Do you want to clean green?
Dr. Oz from the Oprah show thinks eco-friendly cleaning will increase your lifespan. I just finished watching the second part of Dr. Oz's two-part series on You: Staying Young - his new book on anti-aging, and he spent one segment talking about how improving the air-quality and toxicity in your home can add years to your age. Check out some of the details from the Oprah.com website, here. Apparently Dr. Oz's new book will also be featured on the Discovery Channel tonight.
I'm so excited to think that the eco-friendly cleaning message is being spread to such a large audience. Cleaning green will not only improve your quality of life - it will help save the planet for generations to come!
Monday, November 5, 2007
the best kept secret
Do you want to clean green?
I'm happy to announce that a series of my articles on eco-friendly home cleaning will be appearing on thebestkeptsecret.ca - a Toronto-based information website for women 40+ - during the month of November. The first article begins with an introduction to my story and why I use eco-friendly cleaning.
You can also sign up for their weekly newsletter, which is packed with interesting articles and stories.
Enjoy!
I'm happy to announce that a series of my articles on eco-friendly home cleaning will be appearing on thebestkeptsecret.ca - a Toronto-based information website for women 40+ - during the month of November. The first article begins with an introduction to my story and why I use eco-friendly cleaning.
You can also sign up for their weekly newsletter, which is packed with interesting articles and stories.
Enjoy!
Monday, October 29, 2007
cleaning up after dogs
Do you want to clean green?
I'm in heaven: House-sitting for the next four weeks. It's an amazing gig in a lovely, luxurious home. My roommates will be two dogs: a golden lab and a mixed-breed (black lab/shepherd?) bitch. I am revelling in doggie love and kisses, but there's a definite downside to the canine company: dirty floors, shedding hair and doggie smell.
The Challenge: Erasing the grubby evidence of your co-existence with animals, while making sure you don't leave any toxic residues behind.
Old School: Most people turn to commercial cleansers such as Mr. Clean or Pine Sol for hard floors, and any number of commercial carpet-cleaning sprays for the rugs. A vacuum or broom can get rid of the hair, while spray air-fresheners, plug-ins or scented candles mask the beastly odours.
So? That's just a few too many petrochemicals, allergy-inducing artificial scents, colours and neurotoxins (from the pine), nasty propellants, wasteful metal cans or plastic bottles, and nose-numbing air pollution from the air-fresheners. Not to mention too many toxic hazards for animals who spend a lot of time licking themselves after lying around on the ground. Their body weights, like children's, are much smaller than ours, and toxins can accumulate in greater concentrations inside them.
The Greener Fix: Start with prevention. Wipe their paws when they come indoors! A damp mop with vinegar and water will rinse away dirty footprints, while an eco-friendly carpet spray (I like Nature Clean's Pet Stain and Odour Remover) - or just plain vinegar and water* - will lift out most dirt stains in carpets.
The dog smell? Don't mask it - prevent it. Wash dogs often with a suitable eco-friendly pet shampoo. This cuts down on the natural body oils that harbour the bad smells and leave grime where the animals regularly lie. Wash bedding frequently. To quickly and temporarily freshen the air, use an eco-friendly room spray, natural beeswax or soy candles scented with essential oils (or just use the oils themselves in a scent diffuser), or for ongoing odour treatment try natural minerals like zeolite or baking soda.
~
*Update: A reader has suggested sprinkling baking soda over the damp carpet after spot-cleaning pet messes with vinegar and water. "It not only dries it faster, but pulls with it any missed dirt and best of all - smells. It works really well on rugs as you can put it on the underside too." I've never tried this, but if you do and you like it, let me know!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
loving your home
A house absorbs caretaking like a sponge, storing it up in the softness of comfortable couches and the soothing tones of a muted wallpaper, then returning that love to the original giver. All the hours spent arranging the furniture, choosing the colors, even washing the floors, turn out not to have been in vain. Everything we have given we have given to ourselves. The home upon which we have lavished so much attention is the embodiment of our own self-love.
~ Linda Weltner
I found this quote in my inbox this morning - one of my regular daily e-quotes from Debra Lynn Dadd, eco-consultant.
In the eight years that I worked as an eco-friendly home cleaner, the idea embodied in this quote was always on my mind. I treated cleaning like a meditation, and the service I was giving was not home cleaning, but home loving. A small shift in intent, perhaps - but one that made all the difference to me.
And, I'd like to think, to my clients...
~ Linda Weltner
I found this quote in my inbox this morning - one of my regular daily e-quotes from Debra Lynn Dadd, eco-consultant.
In the eight years that I worked as an eco-friendly home cleaner, the idea embodied in this quote was always on my mind. I treated cleaning like a meditation, and the service I was giving was not home cleaning, but home loving. A small shift in intent, perhaps - but one that made all the difference to me.
And, I'd like to think, to my clients...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
20 things worse for your children than lead in toys
Do you want to clean green?
I saw this story mentioned in Debra Lynn Dadd's most recent newsletter, and thought it was worth posting here. The article mentions several hazardous household products, including air fresheners, dryer sheets, and fire retardants.
The mainstream media is amusingly irrational when it comes to reporting scare stories. The latest example involves the lead content of Mattel toys made in China. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over 700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint (over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals.
But here's the interesting part in all this: Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. Don't believe me? I'll name twenty things in this article that are far more dangerous to children than Mattel toys. It doesn't mean Mattel toys are safe, of course. They apparently do contain unacceptably high levels of lead, and there's no question about the toxicity of lead. But children don't eat toys nearly as often as they eat some other toxic substances given to them by their parents, and even as parents are herding back into retailers to refund their toxic lead-laden toys, they're returning home and poisoning their children with many other products that are far worse.
