Household cleaners

[elegantboy11]

I was disappointed when my mail order catalog no longer carried Petganics Floor Concentrate. When I read some commercial labels, "use caution around children and pets" I started using vinegar and water on my tile.

woman scrubbing floor.gif

isn't my #1 favorite thing,


I'd rather

vacumming.gif

What do you use to wash your floors?

I found Dr. Mercola's article interesting. (BTW, Dr. Mercola just so happens to mention he has products coming out - I'm not endorsing his website/products) I do buy my laundry detergent from Costco (ECOS)

Beware: Most Green Cleaning Products Contain This
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... _DNL_art_1

[arodeth]

I use the Bissell Steam Mop Hard Floor Cleaner for my vinyl floors. I would not be without it! All you add is water, no chemicals. The steam kills all the germs.

I also started using Shaklee cleaning stuff, it's supposed to be all natural, my MotherinLaw got some for me for Mother's Day. I like it so far, but I'm not sure what's in it...

[Sorrie too]

I use glass cleaner, various brands. No dyes, perfumes or any harmful ingredients. Fast and easy, spray on and wipe up.

[hiiku02]

I clean with diluted vinegar or essential oils (the brand I use is food quality essential oil with FDA labels). I get the benefit of aromatherapy while I clean Jazz seems to think it makes everything taste good too because she comes behind me and licks everything I clean when I use the oils.

[CapaWhippets]

I clean with diluted vinegar or essential oils (the brand I use is food quality essential oil with FDA labels). I get the benefit of aromatherapy while I clean Jazz seems to think it makes everything taste good too because she comes behind me and licks everything I clean when I use the oils.

I do the same. I like keeping a variety of essential oils on hand so that I can vary each batch of cleaner just to mix things up (pun intended!) .

[elegantboy11]

arodeth - don't let "natural" fool you. still look at the ingredients.

I shall ask my Whippet friend, www.experience-essential-oils.com, what she recommends. I know there are some essential oils you have to be careful of around pets. Thanks for the tip, it sounds heavenly.

[chelynnah]

I'm a big fan of vinegar and water. Shame they don't sell it in the big bottles here in the UK like they did back home, so it's pricey to clean with. I used it for everything - floors/windows everything. This isn't even about the dogs, I just find it works better than the chemicals.

I think it's good to be aware of what's out there and what we're using, but I also personally think that too much information can be as dangerous as not enough. If we avoided everything that could harm us well then we'd probably stay in bed and never get out, but then the mattress may contain something dangerous, or the sheets, so really, I should just shoot myself now since everything out there could kill me eventually...

I do the best I can for myself and the dogs. Yup - I'm overweight so I'm obviously not doing so well for myself LOL. But at the end of the day making an educated choice doesn't mean having to disect everything to it's trillionth part. Sometimes you just have to live life.

JMO about how I choose to live my life and choose for my dogs.

[elegantboy11]

Wendy, do you have Wal-Mart? I think that's where I bought my gallon bottle. It was in the aisle of "vinegars" and not in the "cleaning section".

I'm one to read labels and avoid ingredients I know can cause harm. If I see a train coming towards me would I stand there or jump out of the way.

I just looked at Nan's website:
http://www.experience-essential-oils.co ... eaner.html

She recommends "Thieves Essential Oil" - Floors: Add 1 capful to 6 to 6 ½ cups water (depending on what is needed).

Which essential oils are you using? I'm really getting jazzed about this.

I use to have a diffuser that I added oils to - it made my place smell great. Will look to buy another if I can't find the one I had.

[chelynnah]

Nope not in the UK - no walmart and no gallon sizes. I've been living here since 1995 and have heard 'rumours' of larger sizes, but they just aren't available. Malt vinegar is the big thing in this country, so the idea of bulk sizes of white vinegar is unheard of. Back home (Canada) you can get them anywhere in those sizes (in regular grocery stores and everywhere) because they're used for cleaning, but not here

Probably time to start looking again though. But even our equivalent to Sams Club/Costco wasn't carrying it last time I checked. Though might be time to look again

[hiiku02]

I use DoTerra brand oils - http://www.thedoterrastore.com/

I use a lemon or peppermint in the laundry (awesome at cleaning cloth diapers/training pants). I tend to use either clove or lavender with the sheets. For general cleaning, I really like their On Guard Blend (Wild orange essential oil, combined with clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary) or just lemon.

