I'm on this chemical free kick right now and I wanted to share some of the recipes I've found lately with you.
The benefits of being chemical free include saving money, saving the environment, potentially saving on health care costs because of increased health, improving indoor air quality, and feeling good that I've done so much to help myself and my family. Indoor air quality is low for many reasons. I would say that the steps should help to improve the quality of my home's air. I'm sure that there are many other ways that this post may help that I'm just not thinking of right now.
I can't help but think that my dad would be proud of me for trying to find ways to take better care of my family. Today would have been my dad's birthday, I wanted to share this information with you today as a gift to him. He almost always thought of others first and a gift to him like this would probably please him tremendously.
I hope that this post can help you and your family in some way too.
Air Fresheners
The best way to naturally clean your home's air is finding the source of the odor and removing it.
Opening windows is also a great way to improve the odor in a room.
If allergies don't allow for you to open windows as frequently as you'd like to, house plants may help. There was an extensive list of useful houseplants in the book I discussed in an earlier post, but I'll just list a few of the more common ones. These plants include English ivy, Spider plant, Peace lily, and Weeping fig were all mentioned in the book.
Carpet Deodorizers
Remove odor causing sources from the room. Many times carpets will absorb odors from these sources.
Baking soda can be worked into the carpet's pile. I'd suggest using a brush of some sort. Depending on the strength of the odor the baking soda should be left on anywhere from 15 minutes to overnight. Vacuum.
If carpets need to be disinfected use borax in the same way as listed above leaving for 2 hours to 24 hours before vacuuming.
Drain Opener
If a drain is too stubborn for a plunger to work, try boiling water.
If it is still there, form a drain cleaner of your own. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into the offending drain. Add 1/2 cup vinegar to the drain and seal with tight fitting stopper for 10-15 minutes. Leave longer for stubborn clogs. Rinse with boiling water.
Floor Cleaners
When possible use simple hot water.
For extra cleaning add 1 cup of vinegar to a full bucket of hot water.
When disinfecting floor cleaner is needed, use 1/2 cup borax in hot water. Stir until dissolved.
To cut grease mix mix 1/2 cup washing soda with 1 Tablespoon liquid soap, 1/4 cup vinegar, and 1/2 a bucket of hot water.
Furniture Polish
Fill 2/3 of a bottle with either olive or walnut oil. Fill the rest of the bottle with vinegar. Add essential oil if you'd like it to be scented. Shake well and apply sparingly with a soft cloth and buff with a second cloth.
Glass Cleaner
Add 1/4 cup vinegar to 1 quart water. Pour into spray bottle, spray onto windows and wipe dry with crumpled newspaper.
Household Cleaner
Keep your home clean so simple hot water or steam may be used on most messes.
Water is a solvent.
Baking soda is both an abrasive and disinfectant.
Vinegar is a mild acid to cut through grease, disinfect, and freshen air.
Castille soap is a mild detergent.
Borax will help clean mold and mildew, disinfects, whitens cloths, and helps to prevent odors.
Microfiber cleaning cloths add texture to make the job of cleaning a little easier.
Use your own strength to power.
Laundry soap can be made at home, but it's made as a soap so this will be discussed when I get around to making my own home made soap.
I have also found some ways to make your own natural personal care items such as lotions, shampoos, soaps, and such but those will be discussed during a future post.
What do you use to clean organically or inexpensively?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Do NOT Copy
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Money Saving Tips
In these hard economic times everyone is doing whatever they can to save money. I have always been all about saving money whenever possible. My husband likes to say I'm the cheapest person that he knows. I take that as a compliment!
I thought I'd share some of my ideas with you today. These tips will not only help you to save money, but they're organic alternatives to cut chemicals out of your life too (for the most part). Some of them may also help us to save the environment. It's a win-win for all of us!
1. Taxes
Ever since we got married my husband and I have paid someone to do our taxes. It didn't seem like a very big deal and I felt that it was well worth the $35 we were spending to have an "expert" do our taxes for us. For the last several years the prices have risen sharply for many reasons. Over the last 13 years it has gone up to $185! (Plus the cost of shipping all of the receipts and things to them which was another $5 or so.) That was a huge jump from the year before, and I refused to do it again.
How do you make sure that you're getting all of the legally allowed deductions without paying such a huge price? We bought software with free e-filing. The software cost about $42 and I got it all done in one day. My taxes are already filed and my mind feels at ease knowing that one more thing is done until next year. I'm going to use my tax refund to pay down my bills.
