Natural Home Products

As winter recedes and the sun begins to shine, more people are enjoying the outdoors.  This is a great time to start your spring cleaning; tidy up your yard, do a little pruning in the garden, and scrub the dirt and grime from your porch or sundeck.  Your home and gutters may also need a little scrubbing to brighten up your home.  When cleaning outdoors it is important to choose an all natural cleaning product that will not harm your grass or landscaping, and will not harm the environment as it gets washed down the drain.

There are many effective, environmentally friendly, all natural cleaning products available on the market today.  Many of these natural cleaning products are non-toxic, biodegradable, and made from renewable resources (not petroleum).  Most dirt can be washed away with a little water and some scrubbing; add a little natural soap and baking soda for the gritty stuff.  When dealing with mould or tough dirt and grime, you may need to choose a tough cleaning, but all natural, general purpose cleaner or a natural oxygenated bleach.  Natural oxygenated bleach contains high concentrations of sodium percarbonate (a natural mineral bleaching agent) and is an environmentally and ecologically safe alternative to chlorine bleach products.  Whatever the job at hand, choosing safe, natural cleaning products will get the job done without harming your grass, landscaping, or the environment.   Natural cleaning products are safe to use , safe for your family and they will leave your home looking fresh and clean.

Today’s well stocked kitchen comes with many modern conveniences and a lot of high end cooking equipment.  Storing everything you need for your well stocked kitchen is another matter entirely.  One thing a person can never have enough of is kitchen storage space!

Every kitchen has some key areas were you may need to maximize storage. Drawer organizers are a necessity for every kitchen, keeping silverware and odds and ends neatly arranged and accessible.  And don’t let your food storage containers take over your kitchen, use nestable and stackable glass storage containers to keep things healthy and simple.  Glass storage containers, such as Pyrex, are a great choice because they are multifunctional, going from fridge or freezer, to the oven or microwave, and straight to the table.  Other great storage ideas include baker’s racks, hanging fruit baskets, recipe boxes, and spice racks.  Appliance garages have also become popular as home owners strive to keep blenders, mixers, juicers and other small appliances covered and out of sight. In today’s modern home, there is no question that adequate kitchen storage is essential, no matter the size of the kitchen.

The bleak colors of winter can have us all craving a little more color in our lives.  Some bright red will get your heart warming; some relaxing greens; or some bright and sunny yellows to brighten up your mood.  The psychology of color is fascinating.  Color can affect how we feel, it can impact our moods, and it can literally set a tone (or palette if you’d like) that colors the backdrop of our day. 

Adding a little color to your home can help to set the appropriate mood. And while color choice is a very personal matter, being aware of the impact that color has on your mood can help you to pick just the right color for your indoor space. Yellow colors are warm and welcoming, in an attention- getting way. Green is a relaxing color that instils calmness.  While Red instils feelings of intimacy and passion it also packs a wallop, physiologically speaking, increasing blood pressure, heartbeat, energy and appetite in most people. Orange, like red, tends to warm, but in a friendlier, welcoming way. Blue is part of the cool color palette and makes us feel calm and tranquil and blue can be an appetite suppressant. Purple is a tricky color, psychologically speaking. Many adults dislike purples (being more fond of the rose family of colors) while young children, on the other hand, respond favourably to violet.

Choosing color to add to your room is a very personal matter.  You can add a lot of color to a room by painting and decorating, or you may just want to add a splash of color with accessories.  Add colour by placing a colourful vase and flowers in your dining room, some new bamboo towels in the bathroom, maybe even a colourful bedspread will help to set the mood. Be aware of the impact that color can have on your mood before you pick up that paint brush or purchase your accessories and you can set the appropriate mood for your indoor space.

While it may get your whites whiter, chlorine bleach is hardly a healthy product to use.  Chlorine bleach, also known as sodium hypochlorite, is a highly caustic product that can cause eye, nose, and skin irritation, and can be fatal if swallowed.  And, when Chlorine is mixed with other cleaning products, the chemical reaction can be hazardous. Toxic chloramines gases are formed when chlorine is mixed with cleaning products that contain ammonia, and toxic chlorine gases are formed when chlorine is mixed with acids such as those found in most toilet bowl cleaners.  Chlorine Bleach is responsible for a variety of environmental issues.  When released into waterways, chlorine bleach can create organochlorines (a reproductive, neurological, and immune system toxin and suspected carcinogen) and contaminate drinking water.   While most detergents use sodium perborate, another common type of bleach; sodium perborate is also a skin, eye and respiratory irritant and is dangerous if ingested.

The good news is that there are better ways to bleach.  There are many common, safe products that you can use for natural whitening and brightening.  According to The National Geographic’s Green Guide you can boost your detergent’s cleaning power and remove odours by  adding one half cup of baking soda or washing soda (two related minerals) along with your detergent.  You can remove stubborn stains by soaking fabrics in water mixed with borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, or white vinegar.  National Geographic suggests that when you are choosing store-bought whiteners, look for products labelled “non-chlorine bleach”.  Look for alternatives that contain either hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate (an environmentally-friendly mixture of washing soda and hydrogen peroxide).  Choosing natural cleaners with safe ingredients is a healthy choice; healthy for you to use and safe for the environment.

