As I mentioned in the most recent Fun Fact Friday, I love a clean house but I hate cleaning. Also, I love green products but am not big on the colour green unless it’s bright, sunny and limey. Or is it lime-y?

Anyhoo, people keep sending me green cleaning products to try out. Which? Is cool. Though I still use vinegar 99% of the time, I do enjoy analyzing ingredients, testing out efficiency and sharing these products with my ‘wanting to be greener’ friends when I go back to ye olde vinegar.

I don’t actually so much hate cleaning as I hate the time it takes away from doing other stuff, like playing with my kids, digital scrapbooking and, um, reading blogs.

My latest acquisition came in the form of TerraCycle cleaners. I received full size samples (because do you really think I’d write about a company who was so cheap they sent me minis? I think not. I’ll take their freebies but they’re not getting a type-written word out of me…) of the all purpose cleaner, the window cleaner and the drain maintainer and cleaner. Thanks for not being cheap, TerraCycle! (You know I mean stingy, right? TerraCycle products aren’t any more expensive than any other cleaners, and are cheaper than some natural cleaners I’ve used.)

The Good:

+TerraCycle cleaners are non-toxic, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and have a zero footprint.

+They’re the first consumer products to earn the right to carry the Zerofootprint™ seal, signifying that the materials and manufacturing processes have virtually no negative environmental repercussions.

+They’re packaged entirely in waste (reused pop bottles, completely unchanged form their original pop-bottle state) and are sold at OfficeMax and The Home Depot.
+Made from concentrated essences of plants, shrubs, fruits, herbs and grasses with natural minerals and water, TerraCycle cleaners are EcoLogo certified, the strictest certification given by the Canadian Government for environmentally sound practices in production and formulation.

+They work. The all purpose cleaner did just as good a job as potent vinegar in removing pet grubbies from the floor, kid-prints from the walls, dried on kitchen crap from the cupboards and more. The window cleaner left less streaks than plain vinegar (which are now covered in doggy noseprints and kidprints, but whatever) and the drain maintainer and cleaner is my new lover. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. We have drain issues in our ensuite bathroom. If you’ve never had drain issues, be glad. Be very very glad. Both the tub and the sink have their issues, but the sink is way worse, probably because the tub is used only rarely. (Not that we are dirty. We’re not. Not usually, anyway. We have a separate shower stall in the ensuite that we use daily.) Oh yeah, back to the sink. It doesn’t drain optimally and we end up with old toothpaste crud and shaving specks in there which, if you’re wondering, is really really gross. We use a vinegar and baking soda volcano in there often, but it doesn’t work when it gets really bad and we have to resort to Drano or some other toxic crap. The TerraCycle drain maintainer and cleaner arrived just after my last application of Drano so I’ve been using it every 4 days religiously. (Probably overkill, but I’m trying to prevent a return of the grossness. If you’d seen it, you’d vote for the overkill too.) So far, the drain is running completely free. Rather like wild salmon in spawning season. Or something like that. Previous to TerraCycle, we would have noticed at least a mild ’slowing of the flowing’ by now and that’s not happening, so I’m very happy. I’m easily pleased.

The Bad:

-The smell of the all-purpose cleaner is kind of piney (or is it pine-y?) and a little nasty. It’s reminiscent of a camp kitchen when the delicious smell of baked beans and apple turnovers has dissipated for the day. Or maybe an elementary school on summer holidays. It’s not my favourite smell, that’s for sure.

The Ugly:

-Nothing!

The Verdict:

+Great company, great cleaners. Almost enough to convince me to switch from vinegar. But…at only $4 for a huge jug and edible, it’ll always be my fave.

The Giveaway:

TerraCycle is giving one MMTaM reader one of each of the following:
·Drink Pouch Bag (Made from 100% used drink pouches - how cool is that?)
·Target ReTote Bag (Made from 20 formerly loved “disposable” bags fused together. Wicked cool!)
·All Purpose Cleaner
·Bathroom Cleaner
·Window Cleaner
(Each of these five items is pictured at right.)

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll draw one winner in a week or so - I’ll close comments when I do the draw so if you’re able to leave a comment then the contest is still open! (It’ll be at least a week…a little longer if I’m busy or forget to do the draw. Hey, I’m honest.)

