Laundry: Home-Recipe Review

For the past month I have been using a combination of 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup borax for laundry. I set the water temperature on the hottest setting (kills dustmites).

This works quite well. Only once did the laundry smell musty--and I think it's because I over-filled it. The towels aren't Downy-soft, but they aren't too hard, either. The laundry doesn't smell vinegar-y, but I do admit I miss the smell of "clean laundry."

For a while I tried many things to get the laundry to smell, well, like fresh Downy-soft laundry. I added essential oils (various solo and combinations of lemon, lavendar, rosemary, sweet orange, and clove) to a wet wasch cloth and put it in the drier with the wet laundry. This did nothing. I added essential oils to the rinse cycle--no effect. I added essential oils to the rinse cycle along with vinegar--no effect. I added essential oils just to the laundry itself in the drier (no wash cloth). That didn't work either. I am currently of the opinion that there's no real way to infuse the laundry with "clean smell."

Overall impressions: I like this. It saves money and I will continue to do my laundry in this fashion.

Going Green: One Week Review

It's been a full week since I've resolved to go green. My basic observations are that, so far, I really like it. The homemade deodorant is cheaper and better than any store-bought I've ever used. The organic cooking that I've managed to make has tasted better than I expected--actually it was delicious. Also, the organic grapes I purchased are absolutely the best we've ever had!

The laundry recipe works very well--the laundry is definitely clean. I miss the "smell" of clean laundry though. The house cleaning is a challenge too. I miss the smell of Pine when I wash the floor and clorox in the kitchen. Those just smell "clean" to me. Tweaking this to get better results will be my challenge. The garden is doing well, or the bits that Petey hasn't taken out are, anyway. One overall "change" I've noticed is that I'm more sensitive to smells again. The ivory soap I use in the shower never really had a scent that I could discern. This morning I noticed, for the first time in a while, that it actually does have a fragrance, lol.

Shopping:
I first went to Wal-Mart yesterday and purchased 4 boxes of baking soda ($0.44 each), two large containers of white vinegar ($1.59 each), four cylinders of salt ($0.44 each) a box of Borax in the laundry department ($1.50), ethanol alcohol ($.99) and hydrogen peroxide ($.69). I also purchased two large packages of Wal-Mart's brand of entree-sized containers w/ lids (15 in each), four gallon-sized containers ($1.25 each), and some tiny ones ($2.44 for six). I purchased four spray bottles from the hair department ($.99 each). I'd have liked to have gotten the larger ones but they were $3.99 each and I don't feel that's in my budget at the moment. Lastly, I purchased the following organic items: grapes, granola, and tofu.

Then I went to the local health food store and purchased the following essential oils: rose, lavender, lemon, eucalyptis, clove, coconut. I also purchased ground flax meal, organic zuccini and organic squash. LaundryI am using a homemade recipe now for doing the laundry. For darks I use 1/2 cup of vinegar (deodorizer, anti-fungal) and 1/2 cup of salt (anti-bacterial, cleaner). For whites, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup borax. I add a few drops of essential oil (rose) to 1/2 cup of water and put it in the fabric softener compartment. So far so good! I've noticed less waxy build up in my dryer screen. The dirty clothes came out smelling, well, normal. I miss the strong scent of clean clothes, but these seem clean anyway. I'm giving this non-toxic lifestyle a shot, but if I go back on anything, I'll probably go back to using a little fabric softener b/c I love the smell!

Garden
Last week I planted: cucumber, beans, 2 tomato plants, zuccini, squash, yellow peppers, green peppers, artichoke, jalapeno peppers, dill, lemon balm, and thyme. Thus far, the plants all seem to be doing fairly well, the ones that are still intact that is. Petey took out the dill and the lemon balm, and it looks like my cucumbers died. The bean plant is growing very quickly, and the tomatoes have flowered. The orange pepper has a blssom-turned-pepper, so that's cool. Petey took out the thyme, too. I'm very much looking forward to my tomatos, zuccini, squash, and peppers growing! Oh, the lettuce is doing great too--all eight plants are growing quickly. I think I'll be able to start harvesting from most of the plants in about 6-8 weeks...Food/meals

J sniggered when I told him I bought organic grapes. We expected them to taste... well... compromised. Instead, they are the best-tasting ones we've ever had. The taste is sooo strong, and they are sooo juicy! Shocked us!

