Category: Home

I once chatted with the manufacturer of a natural skincare line and he revealed a secret to me… Let’s see what you think. He offers a range of around 8 different natural products, from shampoo to body wash to toothpaste. But actually, for most of the products – the contents are exactly the same. Same ingredients, same formulation – just differently labeled and sold in different bottles. Why does he do this? Because people don’t want to use a product labeled “shaving lotion” to condition their hair.

He’s the good guy – he created a safe and natural product – but unable to change his customers perspective, he felt that he had to play into it.

I see this in my workshops all the time. When I tell my students that they can use a baking ingredient to clean their kitchen, at first it sounds weird –  until they make it and see that it actually works! It just takes that mind switch.

I’m not saying you should try washing your hair with your toothpaste – but there are probably a few products in your home right now that you could be getting great multi-uses from, if only you look at them differently.

Let’s start with your dish soap! I’m going show you how you to use the one product in 10 different ways. It’s going to help you save money, reduce clutter, remove the potential for toxin and chemical buildup – and it’s going to help you keep things simple!

1. Stain Remover

Dish soap makes a great pre-wash treatment. Soap is especially good at lifting oil, grease and dirt stains. Squirt a small amount directly over the stain and rub it gently with an old toothbrush. Do this before you put it through the laundry and it should lift right off!

2. Shoe Cleaner

My daughter wears white sneakers as part of her school uniform and they turn black by the end of the week! Fill a small bucket with a solution of soap and water and clean them with a toothbrush. It’s safe on canvas, on leather and the rubber soles.

3. Wash your Make-Up Brushes

Twice a month, clean your brushes in a solution of water and dish soap.  It’s a healthy habit that will help keep acne-causing bacteria off your skin. I’m not a beauty expert – but I’ve heard plenty of advice to always wash your brushes with the bristles facing down – so that you don’t get water into the base of the brush, where the glue is.

4. Wash Outdoor Furniture

Give your outdoor furniture a good wash with a bucket of warm water and dish soap. Since you’re outdoors, you can then hose them down to clean of the soap – it’s much more fun that way!

5. Clean Outside Windows

I learned this tip from the granddaughter of Dr. Bronners: when washing your windows, the outside of the window will get dirty with dust, dirt, mud… so you’ll want to clean that off with soap. Fill a spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap. Spray all over and wipe clean with a micro fiber cloth. Then rinse with clean water (she uses soda water) and use a window squeegee to dry the windows so that no water marks are left behind. Check out my post here for the cleanest windows ever!

6. Mop the Floors

Dish soap has more suds than a floor cleaner – so unless you want some indoor slip-and-slide action, make sure to use the tiniest drop of dish soap in a big bucket of warm water. It makes a great floor cleaner – picks up all the dirt and grime – and a little does go a long way!

7. Clean Marble & Granite

I use vinegar to clean all around the house – but you can’t use it on natural stone like marble and granite. Vinegar eats up minerals and can dull the surface over time. It’s better to use a soap cleaner. Fill a spray bottle with water. Then add in a drop of dish soap. Use this to spray on your stone counter top and tiles.

8. Make Bubble Solution

Kids, and most adults 🙂 are easily amused by bubbles – it’s in every parents arsenal. Instead of buying and tossing out the bottles – now you can make your own bubble solution to fill a bottle or… a mini pool (true story)! Here’s the recipe: 1 Tbsp of dish soap for every 1 cup of water.

9. Natural Pesticide

Keep little critters away from your plants by spraying them with a natural homemade pesticide solutions: one tablespoon cooking oil and a few drops of dish soap into a spray bottle with water. On contact, it will kill soft-bodied bugs. To prevent caterpillars and other bugs from eating your plants, add tabasco or blend in a few chili peppers this your solution.

10. Homemade Scrub Cleaner

This scrub does wonders on your pots and pans, in the oven, stove-top – in the bathtub and sinks! Simply blend together 1/2 cup of baking soda and enough dish soap to form a thick paste. It’s a great abrasive – work it onto any surface with a cloth. To finish – spray a solution of  1 part vinegar/2parts water and wipe clean. It will eat up any baking soda residue and leave your surface sparkling! Just like in the commercials – but without the chemicals!

Hope you give these ideas a try! I’d love to know – what’s a product that you use differently and have found a cool multi use for?

p.s. If you’re looking for a good, natural dish soap – check out Ecover

I once heard that if you’re renting or buying a home, a good way to check how well it’s been maintained, is to check the oven. If there’s baked on mess from years of lasagnas – it’s not a good sign!

The oven is often neglected and if it’s gotten bad, it’s not an easy mess to clean up. That’s when we need to use strong oven-cleaners, but these things are one of the most toxic products you can clean with. Classified as hazardous – they’re incredibly corrosive, full of harsh chemicals and you don’t need that anywhere near you, your family or food!

This is a natural solution that I use at home. It’s so easy – it takes five minutes to do. And when done regularly – there’s just no need to bring in the big chemicals! Here’s how:

step 1: pre-heat your oven

You want it warm enough to loosen up any baked on mess – but not too hot to burn yourself! Set it at warm, when it reaches temperature, shut it off.

step 2: scrub

Make a simple scrub cleaner by combining baking soda with your natural dishsoap, until it becomes a creamy paste. Use this to scrub the inside of the oven, the grills and all around. Get into it! 🙂

step 3: spray

This is the secret trick: to clean up the baking soda, use a vinegar cleanser as a final spray. Try this recipe.  This spray will dissolve any left on baking soda, clean up dirt and leave your oven ready to cook up another meal! Wipe clean and you’re done.

