6 Hand-Powered Household Items

If you're committed to maintaining an eco-friendly lifestyle, take inventory of your kitchen appliances and household gadgets. Many home appliances and gadgets guzzle up energy and could be using more electricity than you realize! In some cases, you can get the results of an electric-powered appliance with a hand-powered alternative. These "green" household gadgets are good for the environment and can also help you save money on that electricity bill.

Whether you're interested in creating a more sustainable household or want to save on energy costs, here are just six hand-powered household items to consider adding to your collection:

#1: Cordless Food Processors and Manual Food Choppers
Food processor units can use up a lot of electricity and will also take up a large amount of space on your kitchen countertop. Switch to a cordless, handheld food processor and save electricity and space. These battery-powered food processing units may not be as powerful as their adapter-powered counterparts, but they are great for dicing and mincing smaller items such as garlic, ginger, tomatoes and onions. There are also manual food choppers that have a cord you can pull to spin the blades. They are great for chopping small vegetables or pureeing beans and other foods.

#2: Manual Can Opener
Even though electric can openers can be very convenient, you can get great results with a manual can opener or a wall-mounted version instead. Using a manual can opener on larger cans and tins will definitely put your biceps and triceps to work, so be prepared for a mini workout! Just remember that you are trading convenience for a more eco-friendly device.

#3: Hand-Powered Paper Shredder
Need to keep your office and paperwork organized? Skip the expensive home shredder in favor of a hand-powered version. These lightweight and portable household items can shred personal documents in just a few minutes, and don't require any batteries or an adapter. You can shred basic documents including receipts, invoices and old checks with ease.

#4: Wind-Up Radio
A great addition to your roadside emergency kit or when you're out camping, a wind-up radio will pick up radio signals in a flash and some models can be used to charge other appliances, like your cell phone. Just wind up the radio and tune in to your favorite station! Some of these radios can be powered by batteries, so load up on some rechargeables if you want the power to last longer.

#5: Hand Crank Bread Mixer
Another one for those of us looking for an upper body workout in the kitchen, the hand crank bread mixer is great for kneading and rolling bread and pizza dough. If you enjoy making your own dough and pie crusts from scratch, pick up one of these hand-powered tools to get the job done in a semi-old-fashioned way while saving energy usage.

#6: Hand Juicer
Love to whip up a smoothie or fresh juice now and then? Trade the electric juicer for an old-fashioned device. Using a citrus press or hand juicer may take more time than an electric version, but your hard work will pay off. Besides, you'll have bragging rights for making "freshly squeezed" juices and tasty beverages (almost) by hand this season.