Good luck!

I’m a size 9. Used to be an 8, but then my arches fell and I had a baby and I’ll never be an 8 again.

Seriously though - I’m talking about my footprint on the earth. It’s something of which I wasn’t really overly conscious until the moment we started to think about conceiving the boy.

We have a very long way to go but we’re certainly doing our best. Though I really do try not to judge other people, it doesn’t usually work. Quite frankly, it pisses me off when people do things that are hurting the world that my babies and grandbabies (God willing) will be living in.

When it comes to the 3 R’s, we’re good at the recycling one, mediocre at the reuse one but not so good at the reduce one.

We:

-recycle everything that we can within our city’s very crappy recycling program (meaning we throw out all styrofoam or I try to use it in school craft projects).

-have switched to an in-home water purifier and stainless steel bottles (love them - whole ‘nother post) reducing the amount of plastic we use.

-reuse plastic grocery bags. I have organic hemp shopping bags but I use them mostly for the market because I need the grocery bags for cat litter and stinky baby poo.

-used a lot of cloth diapers until we started packing for the move. They’re still packed and we’re in 100% disposables. Truthfully, I only have 2 or 3 that would fit the boy now (he’s in size 5 Pampers) so that would mean washing more than once a day. When we’re potty training, I’ll probably do it (or just boxers or whatever) but for the next few months of working full time and then having a baby I’m letting laziness win. I feel slightly bad but, like I said, I’m lazy.

-fill our large garbage bin many weeks, which tells me (a) our city needs a better recycling program (b) I should compost but I don’t know if I ever will and (c) We make too much waste. I’m not sure why, but I fill the kitchen garbage can at least once a day when I’m home. I really need to work on that one.

-use those energy friendly twisty light bulbs. What are they called again?

- eat organic. Nearly 95-100% of our dairy and the boy’s food is organic. We adults eat some that’s not but we live in a place where not everything is available in organics. We try. Cancer sucks, and we do what we can.

-use organic & natural body care products (lotions, shampoos etc) and try to keep all chemicals out of our water system.

-use only vinegar & thymol (from Nature Clean - fabulous) for cleaning and use organic and/or natural detergents and soaps. Seventh Generation and Nature Clean are my two faves.

-don’t shop at Walm**t whenever possible or buy (many) toys that are made in China.

-support small & local businesses whenever possible.

-drive too much and use too much gas. A busy schedule does that to a person.

-drive the most energy efficient mommyvan on the market.

-use blinds & windows to regulate the temperature of our house when possible, but we do rely heavily on central air. I’m a heat wimp and I hate melting.

and we probably do more, both good and bad, that aren’t coming to me at the moment.

MY ECP SCORE IS: 241

MY CARBON OUTPUT IS: 6.6 TONS PER YEAR

I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it is what it is and I’m going to try and lower it over the next year.

You can get your numbers here with a simple quiz and I hope you’ll join me in my quest to lower the impact we all have. It’s for our kids’ sake.

What’s your footprint like? Can you make it smaller? Will you try?
Do you even care? If you’re a parent, what’s your guilt level like if you don’t?
Just curious. Not judging - I promise.
(Yes, my fingers are crossed behind my back. I’m mature like that. You know I love you, right?)

Sometimes I harp on you guys about naturals and organics. You know you love it.

I have an example for you to illustrate why you must get all possible chemicals out of your home - especially once you have children.

The BG was changing the boy and was distracted by a large and rather stanky poo. He didn’t notice that he had gotten a hold of his butt spray and the monkey was able to open it and dump it all over himself, including in his mouth. Because we only use natural & zinc free products I wasn’t too concerned. We cleaned him up and he wasn’t showing any symptoms but I called The Poison Centre just to be safe. The nurse asked me to read the ingredients to her and she actually giggled as she said “He’ll be fine. I wish more parents used things like that.”

(This is what he got. We either use that or this or something homemade. Most of the time, we use nothing. Just regular massage with grapeseed oil.)

So here’s my public service announcement for today.

