Cleaning the Bathroom (without scary chemicals)

I want to say "thank you" to everyone who has told me they love my blog. I don't know why you do, since I only write something once every six months! I constantly have ideas of what I should say, but finding the time to sit down and type is another story. I don't know how other moms can find all that time to blog. They must stay up all night.

Anyway, the idea for this post came when I was over at a friend's house who also has two young children. We were talking about what we do during that precious solitude of nap time. She said that she usually cleans the bathroom, because then she doesn't have to worry about her kids breathing in or playing with the cleaning chemicals. I didn't say anything, but I thought, wow, I would never waste nap time on cleaning the bathroom! First of all, the best time to clean the bathroom is when the kids are taking a bath (since you're probably in there watching them anyway). Second of all, who says you need scary dangerous chemicals to clean the bathroom? Is your bathroom some kind of bio-hazard site where you need to don protective clothing and a gas mask before entering? Or is it just another room in your house that you frequently enter barefoot (whether it is clean or not!)? Seriously, cleaning the bathroom does not have to be dangerous or expensive. I was surprised to read this in something as mainstream as a Martha Stewart mini mag: she said that it was just fine to wipe down the bathroom with a rag and hot water. I frequently follow her advice when the vanity looks a little grubby. I grab a wipe from the back of the toilet, wet it, wipe down the sink & vanity, and toss the wipe into the diaper pail. We wipe down the counters in the kitchen with water all the time, why not the bathroom?

Of course, sometimes you need something a little more powerful than water in the bathroom. Baking soda is my best friend when it comes to scrubbing down the bathroom. Simply shake some on a rag or scouring pad and scrub the tub or toilet. This is so convenient for me since I always have baking soda in my shower (for washing my hair). I frequently scrub down the tub while I'm showering. What could be easier than that? And here's a tip I got from Ellen Sandbeck's Green Housekeeping: use a plastic mesh bag (like the ones that they use for oranges or onions) as your scouring pad. These work better than any scouring pad you can buy, and they are free. I have one of these hanging in the shower for when I feel inspired to scrub.

And when it comes time for rinsing the tub, nothing works better than my toilet sprayer. The hose is long enough to reach over to the tub and hose it down with powerful force.

Baking soda also works well for scouring the toilet and vanity. I sprinkle some inside the toilet bowl and scrub it with the brush. Vinegar is another good friend in the bathroom. I usually use it to mop the floor (with a rag and a foot, not a mop. I haven't used a mop since I lived in Costa Rica. No mops there and they get along just fine.) You can also use vinegar instead of baking soda to wipe down all the fixtures. It doesn't have much scouring power, but it is a good general cleaner with anti-bacterial properties. You can also use it to clean the mirror, but water works just fine for that. For a spotless shining mirror, get two microfiber cleaning towels (look in the automotive section at your store as they frequently sell them as car-washing towels). Wet one towel with hot water and scrub the mirror (or window). When it looks clean, take the second dry towel and wipe the mirror until it is sparkling and dry. Tada! Who needs Windex? When I clean the bathroom, I usually start with the mirror, then use the towels to wipe down everything else, ending with the floor.

My cousin Laurie should remember that my other favorite tool for cleaning the bathroom is the vacuum cleaner (don't do this if the bathroom is wet). If the floor & vanity are dry, plug in the vacuum and use the hose attachment to quickly suck up all the hair, dust, dirt, hair pins, small bath toys, etc. When I am vacuuming the floors, I try to remember to quickly run the hose through the bathroom as well.

Finally, for those who are germ-o-phobic and feel the need to sterilize the house on a regular basis, you can do this without scary bleach. Get two misting spray bottles and put white vinegar in one and hydrogen peroxide in the other (both very harmless and cheap). Both of these chemicals are good cleaners by themselves, but together they make a powerful sterilizer that is more effective than bleach. Please DO NOT mix them in the same bottle; if they are allowed to mingle together they produce harmful fumes. When you want to sterilize a surface, mist it first with vinegar and then with peroxide (or in reverse order, it doesn't matter). Then wipe the surface dry with a rag. I read this tip in Green Housekeeping as well. I'm not a germ-o-phobe, but sometimes I like to sterilize if someone has been sick (or if the bathroom just seems really gross). Vodka is another good sterilizing cleaner. I've never used it since I'm too nervous to go to the liquor store to buy some! And I have no idea how much it would cost. But I've heard it makes a very effective bathroom cleaner. Please comment if you have used it.

