How to Go Green: Spring Cleaning - How to Go Green

I have a copy of Karen Logan's book "Clean House, Clean Planet"....on the back cover she says:  "How many times have you said you're killing yourself trying to keep your house clean?  You might have been joking, but you're closer to the truth than you think if you are using expensive commercial cleansers."  Karen Logan reveals the secret of using simple, ordinary ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, soap, lemon juice and salt to make safe, inexpensive cleaners.

Well, this got me curious and voila..I found a few concoctions that might be fun to try.

Home cleaning supplies:

The strength of any deep clean comes from the supplies you use to wipe, polish, scrub, and soak—but that doesn't mean you have to stock up on sprays and powders that are made of potentially toxic antibacterial chemicals. Find out how using kitchen staples—like vinegar, baking soda, and good old hot water—can get your house as sparkling clean as anything on the shelves (at a fraction of the price), and how those once-a-year jobs (like vacuuming the refrigerator coils) can make your home more efficient than you realized.

All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 tsp washing soda
A dab of liquid soap
2 cups hot tap water
Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply and wipe off with a sponge or rag.
Tip: If you're out of washing soda, use 2 1/2 tsp of borax, instead.

Window Cleaner
1/4-1/2 tsp liquid detergent
3 tbs vinegar
2 cups water
spray bottle
Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.

Creamy Soft Scrubber
Simply pour about 1/2 cup of baking soda into a bowl, and add enough liquid detergent to make a texture like frosting. Scoop the mixture onto a sponge, and wash the surface. This is the perfect recipe for cleaning the bathtub because it rinses easily and doesn't leave grit.
Tip: Add 1 tsp of vegetable glycerin to the mixture and store in a sealed glass jar, to keep the product moist. Otherwise, just make as much as you need at a time.

Oven Cleaner
1 cup or more baking soda
water
A squirt or two of liquid detergent
Sprinkle water generously over the bottom of the oven, then cover the grime with enough baking soda that the surface it totally white. Sprinkle some more water over the top, then let the mixture set overnight.

You can easily wipe up the grease the next morning because the grime will have loosened. When you have cleaned up the worst of the mess, dab a bit of liquid detergent or soap on a sponge, and wash the remaining residue from the oven. If this recipe doesn't work for you it is probably because you didn't use enough baking soda and/or water.

Mold Killer
2 teaspoons tea tree oil
2 cups water
Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and spray on problem areas. Do not rinse.

Furniture Polish
1/2 tsp oil, such as olive (or jojoba, a liquid wax)
1/4 cup vinegar or fresh lemon juice
Mix the ingredients in a glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the solution and wipe onto wood surfaces. Cover the glass jar and store indefinitely.


Here is a link to a treasure trove of green ideas for you and your home.

Spring Cleaning - How to Go Green

Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan

Cotton 101.....

The U.S grows over 12 million acres of cotton each year, mostly saturated with pesticides and insecticides. The common estimate for this toxic shower is 8.5 million tons annually. If you do the math, this is a heck of a lot of chemicals per acre. Many of these pesticides are EPA toxicity class 1, meaning that these are considered the most dangerous and toxic. Remember, cotton is not considered a food crop and can be treated with chemicals not allowed on, say, a field of corn or wheat. 

Did you know that it takes 2,000 liters of water to produce the cotton for one t-shirt?
Did you know that growing cotton causes such intense pollution that workers are dying?
Look at this video. I went to an organic cotton bedding outlet in West Marin last week.
Found this on their site....









Next post, I want to share what I am finding out about soy fiber.

Let's Talk About Hemp...

I have introduced a new line of bags in my Etsy shop made from eco friendly and sustainable fabrics such as hemp, linen, organic cotton and bamboo.

I wish to buy hemp.  It is not grown or manufactured in the U.S. .....soooo, I need to send my  dollars out of the country since our government in it's effort to keep us drug free simply flat out banned the growing and harvesting of cannabis.  In researching the fabrics I am using I am learning a lot about growing, harvesting, manufacturing and arcane laws.

Hemp bags with coconut husk buttons lined with bamboo-cotton. 

 

Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion-not reason-has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotions run hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana.  Please read this article which is intended to inform that debate by offering scientific evidence so we can distinguish between myth and reality.

Finally....hemp is one of the easiest and sustainable  crops to grow.  Anything that can be made from cotton can be made from hemp.  Cotton is one of the most environmentally destructive agricultural crops. In pesticide use in the US alone, it is staggering – 125 million kilograms annually. Worldwide, cotton production used 50 percent of the world's pesticides/herbicides. 

Pesticides are possibly the greatest toxic threat to contaminating our soil, air, water and natural communities because they are often permanent and they bio-accumulate, ie their toxicity increases as they are consumed up the food chain. Many pesticides are known carcinogens, and can also cause immuno-deficiency disorders. Added to this, pesticides have a petroleum base and their excessive use perpetuates our dependency on oil. (Courtesy: Binhai Times).  You may want to take a look at Hemp 101 .

I am more and more tuned into what we, as a family, are doing to work with our environment as well as getting chemically engineered products out of our lives.  With my antennae up I am taking in more and more information and adding that to what I already know....which I find was surprisingly little.   So I am taking the liberty of chunking up my blog with this information.  Sorry, but this little corner of the world is mine.

In the next few weeks, I will pass along information about household cleaners, organic gardening and re-cycling.

Please, if you have something to add...I would welcome it.  The comment section is open to everyone.  Let's share what we know.

About Pleats..

I received message on flickr mail re this bag:  

"MyLittleCeePod says:  You've made those fabulous pleats again! Love em. Did you get the idea from Keyka Lou's blog? Are they hard to make? :"

My response:
No, I didn't see pleats on Keyka Lou's blog...will go right over and check it out.  These are tooooo easy.  Fold & crease fabric, top stitch 1/8 inch from fold, move over a bit and do it again. More like pintucks, I guess.  Also, look at the new linen bag in the eco set...I made pleats at random and really liked the effect.   I put the the piece right side down to square up and saw what the back side of a pleated piece of fabric looked like.  Totally different effect.  Since this is a linen-cotton blend both sides are the same, and voila....I have a new look.

Bags awaiting new homes....

Bags awaiting new homes....,
originally uploaded by SquareBag.

Garth made this great hook bars for me to keep the bags for my shop out of harms way. The door to my sewing room is glass pane, so when you come down the hall there is a burst of colorful fun!

Fringed Scarf Tutorial

Want to make this scarf in about ten minutes? 

From an old t-shirt.... then click here for the tutorial.  Already I have made three today! 

Flip and Sew Hexagon Tutorial

Wooooooooo.  Get a load of this and tell all your hexie fans.  A flip and sew hexagon quilt...when you finish piecing-you have a quilt.  Go over to JayBirdQuilts and learn this technique. I will put a link to this in my tutorial list as well.  You know, when you remember this in two months and can't find it.....