I have been thinking about a return to haomemade laundry soap for awhile. I used to make a "liquid" form when the kids were younger and in diapers and I had lots of laundry to do, because I needed to squeeze wvery penny until it shrieked for mercy. Eventually I got lazy though when our income improved I started buying laundry detergents again. I know! I'm an idiot!! I didn't realise that with all the unknown ingredients store bought detergents contain, even those marked phosphate free, I was not doing the environment any favours.
I found simple POWDERED versions of laundry soap online and I will share here what I am going to do. Using equal amounts of the following:
Pure Soap Flakes (take bars of pure soap and grate them..voila ..soap flakes..I will use Marseilles soap which is olive oil based)because I have ahuge block of it. Try to choose a soap that doesn't use petroleum products. In the past I used bath sized bars of Ivory and really liked the clean smell of our laundry and it was the least expensive soap I could find. Dial, Dove, etc are not PURE soaps.
Borax: disinfects, deodorizes, helps with stains, softens water...Google it.
Washing Soda:(Sodium CARBONATE...not baking soda) deodorises, softens water, helps with stains.
As always when handling anything caustic, care should be taken to avoid skin contact and inhalation.
Grate the soap by hand or with the grating blade in a food processor. Then in the food processor (if you have one), using the chopping blade, mix all 3 ingredients together until its a fine powder. Be careful not to breathe in any when you open the processor. Store in an airtight container. Amount to use will vary with the hardness of your water so the range is 1 Tbsp to 1/2 cup per wash load. With my front loading HE I will start with 1 Tbsp. This laundry product doesn't suds up so don't keep adding more and more looking for suds. The plus side to this feature is that it will take less water to rinse. I usually use TWO rinses and still can here that crackly soapy noise in my clothes. Obviously I use too much.
Mixing some of this with water can be used as a stain pretreat but using a bar of soap would be pretty easy and effective as well. I swear by The Soap Works laundry bar for stains. http://puresoapworks.com/laundrybar.htm I cut/break the bar and store the unsused pieces in a wee paper sack, keeping one bit out for use. This way the whole bar doesn't get all wet and nasty and wasted. One bar lasts a LONG time this way.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Dishwashering revisited.......
I tried out that "Attitude" dishwasher liquid detergent and quite honestly it didn't float my boat for long. This product, combined with our elderly dishwasher, didn't make for very clean dishes but it also depended on who loaded the washer and whether the spray arms were clog free.
I switched a long while back to Presidents Choice chlorine and phosphate free dishwasher packets (25 in a pack use one per load) and we are in love. THIS is a greener product that cleans just as well as the nastier products!!! Plus no etching on my glasses etc. it really works very very well. Available in Canada at Loblaws affiliated stores such as Maxi, Superstore etc etc. I pay about $5.99 a pack..this ain't cheap by any stretch BUT I look at it this way.
1) It works GREAT.
2) I am not using "extra" because the portions are premeasured in water soluable packets so less waste. (only handle with dry hands!!)
Love this product for the dishwasher.
We invested in a brand new, more energy efficient (loving the more efficient Smart Wash feature may I say?), leak free dishwasher in January. Oh my stars...this is what REALLY clean dishes look like (if I load the dishwasher). I ran out of the PC dishwasher stuff and bought Biovert tabs ($7.99 for 30ish?) because I didn't have time to go to the Maxi and hit IGA instead. I love love love Biovert Dishwashing (by hand)liquid so I thought, why not try it? Complaint one: TOO MUCH PACKAGING!!! The tabs come in two separate plastic bags, inside a box, and then each little tab is wrapped in plastic. UGH! Pain in the ass supreme. Husband is convinced that they are not as good at getting the dishes clean as the PC brand...I am on the fence so far..there was some egg yolk left on a spatula and some residues but that could ahve been human error. When I load the dishwasher they tend to come out cleaner than when he shoves things in willy nilly.
Opinion pending on this product's efficacy but I hate the extra packaging and the price tag of $7.99.
I switched a long while back to Presidents Choice chlorine and phosphate free dishwasher packets (25 in a pack use one per load) and we are in love. THIS is a greener product that cleans just as well as the nastier products!!! Plus no etching on my glasses etc. it really works very very well. Available in Canada at Loblaws affiliated stores such as Maxi, Superstore etc etc. I pay about $5.99 a pack..this ain't cheap by any stretch BUT I look at it this way.
1) It works GREAT.
2) I am not using "extra" because the portions are premeasured in water soluable packets so less waste. (only handle with dry hands!!)
Love this product for the dishwasher.
We invested in a brand new, more energy efficient (loving the more efficient Smart Wash feature may I say?), leak free dishwasher in January. Oh my stars...this is what REALLY clean dishes look like (if I load the dishwasher). I ran out of the PC dishwasher stuff and bought Biovert tabs ($7.99 for 30ish?) because I didn't have time to go to the Maxi and hit IGA instead. I love love love Biovert Dishwashing (by hand)liquid so I thought, why not try it? Complaint one: TOO MUCH PACKAGING!!! The tabs come in two separate plastic bags, inside a box, and then each little tab is wrapped in plastic. UGH! Pain in the ass supreme. Husband is convinced that they are not as good at getting the dishes clean as the PC brand...I am on the fence so far..there was some egg yolk left on a spatula and some residues but that could ahve been human error. When I load the dishwasher they tend to come out cleaner than when he shoves things in willy nilly.
Opinion pending on this product's efficacy but I hate the extra packaging and the price tag of $7.99.
Greener Beauty....
Inspired By Geeta Nadkarni!
