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.

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.

kitchen floors

A reader recently* e-mailed me with a question. Here's what she asked:

This will likely sound like a lame-o question but I thought I'd ask all the same:

What is the most effective method for cleaning kitchen/bathroom floors?

It seems like a simple enough endeavour (and maybe I'm just thinking it out too much) but the idea of using a mop that incrementally just pushes/sloshes ever increasingly dirty water around the floor, doesn't seem very "clean" to me.

Any tips?

Okay. First: There are no "lame-o" questions. Unless I'm asking them. I ask a lot of lame-o questions, myself. But in this case - not lame.

And yes, I have some tips. Thank you for asking. (Besides - my kitchen floor happened to need cleaning this morning - perfect opportunity to take some photos at 7:00 a.m.)

Second: You are entirely correct. Pushing around a bunch of increasingly dirty water with a mop is not exactly "clean." I remember once reading some household tips from Marlene Dietrich, and her view on floors was that the only way to truly clean a floor was by hand. I tend to concur.

(Just as an aside: MD was apparently a bit OCD about cleaning. Her daughter, Maria Riva, in her memoir of her mother, frequently mentioned MD's habit of carrying around cleaning products with her whenever she travelled, and fastidiously disinfecting every hotel bathroom attached to every room she stayed in.)

Here are my eco-friendlier tips for cleaning kitchen (and bathroom) floors.

Sweep or vacuum the floor first. This is to remove any crumbs, pet hair, dirt, food, toe jam, etc. Vacuuming was my preferred way to get junk off of floors when I cleaned for other people, but honestly I don't like the noise, myself. Plus I'm kind of going "unplugged" with my cleaning these days. Just be aware that sweeping/dry mopping often takes longer, and can be more frustrating if you have lots of pet hair flying around. Just saying.

Sometimes I wish I was a Quaker. Like, in the 19th century. They had pegs on the walls where they could hang their wooden chairs while they swept. When I'm sweeping a kitchen floor, I either move all the chairs to another room, or turn them upside down on the table, if they'll fit. While the chairs are upside down, I usually take the opportunity to remove any pet hair/dust from the felt pads I tend to put on the bottoms of all my chair legs.



My smaller cat, Guy, enjoying the jungle gym created by the upside down chairs. Also: Supervising my cleaning.



These are the things you will need to clean a kitchen or bathroom floor. (The types of surfaces that this post applies to include vinyl, tile, sealed cork and terrazzo. For wood, laminate and stone floors, some of these techniques could potentially damage the floor. Proceed at your own risk. I'll deal with those kinds of floors in another post, BTW. Sometime.)

A) A bucket. Mine is stainless steel, from Lee Valley. (Actually, it's a compost pail. But I use it as a cleaning bucket.)

B) Vinegar. Any kind of vinegar will do, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend balsamic, because that's kind of yucky. Also: Expensive. I usually buy white Heinz vinegar in 4L (4 quart) bottles, to use for cleaning. More on vinegar, below.

C) Rags. I prefer terry cloth rags, because they hold more liquid.

D) Rubber gloves. These are actually optional, but if you do a lot of cleaning, or at least a lot of cleaning ALL AT ONCE, your hands will get all chapped from being wet and dry and wet and dry. Just saying.

E) Knee pads. Because, dude - if you're going to wash a floor on your hands and knees...



My knee pads. I bought mine at a local hardware store. You can also find them at lumber or home improvement stores, I think. Being made of some kind of foam, they are not so eco-friendly. But they are waterproof, which is useful for washing floors on your hands and knees. Plus they last a long time.



Okay, here's the vinegar I use. You'll notice that it's pickling vinegar. The difference between picking vinegar and regular vinegar is that the former is a little more concentrated - 7% acetic acid vs. the 5% acetic acid in regular white vinegar. You can also buy 10% acetic vinegar in the eco-friendly cleaning supply section of major grocery stores and health food stores, but in that case you need to be VERY CAREFUL with the vinegar. Like, always wear gloves, and don't splash it on your skin. Which is a total drag. Buying 7% just means that it will last longer, because you'll need less than if you used the regular kind. That's all.



Add some vinegar (about 1/2 cup) to your bucket.



Fill the bucket about 1/4 full of hot water. I like hot water for washing floors because A) it's not quite so bone-chilling on the hands, and B) it dries faster. I do realize hot water is not so eco-friendly because of the energy taken to heat it up, okay? Enough said.



Example of what 1/4 full looks like.