I'm trying my hand at cooking and freezing on the weekends. I bought the 15-entree containers to be able to freeze everything individually. Unfortunately, the wal-mart brand SUCKS. The lids don't fit. I can't afford 20 rubbermaid entree-size containers so am, um, taping them closed. LOL. We haven't fully gone organic--I'm currenlty trying to use up all the food we have left to make more shelf room. But the organic meals we have made (salmon w/ rosemary from my garden & tabouli with fresh tomatoes last night, chicken with rice & organic vegetables earlier this week) were surprisingly delicious. (Even J ate the asparagus and spinach--shock me, shock me, shock me!!)

Deodorant
I decided to try some homemade deodorant recpes. The one I'm using goes basically like this: after a shower, rub rubbing alcohol under your arms with a cottonball. Then I put a bit (1/2 cup) of baking soda in a small container and added a drop of rose essential oil. After shaking it up really well I dabbed a bit under my arms. This is the best deodorant I have ever, ever used. I've tried many brands, and living in Florida, by the end of each day, well... let's just say I can't reuse my shirts. Even if I reapply! Not even a hint of BO by the next morning when it was time to get up and take a shower... I'm definitely adding this to my favorite home-remedies list!

House Cleaning:
I followed Flowerchylde's suggestions re: finding some recipes with vinegar and baking soda. I found two super-wonderful sites and have printed out the directions. Organic House Cleaning has many wonderful ideas and recipes for saving money and cleaning the house. Clean and Green had even more ideas, but I felt it was a little overwhelming with options. I filled one spray bottle with 50% ethanol alcohol (for windows), one spray bottle with 100% vinegar (general cleaning), one spray bottle I filled halfway with vinegar, added a bit of water and then about 1/4 cup of salt (disinfecting), the last spray bottle I filled with 2 tbsp Organic Almond dish washing soap and then filled it with water (to kill the bugs in my garden).

Observations on house cleaning:
Bathroom--I first cleaned the bathroom. In the end I was a little disappointed I guess because it didn't "smell" as clean as it does when I use hosehold cleaners. That said, I sprinkled baking soda in the tub and then dripped vinegar over it. It fizzed and cleaned fairly easily. After initial rinsing I filled a bucket with a bit of the almond dish cleaner, some baking soda and then hot water. I recleaned the tub and then the rest of the bathroom with the almond dish soap so it wouldn't smell so vinegary. I cleaned the toilet with vinegar/baking soda (worked well).

Parrot Room--I used the baking soda/almond dish soap combo in cleaning the parrot room. I washed down all the cages first with a sponge--it worked well enough. I didn't have to worry about overwhelming fumes, and that was nice. Washing the office mats was a challenge b/c the soap is very sudsy and tended to puddle in the crevices. I will probably just take the cages and the mats outside and hose them down in the future. Again, ultimately I felt a little disappointed b/c it didn't "smell" very clean--actually, the bird smell somewhat remained. I opened the doors to the patio and turned the fan on high, and the smell went away.

Kitchen--I used the vinegar spray on the counters and was very pleased. The counters cleaned easily enough. I used the alcohol on the stove and it came out all sparkly. On the tougher bits I dabbed some baking soda on a sponge and scrubbed. It came off quite nicely.

In the upcoming week I hope to try a toothpaste recipe, figure out an edible meal with tofu, double up on some cooking (freeze more meals), and keep Petey from taking out the rest of the garden...One topic up for debate at the moment is what to do with a tan. Even with sunscreen, tanning is harmful, I read recently. I do have Neutrogena sunless tanning, but it definitely has a lot of extra chemicals, and I'm trying to avoid them during this little experiment. On the other hand, pure, tanless white isn't a good shade on me. Am going to have to continue musing on the topic...

