Posted on 22nd April 2010 by Mish in cloth diapers | earth day | food | frugal | green
baby wipes, bathroom cleaner, earth day, earth day 2010, eco-friendly, eco-friendly paper towels, frugal, green, green cleaner, homemade, homemade baby wipes, homemade laundry detergent, homemade paper towels, laundry detergent, natural stain remover, stain remover, stains, vinegar, vinegar uses
And it’s definitely not frugal…”
I recently read about all of the things that we can buy as consumers to make our lives “greener.” Eco-friendly detergents, paper towels, bathroom cleaner, towels, place mats, you name it. Rather than encourage people to live simpler and do without, we’ve simply created a newer, more expensive marketing machine for “green” products.
I appreciate that some people would like to help and buying a name-brand expensive eco-friendly cleaner makes them feel good, but aren’t we then just contributing to the problem further?
So, instead of buying paper towels – even eco-friendly ones – use an old bath towel cut up into washcloth sizes. You can even hem them to keep them from fraying. Or if you must BUY something, buy a huge pile of rags or microfiber cloths they sell in the automotive department. Their cheap – and get this – reusable!
Make your own laundry detergent. Here’s the recipe.
Need a bathroom cleaner? Fill a spray bottle (recycled of course) with half vinegar and half water. Need a scrubbing agent in the tub? Use a little baking soda. Hate the smell of vinegar? Try lemon juice instead.
Stains in the laundry or on your carpet? Don’t go for your chemical stain stick, look for remedies that utilize rubbing alcohol (ink); vinegar (carpet); cold water (protein-based); and hot water (grease and oil) to get rid of those stains.
Baby wipes are handy. But rather than buy a bunch of disposable ones, go to the washcloth again. Place about an inch or two of water and a mild soap (Ivory liquid works great) in a bucket with a lid (ice cream buckets are perfect). Fold up a bunch of washcloths or rags and place them in the bucket. Need a wipe? Grab one out of the bucket. This method is also portable. If you don’t want to bring the bucket, use a waterproof nylon bag (the kind to keep valuables safe camping or at the beach) and place your wipes in there. Get a second one and label it or use a different color and keep the used ones in there.
Technorati Tags: baby wipes, bathroom cleaner, earth day, earth day 2010, eco-friendly, eco-friendly paper towels, frugal, green, green cleaner, homemade, homemade baby wipes, homemade laundry detergent, homemade paper towels, laundry detergent, natural stain remover, stain remover, stains, vinegar, vinegar uses
Posted on 21st April 2010 by Mish in earth day | food | green | health
cancer, cancer causing, microwave ovens, microwaves
We ditched our microwave. Yes, the teenagers were in an uproar! OMG, Mom…how am I supposed to like, “heat things up?” Ummm….like, the stove? We actually have a very efficient gas stove that heats things up really fast – the oven is so fast it’s almost frightening.
I knew the microwave was dangerous. But I had no idea just how dangerous until I read this article.
Here are the Top 5 reasons you should haul that little cancer box out to your curb right now (these are from the article linked to above at Mercola.com):
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“Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term – permanent – brain damage by “shorting out” electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].”
- “Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.”
- “Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.”
- “The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens. Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.”
- “The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.”
So what are you supposed to use instead? Go get a toaster oven…seriously, it will work just fine.
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Technorati Tags: cancer, cancer causing, microwave ovens, microwaves
Posted on 20th April 2009 by Mish in earth day | frugal | green
Get the first two chapters of Michelle’s new book, A Fine Mess: Living Simply With Children, for free! Michelle is the homeschooling mother of (almost ) 7 children and has lots of humor, tips and hints for living with so many for much less. Want to try it out for nothing? Just email Michelle and put “free chapters” in the subject line.
What? You hang your paper towels? Well, kind of…
I don’t actually buy or use paper towels, but I have lot of terry cloth rags that I use in their place – for spills, butt wipes, cleaning windows (and everything else), wiping faces and drying hands! Obviously, we use separate cloths for each of these occasions. We keep a laundry basket in our back hallway (behind the kitchen) for used ones – particularly ones that have been used on the floor or on a butt! Cloths used on a face usually get rinsed out with hot water and demoted to sink or floor cleaning – well, you get the idea!
Anyway, as I sat at my new patio set (purchased for $25 at a yard sale today), I noticed that I had just hung out to dry my “paper” towels which I had just washed in my new low-water washing machine. Very frugal and green indeed. A couple of them definitely need to be demoted to oil changing rags, but I keep on using them!
Thought I’d share the pic with you – and maybe inspire someone to stop using paper towels – or hang a load of laundry – or both!
Happy almost-Earth Day!
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