Household staples

As a bit of a detour, here are some great things you can do with items that may already be in your house. Not all are about cleaning your home, but they're about cleaning something!


Olive Oil
-Shine stainless steel
-Cleanse your skin- combine 50/50 with caster oil to use the "oil cleansing method". (Read more) (It's also great for removing eye makeup.)
-Prevent wax from sticking to a candle holder (rub a thin coat on your holder before lighting a candle.)
-Unstick a zipper
-Moisturize your cuticles
-Dust wooden furniture (apply to a microfiber cloth and rub gently.)
-Reduce door squeaking (apply a little to a cloth and wipe the top of the hinges so that oil runs down the sides.)


Baking soda
-Erase crayon, pencil, ink, and scuffs from painted surfaces (sprinkle a bit on a damp sponge, rub the stain, then rinse.)
-Unclog a drain (1/2-1 cup baking soda down the drain, then 1/2-1 cup white vinegar after it. Let sit for 5 minutes, covered if possible, and then follow with a gallon of boiling water.)
-Exfoliate skin and "wash" hair (try mixing with water beforehand for a kind-of-shampoo, follow with a rinse of appple cider vinegar. Otherwise known as the "no 'poo method." Google it, seriously.)
-Scrub pans
-Remove stains from enameled cast iron and "stainless" steel (For the cast iron, create a thick paste of baking soda and water, then scrub with a soft nylon brush. For stainless steel clean with a soft cloth and 4 tbsp of baking soda dissolved in 1 quart of water. Dry with clean cloth.)

White Vinegar
-Remove coffee and tea stains from cups (Soak for lengthy periods of time if the stain is bad, otherwise switch 2 tbsp vinegar in the cup and then wash as usual.)
-Clean your dishwasher (once/month run white vinegar through an empty dishwasher. You can do this less often if you're worried about the water waste, or you can think of it as a way to keep your dishwasher in good shape, which is eco-friendly.)
-Clean a teakettle or coffee maker (warning, tell your significant other or roommate first. My poor husband made himself tea while I was soaking the teakettle once. Mmmm vinegar green tea. Anyway, boil a mixture of water and vinegar in a teakettle, then wipe away any grime. Some folks advise you to then let the w.v. mixture sit overnight. To clean a coffeemaker, create a mixture of water and vinegar and run it through a brewing cycle. Follow with as many plain water cycles as you need to remove the vinegar taste. It only took one water cycle the last time I did this.)
-Remove price tags or stickers (let the sticker soak in the vinegar for at least 5 minutes.)
-Deodorize a garbage disposal (make vinegar ice cubes and feed them to your disposal. Run plain water down the drain after this. I also throw lemon and lime pieces down there whenever I can.)
-Replace Jet Dry in your dishwasher (*nod* to the reader who pointed this out.)
-Mix 50/50 with water and use to clean glass and mirrors
-Apply via spray bottle to bathroom faucets and scrub with a toothbrush (not your own or the brush of anyone you like.)


Hey, I baked amazing lemon-zest frosted coffee spice muffins last night. For the recipe (which is vegan if you use the proper margarine), check here (my personal blog.)

Autumn Potpourri

So I am making a homemade autumnal potpourri this weekend. Poor potpourri, it has such a bad reputation. All of those awful bags of prepackaged potpourri left out in grandma's house with their weird perfume that gets up your nose. I actually love the word potpourri. I like to sprinkle it about in conversation- i.e. "that was a strange potpourri of sounds." I also seem to recall from French class that it means "rotten pot."

Anyway, I am using a recipe from Naturally Clean Home again:

2 cups dried apple slices (I simply bought these)
1 cup bay leaves
1 cup sage
1/2 cup chopped (not peeled) gingerroot
1/2 cup whole cloves
8 1-inch cinnamon sticks

and am combining them in a glass jar. Basically, you shake the jar daily for about a month until it smells right to you, and then either display it nicely or simmer it in water. It also is lovely added to pillows or sachets.
I found an apple wood bowl on etsy to display it in. I'll have extra so I can think up other crazy things to do with it. I may work on a holiday mix to give to friends come this winter, but I suspect most of my friends and family aren't as scent-driven as I am.