Science Daily Research re: Solvents & Organic

ORGANIC
Pesticides Exposure Associated With Parkinson's Disease (June 26, 2006) — A large-scale, prospective study has shown links between chronic, low-dose exposure to pesticides and Parkinson's disease. > full story

Organic Diet Makes Rats Healthier (March 29, 2005) — A team of European scientists, including one from Newcastle University, has found in an experiment that rats that ate organic food were much healthier than those that ate conventional diets. > full story

Organic Is Healthier: Kiwis Prove That Green Is Good (March 26, 2007) — Scientists have proven that organically grown kiwifruit contain significantly increased levels of health-promoting polyphenols. They also had a higher overall antioxidant activity, as well as higher levels of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and important minerals compared with their conventionally grown counterparts. Also, compounds in grapefruit and oranges have been shown to lower blood cholesterol, which could help prevent heart disease. > full story

Organically Grown Foods Higher In Cancer-fighting Chemicals Than Conventionally Grown Foods (March 4, 2003) — Fruits and veggies grown organically show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods, according to a new study of corn, strawberries and marionberries. The research suggests that pesticides and herbicides actually thwart the production of phenolics — chemicals that act as a plant's natural defense and also happen to be good for our health. > full story

Organic Diets Lower Children's Exposure To Two Common Pesticides (February 21, 2006) — Organic diets lower children's dietary exposure to two common pesticides used in US agricultural production, according to a study by Emory University researcher Chensheng Alex Lu, PhD. The substitution of organic food items for children's normal diets substantially decreased the pesticide concentration to non-detectable levels. > full story

Organic Farming Beats No-Till? (July 24, 2007) — Organic farming can build up soil organic matter better than conventional no-till farming can, according to a long-term study. Organic farming, despite its emphasis on building organic matter, was thought to actually endanger soil because it relies on tillage and cultivation--instead of herbicides--to kill weeds. But the study showed that organic farming's addition of organic matter in manure and cover crops more than offset losses from tillage. > full story

Healthful Compounds In Tomatoes Increase Over Time In Organic Fields (July 16, 2007) — Levels of flavonoids increase over time in crops grown in organically farmed fields, according to a rare long-term study scheduled for publication in the July 18 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. Other research has suggested that consumption of flavonoids may protect against cancer, heart disease, and other age-related diseases. > full story

Organic Farming Produces Smaller Crops, Healthier Soils, Swiss Researchers Report In Science (May 31, 2002) — Organic farming methods produced crop yields that were, on average, 20 percent smaller than conventional crops, during a 21-year comparison of the two methods. But, the organic approach more than made up the difference in ecological benefits, according to Swiss scientists who conducted the study. Their results appear in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. > full story

Organic Farming Has Little, If Any, Effect On Nutritional Content Of Wheat, Study Concludes (October 16, 2006) — Organically grown wheat may have different labeling and a higher price in stores, but it contains essentially the same profile of amino acids, sugars and other metabolic substances as wheat grown with conventional farming. That's the conclusion of a German study, which produced perhaps the most comprehensive metabolic profile of wheat from organic and conventional agriculture. > full story

Research At Great Lakes Meeting Shows More Vitamin C In Organic Oranges Than Conventional Oranges (June 3, 2002) — Organically-grown oranges contain up to 30% more vitamin C than those grown conventionally, it was reported at a Great Lakes Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society. > full story

Organic Farming Can Feed The World, Study Suggests (July 13, 2007) — Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming on the same amount of land -- according to new findings which refute the long-standing assumption that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population. > full story

Organic Food Miles Take Toll On Environment (June 7, 2007) — Organic fruit and vegetables may be healthier for the dinner table, but not necessarily for the environment, a University of Alberta study shows. > full story

Get 'Two Steps' Ahead Of Fire Ants With Organic Control (May 12, 2004) — Red imported fire ants love wet, rainy, cool days like the ones that ushered in spring. That's why so many of their mounds have been popping up all over Texas this year. But help is only two steps away. > full story