2. Dried goods
I used to buy cans of everything, including beans. They kept well and seemed to be fairly easy for me to store too. When I started looking at the chemicals in things it made me think that my decision to switch to dried beans was also a great way to cut chemicals out of our diet. Take a look at the ingredients on the label of your beans. If you see some words on there that aren't water, salt, or beans chances are some of the other ingredients are chemicals.
Dried beans cost twice as much as a can of beans. Before you say I'm not being wise with my money, dried beans take up far less volume than canned beans. I am not paying for the extra water and chemicals either. Of course they do take more work to prepare than their canned counterparts, so I suppose there is a small trade off. I think it's well worth it though to cut all of those chemicals out of our family's diet AND save all of that money. One bag seems to yield at least 4 cans worth of beans once the beans are soaked and ready to be prepared. Only soak what you will be using, in general I use about a half a cup per can of beans that are called for.
3. Buy frozen vegetables
I am hoping that I won't have to buy many veggies soon once my new vegetable garden starts growing, but until my dream starts to come to fruition this is one way we save some of our hard earned money.
When you buy canned veggies, you are buying the weight of the water that they are packed in leaving less veggies for your money. Then there is the thought that those cans can leach chemicals into your vegetables too. One bag of frozen vegetables usually has at least twice as many as a can does.
4. Plan your trips
Every time I go to the store I end up spending at least $20. Mostly in impulse purchases of things that we don't even really need. I also spend more gas money going back to the store for items that I forgot which adds more expense to an already costly trip. My solution? Make a plan.
I find that I am less likely to make impulse purchases when I go to the store with a list. Be sure to bring a pen with you so you can cross items off the list as you go. This makes it harder to forget items and easier to stick to your budget. It also puts less pollution into the environment because of the saved trips back to the store. I try to limit non-working trips to town to no more than one per week. If I run out of something I write it on the list for next week that's on the side of the fridge so that item won't be forgotten.
5. Make your own cleaners
Our ancestors were cleaning their homes (and themselves) long before we had pre-mixed cleaners in bottles lining the shelves of every store out there. Do we really need all of those fancy spray bottles that marketers try to lure us into buying? My answer is a resounding no. Making your own cleaners is not only more cost efficient, but also less harmful to ourselves and the environment. Look at the back of those bottles in your house. Do you see all of the chemical names listed as ingredients? Have you ever wondered where your indoor air pollution comes from? We contribute to our own poor health by using mixes of chemicals that haven't been found to be safe for our use.
6. Keep your house clean
This may seem like a "duh" statement, but if you clean messes as thet happen you are far more likely to be able to just use water and a cloth to clean up a mess. Illnesses and germs also fester in unkempt areas of your house. While it may seem perfectly harmless to you, you may end up making your family or yourself sick adding the cost of medical treatment to an already long list of bills.
7. Wear your clothes more than once
In this day and age with washing machines we seem to have it pretty easy. We wear our clothes once and throw them into the wash. Do we need to? I'd say no.
If you didn't sweat enough to make your clothes stink and there is no visible dirt on them, why not wear them again? Constant washing of clothes also makes them wear out more rapidly making you purchase new clothes long before you may need to otherwise. You'll also save on water usage, electric usage, and laundry soap costs.
I hope these tips will help you and your family save some money. Please feel free to contibute your own ideas to my list. Next time I will share some recipes for home made cleaners with you.
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
I thought I'd share some of my ideas with you today. These tips will not only help you to save money, but they're organic alternatives to cut chemicals out of your life too (for the most part). Some of them may also help us to save the environment. It's a win-win for all of us!
1. Taxes
Ever since we got married my husband and I have paid someone to do our taxes. It didn't seem like a very big deal and I felt that it was well worth the $35 we were spending to have an "expert" do our taxes for us. For the last several years the prices have risen sharply for many reasons. Over the last 13 years it has gone up to $185! (Plus the cost of shipping all of the receipts and things to them which was another $5 or so.) That was a huge jump from the year before, and I refused to do it again.
How do you make sure that you're getting all of the legally allowed deductions without paying such a huge price? We bought software with free e-filing. The software cost about $42 and I got it all done in one day. My taxes are already filed and my mind feels at ease knowing that one more thing is done until next year. I'm going to use my tax refund to pay down my bills.
