the earth friendly way to maintain your environment
Author: Karen
Karen's marketing mantra is simple: People haven't changed; the way people get their information has. Want a plan to reach them? Plan your work, work your plan. She shows you how.
Almost everyone with young children uses floor mats.
You may even have one of those brightly colored puzzle piece floor mats to protect our little ones from an injury from a fall. Floor mats for baby also provide benefits beyond safety including improving visual development and gross motor skills. Floor mats for the kiddos are also portable, module – in other words they work in any space at any time.
Of course
not all children’s floor mats are created equally. Many sold at the popular outlets and advertised as non-toxic are actually made from Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA). You might want to consider an organic floor mat for your children. Made from bamboo, cork and natural fibers they come with removable covers for easy washing. We love www.Pillobebe.com. Check ’em out. Of course, they are not cheap.
Once you come home with your new floor mat, have a routine to keep it clean. Those interlocking pieces that make the mats so convenient also trap dirt and debris.
The mats are exposed to leaking diapers, pet paws, mommy’s feet
and whatever else your busy house throws at them. Baby’s floormats need to be washed frequently which overwhelms most families because a single floor mat can in so many pieces! Oy vey! Do you vacuum? Mop? Wipe on your hands and knees?
Sorry, none of that gets them *clean*.
As a matter of fact, adding water to the mats while they’re on the floor just encourages germs. I know…I’m fussy this way.
Here’s how we do it.
Do you have the interlocking EVA foam mats? Take them apart, give them a good bang to knock off the crumbs and wash them in the tub or shower with some gentle soap and water. Before you start, lay a towel on the floor near a wall so you have a place to air dry the mats. Lean the mats against each other with a little space between them similar to plates in a dishwasher. It is important to let them air dry or the dark, wet environment between your mats and the floor trap and grow bacteria. Once the mats have dried we spritz them with our anti-bacteria solution of white vinegar, alcohol and essential oils.
Be careful with oils around infants
a very few drops of non-irritating lavender and chamomile do the trick. Let the mats dry once again. Meanwhile, clean the floor in the play room as usual replacing the floor mats when everything is dry.
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you’ve probably heard that placing tin foil at the bottom of your oven is a good idea. That was true win tin foil was made from tin. Today, it’s made from aluminum and aluminum will melt in your oven.
While aluminum foil works great on the grill and on our food it will bond with the metal at the bottom of your stove.
Once that happens, it won’t come off: your stove and that foil are now one. Your choices at that point are to live with it or order a new oven floor for around $100.
The Reynolds company recommends putting a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil on the lowest rack of the oven leaving a few inches around the edges to allow that hot air to circulate around your dinner. This keeps your oven cleaner saving you time and trouble and saves your oven from permanent damage. Plus they sell a lot of tin foil that way. Well played Reynolds Wrap. Either way, don’t put it on the BOTTOM of your oven.
Here’s an example of how to use tin foil to protect your oven, not ruin the oven floor.
No No. Don’t do this. Don’t put aluminum foil on your oven floor.
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Natural building materials like stone tile, granite and marble add comfort and value to your home. Not cheap, installation can run between $50 and $200 per square foot for granite counters.
Don’t do permanent damage to your investment, learn how to care for your granite counter tops with these simple tips.
First a little Granite 101. Most of us think of granite as a solid, hard surface that will not absorb stains. Nice idea, but it is just not the case. While granite is less porous than marble; granite will dull, discolor and become pocked if exposed to acids. As usual, the longevity of your investment relies on 3 things: proper installation, some regular maintenance, and cleaning.
Installation: make sure your installation pro has properly sealed any seams especially along the sink, appliances and splash boards.
Maintenance: granite counter tops should be sealed periodically depending on how heavily they are used. Applying a sealant is recommended every two to four years and is best done by a pro.
Cleaning: acids are our enemy here so NO bleach, Windex or vinegar (that’s right, Nature’s all purpose cleaner is not-so all purpose after all). Wipe up spills quickly. Many common spills like orange juice or tomato sauce are acidic. Just use warm water and some hand soap to clean your natural stone and clean with a soft non-abrasive cloth like cotton or microfiber. Since the natural tones of granite often hide spills, take your open palm and feel for remaining bits and remove with a bit more warm water and rubbing.
You can add some shine
and a little natural sealant to your granite by rubbing with some oil, then buffing until dry. This does not replace regular maintenance described above.
If you already notice some discoloration, HGTV recommends a baking soda and water paste. Apply it, cover it with plastic wrap, tape down the edges, let it sit until dry. This could take a couple of days. Just wipe the dry bits off then rinse with a warm cloth.
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I recently joined a housekeeping group on Facebook. I see this question a lot, “How do I clean wooden floors?”. Wooden floors can be a stunning feature in your home. But not all wooden floors are created the same, so they shouldn’t be cleaned the same way.
I know we’re just getting started but to know how to clean your floors, you must look to the finish.