It’s your lucky day ~ I’ve also got a hack for you that we used in a pinch last night. Again, the BG was doing the evening diaper change & pajama routine. He was giving the boy his bare butt time and he let loose a huge pee all over his carpeted floor. Not thinking, the BG cleaned it with Spot Shot, one of the toxic things we chose to keep in our house because we have a herd of gross pukey, carpet butt-surfing animals. It was just about bedtime and we didn’t want the boy to be sleeping in the leftover odour of carpet cleaner so I boiled some water and put it, still steaming, in a stainless steel bowl with 10 drops of lime essential oil. Any scent you like would work. We sat it on the floor of his room and closed the door. In 2-3 minutes the toxic odour was gone and had been replaced by a yummy fruity scent for bedtime. Oh, and we opened the window to clear the gross smell as well.

Tags: parenthacks poison smell

In light of the continual blogger discussion about circumcision, I just had to stir up some crap with my own post on the issue. So many people are afraid to offend other people on their blogs. Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn. I love mature, adult discussions about the most controversial of issues. So, lets have one. Beware: I will be sharing with you my strong opinions on the issue. I’m totally cool with it if you disagree. Just be nice about it. I have friends who have circumcised. I do not judge them. I do not think they are bad parents. I do not think their children are psychologically ruined for life. While I don’t agree, it was their decision and they can’t change it now anyway. So be it. This is my blog. This is my opinion.

In this video, Penn & Teller explore circumcision.

(Warning: This one made me gag. People do this to their sons. Still. In light of all the research.) This video shows a routine infant circumcision, in case you don’t want to take the time to watch the above.

But you really should.
It’s all about education.
And? The Penn & Teller one is really freaking entertaining.
Except the part where they painfully mutilate the genitals of a newborn baby.

Okay, I guess I gave away my stance on the issue. I think I’ll go with the argument/counter argument method. Please feel free to politely add your own in comments. Again, I don’t care if you agree with me, or if you even have a strong opinion. I just love controversy. (And I’d never cut any part of my baby off without some serious medical reason…arm, leg, penis…get my drift?)

I think it’s akin to female genital mutilation. It’s surgery. Unnecessary surgery at that.

———-

Watch the second video. Imagine them doing that to your son, while you watch. Imagine them doing the corresponding thing to your daughter, while you watch. ["But I wouldn't watch! I could never watch that!"] Ahem. Point made.

[I want my son to look like his daddy.] (Thirty years ago, this procedure was routine. Many parents weren’t even asked before their sons were stolen away to be mutilated.) (No, I can’t call it “snipped” or “cut.” Those are cutesie words. This is major genital surgery. Not cute. Not snippy snip snip.) My husband’s answer to that one: “I’m pretty sure we won’t be sitting around comparing dicks much. I have lots of great memories with my dad, none of which involve his penis. If he has a problem with his dick not looking like mine, we’ve done something else seriously wrong.”

[They won't remember the pain/They don't feel pain.] They won’t remember if you punch them in the head either. That doesn’t make it right. And to the second point? Um. Bullshit.

[It reduces the risk of AIDS. [insert STD here]] Not if you use a condom. Then it becomes a non-issue. Isn’t this what we should be teaching our kids anyway?

[You can't get penis cancer if you're circumcised. Penis cancer almost always occurs in the foreskin.] You can’t get breast cancer if you don’t have tits. Go cut them off, mmm-kay? While you’re at it, I think nose cancer is getting more common.

[It's easier to keep clean.] No, it’s not. There’s no work to cleaning a baby penis (unless, of course, you hack part of it off, in which case you have to deal with blood, scar tissue, pain…) You just clean it like you clean their fingers and toes. Nothing to it. It will retract anywhere between the ages of 3 and 13, at which time you teach them to clean it. No different than a vagina (there are way more folds in a vagina, actually) and we don’t hack part of them off to make them easier to clean.

[I just don't want him to be made fun of/feel different...] First of all, the kids with part of their dicks chopped off are different. Second, how about we foster self confidence in our kids. And maybe teach them a few snarky comebacks for others who either spend their free time looking at other kids’ penises or are interested enough to keep talking about them. That should do it.

[I'll let my husband make the decision. He's the one with a penis, after all.] You grew this kid. You both had a part in making him. These decisions need to be made together. Look at all side of the issue. Remember, we’re in a different society now than even 20 years ago. The mother’s instinct is to protect her children from pain. Not to pay other people to cause it.