2. Dried goods
I used to buy cans of everything, including beans. They kept well and seemed to be fairly easy for me to store too. When I started looking at the chemicals in things it made me think that my decision to switch to dried beans was also a great way to cut chemicals out of our diet. Take a look at the ingredients on the label of your beans. If you see some words on there that aren't water, salt, or beans chances are some of the other ingredients are chemicals.
Dried beans cost twice as much as a can of beans. Before you say I'm not being wise with my money, dried beans take up far less volume than canned beans. I am not paying for the extra water and chemicals either. Of course they do take more work to prepare than their canned counterparts, so I suppose there is a small trade off. I think it's well worth it though to cut all of those chemicals out of our family's diet AND save all of that money. One bag seems to yield at least 4 cans worth of beans once the beans are soaked and ready to be prepared. Only soak what you will be using, in general I use about a half a cup per can of beans that are called for.
3. Buy frozen vegetables
I am hoping that I won't have to buy many veggies soon once my new vegetable garden starts growing, but until my dream starts to come to fruition this is one way we save some of our hard earned money.
When you buy canned veggies, you are buying the weight of the water that they are packed in leaving less veggies for your money. Then there is the thought that those cans can leach chemicals into your vegetables too. One bag of frozen vegetables usually has at least twice as many as a can does.
4. Plan your trips
Every time I go to the store I end up spending at least $20. Mostly in impulse purchases of things that we don't even really need. I also spend more gas money going back to the store for items that I forgot which adds more expense to an already costly trip. My solution? Make a plan.
I find that I am less likely to make impulse purchases when I go to the store with a list. Be sure to bring a pen with you so you can cross items off the list as you go. This makes it harder to forget items and easier to stick to your budget. It also puts less pollution into the environment because of the saved trips back to the store. I try to limit non-working trips to town to no more than one per week. If I run out of something I write it on the list for next week that's on the side of the fridge so that item won't be forgotten.
5. Make your own cleaners
Our ancestors were cleaning their homes (and themselves) long before we had pre-mixed cleaners in bottles lining the shelves of every store out there. Do we really need all of those fancy spray bottles that marketers try to lure us into buying? My answer is a resounding no. Making your own cleaners is not only more cost efficient, but also less harmful to ourselves and the environment. Look at the back of those bottles in your house. Do you see all of the chemical names listed as ingredients? Have you ever wondered where your indoor air pollution comes from? We contribute to our own poor health by using mixes of chemicals that haven't been found to be safe for our use.
6. Keep your house clean
This may seem like a "duh" statement, but if you clean messes as thet happen you are far more likely to be able to just use water and a cloth to clean up a mess. Illnesses and germs also fester in unkempt areas of your house. While it may seem perfectly harmless to you, you may end up making your family or yourself sick adding the cost of medical treatment to an already long list of bills.
7. Wear your clothes more than once
In this day and age with washing machines we seem to have it pretty easy. We wear our clothes once and throw them into the wash. Do we need to? I'd say no.
If you didn't sweat enough to make your clothes stink and there is no visible dirt on them, why not wear them again? Constant washing of clothes also makes them wear out more rapidly making you purchase new clothes long before you may need to otherwise. You'll also save on water usage, electric usage, and laundry soap costs.
I hope these tips will help you and your family save some money. Please feel free to contibute your own ideas to my list. Next time I will share some recipes for home made cleaners with you.
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
What's in There?
As I read a book that I checked out from our local library, I was horrified by some of the things that were revealed through their writings. It includes common sense observations as well as scientific studies although those studies were from America, England, and Australia. I assume it's because other languages were not readable by them, but I can't be one hundred percent sure. I'm sure that similar studies must have been done in other countries and simply were not used because of the language barrier.
The book is called "What's in This Stuff?" by Patricia Thomas. In it, she discusses what is in the foods we eat, cosmetics, cleaning products and more. Did you know that there are no tests or certifications required for our cosmetics and household cleaners? While I am not saying that's wrong, I share that fact because I am sure that many people believed, like I did, that everything we use is safe for us to use.
Did you know that these manufacturers are also not required to list all of the ingredients on an ingredient label? Okay, that definitely should be required, don't you think?
What's more, when chemicals are tested they are tested individually, not in combination with other chemicals which can result in a cocktail effect. Look at the ingredients in your products, are any chemicals used individually? I would venture to say there are very few that are based on the survey of chemicals in my house. For more information on this type of thing, please read the book.
