Eco Green Tips

photo credit: Sid/Stephen

There are many ways, in which you can make your house smell refreshingly good and keep it safe for both your family and the environment since most of the conventional air fresheners use chemicals that can cause various health problems.

Here are a few tips for natural and green ways to freshen up your house:

Homemade potpourri—you can use nearly anything to make your own potpourri, e.g. dry flower petals, dry fruit (you can even dry it yourself by slicing the fruit, placing the slices on a cookie sheet and putting it in the 175 degree oven for a few hours), cinnamon sticks, cloves or pinecones. You can also spray the mixture with essential oil of your choice to make the scent even stronger.

Boiling herbs—this technique is one of the simplest and least expensive to make your house smell good. You can boil cinnamon sticks, lemon and orange leaves and peels, grapefruit peel, mint and vanilla, cloves and any other herb you like the scent of.

Homemade spray—mix lemon juice, vinegar, vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon, ginger, citrus juice (or peels) or herbs with water and pour into a pray bottle. Use when needed.

Essential oils—you can make satchels with cotton dabbed in your favorite oil and hang them around the house or simply place saturated cotton balls in various places, such as bathroom, kitchen, flower vases etc. You can also pour a small amount of oil into tiny clay pots, ceramic dishes etc. and place them around the house. They will give off a gentle lingering scent.

The rule of thumb here is your creativity is your limit and you can really try a lot of various thins and combinations until you find the scent and method that works best for you.

photo credit: Blush Response

Imagine a light bulb that is mercury-free and more energy efficient that the best CFLs available on the market. Well, this may well become reality pretty soon.

A Seattle based company, Vu1, has developed a new type of bulb, which is basically a flood-light that works similarly to the old-fashioned TV tubes but gives out brighter light. The technology was named Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) and it emits 40 lumens per watt, which equals a 65-watt incandescent bulb. The bulb consists of an integrated electron source, which discharges them to a phosphor-coated glass that, in turn, transforms the signals into bright light.

The company states that the new bulb will be available for sales on the Earth Day 2009 with the price range similar to the dimmable 65-watt incandescent light bulbs. Moreover, the fitting of the new bulb is the same as with any old-fashioned bulb so it does not require any adjustments. However, the most exciting feature of the ESL is its lifespan—an estimated 6000 hours per bulb (which is slightly less than the more expensive CFLs and considerably more that the regular incandescent bulb).

Thus, with the new technologies growingly available on the market these days it seems like there is hope for the eco-minded who don’t want to spend a fortune on green improvements…

One of the best ways to ensure the health and wellbeing of your family is to make your own household cleaners foregoing all the harmful chemicals present in the conventional cleaners. Below, you will find recipes for any and every cleaner necessary to keep your home sparkling clean.

What you will need:

Baking soda—speeds up cleaning time by reacting with water, vinegar and lemon with fizzing and providing grit for scrubbing

Borax—disinfects, bleaches and deodorizes

White vinegar—breaks up dirt and deodorizes

Hydrogen peroxide—good for disinfecting and bleaching

Lemons—excellent to remove grease

Olive oil—removes dust and dirt and polishes wood

All-purpose Cleaner
Mix ½ cup borax with 1 gallon hot water (or for smaller amounts 1/8 cup borax with 1 quart of hot water) until all the borax is dissolved. Use fro removing dirt with a clean rag or cloth.

Floor Cleaner
Wood—mix 1/4 cup white vinegar with 1 gallon warm water; mop as usual.
Linoleum—mix 1 cup white vinegar and 2 gallons warm water.

Bathroom Cleaners
Toilet Bowl—to clean and deodorize, dust with baking soda, add white vinegar and scrub with a toilet brush.
Tub, Shower, Tile—put half of lemon into borax to make a sort of scrubber. Clean the dirty areas; rinse and dry afterward.

Kitchen Cleaners
Countertops—scrub with half a lemon dipped in borax. Follow with a glass cleaner (below) and wipe dry.
Oven—sprinkle with baking soda and spray with water; leave on overnight or for a few hours; wipe clean with a cloth.

