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Green Cleaning for a Healthy Home

Most homes contain various store-bought products to clean their home effectively. Many of these manufactured cleaning products are toxic. You can replace these products with safer alternatives that are easy to make and economical too. The basic ingredients are items that are either readily available in your home or easy to find at your local grocery store. Homemade cleaners are versatile, so will require less storage space than all of your conventional cleaning products. The results are impressive and will equal and often outperform commercial cleaners.

Basic Ingredients Checklist

Baking Soda
Vinegar
Water
Lemon Juice
Ammonia
Salt
Borax
Vegetable or Olive Oil
Club Soda
Isopropyl Alcohol
Toothpaste
Spray Bottles

Tips Before You Get Started

Mix in a well-ventilated area
Label containers and store in a safe place
Use containers with tight fitted lids
Don’t reuse old containers from other cleaners
Don’t mix bleach and ammonia
Don’t store in food containers
Test an area before using any cleaner

Quick Tips

Dusting- Re-use dryer sheets for dusting instead of the new Pledge or Swiffer cloths.
Linoleum Floor- Use club soda to clean
Fabric Softener- Add vinegar to the rinse cycle
Microwave Cleaner- Mix 2T baking soda or lemon juice and 1 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for five minutes or until the liquid boils and condensation builds up inside the microwave. Wipe down.
Chrome Cleaner- Toothpaste is great for cleaning chrome.
Dishwasher Rinse- 1 1/2 white vinegar added to the rinse compartment of your dishwasher

The following recipes are safe and non-toxic.

Glass Cleaner

1 gallon water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon liquid dish detergent

or

1 cup rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol
1 cup water
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Mix and add to a spray bottle

Wood Floor Cleaner

1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Mix well

All-Purpose Cleaner

1 tsp. borax
1/2 Tsp. washing soda
2 Tbl. lemon juice
In a spray bottle, combine the ingredients with 1 cup of hot water and shake.

Furniture Polish

In a spray bottle mix 1 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
Shake well and apply a small amount to a cloth.

Multi-Purpose Deep Cleaner

1 cup household ammonia
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup baking soda
1 gallon warm water
Mix well

As you can see, homemade cleaners are simple and frugal to make. They are safe and effective too. Replacing even one of your conventional cleaners with a greener alternative can make a difference. You’ve got to ask yourself if you’re “killing yourself” trying to clean your house with commercial chemicals.

Article by: Sara Noel is a freelance writer and the Editor/Publisher of Frugal Village and Homestead Garden. Visit both these sites for information on getting back to basics through frugality, gardening, lost arts, simplicity, homesteading, and natural family living.

Tips for Green Living in the Home

Making Sustainable Choices

Making sustainable choices are an important component of green living. Making sustainable choices means purchasing products that don’t cause a negative impact on the environment and that will not make it more difficult for future generations to continue to sustain themselves. Making sustainable choices during the design process is referred to as ‘green design‘ or ‘sustainable design’. Some great sustainable choices to consider when decorating include:

  • Natural stone counter tops
  • Cabinets and other products made from woods such as bamboo, eucalyptus, or recycled wood
  • Carpet made from natural fibers, such as wool and cotton, or made from recycled materials
  • Green-friendly paint and home wallpaper, which is being offered by a growing number of manufacturers
  • Antiques – after all, they are being recycled!

You don’t have to create a bland and boring home décor in order to enjoy green living. In fact, there are numerous options out there that will allow you to make your home look great while still protecting the planet.

Appliances for Green Living

When it comes to green living, a great place to start is in your kitchen. Remodeling can add a great deal of value to your home, can make it more functional and attractive, and can help you make your home more eco-friendly.

When buying for your kitchen, look for modern appliances to help bring your home up-to-date. By purchasing those appliances with the Energy Star rating, you can potentially cut the amount of energy you use to power those appliances in half. Adding faucet aerators to your kitchen and bathroom faucets will also help reduce the amount of water you use while still providing you with a high pressure stream of water.

Obtaining Green Products

Fortunately, green living is rapidly growing in popularity. In response, many manufacturers are offering lines of eco friendly products that can be used for decorating purposes. In addition, a growing number of online and offline stores that are dedicated solely to green living are becoming a more common occurrence.

One great resource for green living products is www.greenhome.com. This site carries only eco-friendly products, including furniture, bedding, and home furnishings. Another great online resource for green living products is www.livingreen.com. Here, you can find wall coverings, furniture, flooring, and more.