She also discusses the alarming rise in diseases such as cancers and diabetes, among many other diseases. I believe their implications are correct when they tie our chemical usage to those products, it just makes sense to me that the rise in usage of chemicals corresponds with the rise in the rates of these diseases. While they do not claim that these chemicals are the sole cause of the rise in these diseases, I too have been suspecting their involvement in some of our family's heath issues as of late.
I am planning on trying to cut as many chemicals as I possibly can from being used in our house. Luckily I am already doing many of the suggestions in the book such as using makeup and hairspray only occasionally so it won't be a huge lifestyle change. I will make use of more natural cleaners and air fresheners.
They have many wonderful alternatives included in the book. I think I'll be saving a lot of money by not buying this junk any more so it's an added bonus in our tough economy. We can save money and live a healthier lifestyle too!
My husband thinks that this is crazy, and the only way to really get things clean is to use commercial cleaners. I will not throw them out, so he can use them if he chooses to clean. I refuse to use them anymore.
I wonder if he'll go along with the natural deodorants that they are talking about.
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
The book is called "What's in This Stuff?" by Patricia Thomas. In it, she discusses what is in the foods we eat, cosmetics, cleaning products and more. Did you know that there are no tests or certifications required for our cosmetics and household cleaners? While I am not saying that's wrong, I share that fact because I am sure that many people believed, like I did, that everything we use is safe for us to use.
Did you know that these manufacturers are also not required to list all of the ingredients on an ingredient label? Okay, that definitely should be required, don't you think?
What's more, when chemicals are tested they are tested individually, not in combination with other chemicals which can result in a cocktail effect. Look at the ingredients in your products, are any chemicals used individually? I would venture to say there are very few that are based on the survey of chemicals in my house. For more information on this type of thing, please read the book.
She also discusses the alarming rise in diseases such as cancers and diabetes, among many other diseases. I believe their implications are correct when they tie our chemical usage to those products, it just makes sense to me that the rise in usage of chemicals corresponds with the rise in the rates of these diseases. While they do not claim that these chemicals are the sole cause of the rise in these diseases, I too have been suspecting their involvement in some of our family's heath issues as of late.
I am planning on trying to cut as many chemicals as I possibly can from being used in our house. Luckily I am already doing many of the suggestions in the book such as using makeup and hairspray only occasionally so it won't be a huge lifestyle change. I will make use of more natural cleaners and air fresheners.
They have many wonderful alternatives included in the book. I think I'll be saving a lot of money by not buying this junk any more so it's an added bonus in our tough economy. We can save money and live a healthier lifestyle too!
My husband thinks that this is crazy, and the only way to really get things clean is to use commercial cleaners. I will not throw them out, so he can use them if he chooses to clean. I refuse to use them anymore.
I wonder if he'll go along with the natural deodorants that they are talking about.
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Is Your House Clean? Really?
I am a stay at home mom most days with a few subbing jobs thrown in for good measure, as most of you may know. I pride myself on keeping a clean house that is almost always ready for company. (Well, if you promise to stay out of the kids' bedrooms that is....)
Since the weather is showing no signs of warming up enough to make me feel like opening the windows, I decided to put the storm windows in place. I wiped all of the windows down, made sure the plastic sealing strips were all firmly in place and then I slid the storm window into place. It really wasn't taking long so I was feeling rather pleased with my progress on today's to-do list. We had a few minor mold problems in the past, but I've been doing a good job of keeping the windows wiped and free of long standing condensation... or so I thought. Imagine my surprise then when I was preparing for the inevitable winter today when I found THIS in my bedroom!
Everyone with me now.... EEEEW!!!!! Geez, no wonder my allergies have been so bad this year. YIKES. I guess that will teach me to remember to clean every window in my house except my bedroom. Maybe I shouldn't have my bed under my window after all. It made me start to wonder what else I may be forgetting to clean. Now I'll have to get out the search lights and take a gander around my house.
I guess it's kind of an out of sight, out of mind type of mistake! Maybe those people who live in older homes have the right idea, if this home weren't so darn air tight I wouldn't have this problem. I suppose it would cost me a lot more in heating bills so it's kind of a trade off. What do I do to eliminate these problems?
My old house had these same kinds of problems in them. It seems to happen more in homes with wood windows, they're beautiful but can pose a real health problem. I suppose it's more because of the availability of food product for the mold to feast on along with the excess of moisture.
