on this tip. He could have delivered it so much better! The times when it makes absolute sense to implement this is when you are preparing something that will eventually be pureed.

For vegetables that you will actually eat, you'll have to figure out what size works best for you. Size and shape somehow affect our taste buds. If they didn't, there would be only one kind of pasta! It will save you time on the cooking end, however, if you take a few extra moments to chop your veggies smaller in the first place.

Rebecca says: In order to make sure that you chop as fast and as efficient as possible, use a good knife. Until I had decent knives, I had no idea how much time I was wasting in the kitchen. A good knife can slice a tomato and a carrot with ease.

Put a lid on it! No, we don't want you to shut up. You should know by now that you have to take us quite literally! Today we're talking cooking, stove tops, and of course, lids. Read on for the simplest tip on how to cook faster, and with less energy!

When cooking on your stove, use lids as much as possible. It will help you boil water faster, cook foods quicker, and save energy. Of course, you'll want to use the lid that matches with your pot or pan whenever possible. If the lid fits, it's much less likely that you'll be letting out precious steam.

You'll probably even find that something that you cooked on high heat without a lid can cook on medium heat with a lid, and in less time! Now that's what we call efficient. This site tells us that a "saucepan covered with a well fitting lid uses a quarter less energy when boiling than a saucepan without a lid." Plus, they make another great point: steam in the pot = steam not in the kitchen.

So don't forget, next time you cook, and especially boil - don't forget to put a lid on it!

Rebecca says: The quickest win on this is when boiling water - what time you save!

You know you're in hot water when you get your electric bill every month, but did you know that if you stopped using so much hot water, you'd help yourself and the environment? Today we're asking you to adjust how you wash your clothes - and it's going to be easier than you think.

No, we're not going to ask you to start doing a whole bunch of manual labor…just to adjust how you use your washing machine. The US Department of Energy starts out their page on laundry with this, "About 90% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water. There are two ways to reduce the amount of energy used for washing clothes—use less water and use cooler water."

If that doesn't get your attention, we're not sure what will! One more time. Around 90% of the energy for washing clothes is for heating the water. So let's not heat the water! The thing is, the clothes come out clean anyway. You don't even need a "cold water" detergent - they all do the same job. So if you normally wash with hot water, switch over to warm. If warm has been your thing, give cold a try. You won't be able to tell the difference. Of course, super dirty & oily clothes are potentially a different story, but for the most of us, daily wear clothes can be washed cold.

The second part of the Department of Energy's tip was to use less water. Wash in full loads whenever possible. If you mush wash a smaller load, adjust the water level appropriately. Like so many eco-tips, when we give you energy saving advice, it's great for your wallet and the planet.

Rebecca says: I've been washing on cold for around 2 years now and haven't noticed a difference - except in my electric bill! Living in Florida, the "cold" water is never all that cold - you'll just have to play around and see what works for you. But give it a shot, I think you'll like it.

Green Options Related:

Clothes Washers

Cut Your Energy Bills in Half

Don't forget, you can suggest tips to us here. Even if you don't have a tip, let us know what topics you'd like to hear more about!

Kids love to draw and color. In fact, we don't think we've even met a little kid that wasn't excited to sit down and knock out a couple pieces of art. The thing is, they love to do it so much that we wind up with stacks and stacks of this priceless stuff. Kids can go through several sheets of paper in a single sitting, and we all know that they don't sit down that long.

Instead of giving the little ones brand new pieces of paper, start saving scrap paper for them. This includes any paper that is blank on one side, junk mail, magazines & catalogs, and greeting cards. Smaller children will appreciate the blank slate to draw on. Once they get old enough for scissors, they can start using the cards and magazines for collages.

Take the opportunity to not just teach your kids arts & crafts, but about conserving resources. You don't have to just stop at paper products, either. There are many materials that you could save from your trash can that are great for kid's projects. Check out KinderArt's recycled section and make anything from plastic cutlery wind chimes to colorful coasters.

Rebecca says: The sky is the limit on this sort of thing. At our local EarthFest this weekend, our grand entrance was made of shoes - it was a fun project for the kids, looked incredible, and really stretched everyone's imagination! Check it out!

We've talked about Junk Mail before, but today we wanted to highlight a specific piece of junk mail: catalogs. These aren't actually junk, because at some point you probably requested it to arrive to your home. Of course, maybe you didn't request it: you could have purchased something online from the store and since then, catalogs just arrive. Even prior residents of your address might have gotten your address off the list.