Is there a glossy varnish finish to your floors? Most true hardwood floors do have a finish of some kind. The higher gloss finishes protect the wood from water and dirt, so in fact you are not cleaning a wooden surface at all, but a varnish surface. Some older floors may have a worn finish and some floors exposed grain. I don’t recommend washing exposed grain as water lifts the grain, so I usually recommend to the home owner that we apply an oil stain to retain the natural features and protect the floor. When it comes to hardwood floors, they usually fall into one of these categories:
High gloss finish – wash with a gentle white vinegar with a drop of dish soap and water solution using a dry mop system and a misting squirt bottle.
Thin varnish, not exposed grain but not a glassy hard finish either – I alternate between using a light Murphy’s solution and using vinegar floor cleaner described above, always a dry mop system. This way the grains get a little love but the oils don’t build up on the varnish either.
Rustic exposed grain floors – are probably best just swept or vacuumed. Go with the grain our you’ll just push dust in the cracks and features of the wood.
Of course, there are other materials that look like wood but aren’t such as laminates and other engineered products. We’ve been mixing our own floor cleaner that works great on most floors. We make a hydrosol from pine and cedar, add some soapberry extract and Bam! clean with no streaks. It’s our version of Pinesol but made in small batches in our kitchen in Maine. So far I love this; hydrosols have the same properties as their heavier cousin, essential oils, but are easier to work with. I’ve also make an almond oil/orange cleaner that I love on grainy wood. You can make this at home, but don’t skip the emulsifying step or it comes out like a glob.
Water and oil don’t mix and they certainly don’t mix once they’ve hit your floor!
What is the dry mop system you ask? After sweeping or vacuuming, use a janitorial mop with a flat head and microfiber or cotton cloth mop; use a professional janitor’s squirt bottle to apply cleaner, then mop using wide sweeps to avoid leaving streaks on the floor.
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Raise your hand if you’re concerned about your heating bill.
No shame in that, energy costs are high and many of us have invested a significant amount to keep our homes safe, warm and dry especially in the winter. But did you know that locking your home as tight as a bug in a rug has a downside? The air in a tightly insulated home may not be fresh air. Contaminants and mold may build up, the atmosphere gets ion charged and soon the family may complain of headaches and feeling blah. Are you familiar with sick building syndrome, SBS? It’s not just offices. We may take vitamin D in the winter to compensate for the seasonal change in the sunlight, but we also need to think about how to improve air quality in our homes and offices. There’s a medium cost, higher tech way to keep your home’s air fresh and well circulated. And there’s a low tech no-cost way.
Let’ start at the top.
First you might think that your furnace already does circulate fresh air since it has vents or a chimney. But your furnace or fireplace isn’t pulling air from outside, it’s pulling air from inside which of course can lead to poor air quality in your home. You can install a heat recovery ventilator yourself or ask a pro. The unit can run between $300 to $500 range. Here’s a link to Popular Mechanics
that will explain how an HRV works.
Of course, you could just open the windows.
That seems counter intuitive in the winter, as New Englanders we work to keep drafts to a minimum. But we’re only talking about 15 to 20 minutes here. Open some windows and create a draft through your house. Not every day of course. But winter gives us these little warm ups, so on those days I open just two windows upstairs and the kitchen window downstairs. In my house this creates a perfect draft that acts like a broom sweeping the poor air quality out of my house and sweeping fresh air in. If you have vents in the bathroom or kitchen, turn them on while you’re airing out the house. In about 15 minutes you can close the windows and breathe easy with improved air quality in your home.
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We see it almost everywhere that sells or markets healthy living. Thieves oil appears to get its name from the 15th century when it is said that a band of thieves used a combination of herbs and spices to prevent infection from the Bubonic plague. The thieves went from infected house to infected house robbing the deceased. While they escaped illness, they did not escape capture. The judge, like the rest of the population, wanted to know the thieves secret so he promised them leniency if they would disclose their trick. Researching this article, I learned that doctors during that period wore long conical masks over their mouths and noses. The masks were filled with herbs and spices used to disinfect the air that doctors must breathe when tending to the sick. It doesn’t seem likely our Dark Ages ancestors understood germs as we do today. It is clear however that through trial and error people did develop a sound knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work. Thieves oils works. I’ll explain how it works and how you can make your own.
How does Thieves Oil Work?
Plants are nature’s little chemical factories but they rely on animals to spread their pollen and seed. This is how nature works – through mutually beneficial relationships. Essential oils are very concentrated extractions made from plants. Depending on how the oils are extracted, a variety of beneficial chemicals are rendered. Terpenes, esters, aldehydes and ketones are just a few. Different plants yield different combinations of chemicals so that different essential oils will have different properties. While most plant essential oils are proven to have antibacterial and grease cutting properties, we have learned to treat specific health issues with specific oils. There are also aromatherapeutic benefits including blends to calm or energize.
A glass jar works best
I like to use a pipette, but you can approximate quantities with the eyeball method
the following five essential oils, quantities noted below are the number of drops. You can change that to ounces or milliliters, just keep the proportions inline with the original recipe.