Reducing our waste is one step in reducing our footprint on Mother Earth.  Initiatives to reduce, reuse, and recycle have made great strides towards a more sustainable and positive future.  And with many communities providing recycling programs, it is easier to participate in effective recycling projects.  But our efforts to curb our waste need to be broader than just insuring that the glass, plastic, cardboard, newsprint and paper are sorted and picked up by the recycling truck.   There are many more ways to contribute to broad, positive, and sustaining efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Making sustainable initiatives easy to follow is the key to participation. Here are a few tips that can help you to reduce, reuse and recycle:

1. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it! No, really!
2. Avoid disposable items where alternatives exist. In many cities, you can also take advantage of many container re-fill programs.
3. Re-use products (ie glass jars) and repair home products, whenever possible, instead of buying new. Also, when buying new products assess your options for buying without excess packaging.
4. Reduce waste by compositing and recycling. Having recycling recepticles nearby will make recycling easy. An old ice cream bucket in the freezer can hold kitchen scraps (without the smell) until they make it out to the compost bin. Having separate containers in your kitchen for recycled newspapers, paper, cardboard, tins and glass will make your recycling job easier. If space is a constraint, consider an upright recycling bin next to the garbage so that you will be less likely to toss out a recyclable item, then you can sort your recycling when the time is available.
5. Buy recycled products. Look for products and packaging made from recycled materials, they are widely available in everything from toilet tissue to office supplies. Consider buying re-cycled eco-friendly gift wrapping, or gently used clothing or recycled building supplies.

 Now, more than ever, recycling is accessible, affordable and easy.  Recycling can have a positive and sustaining impact on the environment, so keep your eyes open for the Recycle Symbol on products you buy. Be eco-minded and asses your product choices, and think of recycling alternatives before you throw something away.

While many laundry detergents promise “safe” and “gentle” cleaning and a “fresh” scent, experts have raised the red flag on many of the ingredients contained in conventional laundry detergents, suspecting them of causing short term health risks and of causing long-term harm.  Conventional laundry products contain a range of chemical compounds that can irritate your skin and eyes, trigger allergic reactions or asthma, and damage the environment.  While there are a lack of long-term studies on these cleaning compounds, scientists suspect that some of these chemicals cause cancer, while others disrupt the endocrine system and can interfere with human and wildlife reproductive health.   Some of the chemical compounds you should avoid in laundry detergents include:

Chlorine – found primarily in laundry bleach, but is also found in some detergents, chlorine vapours are known to irritate the lungs, eyes, and mucous membranes and can trigger respiratory disorders and damage the environment.

Optical brighteners - used to brighten or whiten fabrics, many optical brighteners come from benzene, a highly toxic compound and carcinogen that can cause allergic reactions when it comes into contact with the skin.  It is also harmful to wildlife and the environment.

Surfactants –  these compounds create the bubbles and suds in laundry detergents. The most commonly used surfactants, alkyl phenol ethoxylates (APEs) are classified as endocrine disruptors.

Fragrances -  the chemicals that give conventional laundry detergents their fresh scent can irritate skin, cause allergic reactions and trigger asthma.  Some ingredients are known carcinogens and many fragrances contain Phthalates, and should be avoided.

There are healthier alternatives to these chemical compounds.  Instead of chlorine, look for a natural laundry detergent containing Hydrogen Peroxide, which breaks down into water and oxygen, or that uses Sodium Percarbonate, made by combining hydrogen peroxide with sodium carbonate (a nontoxic mineral).  These healthier alternatives brighten your whites as effectively as chlorine, without the negative health or environmental implications. Instead of optical brightening chemicals, choose a product using natural enzyme cultures to remove stains safely. Also, a detergent using surfactants derived from corn, coconut, and soy to create gentle sudsing action will have much less impact on the environment and human health.  Look for an unscented natural cleaning products or if you prefer a naturally scented laundry detergent look for a product containing natural essential oils or citrus oils to add a fresh, light scent to your laundry. While some natural laundry products cost a bit more than conventional brands, they are well worth it.  High quality, natural laundry detergents will provide a healthy cleaning, leaving your clothes both fresh and clean.

A new crop of fabrics being made from unconventional materials such as bamboo, soy, and hemp are emerging and as awareness grows about cotton’s downsides, these unconventional fabrics are garnering more attention.  Fabrics produced from hemp have long captured the eco-minded consumer’s imagination, being cultivated for use in clothing and other products for thousands of years.  While hemp requires few, if any, insecticides or herbicides to grow and produces long, strong fibres suitable for clothing and other products, hemp production remains heavily regulated in the U.S.  Consequently, most hemp grown for cloth is imported from China and Eastern Europe, and the price for most hemp goods remains relatively high.