To sum up, remember that there is a powerful advertising force out there to convince you that you need their products to clean your bathroom (and the rest of your house). They have a lot of money invested in you and your purchase power. It's time to show them you don't need them. It's time to phase out all those expensive cleaners and stock up on harmless and effective (and cheap!) alternatives like baking soda, peroxide, white vinegar, and maybe some microfiber towels. Your pocketbook and the quality of air you breathe inside your home will start to improve. Not to mention you can find something more exiting to do during nap time, like writing a new post on your blog!

Out and About with Cloth Diapers

When you use cloth diapers on your baby, is it 24/7? Or is it strictly an at-home operation? I admit that when I was a new mom, I had an unexplainable fear about being out of the house with a wet (or worse) cloth diaper. I put a disposable diaper on my son whenever we left the house. Before long, I realized that toting a dirty cloth diaper back to my house in the diaper bag might be easier than finding an acceptable place to deposit that used trashy diaper. All I needed was a good wet bag for storing the wet (or worse) diaper until I got back to the diaper pail at home. At first I just used plastic grocery bags or gallon-sized ziploc bags. They did the job just fine, but they weren't very reusable (or fashionable). Then I made my own wool wet bag with a felted wool sweater and a zipper. Wool wet bags work just like wool diaper covers, and should be washed by hand. I now also have a PUL wet bag, this is very waterproof and highly durable in the diaper wash. And fashionable, like this floral "Icky Bag" from Petunias. You'll find lots of other wet bags on etsy, check them out.

My other fear of cloth diapering away from home was that I couldn't bring my wipe warmer full of warm, wet cloth wipes. I realized this wasn't that big of an issue, I just packed dry wipes and a small squirt bottle of water. My own Klean Kanteen water bottle also works fine for wetting wipes. Usually we are changing diapers in a bathroom anyway, so I'll wet my wipes in the sink.

Now when I leave the house, I just make sure I have enough diapers & covers, some wipes, a wet bag, some water, and we are good to go! Oh, is your diaper bag not big enough to hold all those things? Get a bigger one. A grocery tote works fine too, that's what I usually use.

A small wetbag is fine for short outings, but what do you do when you are away from home overnight or longer? Get a bigger wetbag! This wetbag from Wee Ones by Jajoc holds about 20 wet diapers. I made my own diaper-pail-sized wet bag from a yard of PUL fabric and a draw string. It is large enough to hold ALL my wet diapers, and therefore large enough for any trip. As long as I know I'll be near a laundromat (or better yet, grandma's washing machine) at least once every three days during the trip, we are good to go. Just make sure to bring your own detergent as you never know what you will find in grandma's laundry room. One more thing, if your trip is longer than 3-4 days, try to NOT leave any wet diapers in your diaper pail at home (they'll be super yucky by the time you get back). When I pack for a trip, the last thing I do is wash and pack all the diapers. I usually have one or two dirty ones by the time we leave the house, I pack those with me also in the wet bag. It's not a big deal to pack dirty diapers with me, as I know I will soon be adding to that wet bag. Besides, I never want to leave behind ANY of my diapers since I want to use my entire working stash on the trip.

What about when you are camping, far away from any washing machine, or even running water? I have taken cloth camping and lived to tell about it! It was actually quite easy, but all my relatives at the family reunion looked at me with awe and respect (or maybe they just thought I was crazy). The camping trip was only four days, so I made sure to pack enough diapers to last the whole trip. I packed every single diaper I could find. I even packed things that could be used as a diaper in a pinch, like cotton baby blankets. I just didn't want to run out, as I wasn't planning on washing diapers in the nearby lake! Also, as there were no toilets for rinsing out diapers, I brought some flushable diaper liners that I could drop right into the pit toilets. These were wonderful, I highly recommend them for any vacation with cloth diapers.