Although it may take a little more time and effort to find and purchase eco products for your home, the effort will be worth it. Not only will you be doing your part to help conserve and protect the environment, green living is better for your health and can save you money in the long run.

Article by: Clair Campbell, San Francisco Interior Designer - Mint Home Décor.

Green Celebrity Home Choices

With more than enough money to spare, celebrities do not have to think twice about the environment. But, nevertheless, they do. Some of the top celebrities in the game are living life with eco-friendly choices and gren homes. Celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Ed Begley Jr. all choose green homes over saving their green.

Leonardo DiCaprio has to be one of the most noticed of all eco-friendly celebrities. His home offers a wealth of features aimed at saving the environment and mother Earth. The latest green addition to his home is a $3200 green toilet. The toilet is a combination of celebrity flare and the upper echelon of green technology.

Brad Pitt approaches living green is a totally different way than Leonardo DiCaprio. Brad Pitt pays millions of dollars to help others renovate their homes and their lives in a green and eco-friendly manner. Just recently Brad Pitt paid more than $5 million to startup a green town renovation for charity. And as if this donation was not enough, Brad Pitt and partner, Angelina Jolie, are in the market to buy an island just to promote greener living.

The most green of all celebrities has to be Ed Begley Jr. He tops the charts when it comes to changing the way we live in our homes for the sake of nature. From bicycling his way to a perfect piece of toast to competing with his neighbors and friends to have the best energy panels on his homes roof, Ed Begley Jr. lives as close to nature as he can without giving up the four walls of his home.

Some celebrities have moved from living the lavish life of excess to living a green, eco-friendly existence. When it comes to gadgets and gizmos for the green home, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Ed Begley Jr are at the top of the green game.

Article by: Julia Vakulenko is a licensed broker associate with Tampa4U.com Realty. She has one of the hardest working Tampa Real Estate team in Florida. Please feel free to copy any of Julia’s articles as long as you credit her and a link to her website. Include our Tampa Real Estate Blog to your regular reading as well.

Green Living Made Easy

As global warming continues to be a major concern for the future of our planet, people are starting to turn to green living practices to help save it for future generations. Green living involves every aspect of our daily lives – from driving to work to mowing our lawns.

Making the switch to green living all at once might scare most people away from implementing those earth-friendly changes. There are many ways to ease into this practice and still help save the earth’s environment.

Air pollution is a major problem for some cities. A lot of it comes from the factories, but that’s not the only avenue contributing to global warming. Automobiles give off a fair amount of pollutants into the air.

When you have a lot of cars driving around on the city streets, you’re multiplying the amounts of pollutants being emitted by each car that’s destroying our ozone. If you want to save the environment, you can start by either car pooling, walking more instead of driving or even purchasing hybrid models that don’t do as much damage.

This small change can bring much relief for the environment for future generations. There are many ways to adapt green living into your life by taking a look at your home. What kind of bulbs are you using?

The standard bulbs we use only contribute to higher electricity bills and more carbon dioxide. If you switch at least some of your standard bulbs with the compact fluorescent bulbs, you can save the environment while saving on your electric bill.

Make sure to seal any gaps around windows and doors to keep any cold drafts from blowing into the house, which can cost you more money. Make sure the house is well insulated to help cut down on those costs in the wintertime. The less the furnace or heater has to run, the better off everyone will be.

Take a look at your appliances. Are they devouring too much energy? If they’re older models, the answer is probably yes. While some of the changes are in the appliances that you use, other ways to go green involve your own habits and actions.

Do you open the oven door several times to check and see if something is done? The harder an appliance has to work, the harder it is on the environment. If you keep opening the oven door, the temperature will drop almost 25 degrees. It will then have to work harder to get back to the original temperature.

Recycling is an excellent way to save our environment. Try to buy as many products as you can that can be recycled. Avoid the non-recyclable items such as Styrofoam cups. The less trash that has to be burned – or buried into our soil – the better off our planet will be.

These small changes may seem like they couldn’t help much for the environment, but they can help tremendously. Every little bit we do is a much-needed step toward reserving natural resources for our future generations. Get involved with the environment and start to make a difference in the practice of green living for our earth.

Article by: Tiffany Washko is the editor of Nature Moms. After working several years in corporate healthcare marketing and public relations, she took time away to be a mother. This new pursuit lead her to a new passion, natural family living and writing about environmental and political issues. She currently works as a freelance writer and newspaper journalist.

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