[I prefer the look of it. I want his future partners to like the look of his wang.] First of all, ew. You don’t want to be thinking about your future son’s sex life. Really. You also have no idea what his partner(s) will prefer. If he {and I repeat HE} wants to chop it off in the future, it belongs to him and he can do so. If he likes it the way it is, great. If you mutilate it and he wants it back, he has to go through a hell of a lot to get it back. Again, from my husband’s perspective…”If our kid is obsessed with his dick and is comparing it to others’, we’ve done something wrong.”

[When he's really old he might end up not being able to clean his penis properly and then it will get all smelly and gross.] What about your unclean, smelly and gross vagina when you’re 95? Hopefully someone will clean it for you before it gets that bad, as they hopefully will to his penis if he is unable. However, NOT a reason to cut part of it off. What if he’s healthy and can clean it properly until he leaves the earth? You never know. You wouldn’t cut off all of your daughters’ extra genital skin in preparation for their life in a nursing home, would you?

———-
So, there you have it. My very biased educated opinion on the issue. I also should tell you that I always thought I would circumcise any of my sons, just because it’s what I was used to and I had fallen prey so the infamous pressure of society. When I was pregnant we read a lot of research (not blogger opinions; actual research) and spoke to many doctors about it and decided we would not do it for all of the above reasons and more. Then, when I held my precious newborn son in my arms I knew we had made the right decision. There was no way I would ever let anyone hurt him, let alone pay them to do it.

(more…)

With the boy quickly learning to (ack!) crawl, it’s time for some major babyproofing of our house and of all the places he frequents regularly. Installing baby gates is the least of our worries. Our main concern is the toxic chemicals everywhere you turn. Feeding him organic food just isn’t enough in this day and age. We must clean up the grass he rolls on and the floors he crawls on. We try to live as organically and naturally as possible. We don’t use pesticides or herbicides. We’re going to try organic fertilizer. If you can’t eat it, you really shouldn’t touch it or inhale it. We want to teach him about health through natural living and we want to lead by example. We also really believe that you vote with your money. If nobody buys it, they’ll have no choice but to stop making it.

Some things we’ll be disposing of:
1. Bug repellents
2. Febreze
3. Drain Cleaner
4. Toilet Cleaner
5. Oven Cleaner
6. Furniture Polish/Stains
7. Window Cleaner

We haven’t used any of these since I got pregnant, but they’re still sitting around polluting our space.
I’ll be heading to the dollar store to buy a crapload of spray bottles and spending a few hours making the natural alternatives.

We’re also using up the last of all shampoos, soaps, laundry detergents etc and replacing them all with Dr. Bronner’s castile soap (which works for absolutely everything!) and/or Nature Clean products. We use baking soda instead of fabric softener as well, and it works great. I’m still working on a dishwasher detergent alternative, so I’ll let you know when I come up with something.

We never bought any commercial baby products and disposed of the ones we received as gifts, so we don’t have any to dispose of, but here are my baby recipes.

1. Bug repellent::

(posted here)

2. Febreze:

(posted here)

3. Drain Cleaner:

Pour 1 cup baking soda down the drain. Follow with 2 cups (more or less) of vinegar. Let sit 1 hour. Flush with hot water. For bad clogs, repeat as many times as necessary. This is best done monthly to prevent clogs from occurring.

4. Toilet Cleaner

Simply pour in 1 cup baking soda and scrub with a brush.
For deep cleaning, pour in 1-4 cups vinegar and let soak 1-2 hours. Scrub with a brush.
For fizzy toilet fun, pour baking soda and vinegar in together!

5. Oven Cleaner:
Sprinkle a little bit of water over the bottom of the oven, follow with baking soda (make sure it covers the bottom) and then wet it with a spray bottle of water. If you need to clean the sides, make a paste of water and baking soda. Apply the paste and let it sit a couple of hours or even overnight. Use a damp rag to remove the baking soda. Residue doesn’t hurt (it’s non-toxic!) but if it bugs you you may need to wipe it down a few times to remove all of the whiteness. For deeper cleaning, use vinegar instead of water.