As I said, I have never washed diapers by hand while roughing it, but I have heard of people who have! If you do, just be sure to bring biodegradable laundry detergent, a clothesline & clothespins. Don't wash or rinse diapers in a lake, but a running stream should be okay. Also, you might want to leave your thick all-in-ones at home, they might never dry! Opt for some quick-dry fitteds or even flat diapers instead. You also might find that your camping destination is near a town with a laundromat. A quick mid-camping drive to town might be in order. Some campgrounds even have their own laundromat, check around and find one for your next camping trip.

So, next time you leave the home, don't forget your cloth diapers! Whether it be a quick play date or a two-week cruise, it can be done. And it's really not that hard!

72 hour kits and cloth diapers

Last monday night for Family Home Evening we went through and updated our 72-hour emergency kits. We have a bunch of MREs (fake army food) and divided them up between four backpacks (including a super tiny backpack for Lola). We got the MREs from a family that moved south. There is a lot of food there, but no dates on it anywhere. Chris mentioned that it could be surplus meals left over from Desert Storm or even the Vietnam era. We sampled one of the pieces of fortified snack bread (it was heavily smothered with a packet of strawberry jam to make it palatable). Wow, pretty gross. I could tell it was food that you would eat to keep from starving to death, that's all. So now my new plan is to get real food from the grocery store (tuna, saltines, fruit roll-ups, granola bars, etc.) to use instead of the MREs. Then rotate that food every six months. I've heard of people that do the rotating at conference time. The family gathers around the TV (in our case, the online audio stream) for two days to listen to the prophets council while they have a picnic-type feast on all their emergency food. That sounds like it could be a fun family tradition (but not if it involves MREs). So I need to stock up some good emergency food.

We also went over some lists I have collected over the years of what should be in your 72-hour kit. (Here is an example list, there are many other lists online.) We inventoried what we already had and made a shopping list of extra things we need, like light sticks (waterproof, just in case we have to hike through the woods in a downpour at midnight, you never know). I pulled out the little hygiene kit I made for myself a few years ago. Wow, I don't even use most of that stuff anymore (shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant). I should dump all that stuff and just put in some little containers of baking soda & vinegar! And maybe one bar of soap. Another thing on my list is to make copies of important documents (birth certificates, insurance policies, etc.) to bring with us if we ever have to evacuate.

One of the things I have been struggling with in the emergency kits is what to do for diapers. Lola is still in diapers and it could be a real bummer if we didn't have any for her. Disposable diapers are the natural solution in an emergency situation, but I just can't bring myself to buy those trashy diapers. I just hate them. Plus, if I had enough trashies to last for 72 hours, then what? Things might not be back to normal yet. I could grab some cloth diapers from the normal stash on the way out the door, but chances are rare that I would have a whole clean stash. Usually about half of them are dirty. And chances are that in an emergency situation I would be down to about 3 or 4 clean ones. Finally I came up with a solution that would work. I'm going to get flat diapers & pins to use for the emergency kit. Flat diapers are super easy to make out of cotton flannel sheets, receiving blankets, or those ten yards of white cotton birdseye that are buried somewhere in my sewing room. Then I'll make a few (five or six should be plenty) waterproof PUL snap covers. The beauty of this system is that the flat diapers can be folded to fit any size of baby. Then they wash easily and dry quickly. The covers come in three different sizes, if I have another baby I'll just make sure that I have the right size of cover stashed in the kit. I will also include laundry soap, clothesline, and clothespins. And possibly a bucket for washing. I'm sure we'll want to wash more than just diapers, this will be useful for washing our clothes, too!

We have everything stashed close to the front door so we can be out of the house in a hurry (if necessary). Chances are pretty rare that we would have an emergency here that would send us packing on foot (or canoe?). Most likely we would experience something that would have us housebound without power (like a big snow storm). But if our house is on fire or we have to evacuate from the path of a REALLY big tsunami (big enough to make it over Gravina Island), then we are ready!

