Thursday, December 30, 2010

Freight Increases

     My best wishes that the New Year bring you bounty and much happiness. Just a heads up that freight charges are being raised substantially by UPS starting Jan 1, 2011. I am going to wait until Jan 5th before I raise my rates to give you time to place your order. They will go up $1.50 this time. Also my product costs will increase mid January as well. Some will see a substantial increase. So you may want to place an order to beat the freight and price increases.

Happy New Year, Mary Findley

Thursday, December 16, 2010

How to Take Wax out of Carpet


In spite of my best efforts to warn people of the dangers of burning candles, I receive a dozen or more emails each year asking how to remove candle wax from carpet. With the holidays quickly approaching let's go over some important points to prevent accidental fires and candle wax from attacking the carpet.

First here are a few candle burning precautions:

NEVER burn a candle near flammable material. They do not belong on window sills, next to walls or near lamps or furniture. Here are a few tips for safe handling:

1) Place all candles, burning or not, on a glass plate. Wax sweats even if it is not being burned and will leave un-removable color stains on furniture.
2) Never move a lit candle or one that has been blown out. Heat sets a stain and the color from hot wax is permanent.
3) Look for candles without lead wicks and made from soy. Soy candles emit less smoke and therefore fewer toxins into the air.
4) People love scented candles. Only the scents could be causing lung and breathing issues as well as allergic reactions. Burn unscented candles and instead simmer a pot of cinnamon sticks, cloves or other fresh herbs on the stove. Or place cinnamon sticks in small bud vases around a room.
5) Avoid the scented air fresheners as well. They numb your sinuses so you can't smell odors, the fragrances are often toxic adding to indoor air pollution and the chemicals in them can cause polyps and sinus infections. Plug-ins and the fresheners that go off when you walk past them are even worse.

How to remove candle wax from carpet:
1) Scrape off what you can with a blunt knife.
2) Grab a hair dryer and several white paper towel - never use a printed paper towel
3) Turn the heat on the hair dryer to medium high and beging heating the wax.
4) As the wax softens, dab it with the paper towel.
5) Continue heating the wax and blotting until all the wax has been removed. If the candle was colored, the heat from the wax has set the color and is nearly impossible to remove.

This article may only be rewritten giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website at www.goclean.com. Copyright @ 2010 All rights reserved worldwide

Monday, December 13, 2010

A List of Holiday Cleaning Tips
 
     During the Holidays people love cleaning shortcuts, how- to tips and safety information. Since I've written past articles around holiday cleaning here is a list of my favorites going back to 2006 through 2008. Yes 2009 is not included. I was home transfering my father to a nursing home for Alzeheimers and caring for my mother who has cancer. The prior years contain dozens of excellent tips. Look to the right, click on the year then the month.  

 

November 11, 2008   Prevent Winter House Fires. Very important to read.

 

December 03, 2008  Safety Cautions for the Holidays from Underwriters Laboratories. Please make certain you read this article.  

 

December 07, 2008 through Dec 17th. Ten Days of Christmas Cleaning. A simple cleaning schedule for the holidays.  

 

November 11, 2008 Prevent winter house fires – Another article that could save your home from fire.  

 

December 21, 2007 Last Minute Holiday checklist – handy review

 

December 14, 2007 Six Cautions for the Holiday Season – more tips to protect your home from hazards

 

December 13, 2007  Five Easy Cleaning Stress Relief Tricks for the Holidays.

 

Nov 26, 2006 Holiday Cleaning Tips – Handy tips for holiday disasters including how to remove red wine and punch stains.  

 

May your Holidays be filled with great cheer, joy and blessings from Creator. Joy to you for the New Year.

Mary Findley

 

 This article may only be reprinted giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website at www.goclean.com.  Copyright @2010 All rights reserved worldwide

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Ten Tips for a Green Holiday 
 
     My stomach turns into knots every year as I take my nightly walk on trash day just after Christmas. Trash cans overflow with non-recyclable plastics from toys and games while piles of cardboard line the streets. A week later Christmas trees are dumped along roads or in parks by people who pay $40 for the tree and refuse to pay $5 to properly dispose of them.  
 
     Let's take a look at easy, affordable if not free ways to reduce carbon footprints and have a very merry and green holiday season.  
 
1) Rather than buy name tags to put on packages, cut a small piece of wrapping paper instead. Close to a billion presents will be given this year. Eliminating that many tags reduces natural resources, energy to manufacture them and fuel consumed to get them to market.
 
2) Packages decorated with yards of ribbons and bows are pretty but they add to landfill waste and consume energy and fuel for manufacturing. This year go green and get playful instead. Children love being outdoors and feeding the birds. Decorate their package with a soot ball they can hang from a tree rather than a bow they yank off the box and toss in the trash. Is there a chocolate lover in the house? Tape a bar on the package and write the recipients name on the bar. Craft persons, wood workers, fishermen or hunters always need new supplies or the latest gadget and those items make a delightful and appreciated addition to a package. Small books are a thoughtful box topper.  Children love finger puppets so add a few to their box.  A recipe for your favorite dish is always enjoyed or perhaps an individual packet of hot chocolate or tea bag. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.
 
3) Speaking of wrapping paper, young children love reading the funny pages and it doesn't matter to them if they have read them before. The funnies are colorful and the kids can read them as they sit under the tree. Even better, wrap their gift with art paper or coloring book pages and color their gift together. The Christmas my son turned 15, I wrapped his gifts with maps of various cities around our area. One requisite to his getting his driver's license the next year was he had to learn to read and follow a map.
 
4) When placing a phone order or an online order, tell the shipper to put your packing slip inside the box and not in the usual envelope they stick on the outside of the box. Those package envelopes are a huge waste of paper and resources and are not necessary. Remember to think large scope. If 300,000 boxes are shipped in the next two weeks, the reduction of paper is tremendous. Make this a year round habit.  
 
5) Put together a list of things needed for dinners, entertaining etc. and combine trips rather than make last minute darts to the store. Those extra trips consume thousands of gallons of fuel. Then keep up the practice all year.  
 
6) Just because tradition calls for putting up Christmas lights up during Thanksgiving does not mean they need to be turned on. Wait until the 15th of December to start turning on the lights. Then plug them into a timer that shuts off at 10 PM. The energy savings is tremendous.  
 
7) Opt for an artificial tree this year rather than a real tree. Goodwill and other thrift stores carry them and I've seen really nice trees for excellent prices in these stores. Thousands of gallons of fuel are consumed transporting trees to their destinations. Yes artificial trees require natural resources for manufacturing but it is a one time proposition. If you prefer a regular tree cut your own at a local tree farm. Buying local is good for the local economy and good for Mother Earth.  
 
8) This is not just for the holiday. Turn the heat down one or two degrees at night and 10 degrees if you are gone for even half the day. Then set the thermostate to turn up the heat a half hour before you arise or return home.  
 
9) Buy gifts from local craftspeople or local companies. These gifts usually don't come encased in plastic bubble packaging with a ton of cardboard surrounding it. Did I mention the benefits to buying local? 
 
10) This year give yourself a gift of a vegetable garden. It's the healthiest thing you can do for you and your family. If you don't have yard space, large hanging baskets make  excellent containers for salad fixings. Water them daily and feed them once a week.  Planter boxes are great for carrots, beets, onions, garlic, herbs and other small veggies. You will feel better and save a bundle of money at the grocery store. What better way to reduce carbon footprints than to grow your own food. Be careful - it's addictive!
 
This article may only be reprinted giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website www.goclean.com. Copyright @2010. All rights reserved worldwide