The bucket of vinegar-water and some clean, dry rags, ready to wash the swept floor.



I almost didn't take pictures of the process, because A) I was actually washing my floor, and didn't want to stop and take my gloves off to use the camera, and B) I thought people could figure out how to wash a floor by hand... but then I kind of experienced some doubt about the latter, so: Immerse a clean rag in the bucket of vinegar-water, wring it out, and wipe a section of floor with the damp rag. I usually do an area about four feet wide by two or three feet deep with each "wring" of the cloth.



I should probably add: I use vinegar because it is a mild disinfectant (it's used for pickling because it kills some germs, and therefore preserves food), and it's safe enough to use with pets and children around. My cats will not leave me alone when I wash a floor. I would never dream of using anything stronger than vinegar with them around.



I like to wipe my floor dry as I go - basically because of the cats, who will just walk across a wet floor like it was nothing... and then get wet kitty paw prints all over everything else they walk on. Also: My apartment is really humid right now, and wet stuff takes a long time to dry. If you dry the floor as you go, you can walk across it almost immediately after you're done. Just use some clean, dry rags, and change the rags often as they get wet.

(Below is a snapshot of the above scene, about two seconds later - providing compelling proof that cats WILL walk on wet floors. At least, mine will.)



Repeat the dip-wring-wipe and dry steps until you've finished the entire floor. Yes, it will take a while if you have a really large floor. I've done whole houses like this, and it can also be really tiring. But I actually find it harder on my body to use a mop to wash an entire house, believe it or not.



Above is my bucket, after I've finished the floor. I should probably add that if your floor is REALLY dirty, you can change the water in the bucket part-way through the job. As many times as you want to or need to.



My floor - all clean and dry. Hard to see in this photo, but my floor is not a perfect, shining surface. I live in a building that's about 80 years old, and the floors have seen a lot of wear and tear. I NEVER use floor wax - it only attracts dirt, and adds another chore to your life. My floor may not have a glossy sheen, but it has a soft glow, and reminds me of the lives that have been lived in this place, long before I came along.

*Okay, a confession. The e-mail was received in October 2009. Yes, I realize the date on this post is June 14, 2007. I am apparently a time-travelling blogger, alright? Cool, eh?

Actually, I saved a draft for a post on kitchen floors on this date, and didn't actually publish the post until October 2009. My bad. But anyhow - it doesn't matter as far as the content is concerned, just wanted to explain why the photos were of my new apartment (with cats), and not the apartment I was living in in 2007.

a short history of cleaning

Do you want to clean green?
This post is (almost) totally unresearched and off the top of my head. But interesting and thought-provoking. (I hope.)

How did people clean before there were modern cleaning products? How do people STILL clean in many parts of the world where they don't have access to expensive cleansers?

And why in the world do we even bother cleaning our homes and our stuff, anyhow?

I think several discoveries and trends converged in the late 1800s and early 1900s to create our modern culture of cleanliness. The discovery of pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and the realization that sickness and disease could be prevented by improved hygiene were key developments.

The creation of a new subject of study - Home Economics - in the late 1800s as part of the American land grant university system brought applied science into the farmhouse and the domestic sphere. Eventually this new domestic science also had a profound effect on consumer culture, as women were "educated" in the values of pure products and safety standards, and encouraged to make discerning choices about the items they brought into the home, by considering such factors as quality, cost, durability, safety, and ease of use.

(Eww. Momentary flashback to all of my dreariest high school Home Ec. classes...)

At some point along the way the manufacturers of the consumer products jumped on the science bandwagon, touting the special germ-killing and deep-cleaning benefits of their products as selling points.

And then we consumers stopped thinking for ourselves. The scientific "experts" who were manufacturing our "necessary" cleaning agents had become sources of valuable knowledge and wisdom not to be questioned. Funny how the "science" that made new cleansers better, stronger and faster (in the name of making this world a better place) also made the cleansers more toxic, dangerous, and eco-unfriendly, isn't it?

What's even more ironic is that the solution to the ill health of our planet may rely on turning back the clock, and returning to the cleaning products and techniques of our "uneducated" great-great-grandmothers.

In many parts of the world, cleaning consists of sweeping floors and other flat surfaces, washing things with water, and disposing of refuse. In many religions and spiritual practices, cleanliness is considered a positive spiritual attribute. Daily devotions that involve ritual cleansing are common.

How do we bridge the two worlds? How do we clean ourselves, our homes and our possessions without destroying the planet with our germ and dirt phobias?