The press, of course, reports nothing about these other toxic products. And why? Because they're made in America.
Read the entire article here.
I saw this story mentioned in Debra Lynn Dadd's most recent newsletter, and thought it was worth posting here. The article mentions several hazardous household products, including air fresheners, dryer sheets, and fire retardants.
The mainstream media is amusingly irrational when it comes to reporting scare stories. The latest example involves the lead content of Mattel toys made in China. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over 700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint (over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals.
But here's the interesting part in all this: Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. Don't believe me? I'll name twenty things in this article that are far more dangerous to children than Mattel toys. It doesn't mean Mattel toys are safe, of course. They apparently do contain unacceptably high levels of lead, and there's no question about the toxicity of lead. But children don't eat toys nearly as often as they eat some other toxic substances given to them by their parents, and even as parents are herding back into retailers to refund their toxic lead-laden toys, they're returning home and poisoning their children with many other products that are far worse.
The press, of course, reports nothing about these other toxic products. And why? Because they're made in America.
Read the entire article here.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
shaker quote:
Clean your room well, for good spirits will not live where there is dirt.
I found that great Shaker saying in today's inspirational "Words of Wisdom" from Debra Lynn Dadd. It reminds me of an earlier post of mine, on the history of cleaning. Read it here.
I found that great Shaker saying in today's inspirational "Words of Wisdom" from Debra Lynn Dadd. It reminds me of an earlier post of mine, on the history of cleaning. Read it here.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
removing stickers
Do you want to clean green?
This post was originally published on my first blog, an organized existence.
How do you get those %*&#@! stickers - you know, like price tags and UPC codes - off of things? I just bought a new coffee pot and wooden bathtub rack from IKEA, and both had very tenacious UPC code stickers on them.
Here's my trick: A two-part strategy to foil even the stickiest goo (and this also works for things like labels on bottles and jars).
First, gently try to pull the sticker off. If the manufacturer is kind, the adhesive will have a low tack, and the whole thing may come off without any residue.
If there's still some paper left behind, either soak the item in warm, soapy water, or if the item can't be immersed, dampen a small cloth (like a dish rag or a facecloth), and put the cloth over the paper sticker for several minutes, until you can easily scrape the paper off with your fingernails.
(If the item is glass, you can also use a razor blade in a safety holder to scrape the sticker off.)
If the paper comes off without any problem but there's still some sticky stuff left behind, you can use a product like Goo Gone - but if you want an eco-friendly alternative, try using a pure citrus essential oil.
Citrus oil is the active ingredient in a lot of the newer eco-friendly cleansers, and it's a great solvent for nasty, petrochemical-based gunk (I've used it successfully on adhesives and tar, as well cooking-oil stains and oil paints).
I prefer to buy Aura Cacia essential oils because I trust that they are 100% pure and high-quality. Put a few drops of the essential oil (I like to use lemon) on the sticky areas, and gently rub with a damp cloth until the adhesive is removed. It may require several applications of essential oil if the adhesive is especially stubborn.
If the item is to be used in the kitchen, just remember that essential oils, while preferable to products like Goo Gone, are not food-grade. If you decide you want to use a solvent on items that will touch food, use your own best judgement, weigh the risks, and if you decide to go ahead and use the essential oil, do everything you can to remove all traces of it from the item afterwards.
One last caveat: Essential oils can degrade some plastics - so when in doubt, test the oil on a small, inconspicuous spot first. I once used a citrus solvent on a plastic shower door, and it ate away the surface of the plastic, leaving behind a hazy, pebbly mess.
This post was originally published on my first blog, an organized existence.
How do you get those %*&#@! stickers - you know, like price tags and UPC codes - off of things? I just bought a new coffee pot and wooden bathtub rack from IKEA, and both had very tenacious UPC code stickers on them.
Here's my trick: A two-part strategy to foil even the stickiest goo (and this also works for things like labels on bottles and jars).
First, gently try to pull the sticker off. If the manufacturer is kind, the adhesive will have a low tack, and the whole thing may come off without any residue.
If there's still some paper left behind, either soak the item in warm, soapy water, or if the item can't be immersed, dampen a small cloth (like a dish rag or a facecloth), and put the cloth over the paper sticker for several minutes, until you can easily scrape the paper off with your fingernails.
(If the item is glass, you can also use a razor blade in a safety holder to scrape the sticker off.)
If the paper comes off without any problem but there's still some sticky stuff left behind, you can use a product like Goo Gone - but if you want an eco-friendly alternative, try using a pure citrus essential oil.
Citrus oil is the active ingredient in a lot of the newer eco-friendly cleansers, and it's a great solvent for nasty, petrochemical-based gunk (I've used it successfully on adhesives and tar, as well cooking-oil stains and oil paints).
I prefer to buy Aura Cacia essential oils because I trust that they are 100% pure and high-quality. Put a few drops of the essential oil (I like to use lemon) on the sticky areas, and gently rub with a damp cloth until the adhesive is removed. It may require several applications of essential oil if the adhesive is especially stubborn.
If the item is to be used in the kitchen, just remember that essential oils, while preferable to products like Goo Gone, are not food-grade. If you decide you want to use a solvent on items that will touch food, use your own best judgement, weigh the risks, and if you decide to go ahead and use the essential oil, do everything you can to remove all traces of it from the item afterwards.
One last caveat: Essential oils can degrade some plastics - so when in doubt, test the oil on a small, inconspicuous spot first. I once used a citrus solvent on a plastic shower door, and it ate away the surface of the plastic, leaving behind a hazy, pebbly mess.
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