(I don't have the glass jar yet. Sadly, I was just at Home Depot and Target today and I forgot.)

EFP's Natural Spa Dish Soap

Earth Friendly Products has a line of "Personal Care Products." These are deluxe essential-oil scented hand and dish soaps, hand lotion, and linen "water" (aka product you spray on fabrics before ironing them.) I recently scooped up the dish soap in "Black Currant". I've used a lot of scented dish soaps recently, but this is the one that smells the strongest and is the most pleasant. I haven't gotten to scrub any really tough items (no over-microwaved tamales this week), but I did notice that my hands were less dry after using this.

I kind of like their caddy, actually. You know how water collects around your soap dispensers by the sink and you get dirt under there and bottle-marks? Er... I use "you" generously here. I could perhaps be assuming too much. Ahem. Anyway, if I could take for granted that most hand and soap bottles would fit nicely next to each other in that thing, I'd get it. I kinda wonder if Earth Friendly Products' standard dish soap bottles will fit.

I like the essential oil descriptions featured on the left column of the site. I'm a big enough aromatherapy nerd that I knew all of these (heck, I have half of the EO bottles mentioned in my house), but it's fun to think about lemongrass dish soap helping to revive me on a daily basis.

(They sure need to redesign their website however. Were I in the design business any longer I'd offer. It doesn't do them justice.)

Anyone tried the hand lotion? I'm using Desert Essence's Spicy Orange hand lotion right now, but as it smells nothing like oranges (or spice, for that matter), it won't be a repeat buy. (On a total tangent, their pistachio foot cream is lovely, however.)

Caldrea Holiday Samples

Reader Twynk wrote in (I just had to say that. It makes me feel like I have more than two readers ;) ) to tell me that Caldrea has an offer right now whereby if you sign up for their holiday email list they'll send you three free scent-samples.

I love that eco-friendly products have been on top of the aromatherapeutic cleaning concept. I'm sure I've mentioned that before. I am definitely motivated by scent, so this is a good thing. If you walk down the isles of your drugstore or standard supermarket, most mainstream products are barely even there yet. Indeed, I'm sure my parents (for example) would find the idea of cleaning with something that smelled of pomegranate unnecessarily decadent. What's more, I'm sure they'd suspect it of being ineffective. The trininty in their house has always been "Soft Scrub-Comet-Windex", with every kitchen surface cleaned by sponge and water (my mind recoils at the germs... but I'm odd.)

The whole "holiday scent kit" is something I've covered before. Both Method and Mrs. Meyers have been on top of that. It looks like Caldrea has rolled up its sleeves and is getting in on the action (considering Mrs. Meyers gingerbread cleaning kits were sold out everywhere last winter, it's a safe experiment.)

Anyway, some of my favorite scent concoctions come from Caldrea (at least in name, I haven't tried many) so we'll see what they come up with.

Earth Friendly Products Wave Jet

Hello green cleaners! Every time I log in I see a notice asking me if I'd like to place targeted google ads in my blog. I have to admit, I'm curious (for my sake) what they'd turn up. So, if you are at some point subjected to ads upon visiting me, my curiosity got the better of me.

Onward, Earth Friendly Products makes a dishwasher product called Wave Jet that's essentially just like Jet Dry. The idea is to eliminate spots and residue and make your glasses sparkle (it goes with your sparkly TV commercial teeth. What, you don't have those? Me neither.) All dishwashers I've been blessed with since my second apartment (prior to 2002 I lived only in apartments with dishwashers that led me to hand wash my dishes) have had a reservoir for this product, labeled conveniently with the Jet Dry™ brand name. Are there no other rinse aid brands?

I used Jet Dry in one apartment where the water was particularly hard and liked the results. When I switched to natural cleaning products I was going to indifferently do without, when I spied this product. I've used it for a couple of years and it's always lived up to its claims. One thing I'm never quite sure about is when to stop pouring the Wave Jet into the reservoir (I go with- when it starts to overflow) and how to know when to refill it (I go with- when I remember.)

