Giving your shoes a good buff and polish doesn’t mean you have to baste your beloved boots, heels or dress shoes in toxic chemicals. Conventional shoe polishes may spiff up your tired footwear, but they also contain ingredients, such as petroleum-derived compounds, methylene chloride and dyes, that are hazardous to the environment and to your health. Many waste facilities list shoe polishes as “hazardous material” that require special disposal. Meaning they’re likely not a substance you want in your home or near your tootsies.

"Buying healthy is just too expensive!" Stop. Just stop. Never repeat those words again! The world of healthy food is vast and rich, and not that expensive. Really! Sure, those pre-packaged organic brownies may be more expensive than their non-organic shelf-mates, but what pre-packaged item is cheap?

Just because you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease or another form of gluten sensitivity doesn’t mean that travel has to be avoided or has to be a huge pain. In fact, traveling will undoubtedly open your eyes to new gluten-free foods from different cultures that you might not know about. With a little planning and research, those with gluten sensitivities can travel the world while minimizing the chance of an upset stomach.

Well, Happy Valentine's Day beloved readers. We hope you're not sick of hearing about all this ooey gooey lovey dovey stuff just yet... although you're about to get a serious eyefull. We've rounded up our favorite OA articles that highlight the essence that is this holiday (sex and love, of course). From the health benefits of love to mouthfuls of aphrodisiacs and awesome recipes, this list is highly informative and a great way to celebrate the day. We love you!

Trusty doors. They keep out storms and intruders, indicate our comings and goings, separate rooms—and with a little do-it-yourself imagination, can be revamped into one-of-a-kind home décor.

If you don’t already own a retired door or two, then scour secondhand stores, antique malls and salvage yards for doors with character. Open the door to some seriously cute home decorating with these three creative uses for old doors.

Scuff marks, schnuff marks. Those annoying blemishes caused by shoe traffic, sliding chairs and moving furniture (especially anything on wheels) just make your floor look plain bad, and not in that shabby chic kind of way. So, how do you get rid of those irksome marks? Keep in non-toxic and and clean those scuff marks off your hardwood, tile or laminate flooring with these amazing tricks.

Ah, the Interwebs. Our online home may be technically virtual, but it is a very real place to all of us here at OrganicAuthority.com! Our incredible writing team and you, our awesome reader community, keeps us so inspired and excited every day! And there's another super team member near and dear to our hearts: Our sponsors. They help to keep our LED lights on, help us to pay our paperless e-bills, allow us to continue to produce Laura's amazing cooking videos, and support us so that we can chat with you in the Twittersphere, Facebook and beyond about the latest and greatest in sustainable eats and organic living.

We've all heard the saying, “what’s mine is yours.” That cute, quip of a saying is now a significant movement called collaborative consumption! People are trading, bartering, renting and swapping goods, services and skills like never before. While our elders engaged in traditional collaborative consumption and communal sharing in local townships years ago, modern-day collaborators reach each other via, what else, technology.

Once upon a time food came from the ground, the trees, the running wild, not the frozen, canned or shrink-wrapped. The move to systemize and make our food "more efficient" through industry included the advent of mono-functionality of foods; extracting and limiting the most common use of any one ingredient—particularly herbs and spices—and letting the rest of its potential fall into quaintness in the pages of dusty history books. But sometimes, a plant's power is so undeniable that it can endure and transcend the suppression of factorization and the otherwise soulless existence of sitting bottled up in the spice aisle. Sage is one such plant. With a long history of medicinal, spiritual and culinary uses, its many forms and functions are making a big return, and the timing couldn't be more perfect.

Sometimes the best duds come in a worn out package—when it comes to furniture at least. You can fill your home with furniture that fits your distinct style by giving slightly shabby pieces that you already own a do-it-yourself facelift.