The truth is, catalogs are obsolete. Everything we could ever want to see and more is online, and trees are getting chopped down so that we can flip through a couple of pages before pitching it in the trash.

It's easy to get off the list for catalogs. Each catalog has an (800) number listed on it for customer service. Just give that number a call and request to be removed from the mailing list. You'll want to make sure to have the catalog in front of you, because it may contain some codes that will make the process go even faster.

This doesn't just have to be at home, either. If you visit your parents' house and they've got catalogs piling up, offer to get them off of the lists. If your office receives tons of catalogs for exciting things like fax machines and toner cartridges, offer to get them off of those lists, as well. It's fast, it's simple, and it will make your life a lot less cluttered! I can hear the trees breathing sighs of relief as I type.

Rebecca says: I'm currently helping some friends get removed from some catalog mailing lists. I've done over 80 removals in the last week. I'm helping them, and I feel great about helping the environment!

Email is the greatest; in fact, we don't know how we survived without it. It's an environmentalist's dream - all of our communications are digital & tree-free! But that's not true, is it? Many of us are still in the habit of printing out our emails, just in case we want to reference it later. This is almost never necessary, and a new trend has sprouted on the internet to combat it.

You might have seen it already on the email signature of one of your contacts. It's a tree with a winding road, and a message: "Please consider the environment before printing this email." We believe this ever so subtle guilt-trip has saved at least several reams of paper so far.

If your email program can handle rich text or html, then you can have the complete signature. The picture of the tree that is being used in this case is actually the letter P using the Webdings font. Then, simply write the message and make the whole thing green. Now you are all set!

Rebecca says: It seems that Gmail isn't letting me use the rich text in the signature. I might have to go without color and tree and simply write the message. Gmail should know better! Did anyone catch their April Fool's joke? It's very appropriate for today's topic: Introducing Gmail Paper.

It's Earth Day weekend, so get on out there and celebrate this greenest of holidays!

Atlanta: Arms Around Atlanta sounds like a blast. It's all going down at Grant Park on Saturday & Sunday.

Boston: Clean Up the Charles on Saturday, April 21!

Chicago: Check out Green Festival happening all weekend long! Green vendors & organizations galore!

Dallas: Run, don't walk to downtown today for EarthFest from 10am - 2pm.

Denver: Visit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and enjoy yourself at their Earth Day Renewable Energy Expo April 21-22.

Houston: The Houston Zoo is celebrating Earth Day all weekend - family fun.

Los Angeles: Lots to choose from. Clean Rivers, go to a Conscious Living Fair, or Let Worms Eat Your Garbage!

Miami: Check out EarthFest:WaterFest Gone Green a full day of music, eco-village, food, and fun. (Organized by yours truly.)

New York: Choose from a variety of events, and don't forget the slideshow in Grand Central!

San Francisco: Get on over to East Bay on Saturday and have fun at the Berkeley Earth Day Festival.

Seattle: Do a little Earth Day tour and check out several events this weekend in Seattle.

Washington, D.C.: Go to GreenDC Week Earth Day Celebration or check out some other events.

I didn't mention your city? Search for local events at Earth Day Network or EnviroLink.

Rather not party it up? Do something green like a beach clean-up or planting a tree.

Today's tip is so easy, we hope you do it four or five times in the next couple of hours! Our tip today is to say "Thank You." There are thousands of people across the world that dedicate their day to green issues. Many of them do it on a volunteer basis or for very little money. They do it because it is their passion.

That doesn't mean, however, that the jobs aren't tiresome. It doesn't mean that people can go non-stop without some sort of support. We often underestimate how powerful those two little words are. A person that is about to make a big (and positive) impact on our environment might be one minute away from throwing in the towel. Let's hope they receive their thank you in time.

So go on, give a thank you to someone in your local community, or someone tackling a specific issue you think is so important. Even encourage a new green business to keep hanging in there. Your words are more powerful than you think.

Not sure how to go about it? Try using this guy's 3 best "thank you's".

Rebecca says: This tip comes from the heart as I know how good it feels to be on the receiving end of these thanks. Don't cheat and thank us, however. Really think about who you should thank. Maybe it should be community members who have worked tirelessly to create an incredible Earth Day celebration for you. Maybe it is the retiree who teaches organic gardening classes. Or maybe it's that lady that takes her daily walk with a bag in hand to pick up litter. Don't delay, thank today!