Organic Housekeeping- Chapter 2

Finally finished Chapter 2. First let me tell you, I thought cleaning out the kitchen would be a quick one day event. Nope, totally wrong. I had to go through cabinets and get rid of food and put things away that I barely used and so on. It took 2 days. Last night, I started my living room, also not as easy as I thought. I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some supplies to help. 2 things that I have learned; We have even more crap than I thought, and Evan keeps a lot of silly junk and if I ask to get rid of it, he freaks. I never would have thought. He usually complains because we have too much stuff. Oh well.

The Kitchen: You Are What You Eat
"A clean surface is just the surface, with nothing else on it; a lingering fragrance, no matter how sweet and pleasant, signals that a chemical has been left behind." Castile soap is made from vegetable oil, no animal fats and lye. Castile soap is gentler, dissolves more completely, and doesnt form a hard scum. Drinking soap is never a good idea, but if my toddler is going to get into soap, I'd rather it be castile than chemicals.
A new cleaning tool that everyone should own (and I looked up reviews and can't find anything bad), The Dutch Rubber Broom (www.euroshine.net). It has a squeegee on one side and a rubber rake on the other side. Put a cloth on the sqeegee and mop, no bucket required, once the cloth is dirty get another, your not pushing dirt around on the floor anymore! Many uses! Ellen also suggests getting a potable steamer and keeping lots of mircrofiber rags on hand!
Use "drought washing" to save water. Remove rust by rubbing it with a peeled potato dipped in baking soda or salt. Keep vinegar and water in a squirt bottle, spray in the air to dispel strong cooking odors. Keep baking soda in the fridge and sprinkle some in the bottom of the trash can.
To unclog a drain: "pour a half cup baking soda down the drain and chase it with a cup of white vinegar. An impressive amount of fizzing will ensue as the vinegar and baking soda react. When the fizzing stops, pout a kettle of boiling water down the drain."
Consumer reports has a page called "Products for a Better Planet." When shopping for new appliances check here. www.eco-labels.org/greenconsumers/home.cfm
Recipes to use when cleaning the fridge, choose one and apply with a clean rag: (1) a dash of dish liquid in 1 quart warm water, (2) 2 tbsp baking soda in 1 quart warm water, (3) 1 tbsp borax in 1 quart warm water or (4) 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp baking soda in 1 quart warm water.
After cooking with meat, wipe down with vinegar and chase with hydrogen peroxide.
Ellan suggest buying whatever you can in glass containers, BPA should be banned. Or look for containers labeled HDPE (high density polyethylene) or PP (polypropylene).
I think this was the most important stuff. The rest I either already do, or I learned from Green This! The biggest thing is keeping up. Just wipe up spills right away, and don't let the clutter build up. Keep a recycling container and a paper recycling and a compost bucket near by, then nothing will just sit around.

Next chapter: woo hoo! The bathroom

Green This! Vol. 1 Greening your Cleaning By: Deirdre Imus

I wanted to wait until I tried a couple things in the book before I wrote about it. I cleaned my bathroom with baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice. It sparkles and I can't smell that chemical smell! Perfect. So I went through some cabinets and cleaned out a couple things. I moved a couple things to the garage, I'll use them on my car where the fresh air can wash away the chemicals quicker than indoors. It just so happened that I already had an all purpose cleaner and a glass cleaner that were safe. Babyganics was the brand. But I still had windex and a diluted bleach spray and lysol and all kinds of things. Anyway. Here is a summary of the book and what I hope to slowly change over to!

Deirdre and her husband own a ranch in Texas. They have children that have cancer or that have siblings that died of SIDS. It's a organic, natural ranch where the children are not treated like they are sick and are put to work. There are animals and gardens to take care of. She has also convinced a hospital to all natural cleaning supplies. She suggests getting rid of all the chemicals. Buy only cleaners that have all ingredients on the label. Nothing with fragrance. Only oxygen bleach. She has a line of products, Imus GTC (greening the cleaning), or suggests BioKleen, Ecover and Seventh Generation. Get rid of chorinated compounds and chlorine by-products and mercury, nothing with PBCs or dioxin (organochloine). Make sure to also look in paper products for chlorine chemicals. There are neurotoxins in air fresheners, disinfectants, spot removers, permenant press fabrics. Carcinogens in all purpose cleaners, dish soap, furniture polish, oven cleaner, glass cleaner, starch, air freshener, flea and roach killer and spot remover. Mutagens in laudry detergents. Sometime, take a look at the EPA's Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) at Information Clearinghouse. Use only vegetable based surfactants, not petroleum based. No aerosol propellant or preservatives. Antibacterial or antimicrobials are bad if they contain triclosan. Use containers that are 1 or 2 recyclables. If you want fragrances than use essential oils or botanically derived fragrances.