Don't be fooled into buying new windows thinking that it will solve your problem, been there done that. It didn't help! Don't waste your money. The salesman said we had black mold and I needed to replace all of the windows immediately. Yeah, he didn't have a motivation to scare me into buying new windows now, did he? Rack it up to being young and gullible trying to do everything I could to improve my family's health. I suppose I should have thought to ask where he got his PH D in mold studies, but I bought the $12,000 window package instead.
My advise? Clean all of your windows every other month at least, if not more often. Don't keep your blinds closed all the way to the bottom all of the time either, this allows for air flow between the blind and the window. The condensation can evaporate more readily then also. If you can't keep up you may also consider investing in an energy efficient dehumidifier.
I have also begun wondering if it would be worthwhile to buy some of the mold inhibiting cleaners they sell for bathrooms, but I suppose bleach would be more cost effective.
Have you ever had this happen? What did you do to keep the problem from returning? What do you do to prepare your house for winter?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Since the weather is showing no signs of warming up enough to make me feel like opening the windows, I decided to put the storm windows in place. I wiped all of the windows down, made sure the plastic sealing strips were all firmly in place and then I slid the storm window into place. It really wasn't taking long so I was feeling rather pleased with my progress on today's to-do list. We had a few minor mold problems in the past, but I've been doing a good job of keeping the windows wiped and free of long standing condensation... or so I thought. Imagine my surprise then when I was preparing for the inevitable winter today when I found THIS in my bedroom!
Everyone with me now.... EEEEW!!!!! Geez, no wonder my allergies have been so bad this year. YIKES. I guess that will teach me to remember to clean every window in my house except my bedroom. Maybe I shouldn't have my bed under my window after all. It made me start to wonder what else I may be forgetting to clean. Now I'll have to get out the search lights and take a gander around my house.
I guess it's kind of an out of sight, out of mind type of mistake! Maybe those people who live in older homes have the right idea, if this home weren't so darn air tight I wouldn't have this problem. I suppose it would cost me a lot more in heating bills so it's kind of a trade off. What do I do to eliminate these problems?
My old house had these same kinds of problems in them. It seems to happen more in homes with wood windows, they're beautiful but can pose a real health problem. I suppose it's more because of the availability of food product for the mold to feast on along with the excess of moisture.
Don't be fooled into buying new windows thinking that it will solve your problem, been there done that. It didn't help! Don't waste your money. The salesman said we had black mold and I needed to replace all of the windows immediately. Yeah, he didn't have a motivation to scare me into buying new windows now, did he? Rack it up to being young and gullible trying to do everything I could to improve my family's health. I suppose I should have thought to ask where he got his PH D in mold studies, but I bought the $12,000 window package instead.
My advise? Clean all of your windows every other month at least, if not more often. Don't keep your blinds closed all the way to the bottom all of the time either, this allows for air flow between the blind and the window. The condensation can evaporate more readily then also. If you can't keep up you may also consider investing in an energy efficient dehumidifier.
I have also begun wondering if it would be worthwhile to buy some of the mold inhibiting cleaners they sell for bathrooms, but I suppose bleach would be more cost effective.
Have you ever had this happen? What did you do to keep the problem from returning? What do you do to prepare your house for winter?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
Progress on cleaning my carpet
This is what the carpet looked like before I started working on my cleanup.
I tried to use many products. After about and hour of work, this is what the carpet looked like.
This is what the area looks like currently. It took me 2 1/2 hours to do this. Right now I'm taking a break from all of the hard work, but I plan on trying to finish up the cleaning later. Wish me luck. I'm looking to save myself from having to buy new carpeting for the whole room. I'm afraid that Cheesehead won't be satisfied if I can't get the paint out any more than this.
Parking in the garage again... finally!
Well, we used to be able to park in the garage, before we got more of our stuff from Big Lake that we didn't really have room for. We got the big items moved into the basement and everything else rearranged to leave the middle space open. Yay. No more window scrapping. Of course we had to move a few things out into the "shed". Okay, it's really the dog kennel, so I guess that means our dog won't be coming home this winter. I'm not so sure that she would have come home anyway since they seem reluctant to give her back.
Almost done
Well, we have about 4 things we need to move out of the garage for it to be parkable. I'm happy! It was frosted the other day and I don't like to scrape my windows. We worked hard, it's not really very easy to get so much done when you're constantly working. I guess I should have taken before and after pictures, but it's a little bit late now!
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