lime scale in pots, kettles and coffee makers

Do you want to clean green?
This post discusses a problem I've just been dealing with as I've washed my supper dishes.

I boil a lot of water - for tea, hard-boiled eggs, pasta - and as a result my pots and kettle are often left with a white-ish residue. This residue is lime scale, or calcium. It is especially prevalent in areas with hard tap water. (Hard water is water with a high mineral content.)

What's the problem?
Lime scale looks kind of yucky, but it won't actually hurt the pots, or harm you if you cook food in the pots. However, after an extended period of time lime scale can build up, so you might want to regularly remove any calcium deposits.

Old school:
The toxic way to remove lime scale is to use a product like CLR, which creates a chemical reaction that dissolves the calcium. It works, but it's not exactly food-grade - and CLR is corrosive and gives off hazardous fumes.

The greener way:
One inexpensive liquid that you can easily find on your grocery store shelves will quickly remove all lime scale - and that ingredient is vinegar. I buy vinegar in large jugs, and use it for a number of cleaning tasks.

To remove lime scale in pots or kettles, simply fill the pot or kettle with vinegar until all the affected areas are covered. Let the pot or kettle sit for a couple of hours, and the lime scale should be dissolved.

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I've heard that you can remove lime scale from the inside of your coffee maker by running vinegar through the machine. If anybody has experience with this, please feel free to comment!

Preventive maintenance:
You can reduce lime scale by soaking your items regularly with vinegar.

Special circumstances:
I use my slow-cooker a lot - especially to cook dried beans - and I've often noticed a calcium build-up on the inside of my crock. As soon as I empty the hot crock of its cooked contents, I immediately fill the crock with hot water, a squirt of eco-friendly dish detergent, and about a cup of vinegar. I let it soak for a couple of hours (or overnight), and when I go to wash the crock, all the lime scale is gone.

The worst I've ever seen:
I once did some house-sitting for a couple who lived in a small community where the tap water was drawn from a well. I have never seen such hard water before or since. You couldn't wipe a countertop with a damp cloth without the water leaving behind a white residue when it dried. I got into the habit of carrying around a spray bottle of vinegar to prevent the deposits. The homeowners eventually purchased a water softener to deal with their hard water problem.

dr. oz on oprah: de-tox your home to turn back the clock on aging

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!

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!

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!

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...

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.

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.