20 -Cinnamon bark
40 -Clove
10-Rosemary
35 -Lemon
Eucalyptus
To use your theives oil
For health, be sure to use a carrier oil like almond or coconut oil. For cleaning your home, add a few drops to a diluted white vinegar mixture. Be sure to either emulsify the oils using something like alcohol or glycerin; or be prepared to shake before each use to assure the essential oils are evenly dispersed in the vinegar. This is also a safety concern since you don’t want pure oils in direct contact with your eyes or mucus membranes.
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When there’s winter, there’s salt stains. On your boots, on your door mats, on your lovely floors. Get rid of it naturally with white vinegar diluted about 1:2 with tap water. Salt is alkaline while vinegar is an acid. Put them together and you get some oxygen making fizzle on your shizzle. All of a sudden salt stains are gone and surfaces are naturally cleaned.
If only it were harder than that.
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Soapberries are the pulpy fruit from a family of tropical trees called Sapindus. ‘Sap’ from the Greek word for soap, and “indus” for India where some strains of the plant are native. When cooked gently your soapberries, or soapnuts as some folks call them produce a light, clear juice containing the alkaloid saponin which is used for washing clothes, surfaces and people. You have probably seen soapberries at your local health food store but weren’t quite sure how to use them. Nature’s little soap factory is actually a fruit, to the relief of folks concerned about nut allergies.
How do soapberries work?
I admit, at first we were skeptical. So we bought a bag and put them to the test. Sure enough, when cooked gently, soapberries emit a clean, light brown extract that is visibly soapy. It’s good stuff. But is it good enough for Green Witch Essential’s amazing housekeeping clients? Some of Bangor’s finest homes were about to find out. So we poured. And we wiped. We spritzed, and sprayed. We tackled glass stove tops, refrigerator doors, microwaves, shower stalls, granite counter tops, door frames, switch plates; even the man-cave half bath. And it worked! The natural surfactant that the Sapindus trees produce cuts grease, leaving surfaces feeling and smelling clean.
But why switch from regular soap to soapberries?
Soap is soap, right? That’s what we thought until we started untangling what it means to be earth friendly in our cleaning products and practices. Retail cleaning products are available at the stores using the words “Green, Earth, Natural” in their marketing materials when in fact their products and/or their packaging are anything but. Even castile soaps are made using lye. Sometimes called caustic potash, KOH, or potassium hydroxide (or sodium hydroxide if making bar soap), lye is what soap makers use to “saponify” their ingredients. Saponify means literally to make soap, something the soapberry tree does on the vine. Lye is made by burning wood which we know creates a large carbon footprint. Soapberries are made by growing wood, which we know uses carbon and emits clean oxygen.
It gets even better. These babies are antibacterial too.
Soapberries have been around for thousands of years but the research is just catching up. A private soapberry company conducted research and found
…recently had them tested for their anti-bacterial qualities at a 3rd party laboratory (BioNetwork BioBusiness Center in Asheville, NC) and they surpassed even my expectations! The certificate of analysis revealed that my soap nuts took out Aspergillus niger (Black Mold) Candida albicans (Yeast) Escherichia coli (E. Coli) Salmonella typhimurium (Salmonella) AND Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA is a strain of this nasty antibiotic resistant bacteria.) But I will reiterate that there are many different kinds, qualities, and suppliers, so my results do not mean that all soap nuts can make this claim.
Great! How can I use soapberries at home?
For laundry, place a few soapberries in a small cotton bag. If you are doing a hot water load, just toss the bag in the washer. If you are using warm or cold water, soak the bag of soapberries in a half cup or so of hot water for a few minutes, then add to the wash. Depending on how many berries you use and the size of your load, you should get several loads from a few berries. DIY alert. You can also make soapberry extract. This is the method we use to make our all purpose cleaner, Brum Know Orange No Grime. To make soapberry liquid soap first place into a medium pot between 4-10 berries and 8 cups of unchlorinated water. (Not sure if your water is chlorinated? Just leave it uncovered in a shallow dish for about 40 minutes, any chlorine will evaporate). Depending on how strong you want the resulting liquid you could a add a few more. Simmer gently on low heat for about 20 minutes. Let cool just enough to allow working with your hands. Remove berries from the water solution, squeezing with your fingers to remove that hard working saponin from the berries. Use right away, either straight or diluted with hot water. For best results store in the frig since soapberry extract is a botanical product, it does have a shelf life. For Brum Know Orange No Grime we add white vinegar, salt plus orange essential oils emulsified into a water solution to extend shelf life and increase grease busting, antibacterial power. It smells like fresh squeezed orange juice, so naturally energizing.
Add some citrus oils to your soapberry extract to fight bacteria and mold plus cuts through grease.
Where can I get soapberries?
They sound exotic but chances are you can pick them up locally at your favorite health food store. Here in Bangor, Maine we discovered soapberries at the Natural Living Center. They’re also available online in quantities both large and small. Not all soapberries are created, harvested or stored equally though. For best results, look for dark plump soapberries.
Can I grow a soapberry tree?
No “lye”ing, soapberries are so natural, they grow on trees! Take that carbon footprint!