It’s easier to maintain your home when you get into the habit of routines – 5 minutes a week is all it takes – and when it comes to keeping harsh chemicals out of the home, prevention is really key. Once the problem has gotten bad, it’s hard to fix. So try this once a week and see how it works for you!

credits:
photography – Jeff Samaniego for Little Green Dot

Want to create a happy, healthy home you love? Here are five easy tips to help you live a little more green and feel good in your home!

Green Tip #1: Keep it simple

You don’t always need to use a spray product to clean. A dry micro-fiber cloth can easily buff out water stains on glass, mirrors and chrome.

Green Tip #2: Save water

Instead of draining over the sink, drain water into a bowl. If you didn’t add salt, you can use the water for your plants. If you did add salt, you can reuse the water again to cook rice, pasta or other veggies.

Green Tip #3: Avoid clean-ups that require tough chemicals

Prevention is key! Vinegar is great at preventing and eliminating water stains, soap scum and mould on tiles. After every shower, spray a solution of 1 part vinegar/2parts water over your tiles, fixtures and glass – you don’t even need to rinse. If you don’t love the scent of vinegar, add a few drops of essential oil, just make sure to shake before every use to distribute the oils. Make a batch in a bottle, and keep it near your shower. Easy!

Green Tip #4: Plan your meals ahead

Food wastage is a big problem – one of the best ways to minimize food waste is to plan out your meals for the week. You’ll be able to make healthier choice, buy only what you need, save money and reduce waste!

Green Tip #5: reuse your bottles

They make great, multi-use storage containers and with glass you don’t need to worry about chemicals leaching. Here’s a trick to get rid of labels: First, peel off as much as you can. Soak a cloth in neat vinegar and place it over the glue. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then rub it off with a solution of baking soda and washing up liquid. It’ll come right off!

Hope these tips helped! I’d love to know – what green tips work for you in your home? Please share in the comments!

PS – are you in Singapore? Join me Sept 13th, 2014 – at the Natural Home Workshop, where you’ll learn and spend the day making natural homecare products! Don’t miss it! click here for the details

credits:
photography by: Jeff Samaniego for Little Green Dot

I have a confession… and this isn’t easy actually… but here it is: I’ve managed to kill three trees, twice. I bought the first round, to create a privacy wall from my neighbour. The nursery potted them for me and delivered them to my door. It was perfect – but within a few months, they all died. I blamed the cats. So I bought another set of trees, repotted them and… a few months later, dead…

This has been a big shame for me – how can I kill trees?! Finally I asked my friend Nova to help me. Turns out that it wasn’t entirely my fault (or my cats!) She came around to teach me how to properly repot a plant, to give it a good start. Let me show you four great tips that  I learned!

We spent the afternoon with Nova, my friend Alina from Abundant Earth and my two little monkeys – playing in the dirt… I learned more in those two hours about keeping my plants alive, than years of Google searches ever taught me!

When you buy plant from the nursery or a shop – you really don’t know what’s in the soil. Honestly, I would just bring it home – transfer it from it’s plastic pot, to a new pot – add in a little extra soil and call it a day. But if you want beautiful plants, much like our own wellbeing, it all comes down to what’s going on underneath the surface!

You can start with your plants at home now. If you find that the soil is hard and dense, you can fix it. Gently pull out the plant and follow the steps below:

Pro Gardening Tip 1: Correct the Soil 

Nova was not impressed with the soil that the nursery had used for my trees. Full of clay – you can see the soil is dense, and balls up easily. “We can make a ceramic bowl with this soil!” Clay is often used because it’s cheap – but too much is terrible for our plants. Water and oxygen can’t flow throughout the soil to keep them healthy. Nova dug up the soil to loosen it all up and then mixed in fresh, new soil.

If the nursery repots your plant, make sure to buy a bag of good compost soil and tell them to use it for the repotting.

Pro Gardening Tip 2: Add Compost

Nova taught us how to make your own compost, if you haven’t seen it, check it out. If you don’t have compost ready yet, you can buy a bag – look for organic and fully composted.

After you mix in the fresh soil, add in some compost to nourish your plants. Mix everything around – the old soil, the fresh soil and compost. Get your hands in there!

Make a well in the center, and  you’re ready to put your plant in. Top up with more soil to secure the plant.

Pro Gardening Tip #3: Give it a GOOD watering

I was surprised at the amount of water Nova added in. It was a lot! But she explained that the plant will initially go into shock after repotting, so help it out by giving it plenty to drink. With the new soil, all that water that we poured in got soaked up right away! That’s what were looking for – she was happy that it meant there was good drainage.

Pro Gardening Tip #4: Dig for Worms

Worms are great to help aerate and correct the soil. You can add them to any plant that you have at home – and if you’re wondering where you’re going to get worms from, I did too at first! When she said, let’s go dig up some worms outside, I thought – you can just do that? Turns out you can!

Nova says, “Keep adding more worms; they will only do good things for your soil”. Now I have something to look forward to doing once a week with the girls!

There you go, 4 tips to help you repot your plants. To review:

1. Correct the soil. Loosen up any dense, clay soil. Mix in a good quality soil
2. Compost. Make your own or buy a bag of premade – organic and fully composted.
3. Give it a good watering. You should see the water get soaked right up. That means you have good drainage.
4. Dig for worms. Let these guys aerate the soil for them, and in turn provide them a nice place to live.

Hope that helps next time you repot your plants!

 

P.S: don’t forget:

• Composting Made Easy
  
• How to Choose your Plants at the Nursery