I Can’t Remember

Since the end of March they’ve given me: two colds, a horrible virus(flu?), a sinus infection, tonsillitis, a fungal rash (don’t ask), and strep. Now I have mono, which isn’t their fault, since I caught it in grad school. It just reoccurs when your immune system has been beaten into submission by something else.

The good news is that the children haven’t really been slowed down by any of these things–although they make me tired just watching them run around.

Which all brings me, in a round about way, to thinking about “Healthy Homes.” (Since I’m the only one sick, and all the asthma and allergy-ridden ones are all fine, my house is at least healthy, right?)

A “Healthy Home” is not a germ-free one. Normally. There are germs everywhere. Only a few make us ill, so trying to “kill all the germs” is inefficient.
Besides anything that can “kill all the germs” isn’t good for us usually.
Bleach, for instance, will “kill all the germs” but it also kills the indoor air quality and has been linked to cancer, which kills us.

After crawling out of bed from my latest illness, I have cleaned every time.
And since not everyone has gotten ill, and I haven’t been re-infected with the same thing (always something new–aren’t they running out yet?), I must have done a good job.
But no bleach, no ammonia, no non-Earth-friendly cleaners.

The sheets and towels are washed in hot water, and I’ve added Vinegar to the rinse cycle for added germ-killing. The countertops, kitchen table, desk, etc have all been wiped down with an eco-friendly surface cleaner. The phone, doorknobs, sink handles, and light switches have been wiped down also. And the toilet and shower cleaned.

Wait, didn’t I just say that a “Healthy Home” isn’t germ-free and we shouldn’t try to kill all the germs?

What’s the difference?
The difference is that had I used bleach yesterday, it would still be working on the germs and my children today. The safer cleaners worked on the existing germs–some of which I knew were harmful since I had just been ill–but did not stay around.
Safe cleaners are safe for you to come into contact with (no gloves needed) and are safe for the environment by not being an endemic enviro-cide.

Germicide, fungicide, pesticide?
“-icide” means it’s deadly.
So don’t use any of those things if you want a “Healthy Home.”

Technorati Tags: clean, germs, healthy home, ill, sick, sterilize

Just let me highly recommend that everyone read Myscha Theriault’s post on Wisebread entitled ” When Going Green is Classy.”

If the masses thought green was chic, everyone would be trying to be green.

When decorating your living room, consider what you use the room for first, then decorative elements like the scale, color, and texture of the walls, floor, and furnishings.

USE
What do you use your living room for? Is it only used for entertaining guests, or does it double as your family’s living space? Who uses the room most and how do they use it? Can multiple people use it at the same time? If your teen takes up the whole room playing video games while the rest of the family congregates in the breakfast room, it is time to put the television in an out of the way corner with a comfortable chair close to it, and add a card or tea table and chairs near the couch for the rest of the family to use. Avoid putting a television where it dominates the space or where people have to walk in front of it if the living room is used for any activities besides television watching.

Include furnishings for all of the activities, and storage for accessories. Make sure there is convenient and accessible storage for remotes, toys and magazines. Consider other family members activities. Does someone sit in the living room and knit? Place a small blanket chest beside the chair they sit in. Do you eat in the room? Make sure the tables are high enough and free of knick knacks. Does someone read the paper or do crosswords? Make sure the coffee or end table has drawer space. Clip coupons on the couch? Make sure you have a safe place to stash the scissors. Does someone do work or play puzzles? Add a small table and chair in the corner of the room or behind the sofa.

SCALE
The scale of furnishings in the room can make your living room seem cozy or expansive, no matter how large the room really is. Large items to fill up the space if you want a cozy room that will envelop the occupants. Small lighter or more delicate items will make the room seem more expansive. A short sofa with a tall painting over it makes the room appear to have higher ceilings, as do curtains that fall all the way from the ceiling to the floor. A smaller lamp makes the table it sits on seem larger, while a large floor lamp next to a normal-sized chair can make it seem more petite. Experiment with mixing different sized furnishings and accessories to emphasize different features of the objects.

COLOR
Color is the easiest and most inexpensive aspect of a room to change. Wall can be painted, furniture slip-covered, and accessories swapped for those elsewhere in your home or attic. The colors in a room can even be rotated seasonally by switching out slips, rugs, pillows and decorative items. Darker colors are more dramatic and can make a room seem smaller. Lighter colors, even warmer ones, can make the space seem larger and cooler. Yes, pastels, even on the “warm” side of the color wheel (like orange, yellow, and red) can make a room seem cooler. Think of Southwestern style and you imagine plaster wall in warm pastel hues. These colors actually cool off the space. Color combinations can indicate a decorating style. Blue and yellow is country style, while blue and burgundy is formal or colonial. Check out the paint chips with color combinations on them in the paint store and use them for inspiration.

TEXTURE
Texture is the most forgotten element of any room. The texture of the walls and furnishings can influence the perception of the room’s style and climate. Slick fabrics can be seem formal, and also more cool. Nubby fabrics convey the feeling of warmth, and are usually more casual. A highly textured wall is more casual, while a slick wallpapered or mirrored wall is more formal. Combining smooth and texture surfaces in a room can create a variety of styles. Combine smooth metallic surfaces with furry ones for a modern feel. A chenille sofa can be dressed up with smooth throw pillows or dressed down with a woolen throw. An unadorned wood or smooth laminate floor coveys simplicity, while a carpeted floor layered with rugs and throws conveys luxury and warmth.

