SKOY eco-friendly cloths instead of paper towels (giveaway) | Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

In keeping with the spirit of the Ditch the Disposables Challenge, I have to tell you about one of my new favorite eco-friendly paper towel replacements - the SKOY cloth. SKOY cloths are reusable, very absorbent, bright and fun, machine washable and microwavable, and at the end of their life, biodegradable. They are non-toxic, chlorine-free and made using water-based colors and inks. According to SKOYcloth.com, “Using one SKOY cloth is the equivalent to using 15 rolls of paper towels in an average home.”

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Make a good cleaner! Using lemons is cheaper and non-toxic. They are versatile - and they smell great!

Use the juice of one lemon and water in a spray bottle as a versatile cleaner - clean counters, walls, sinks, even wood (but test a small area first!).

A lemon juice and baking soda paste will take the tarnish off chrome, copper and brass.

Lemon juice added to the dish water will help cut the grease off pots and pans.

A little lemon juice on the cutting board will sanitize it and cut any smells - like garlic or onion.

Lemon juice in the rinse water of the washer - and then hanging your laundry in the sun will whiten your whitens - and brighten your brights!

Lemon juice on an insect bite or sting will help keep it from itching.

A little lemon juice or oil around a known ant trail is said to repel ants.

Lemon juice rubbed on the hands will help get out tough odors like fish or garlic.

Have a lemon juice tip? Add it below!

…clean your woodwork with them! A little lemon juice squeezed on a cloth will not only clean wood without hurting it, but brighten it.

…clean your copper. Anything copper will come back to life with a paste of lemon juice and salt. Rinse and dry when done.

…clean your counters. One cup of lemon juice to two cups of water in a spray bottle and get spritzing. Also cuts through grease and leaves a fresh, clean scent behind.

…bleach your laundry. Use 1/2 cup of lemon as a bleach in the laundry rinse cycle.

…cure a pimple. Dab a pimple with lemon juice several times a day. It will dry up and disappear!

Have a lemon juice tip? Let us know!

We have often used Hydrogen Peroxide to “bubble” out wounds in our house.  But it wasn’t until I purchased a huge bottle on sale - for something like 89 cents - that I started to think about peroxide’s other possible uses. In particular, for laundry. After realizing that I was probably killing my septic system by using chlorine bleach (bleach kills bacteria…but we need bacteria to keep the septic working…duh!)

So, I was looking at the tub of “Oxyclean” - available for $10. And then I looked at the hydrogen peroxide. Aren’t they essentially the same thing? I asked myself. Yes - they are…except that the Oxyclean costs more and has niftier packaging. I bought more peroxide and decided that if it could bleach hair, it could probably handle my whites.

I tried a cup of peroxide, instead of bleach, in my next load of diapers and wipe rags. It worked briliantly! I’ve since used a bit less and it works just as well. I also filled up a spray bottle with peroxide and water (about one quarter peroxide and the rest water) and decided that it must be good for cleaning too. After some research, I discovered that I was right! Here are some other uses for peroxide:

1. Use it to wash fruits and veggies safely - will kill E.Coli and Salmonella and other bacteria! Just fill your sink with cold water and a half cup of peroxide - or spray the peroxide and water solution on your veggies. It will break down pesticides too. Rinse clean.

2. Immerse yellowing linens in a sink full of cold water and one cup peroxide. They will emerge white and undamaged (like bleach).

3. Remove bloodstains (and most other stains) from clothes by blotting with peroxide. Rinse with cold water so that the rest of the fabric doesn’t bleach.

4. Sterilize cuts and abrasions. Great alternative to alcohol based “wound cleaners,” as peroxide doesn’t sting!

5. Use your spray bottle solution to clean up moldy or mildewy areas.

6. Use as a mouthwash (but don’t swallow!).

7. Mix baking soda and peroxide for a whitening toothpaste…save yourself the cash and the Triclosan!

8. Excellent bathroom cleaner.

9. Use full strength for pet stains…bubbles the stain and the smell right out of carpets.

10. Great for red wine or punch stains too!

But, but that little knobby thingy on the wall is so much nicer! I know, I know. It’s nice to be able to just turn the knob and get a little extra heat - especially when the temp is dipping below 0. But at $3 a gallon for heating oil - can you afford to ignore your environmental conscience any longer?

In addition to being inexpensive (free if you can cut it yourself), wood is a renewable energy source. From Hearth.com: “Burning fossil fuels sends carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, on a one-way trip. It pumps million-year-old carbon from inside the earth into the atmosphere, where the concentration of carbon dioxide is increasing. Burning oil, gas and coal is like spending the earth’s savings, and scientists say it is changing the global climate. Wood fuel is different. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air in a process powered by the sun. Indeed, about half the weight of dry wood is this absorbed carbon. A tree destroyed in a forest fire or one that falls and decays in the for est gives up its carbon once again to the air as carbon dioxide. So continues the earth’s carbon/carbon dioxide cycle.”

While most people think of heating with wood as an “old-fashioned” technology, let me say that new woodstoves are more and more efficient. With many, you can go all night without having to get up to feed it.

Wood pellet stoves are great - and I highly recommend them as well, but a woodstove has one advantage a pellet stove doesn’t - it can be lit when the lights are out. When the electricity is out, a pellet stove (and most other forms of heat) are out too - not so a woodstove! A woodstove can keep you warm when the electricity is out - and it can cook food, and melt snow for water (if your power is out, the water won’t flow for long!).

Burning wood is also a very safe proposition these days. With a little practice and a little help from those who know (feel free to email your questions to me, if you need to), burning a wood fire is as safe as lighting a pilot light - or turning up the thermostat.

And remember, if you don’t cut the wood yourself, ask your firewood supplier where the wood came from - make sure it’s sustainable!

Great resources for learning about burning wood:

www.hearth.com 

This always seems like a no-brainer tip to me, but people seem to be reluctant to do it - until they try it!

I have bartered babysitting services for dishes - and even a car for a winter’s worth of firewood! Bartering is a great way to solve cash flow issues and get involved in your community. I often barter time teaching things for free for free use of a space to hold my writing workshops in - and you could just as easily barter services like making up posters or other ad responsibilities for space at a local flea market or what have you…

There are many web sites now dedicated to bartering - particularly for businesses. I’m not certain which ones are good or not, so I will not endorse any of them here - but if you have had a good experience with one, please don’t hesitate to let me know what they are (if it’s a blatant ad for the site, though, I will delete the comment).

I am more in favor of putting a flier or two around your town and offering your trade, or perhaps starting a community bulletin board where such swaps can be made. We are also starting a “swap it” section on both our website and in our print newsletter - so if you have something you’d like to swap for - like seeds, baby stuff, whatever…email us and we’ll post your offer.