Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Earth Day Cleaning Tips
 
     Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22. My last post on the 10th of April showed you some neat tricks with vinegar. Let's keep going and see what we can do to reduce the toxins in your life and improve the health of Mother Earth. I told a friend today that I felt Mother Earth was not going to be able to handle much more of the toxic habits of we two leggeds. She said "Oh no Mary, the Earth will live through this. She has been revolting against this attack for several years. The massive destruction from tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding has wiped out town after town. We are the ones who will not survive. She will remain forever." Thank you Barbara for wise words. 
 
First of all be sure to read my last post on Sodium Laurel Sulfate. It's very important.
 
     So let's celebrate Earth Day in ways that will benefit both you and Mother Earth. Here are a few ways you can help:
 
1) Stop using anything disposable. These use them once and toss them leave tons of carbon footprints. A tree looses a limb to make the box in which it comes. Toxic ink is applied to the box. It takes fossil fuel to cart the box from the box manufacturer and the ink from the ink manufacturer. It requires considerable resources to manufacture the machinery to makes the ink and the box. Then it takes more fossil fuel to cart the box from the factory to the distribution center and again from the distribution center to the store. The stoage at each facility requires electricty and gas to power the fork lifts to haul them around the warehouse and load them onto trucks. All for what? One wipe and you toss it? 
 
Use hand towels that aren't being used in the bathroom anymore to clean. Old white cotton t-shirts make great dusting cloths. If you don't have any of these items head to Goodwill for very inexpensive and recycled towels. If you do any sewing cut bath towels that aren't being used anymore into thirds, hem them and use those for rags. 
 
2) Don't use air fresheners and that includes sprays, plug ins and the air freshener candles that are burned. Most of them are highly toxic and actually numb your nose so you can't smell the offending odor. If you like the fresh scent,  purchase your favorite scent as an organic essential oil and a carrier oil like almond oil. Follow mixing directions - essentials oils should never be used full strength so mix the two and put just a drop on the leaf of a plant or boil it in water on the stove. Tuck a cinnamon stick into the dirt of a plant or place some sage leaves or lavender leaves in the base of the plant.  
 
3) Kick your shoes off when you first come into your home. The dirt you leave at the door will extend the life of your carpet and hard floor surfaces by a decade or more. Flooring is the most toxic product in our landfills today due to the glues, stain retardents, fire retardents and sealants used to make them.      
 
4) Cut your driving speed by 5 mph and save half a gallon of gas per tankfull. If you are filling up each week as most people do that is saving 26 gallons of gas a year. Now let's do a bit of math shall we? There are nearly 251 million registered vehicles in the United States. With each one saving 26 gallons of gas a year that is 6 trillion 526 million gallons of gas a year that is saved. Now can you imagine the savings when you start carpooling the kids or combining trips to the store?  
 
This article may only be reprinted giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website at www.goclean.com. Copyright @2009 All rights reserved worldwide.