Glass Cleaner
Mix ¼ cup vinegar or 1 Tbsp of lemon juice with 2 cups of water in a spray bottle.

Drain
Add baking soda and vinegar to a pot of boiling water, pour the mixture down the drain and flush.

Furniture Polish
Mix ½ cup vinegar with 1 teaspoon olive oil (inexpensive brand will do the job as well) and wipe with a clean rag. Reduce the amount of oil if the furniture is too oily.

Metal Polish
Stainless Steel—apply baking soda with a damp cloth; use the vinegar to remove spots
Copper & Brass—mix 2 Tbsp of salt with vinegar until you create paste; add some flour to reduce abrasiveness. Apply with a soft rag.

Laundry
As a great natural bleach alternative, use ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide per load of laundry.

If you need more information on eco-friendly cleaning solution, go to “The Best Natural Cleaning Agents” and “The Many Uses of Vinegar”.

photo credit: janiejonesmt

The scientists report that the Midwestern moose are dying in alarming rates; in the last two decades their numbers reduced from over 4000 to just a few hundred. And most scientists agree that the main cause for their depleting numbers is the climate change.

In the last four decades the winter temperatures in the Midwest have risen about 12 degrees, which does not fair well for the animals. While the moose is not on the endangered species list in the US, they are in real danger of disappearing altogether in about 50 years, scientists say. In Lake Superior, for instance, there are only about 650 of them (down from 2500 in 1995) and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula counts only 450.

While some animals, such as deer, wolves and bears, adapt to the rising temperatures, moose have to struggle to find food and shelter to keep them cool, which, according to scientists, affects their immune system, makes them susceptible to parasites and slows down their putting on fat in the summer (necessary fro the animals to survive the winters). Because moose require shade, cool weather and water to thrive, the steady rise in temperatures will have dire consequences not only for the animals themselves but the ecosystems where moose are found as well.

Unfortunately, studies have shown that unlike other species, moose do not simply move to higher altitudes, which would allow them to survive. Instead they simply die out in alarming rate. What makes the problem even graver, is the fact that stopping climate change altogether may not be quite possible and slowing it down does not happen fast enough. At least for the moose native to the American Midwest.

Millions of women use nylon pantyhose every day around the world and nearly as many pairs end up in the garbage as soon as they rip (which happens fairly quickly), adding to the waste we accumulate. However, there are many (perhaps not 1001 but quite a few) ways nylon can be recycled and here are some tips for reusing this oh-so-common material:

1. Put potpourri in the nylon stocking or a cut-off pantyhose leg, tie it and put in the dryer for a great smelling load of laundry.

2. Put some kitty litter or baking soda in the stocking, tie it off and use for a shoe deodorant and odor killer.

3. Rolling the nylon into a ball can serve as a gentle cleaning sponge for tubs and sinks.

4. If you have an itchy wool sweater, you can line the inside of the sleeves with the legs of the pantyhose; it will prevent the irritating effect of the wool on your skin.

5. Use nylon for straining lumpy paint or other liquids.

6. Nylon can be used as a vegetable or fruit net or for tying plants to a stake.

7. Putting leftover pieces of soap into a stocking or a cut-off leg of pantyhose will get you some more use of the soap.

8. Use a stocking as a scent packet for your draws, closets or bathrooms by filling it with your favorite potpourri, cinnamon or lavender.

9. Stuffing a part of the pantyhose leg and tying it off makes a great toy for your kids or pets.

10. Nylon is also great for polishing floors, shoes or furniture.

11. You can use nylon pieces instead of cotton balls to remove nail polish.

12. To keep your hair brush clean, place a piece of nylon over the bristles and push down. Use as normal and when the rush gets dirty, remove the nylon layer and replace with a new one.

There are many more uses for nylon stockings and ripped pantyhose and your own creativity is the limit here. So next time you have some nylon you would otherwise throw away, think about other ways you can use it.