To disinfect household surfaces, use a spray bottle of distilled white vinegar or essential oils of oregano, tea tree, sage and eucalyptus. Get some houseplants to improve air quality, good shade plants are philodendrons, green spider plants, dracalnas, palms, ferns, english ivy, peace lilies, mums and daisies. Use HEPA filters and vacuums and get a rock salt lamp. Essential oils in a cold diffuser, they can be antimicrobial, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. Look for theraputic grade A oils, try www.youngliving.com. To clean the entire house all you need is:

All purpose cleaner
glass cleaner
dish soap
laundry liquid
distilled white vinegar
lemon juice
salt
hydrogen peroxide
essential oils
baking soda

It may look like a long list, but look under you kitchen sink and count how many products you have. You may need to go buy some microfiber clothes, a microfiber duster and dry mop without dioxin or triclosan. You'll need old toothbrushes and gloves. Everything else you probably have.

For floors: all purpose cleaner or vinegar, add essential oils to vinegar
In the Kitchen:
Sink: dish soap then glass cleaner
Caulking: make thick paste of lemon juice, salt and baking soda and let it sit for at least an hour
Drains: paste of baking soda, vinegar and a little lemon juice
Countertops: dish soap then vinegar to disinfect
Wood: soap and water, to polish essential oil or lemon and olive oil
Squirt bottle of water and couple drops of dish soap to clean up daily spills
Pots and Pans: use stainless steel or cast iron, wipe with hot water and olive oil
Use silicon bakeware
Cutting boards: have separate ones for veggies, cheese and meats. Vinegar to disinfect
Microwave: all purpose cleaner

In the Bathroom:
Ventilation is key to not getting mold
Toilet: baking soda, vinegar and splash of lemon juice, let sit for half hour
Get a dechlorinating shower filter try: lifekind.com, gaiam.com or freshwatersystems.com
Drains: salt and vinegar or baking soda and lemon juice- let sit as long as you want then rinse
Caulking: baking soda and lemon juice- let sit as long as you want then rinse
Shower doors: all purpose cleaner and glass cleaner
When done with scrub brush or tooth brush rinse in hydrogen peroxide
Keep small spray bottle of distilled water and essential oils for smells
Clogged drain: 1/2 cup vinegar, 4 tbsp baking soda and boiling water, cover for 1/2 hr then rinse

In the bedroom:
baking soda before vacuuming
dust with mircofiber cloth misted with glass cleaner
carpets: nontoxic carpet cleaner and scrub brush
Bedding and linens: organic cotton (gaiam.com, coyuchiorganic.com)
Wool mattress (froogle.com, hastens.com, royal-pedic.com, magniflex.com, greensleep.com)

Diffusers with essential oils, cedar chips saturated with oils or douse a cotton ball and put it in vents or fans (youngliving.com, abundanthealth4u.com)

Polish wood with essential oil of lemon and olive oil
Cleaning metals is on pg 154 (I didn't really have a need for it, so I just skimmed through it)
Ants- distilled water, peppermint oil and vinegar in a spray bottle
For the dog: Use organic shampoo with ylang-ylang to prevent fleas
Laundry- tbsp of vinegar instead of fabric softener; add essential oils for scent

If you have any more questions- read it yourself. But these are the things I'll be trying and I'll let you know how they work. I am still looking for somewhere local to buy essential oils, but until then I think I'll order a couple online to get started. Of course I'm not going as far as to buy a new mattress and replacing all linens, but as they need replaced, I will go this route. It just so happens we are in the market for a new shower head (ours gets clogged with debris from the well, so I will replace it with one that has a chlorine filter. I really must say that the bathroom just seemed so clean this week and didn't take any longer than usual. It was so easy to just throw that paste everywhere in the shower with an old toothbrush and walk away. Hours later when I wanted a shower I got in and rinsed it all, and ta da, clean. Cleaner than bleach and no smell. Next week we'll change over the kitchen. I already got all purpose cleaner and stocked up on vinegar and baking soda. So here we go!