Offspring At Risk From Maternal Occupational Exposure To Solvents (October 4, 2004) — Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have linked maternal exposure to organic solvents in the workplace with poorer performance on measures of neurocognitive function, language, and behaviour in offspring. > full story

SOVENTS
Many Cleaners, Air Fresheners May Pose Health Risks When Used Indoors (May 24, 2006) — A new study from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that many common household cleaners and air fresheners, when used indoors under certain conditions, emit toxic pollutants at levels that may lead to health risks. > full story

Solvent Exposure Linked To Birth Defects In Babies Of Male Painters (September 27, 2006) — Men who paint for a living may be placing their unborn children at increased risk of birth defects and low birth weight. > full story

Workplace Solvents May Intensify Parkinson's Disease (September 12, 2000) — Jobs involving the use of common solvents can put people at risk for developing symptoms of Parkinson's disease earlier in life and more severe disease symptoms throughout its course, according to a study in the September 12 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. > full story

OHSU Researchers Discover Toxicity Risks For Widely Used Chemicals (September 17, 2002) — Research at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has revealed that certain chemical ingredients of gasoline, jet fuel and other solvents may pose a greater health hazard than first thought. Scientists at the OHSU Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET) have shown that a benzene derivative damages the nervous system. In fact, the substance is much more active than non-benzene analogs already known to cause peripheral nerve damage (loss of limb sensation and muscle weakness) in solvent-exposed workers. > full story

Increased Suicide Rate Is Possibly Linked To Chemicals Released From Nearby Asphalt Plants, Study Suggests (December 28, 2004) — Exposure to low levels of hydrogen sulfide and possibly other airborne chemicals from nearby asphalt plants may have contributed to an increased suicide rate in a North Carolina community, a study suggests for the first time. > full story

Ozone Levels May Raise Risk Of Underweight Births: Common Pollutants Linked To Fetal Growth Retardation (November 16, 2005) — Babies born to women exposed to high ozone levels during pregnancy are at heightened risk for being significantly underweight, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. > full story

Jen's gone crunchy granola

I kinda thought I'd be the last person in the universe to do something like this. I typically gawk at conspiracy theorists and "you can't trust anything from the grocery store" types. (No offense to any here.)

Every time I read sciencedaily.com, though, I find more and more "safe stuff" that's actually completely harmful and they just found out. *sigh* Where does it end? Teflon kills parrots AND causes low birth weight in newborns. Who knows what else it does. In newborn umbilical cords, they find a bunch of toxins including DDT that are supposed to be completely no longer part of our food intake... Baby toys and other imports from China are now found to have this and that. Pools cause asthma. Hot tubs cause lung disease. Factory workers from plastic and popcorn producing factories are getting pulmonary fibrosis. (It's the chemicals in plastic / artificial butter.) Hell, if you can't trust popcorn what can you trust???

I'm going green. This is the last straw. God knows what's in these veggies I buy at the store. Or in anything else, for that matter. Poor J has skin irritations from who knows what. Sophia has inflammatory skin disease. All three of us have crazy allergies. When I was reading about inflammatory skin disease, it's from over-exposure to toxins and allergens... not sure what kinds, just some kind of over-exposure.

I went to the health food store and bought chemical-free, dye free, fragrance and preservative free cleaners, laundry soap, shaving cream, shower gel, hand soap, dish soap, etc. Then I went to Lowe's and bought $130 worth of vegetable and fruit plants that I will grow organically if it kills me, damn it. We now have green peppers, yellow peppers, orange peppers, okra, beans, squash, cucumbers, a bunch of lettuce plants that I can just take the leaves from as needed, two things of tomatoes... I also have all my own herbs (and have been doing this for over a year)--chives, marjoram, basil, rosemary, lavender, mint, lemon balm, thyme... My uncle is an organic farmer. I need to contact him for help on this.

I'm on the verge of making my own granola cereals from organic oats, etc., from the health food store. Forget preservatives and dyes, pesticides.... This is ridiculous.

I told J we're moving to MN to live off the land. LOL. (Children raised in the city have higher rates of asthma and allergies. Probably can't be good for parrots either!!)