By considering your living room’s purpose first and style second, you will ensure that your family can enjoy a living room that is as usable as it is beautiful.

Technorati Tags: color, decorat, living room, scale, style, texture, use

That’s “eco” as in economical as well as “eco” as in eco-friendly.

Have you price Thanksgiving dinner? Made as list of everything you’d need to cook everything from scratch and added it up?

It’s cheaper to cater it.
No, really!
And while you’re at it, cater it from your local (or not so local) eco-friendly market. Do the whole dinner, or just part.
I’ll be cooking a local, free-range grass-fed turkey, and then ordering all my sides from Whole Foods.

Crazy, but true!

Technorati Tags: eco, economical, environment, Thanksgiving dinner

If the thought of making own cleaners is causing you to have bad flashbacks to high school chemistry, rest easy. The easiest way to make cleaners is to not mix anything! The best cleaners are baking soda, vinegar, and plain old soap. Do not mix vinegar and baking soda together: that will really remind you of chemistry class!

Baking Soda
Baking soda is your scouring powder. Scrub off dried on goop with it. Add it to your laundry as a fabric softener. Use it a carpet deodorizer. Dump it down your drain. Use it to soak up grease and anywhere there’s a bad smell. If you must mix, mix it with water to create a cleaning paste.

Vinegar
Vinegar is your liquid cleaner. It shines stainless steel better than any commercial product you can buy. Plastics were first used to contain acids, so acids like vinegar clean anything plastic better than base cleaners like ammonia and bleach. Vinegar can be used as a color-safe bleach to remove stains from fabrics and carpets–but be sure to test for color-fastness in an inconspicuous spot first! Soak a cloth in vinegar and leave it in place to remove stains from linoleum. Mix vinegar with water to clean glass: but realize that the first time you use it on your windows the vinegar will be removing the film left behind by other cleaners. Until this film is completely removed, your windows may streak. But vinegar will leave your windows streak-free. As a bonus, vinegar can be used to make your hair shiny: just rinse your hair with diluted white or apple-cider vinegar!

Pure soap
Need a “soft scrub”-type cleaner and vinegar and baking soda won’t work? Use soap. Just plain glycerin soap. It will not lather up very well, especially if you have hard water; detergents lather up well, but they are not as safe. Remember high school chemistry and all the silly-looking safety equipment you had to wear? Put away your gloves: pure soap is a gentle cleaner that can cut through most greasy messes without you having to worry about keeping it off your skin. Use pure soap on laundry stains and you will be amazed that you ever spent money on so-called “stain removers.” Shave off a little bit of the bar of glycerin soap and dissolve it in a little water to create a cleaner to use on easily-scratched surfaces.

Best of all, these natural cleaning products are as economical as they are safe, unlike detergents, bleaches, ammonias, and alcohols. Safe for you, safe for your family, and safe for the environment. And, oh, so easy to use, too!

Technorati Tags: cleaner, eco, frugal, home

The Christmas house starts on October 1st now.
You know the “Christmas house”: the one in your neighborhood that you can see from a mile away. The one you give directions from: “you know the Christmas house? well we live…”

Halloween decorations are big business. Retailers can make a killing selling you plastic, disposable junk that you need to buy every year to keep up with the Jones. Durn those Jones!! Don’t give in!! If you’re feeling weak, don’t go to the drugstore… or grocery store…or even the hardware store!?!!

Decorations are fine. There’s nothing wrong with being festive. But decorate in an eco-friendly manner.

Outdoors, use permanent, non-disposable decorations. Buy only ones you love and keep them forever. Make sure they’re sturdy. (bonus: this will end up costing less and looking more classy!)

Use decorations made from more natural materials, like wood, metal, and cloth. Try not to get ones made out of plastic or styrofoam. Of course, if you already have plastic ones, I’m not advocating tossing them in the landfill. Just don’t encourage this endemic wasting of our limited petroleum resources to make junk by buying any more.

For inside, have your kids make some that are biodegradable. Make them out of paper and cotton balls and then compost them when Halloween’s over. Don’t forget to compost the jack-o-lantern! (check the heap for pumpkin seedlings, these can be potted up and transplanted: pumpkins in January if you live in a warm climate, and interesting houseplants if you live up North!)

Get decorations that can be used for more than one holiday: scarecrows and pumpkins are good for Thanksgiving, too. Those giant lollipops for Christmas can be covered with white cloth and moonlight as ghosts. Get a Halloween flag that will fit on the same flagpole as the one you use for national holidays. Be creative.

Whatever you do, don’t plug in your decorations!!!
Ban the string lights and giant balloons with the motors to keep them inflated!
Put beeswax candles in your pumpkins—this is Halloween!

Technorati Tags: decorat, eco, enviro, Family, Halloween, holiday, ideas

I try to buy products that are: non-toxic, eco-friendly, organic, local, union-made (or at least fair-trade.)

But sometimes all I can find are major brands.

I just found this cool site: Climate Counts.
The site measures the impact on global warming that major brands have.
I was surprised to see that Unilever scored fairly well.
So when I can’t find organic or locally-made mayo, I’ll buy Hellman’s instead of Kraft (Kraft scored pretty bad.)

Combined with my favorite shopping review site, Responsible Shopper (which grades companies on environmental impact, fair-trade practices, ethics, etc.), I know that I’m not supporting companies whose practices are against my beliefs.

Remember, the US is a consumer culture, and what we do and do not buy influences the decision makers more than what we say.
Talking the talk is fine, but walking the walk is more important.