Dealing with Smelly Pits

I don't have time to go into any details about why normal commercial deodorants are bad for you, I'll let you google that yourself and come to your own conclusions. Suffice it to say that the general consensus among informed people is that anti-perspirants are REALLY bad for you, and the deodorants you'll find at the store aren't that great either. For about ten years I've been on a quest to avoid anti-perspirant AND body odor. I've learned a lot in the process and would like to share some of that wisdom with you.

First, understand that undesirable odors in the armpits can vary in strength depending on your diet, your hormones, your stress levels, etc. So if something in your life has changed (like if you're pregnant), your body odor can change too. Or it could be something you are eating that is creating an increase in smelliness. It might take some detective work on your part to find the source of the problem.

The first natural deodorant I tried was the deodorant stone. You can buy this online or find an identical product (I'm pretty sure it's the same thing) called crystal deodorant at many stores. This is not an anti-perpirant so it will not stop you from sweating. It puts some kind of barrier on your skin that inhibits the smelly bacteria. The great part about it is that it lasts almost forever. I've owned about three deodorant stones in the past ten years. The thing that does them in is when I drop them on the tile floor and they shatter. So if you don't drop it, a stone or crystal can last a long, long time (at least several years). It works best for me if I use it right when I get out of the shower and my pits are still wet. I grab a dry stone and rub it all over to coat my underarm area. You could also wet the stone first, but I find it works better to wet your skin instead.

Crystal deodorant is the only thing I would recommend buying from a regular store. I have tried all the natural, hippie-type deodorants (like Tom's of Maine) and find that they just don't work that well for me. Maybe you would have better luck with them so it wouldn't hurt to try. Be aware that just because it is a "natural" brand doesn't mean that it is necessarily harmless. To be safe, check your brand of deodorant with the Skin Deep website. This is run by the Environmental Working Group, they have done tons of research on all kinds of hygiene and beauty products.

Sometimes the deodorant crystal works just fine for me, and other times it just doesn't cut it. I noticed at one point that my armpits were still quite offensive even as I stepped out of the shower. The smell was too much for the crystal to handle. I tried scrubbing and scrubbing with all different kinds of soap, but the smell still lingered and grew stronger with each shower. I was almost desperate enough to use Lady Speed Stick when I ran across a tip on a message board I sometimes visit. A woman there suggested to scrub your armpits with baking soda, rinse it off, then spray with apple cider vinegar, and then rinse if off. It was no trouble for me to try this since I already had baking soda and vinegar in my shower that I used for washing my hair. The baking soda I keep in an old plastic peanut butter jar. I add just enough water to make it clumpy instead of powdery, thus easy to grab a small lump. The apple cider vinegar mixture (about half water, half vinegar) I keep in a spray bottle. I tried this on my ampits and it worked so well that I didn't even need the crystal anymore, except on especially smelly days.

I still use the baking soda/vinegar trick every time I shower and it really helps. I haven't used the crystal much lately. It just seemed like it wasn't working as well anymore. Plus, I kept dropping it on the floor and it was getting some painful, sharp edges. I wanted to try something new and all-natural (like I mentioned before, the "natural" deodorants that you find at the supermarket are really not all that natural). I have heard some great things about Funk Butter and have been meaning to try it. But then I noticed that my friend Erika in Boise had started selling deodorant in her shop: Inspired Mama Creations. Since I LOVE everything else she makes (her diaper rash cream is really miraculous), I immediately bought some of her Smell Better Butter. It really love it, it's worked better than any other natural deodorant I have tried, hands down. This is what I am currently using (in the juicy citrus scent).

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to make my own deodorant. I know, I'm a slacker! I have collected some recipes but haven't made any yet. I'll post some links for different recipes. If you try one, please post a comment and let us know how it worked for you.

Homemade Funk Butter
Homemade deodorant on Mothering.com, this is also a discussion on where to buy ingredients, etc.
Recipe Mama, LOTS of deodorant recipes here.
Bath & Body Recipes, several recipes here as well, these have been assigned star ratings by users.