I don't have overly sensitive skin but as I age it is getting more persnickety. I am using fairly basic non-fancy regime of non fancy products and so far so good. Then I checked these dermatologist recommended products on the Cosmetics Database and they registered as mid range toxic. Better than high range toxicity ratings but still...eeeww. Is clear smooth skin worth cancer or nerve damage etc? I think not.
One thing i have started using is organic Coconut Oil. Yes the stuff you can cook in...comes in a jar..looks like lard...you can buy it in some grocery stores and most health food stores.
This is pure oil from coconuts, not some coconut scented melange of unpronouncable chemicals. It smells divine...sweet and cocnutty. Its pretty solid in the jar, but if you work at it you can gouge some out and it starts to melt very readily in the hand so don't gouge out too much! This stuff is lovely. You can use it all over the body, and even rub it into your scalp for moisturising the scalp and conditioning the hair like a "hot oil" treatment without the heat or for speed, wrap your head in a hot towel for an hour then wash the oil out. I prefer to do it at bedtime and leave it while I sleep.
Homemade body "butters" can be made from simple ingredients that won't poison you or your body. Why pay a fortune for natural based products when you can invest in the ingredients and make your own? Oils such as olive, coconut, jojoba, sweet almond, etc are ALL readily available and can go a loooong way. Pair them up with organic beeswax and you have a pretty much uncented body/hand/lip balm just waiting for you. Add a bit of Vitamin E and/or lavender essential oil as a preservative if you make a larger batch that won't be used up quickly because natural/organic/preservative free oils can go rancid with time. You will end up with an ointment style moisturizer but is that so bad? The more wax you add the stiffer it will set.
Taking care of our skin and hair shouldn't be dangerous to us or the environment and shouldn't break the bank.
I don't have overly sensitive skin but as I age it is getting more persnickety. I am using fairly basic non-fancy regime of non fancy products and so far so good. Then I checked these dermatologist recommended products on the Cosmetics Database and they registered as mid range toxic. Better than high range toxicity ratings but still...eeeww. Is clear smooth skin worth cancer or nerve damage etc? I think not.
One thing i have started using is organic Coconut Oil. Yes the stuff you can cook in...comes in a jar..looks like lard...you can buy it in some grocery stores and most health food stores.
This is pure oil from coconuts, not some coconut scented melange of unpronouncable chemicals. It smells divine...sweet and cocnutty. Its pretty solid in the jar, but if you work at it you can gouge some out and it starts to melt very readily in the hand so don't gouge out too much! This stuff is lovely. You can use it all over the body, and even rub it into your scalp for moisturising the scalp and conditioning the hair like a "hot oil" treatment without the heat or for speed, wrap your head in a hot towel for an hour then wash the oil out. I prefer to do it at bedtime and leave it while I sleep.
Homemade body "butters" can be made from simple ingredients that won't poison you or your body. Why pay a fortune for natural based products when you can invest in the ingredients and make your own? Oils such as olive, coconut, jojoba, sweet almond, etc are ALL readily available and can go a loooong way. Pair them up with organic beeswax and you have a pretty much uncented body/hand/lip balm just waiting for you. Add a bit of Vitamin E and/or lavender essential oil as a preservative if you make a larger batch that won't be used up quickly because natural/organic/preservative free oils can go rancid with time. You will end up with an ointment style moisturizer but is that so bad? The more wax you add the stiffer it will set.
Taking care of our skin and hair shouldn't be dangerous to us or the environment and shouldn't break the bank.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Have Not been Green Enough
I turned the heat up to 19 or 20 in the living room and dining room and didn't set it back for night times because I was sick and tired of being cold. Now our hydro bill was around $800.
Oh dear.
Oh dear.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Bio Logs etc
This winter, Chez Nous, we are going the Eco Wood route for firewood to boost our home heating.
This is a product made from wood processing waste. Essentially its super compacted sawdust that has been compressed into logs and bricks, There is far less moisture in the compressed sawdust than in traditional firewood so it burns hotter and cleaner than regular firewood and doesn't require the cutting down of more trees since it uses prexisting waste. So far I am liking them. No bugs in my house and less dirt though they do shed some sawdust when being taken out of their packaging. The catch quicker with less newspaper and kindling than regular wood and they burn hotter so my woodstove heats a bit faster with fewer logs. We have two types...so called Power Logs and the bigger slower burning Night Logs for sustaining the heat out put of the stove once the Power Logs have heated it up.
The logs contain no petroleum additives like paraffin to bind the sawdust unlike some similar products.
This is a product made from wood processing waste. Essentially its super compacted sawdust that has been compressed into logs and bricks, There is far less moisture in the compressed sawdust than in traditional firewood so it burns hotter and cleaner than regular firewood and doesn't require the cutting down of more trees since it uses prexisting waste. So far I am liking them. No bugs in my house and less dirt though they do shed some sawdust when being taken out of their packaging. The catch quicker with less newspaper and kindling than regular wood and they burn hotter so my woodstove heats a bit faster with fewer logs. We have two types...so called Power Logs and the bigger slower burning Night Logs for sustaining the heat out put of the stove once the Power Logs have heated it up.
The logs contain no petroleum additives like paraffin to bind the sawdust unlike some similar products.
Be Green Link
Here is a link to an excellent news program segment called Be Green . If you have a true interest in living a more sustainable lifestyle with lower impact on our Mother, you should check out the blog and the video segments!
There are great links and sources in the blog articles. Its excellent and Geeta is succinct, knowledgeable, and personable. If i had more than two thumbs I give them all up for Be Green.
There are great links and sources in the blog articles. Its excellent and Geeta is succinct, knowledgeable, and personable. If i had more than two thumbs I give them all up for Be Green.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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