6. Furniture Polish:
1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice plus a few drops of oil. The vinegar/lemon pulls the dirt out of the wood, and the few drops of oil lubricates the wood so that it doesn’t dry out. I have also tried the reverse (1/4 cup oil and a few drops vinegar/lemon) but I find it too oily for polish.
The best oils to use are those that have the longest shelf life. I think olive oil works well. Or the liquid wax jojoba, which never goes rancid (get it at health food stores).
Unfinished Wood:
We just got new 7 foot bookshelves made of unfinished alder wood. Since we couldn’t find SafeCoat locally, we decided to completely opt out of toxic stain and instead we rubbed the wood down with a mixture of 2 parts olive oil to 1 part lemon juice. 2 cups oil and 1 cup lemon covered both shelves with a tiny bit to spare. If I remember, I’ll post a pic so you can see how well it works!

7. Window Cleaner:
While plain vinegar works fine, I like this mix. Add ¼ cup white distilled vinegar and ½ teaspoon liquid (organic/natural) soap (I like Dr. Bronner’s) to 2 cups water in a spray bottle and shake. You can add a few drops of an essential oil for scent if you want, but it isn’t necessary.

———-
If you can’t/don’t want to/don’t have time to make your own alternatives, here are some of my favourite products and lines:

Seventh Generation

Kiss My Face

Dermamed Children

Burt’s Bees

Battle Those Bugs

Burt’s Bees

and some of my favourite sites:

Clean Air Gardening

CHEC

Blue Butterfly

Green Babies

Green Nest

Magic of Arm & Hammer

A good book about baking soda.

Uses for vinegar.

Have a cat?

The Inspired Protagonist

Inhabitat (green building)

Watch this movie!

———-
Congratulations to Jenny of Shlameel Shlamozl for being my first winner at MMO with a blog to link to! Keep reading, keep entering…I have some more very awesome things lined up for you soon!

*Looking to buy a crib mattress? Scary stuff out there. Sometimes I think I’m better off in denial.

*A great new find: CHECBlog is currently presenting 90 tips in 90 days. “For 90 days, CHEC is focusing on daily tips that will help you reduce exposure to chemicals, toxins, and pollutants - for the benefit of your children’s health, the health of your home, and the environment.” I highly recommend subscribing to their feed to heading over there daily for the tips.

*Also, check out Blue Butterfly. “Creating a healthier future for children.” It’s what we all want.

*Heal The House is a great site where you can tour the various areas of a home and learn about reducing the toxins in them.

*This is really sad. Will natural ever be pretty enough?

My friend Jenny (who will soon have a blog - yeah!) sent me this site, The World’s Healthiest Foods, which you simply must check out. It’s fantastic! It’s completely free and there’s so much information there. And did I mention yummy nutritious recipes? Because there are yummy nutritious recipes, too.

Are you reading Fark yet? You should.

Does it take you a long time to prepare a photo post because of the shrinking? Do it quick with this handy dandy site! I love it when I’m in a hurry.

Just for fun…

Please vote for what you think I found in my ear and leave your version of the story (how it got in my ear) in your comment.

I assure you that you will be enlightened in the not too distant future.

Just a little natural hack for all you environmentally conscious folk who also like your homes to smell nice…

In our home we try to avoid the potentially carcinogenic chemicals in Febreze and all sorts of commercial cleaning/household products. Our ’safe’ version of Febreze is as follows:

Mix in a spray bottle:

1 cup water
2T. baking soda (natural odour remover)
2T. vodka (for the quick drying properties)
5-10 drops tea tree oil (natural antibacterial)
5-10 drops lavender essential oil
1t. pure vanilla

Adjust drops of oil for a stronger or weaker scent - I suggest reading safety guidelines for each oil on their bottles.

Shake well each time prior to spraying to ensure ingredients are mixed.

For use on most fabrics, I use 10-20 drops in 1 cup of water. For use as an air freshener, I use 20-40 drops in 1 cup of water.

This one is, obviously, the lavender vanilla scent. There are many other options to suit your taste - sometimes we use mandarin essential oil, mandarin/vanilla, eucalyptus in cold season, lemon/lavender/clary sage, lemon/lime, mandarin/grapefruit, ylang ylang/rose/bergamot… the list goes on.