Of the new fabrics to emerge, bamboo has perhaps garnered the most attention.  Bamboo has become a popular fabric, not only because of its sustainability (bamboo requires few, if any, pesticides to grow) but also because of its versatility.  With a surprising softness and sheen, bamboo fabric is popular with a number of innovative clothing designers, who are incorporating bamboo fabric into everything from t-shirts to designer dresses. The naturally antibacterial, quick-drying, absorbent bamboo material also lends itself well to a variety of athletic wear.  And bamboo’s surprising softness and sheen makes it a popular choice for many household products, from bamboo bed sheets, to bamboo bath towels and table linens.

A less common, but equally promising material is soy fabric.  Developed in China in 1999, soy fabric is still primarily in its developmental stages.  Soy fibres are created by extracting proteins from the remainders of tofu production and fusing these proteins with organic compounds to create a fibre strong enough to be spun into yarn.  While the soy fabric’s use is limited, the soybean fibre is beginning to appear in items like socks, sheets, and yoga clothing.  The use of soy fabric and the development of other such unconventional fabrics will continue to expand as the demand for more earth friendly materials continues to grow.

As the amount and variety of chemical compounds used for household cleaning continues to grow, so to should our concern for the increasing contamination to our environment.  As greater varieties of synthetic industrial and household chemicals are being developed and are being used more frequently, the environment is becoming increasingly contaminated by the pollution these chemicals create.  The synthetic chemicals made today do not easily break down into the harmless bits of organic matter that other natural materials do.  Instead, they resist decomposition, and once these persistent chemicals are introduced into our air, water, and soil, they remain in the environment for longer periods of time and accumulate in increasingly greater amounts.

 In our efforts to provide a safe and clean home, we are unintentionally adding chemicals to our environment faster than our environment, and Mother Nature, can break them down and remove them.  The accumulation of persistent household chemicals in our environment is growing rapidly, and people are encountering higher amounts of unseen chemical pollution much more often in the course of daily life.  If we do not want this increasing toxic load to be this generation’s legacy, we must reduce our use of these chemical compounds.  Choosing organic, natural cleaning products is one of the quickest and easiest ways of reducing chemicals in our homes.  With an increasing variety of natural and organic household cleaners available, simple choices on the products we use to wash our floors or do our laundry or dishes, can add up to a healthier home and environment for our family.

With the festivities of Christmas and New Years behind us, it is time to take a little rest, relaxation….and maybe just a little pampering to start the New Year.   A warm soak in a hot bath is always a nice way to unwind at the end of a day….not to mention the end of a busy Christmas season.   The comfort of a hot soak and a warm plush towel go a long way to sooth the soul and to relax the body and mind.

Earth friendly bamboo towels are the perfect finishing touch to a warm bath.  Bamboo towels give you plush softness with a silky touch, combined with absorbency that surpasses cotton. While bamboo towels are known for their durability, the bamboo fibre is also naturally hypo-allergenic and odour resistant.  Bamboo towels are soft, plush and comforting; so go ahead and indulge yourself in this natural luxury.  Bamboo towels are not only beneficial for our environment; they are good for your body and soul.

The start of a new year is a great time for new beginnings.  If you have been thinking of going green, make 2010 your year!  There are so many great books available on greening your home and your lifestyle; it is definitely worth a trip to your local library to check it out. Also, you can pick up some great tips on the web.  Here are a few of the top Green New Year’s resolutions I have found posted for 2010.  To green your 2010:

1. Stop using plastic bags – remember your re-usable shopping bags and you may be ahead of the curve if plastic ones become outlawed in your community.
2. Plant some trees – in your back yard or the community at large. More trees will help us all breathe a little easier.
3. Cut back on driving your car. If you have public transportation options available to you, try switching to the train or bus one day a week or organize a once-a-week carpool with your neighbours or coworkers. You’ll save on fuel, tolls, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by removing cars from the road. If you can walk to work or to run your errands, even better. You’ll get in shape and reduce carbon emissions.
4. Upgrade to energy efficient appliances and remember to turn off all power sources not in use.
5. Consume less this year. While our purchases keep the economy going, most of us buy far more than we need. Ask yourself if you REALLY need what you are purchasing, or is it (and all the packaging) just destined for the landfill. Reduce, re-use and recycle!
6. Buy local. Take the time to consider if your meal came from the farm or from a factory. Buying local food may not only be healthier, it reduces your carbon footprint – think of how many miles your food has traveled, how many chemicals were used, and how much pollution and waste have been generated in your foods production.
7. Clean green and reduce the chemicals in your home. Learn to make your own natural cleaning solutions from common ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and borax – or switch to organic cleaning products. Using less harmful chemicals in your home is not only good for the environment; it is healthier for your family.

Small steps can lead to big changes.  Taking the time to learn more about the environment and issues that affect the health and well being of our earth and families is great way to start. Wishing you all a Happy & Green New Year!