Jazz goes nuts over the on guard blend and loves licking the floor/furniture after I use it. Cinnamon is also a natural ant repellant.

[elegantboy11]

Wendy, you might want to contact Customer Service and request they carry the larger size.

Costco has a form their customers fill out with comments/requests. Years ago, I requested they carry organic items explaining the benefits and profits to them - evenutally they carried organic products & produce. When I lived in Atlanta, I requested organic produce to a large chain - eventually they carried it.

This is a funny story. Back in 2003 I read an article regarding farm raised salmon. It stated that the salmon had artificial chemicals added to make the salmon pink. In the wild, salmon eat shrimp and krill which contain chemicals that make salmon naturally pink. Since farm raised fish do not eat a natural diet, their flesh would be gray if artificial additives weren’t added. People wouldn’t buy it. I wrote to Costco asking what is used to make their fish pink. They wrote back & stated what the fish contained. I must have gone back about a month or two later and noticed on the label “color added”. I mentioned to the clerk filling up the counter with more salmon that I hadn’t noticed in the past that the labels had “color added”. He said some wacko lady wrote to Costco and their Attorney’s recommended putting the “color added” on the label to avoid any lawsuits for selling farm-raised salmon with artificial chemicals that was not labeled. I went back to work and told my co-workers about the comment the clerk made since they were aware I had written to Costco. We all had a good laugh.

Tonya - thanks for that great info.

[paperflowers11]

While we're on this topic, what works well to get heat blood stains out of fabrics? Unfortunately, I let River sleep on my bed and she managed to get her panties off a couple times. I'm waiting until she's totally done with her cycle to wash anything. @_@ Gross.

[Runamok]

We've had great results just washing the bedding in hot water and oxi-clean. Much better results then using regular old bleach.

Linda Z

[elegantboy11]

Lovely.

I use http://www.ilovenaturesmiracle.com/cata ... l.php?id=6 for Kevin's sheets.

•A laundry additive to use in addition to laundry detergent for superior stain, odor and allergen removal.
•May also be applied directly on stain & odor as a pre-treatment.
•Phosphate-fee cleaning system, safely breakdowns urine, feces, blood, vomit, grease, and oils.
•Contains “Odor-Lock”™ technology which seeks out, traps & breaks down odor molecules for permanent odor removal.

I like their products for other unpleasant problems when they have accidents or get sick.

[paperflowers11]

Yeah, we sell that where I work and it did nothing for the blood.

[hiiku02]

Wendy, you might want to contact Customer Service and request they carry the larger size.

Costco has a form their customers fill out with comments/requests. Years ago, I requested they carry organic items explaining the benefits and profits to them - evenutally they carried organic products & produce. When I lived in Atlanta, I requested organic produce to a large chain - eventually they carried it.

This is a funny story. Back in 2003 I read an article regarding farm raised salmon. It stated that the salmon had artificial chemicals added to make the salmon pink. In the wild, salmon eat shrimp and krill which contain chemicals that make salmon naturally pink. Since farm raised fish do not eat a natural diet, their flesh would be gray if artificial additives weren’t added. People wouldn’t buy it. I wrote to Costco asking what is used to make their fish pink. They wrote back & stated what the fish contained. I must have gone back about a month or two later and noticed on the label “color added”. I mentioned to the clerk filling up the counter with more salmon that I hadn’t noticed in the past that the labels had “color added”. He said some wacko lady wrote to Costco and their Attorney’s recommended putting the “color added” on the label to avoid any lawsuits for selling farm-raised salmon with artificial chemicals that was not labeled. I went back to work and told my co-workers about the comment the clerk made since they were aware I had written to Costco. We all had a good laugh.

Tonya - thanks for that great info.

It's crazy what doesn't have to be on a label. For example, all juices from concentrate contain artificial color and flavor - which is why so many juices taste like candy. The colors and flavors don't have to be listed on the label. They just say juice from concentrate! I know there's so much more stuff like that out there.

[elegantboy11]

Tonya, I'm sure you know about arsenic in apple juice http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/arsenic-apple-juice I knew about that probably 20 years ago. I think the question to ask ourselves if one doesn't read labels or know what they are ingesting, "could my problems be caused by the food I'm eating?" Think long-term.

[elegantboy11]

I'll also throw in "drugs" that we and our pets take. I always google the side effects when a Vet prescribes a medication.

On the human side, this article was just published: http://www.naturalnews.com/036042_bipho ... tures.html