I want your old toothbrushes!

For a while now I have known about cleaning bathrooms with baking soda and water, which you just combined into a thick paste and used on walls, grout, etc. I haven't actually ever used it, but thought I would give it a try on my bathroom the other day, which was looking a little grey for all the mould in the grout.

I have some "special" cleaning paste (suppose to be natural) and microfibre cloths which I normally use, but thought it looked a little too much like hard work. So, I had an old toothbrush and I thought I would give the baking soda paste a try.

Wow, how fabulous is it to clean grout and bathrooms generally with a toothbrush. The baking soda paste didn't completely eliminate the grim, but certainly improved the darkness and I am so impressed with the ease of toothbrush cleaning I didn't mind giving it another go this weekend just past. And managed to experience another "enjoyable" cleaning moment.

My only problem is old toothbrush don't last with the amount of pressure applied and I really need a large amount of them to continue to get into my grout gaps effectively. So, if you've got some spare and you don't cotton on to this less laborious cleaning practice, send me your old toothbrushes! Pin It

Hang your washing in the sun!

Another tip for a smaller environmental footprint that I really didn't consciously consider as a way that I make a difference, but after reading it in a book I thought this was definitely a way that I make a difference.

What am I talking about? Well, instead of putting your washing straight from the washing machine into a dryer in your laundry, why not hang it on the washing line in the back yard? There are so many benefits for doing this.

1. You get outside and this is always a positive
2. If you hang it out in the middle of the day you'll probably also get your required dose of vitamin D
3. You don't have to pay for the electricity that would have been used to power your dryer
4. You won't contribute to additional electricity usage to power your dryer
5. Whites will be whiter, without using any nasty chemicals. The sun actually whitens whites and can remove some of those stubborn stains from your clothes/sheets/towels, etc
6. Even if it rains during the 'drying process' it will wash some of those nasty chemicals that some of us wash with out of your clothes and then will dry your clothes once the sun comes back out.

I think another reason that this wasn't something that I consider as something good for the environment is because I have always done it and my mother has always done it. This I find interesting because we can accept behaviours/activities into our life and make them an everyday activity and not consciously recognise that we are making a positive difference.

So, whatever you choose to do to reduce your environmental footprint, it might be difficult or annoying to start with but over time it will become part of your normal routine and you'll be making a difference without considering it a burden on your lifestyle. Just start small and do things that are manageable for you and your family.

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Removal of pesticides from food

Following on from one of my previous posts, my basic research indicated that just rinsing your fruit and vegetables is not enough to remove some of the more harmful 'toxins' (pesticides/herbicides). One page that I have just come across suggests a combination of water, white vinegar, baking soda and grapefruit seed extract combined and then sprayed onto the fruit and vegetable and left for an hour or two prior to rinsing.

Sounds like a major effort, which I guess is expected, but I wouldn't have a clue where to get grapefruit seed extract. Let's see if I can find a more practical solution.

Aaaahhh....here is a more basic approach that I have since found combine 1 lemon, 2 tbsp of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of water. Spray this onto your fruit & veggies and then rinse off, apparently this is a more basic recipe but is likely to remove pesticides from fruit/vegetables for household consumption. I wonder if it will change the taste of the products. Have to give it a go. Pin It

Washing your veggies

I have recently been thinking about more actively washing my veggies and fruit that I buy from the supermarket. My main aim with undertaking such an activity is to remove nasty chemicals from the surface of these foods and ensure that my family doesn't end up consuming more than our fair share.

Unfortunately the garden isn't at a level of self-sufficiency which means I have to buy commercially grown veggies. Up until now I haven't really taken the effort to wash the veggies that I buy. But now that I have a toddler and thinking more about what goes into our bodies, I wonder what the benefits of washing them under water is.

From my basic research most of the initial websites I have looked at on this topic indicate that washing them under the tap will wash off dirt and bacteria. Nothing that I am particularly worried about. I am more concerned about the pesticides, herbicides and other man-made agents that farmers spray around their farms to make their fruit and veggies more commercially attractive.

There are also adverts on the net for products which you can utilise to assist you with cleaning your fruit and veggies and once again can't seem to determine with any certainty that these products would in fact assist with my aim of removing the toxins.

So does washing in water, with no a lot of elbow grease, in fact remove these nasty chemicals? More research required! Pin It

Green cleaning

I am not much of a house cleaner, except for putting stuff away and the occasional dishwashing adventure, but I know that I do use some nasty chemicals around the house when it comes time to undertake some of the cleaning chores.

There are green products on the market, some of which I have bought but I don't know whether they are just greenwash or just a combined product of numerous things I might already have around the house or a combination of more expensive ingredients I could buy from the supermarket and produce my own 'green' cleaning products.

So what are some good, clean, cheap alternatives to the commonly used nasty cleaning products around the house? Isn't vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda or bicarb some of the ingredients you can use? I think this is something I need to look into. Pin It