I've never had London-hard water, but I'd still advise those looking for sparklier dishes with little effort to give this a shot. Sometimes I toss some borax in with my dishwasher detergent (in one of the additional cups) for fun too. Yes, for fun. ;)

If you've tried this, I'd love to know how it's worked for you. I've used it in two dishwashers, in two states, but these things can be subjective.

Method hand soaps

Ok, I'm going to cover a bunch of Method hand soaps in one post because I've tried several on my own, and at friends' houses. I haven't tried the foaming hand washes at all, actually, but I've got the others covered.

My most recent Method hand soap purchase was the creamy hand wash in "almond flower". I've mentioned my scent junkie status before, so I'll just say that I was hoping this would be kind of a pale marzipan scent. Alas, it smells rather of dryer sheets and/or nondescript flowers. I have really dry skin, so much so that when I wash my hands I almost immediately have to run for the lotion. I was hoping something touted as creamy and moisturizing would end my unlucky streak. Alas, it seems even more drying on my skin than even the regular method hand soaps. I'm confused. I'm also annoyed that I didn't order the "olive leaf" version instead.

The texture of this soap is admittedly really nice. It's almost like a lotion. The little square bottle almost makes me forget my plans to get a soap dispenser for the guest bathroom (the plastic label cover comes off and is recyclable.)

The regular hand washes have been a staple in my home since I bought that holiday three-pack reviewed earlier. I've tried green tea, pink grapefruit, cucumber, and the holiday trilogy. They're just okay... essentially not much better in my experience from a more pleasantly scented SoftSoap (what my family used when I was growing up.) I am curious to try the "Sea Minerals" scent, as it's gotten many good reviews, but most of Method's scents are pale and overly synthetic to this nitpicky nose. "Green Tea" scented products never smell like green tea to me- and if they did most people would probably wrinkle their nose and complain that they'd accidentally bought a "lawn clippings" scented product. Sounds good to me. Anyway, it's nice when companies actually manage to work tea into their products for functional or scent reasons, but the method green tea is just synthetic, and a weird interpretation at that.

(I must try the Burts Bees "Green Tea and Lemongrass" hand soap to see how it compares. That actually contains green tea "oil".)

I might be persuaded to buy one of the foaming hand soaps, or even to give the olive leaf creamy one a try, but for the most part I'm pretty soured on method's hand soaps. Actually, I'm falling out of like with the company in general. I'm just not impressed with the formulas compared to other brands/my own homemade goods.

Heather's Concentrated Oxygen Bleach Cleanser

Before leaving our last apartment, I really wanted to try to tackle some of the stains we'd created that I hadn't been able to remove with my arsenal of products. Nothing took them out, and I didn't want to resort to buying Clorox or Soft Scrub. After buying and returning a couple of products, I saw a slim canister tucked among the offerings at my local Whole Foods. "Heather's Concentrated Oxygen Bleach Cleanser" it said on the label, and promised to be chlorine-free, natural (oh that vague term), and "safer around kids, pets, and the environment." I nabbed the can and rushed home to try it.

First was the kitchen counter- my husband's iron teapot had left stains on it that wouldn't budge. I dampened the spots and sprinkled the powder onto them ("Comet" style), and then ran upstairs to do the same for the bath tub stains (too many fancy bath bombs, not enough prompt cleaning.) By the time I came back down to the kitchen to wipe away the cleaner, it had worked! Goodbye stains! Perhaps I used a bit too much in both cases, but I didn't care. The bath tub was a little more difficult, but the stains at least faded.

In my new apartment I have used this stuff on the stall shower floor. I wait until post-shower so the floor is damp, and then go to town. I have noticed the floor is whiter after I apply this stuff, but I think nothing can help that shower floor (god I hate it. My bathrooms need to be pristine or I get severely grossed out.)

Um, my nuttiness aside, this is a great product. It doesn't remove everything, but it tackles plenty of stains that other eco-friendly products don't even make a dent in.
I want to try the Basin, Tub & Tile Cleaner, and they offer a "trial size" pack so you can sample their product offerings without a big commitment.