The Story of Stuff

Today I want to recommend a short film called The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. It is about 20 minutes long and free to watch. I thought it was very enjoyable, enlightening, and infuriating! It's infuriating to know that our consumer society will act like mindless sheep and constantly buy and dispose of all the stuff that is pushed on them. More infuriating is the thought of the corporations that are orchestrating this global disaster, simply for their own gain.

One of my favorite parts is when Annie talks about products that are "designed for the dump". A common phrase to hear when something wears out or breaks down is "They don't make 'em like they used to." And why? Shouldn't society be getting better, not worse, at making quality stuff that will last? Well, we're not. And it's not just because we are taking shortcuts and using cheaper materials to make things. It's because things are specifically designed to break (or go out of fashion) so that you will go out and buy another one. That's the way that companies make more money. Take sewing machines, for example. If you can find an old quality-made all-metal sewing machine, you can bet that it will still work. If it's broken, you would repair it. Old sewing machines are worth their weight in gold because they can last forever with proper care. In other words, the sewing machine manufacturers would not be making any money from you if you sew with a machine that you inherited from your great-grandma. Most of the machines you find on the market today are made with plastic and are meant to break down after five years of moderate use. So then you buy a new one and it's "cha-ching!", another sale for Singer!

Shortly after watching this film, one of my friends told me that whenever her kids leave their board games, card games, or puzzles on the floor, she'll just throw them away because she can't stand the clutter. Then she buys them new ones every Christmas. Not a big deal, she said, they're so cheap anyway. I didn't say anything at the time, but I wanted to scream, "No! That's just what they want you to do. You are one of the victims!"

Watch the movie, it will change the way you look at everything you purchase.

Ditching the Entertainment Center

We had been talking for many months about getting rid of our entertainment center and everything in it (TV, DVD player, surround sound, VCR, Nintendo). It had always seemed like such an essential piece of furniture that everyone should have. But one day as I was surveying our overcrowded living room (too many super cool thrift store couches that we can't live without!), I realized that the entertainment center took up WAY too much room. We didn't even use it that often (maybe watched a movie once or twice a week), yet it stood there 24 hours a day as a massive monument to the art of wasting time. So I said that we should get rid of it, but it seemed like such a daring thing to do! What would we do without a TV? There was something inside of me that said it was necessary and we should hang on to it. I should know better because my parents didn't even have a TV until I was 7 or 8 years old. Most of my formative years were gloriously spent reading books instead of watching TV. We finally got a small TV for the sole purpose of using it as a computer monitor. It was the best monitor we could get for our new (awesome!) TI basic computer. Eventually we started using our television for its intended purpose, not just for learning basic computer programming. We didn't watch THAT much TV as kids, but I got used to having it around and came to depend on it for various reasons (namely Dr. Who, the Dukes of Hazard, and Night Rider. Not to mention the Monkees!). I haven't really watched TV for years (no cable, no reception of local chanels) and couldn't explain why I wanted to hang onto the entertainment center.



So finally we just did it. It's been at least two months since we said goodbye and I haven't missed it for a minute. It feels rather nice, in fact. I admit that my three-year-old protested at the time when he realized that we were actually giving our TV to someone else, but he hasn't mentioned it since. We can still watch DVDs on our laptop if we ever feel the need, and that has been working just fine. And to further save space, we bought a couple of those binders that hold compact discs. The smaller binder now holds all our movies, and our music collection is in the larger binder. Now we can get rid of our CD tower, and it freed up a large space on one of our bookshelves. I had resisted storing movies & CDs that way before because I liked having them displayed in the cases (easier to see what you're looking for). But then I realized how much space they took up and how unimportant they are. We threw away all the cases and it's so much nicer now in our living room.

Now that we are without a TV, people come over, look around the room, and assume that we must have another family room in another part of the house that houses our TV. When we explain that we don't have one anymore, most people look at us incredulously with awe and sometimes respect. "Wow, how amazing, I could never do that!" It's as if we said we were going to dress in gunny sacks and eat only carrots from now on. Why is TV such a big deal in this culture? It's so meaningless. . .

Now all we need to do is find a small corner computer desk to house our laptop and printer. That will be a great improvement from this gigantic metal (but good because it was free) desk from the 1970's. That would certainly free up another large chunk of the wall in our living room.