Some aspects of natural living require a lot of capital input and are really only feasible if you are renovating or building your own home – using eco-friendly low-toxin paints, using passive solar techniques to heat your home, installing solar water heaters or solar panels and the like. When these sorts of options are presented to us, many of us have to shake our heads and think “Nice idea – too bad the landlord/landlady probably won’t agree to any of that.” However, not all aspects of living more naturally and more sustainably involve large amounts of capital expenditure and require you to spend hours and hours tracing down obscure ingredients. Some things are easy. And remember: even a small change will reduce the amount of toxins in your immediate home environment and will help you live more sustainably.
* Don’t buy any more fancy brand-name home cleaning products (apart from maybe the brands of natural cleaners such as Ecover). Switch to baking soda and vinegar instead for your everyday cleaning needs. These are much easier on your skin and they don’t produce any noxious fumes. And they’re effective!
* Start a compost heap. This is a good way of cutting down on the amount of waste you and your household produce and add to the waste stream, and it also means that you’ll have some good organic fertilizer on hand for your own garden. You don’t have to be too scientific about it: a heap corralled by a bit of netting, corrugated iron or some pea straw bales is all you need. A worm farm is another option.
* Grow your own vegetables, fruit and/or herbs. You don’t have to try to go self-sufficient straight away. Start small – a basil plant in a pot, a tub with tomatoes or a row of runner beans. Growing your own vegetables is a satisfying and highly addictive “hobby” and once you’ve started, you won’t want to stop. Use organic fertilizers and try not to use sprays to control weeds and pests.
* Don’t buy artificial fragrances for your home. This includes air fresheners, shake-and-vacuum powders for carpets, plug-in scent dispensers and all the rest of that ilk. Artificial fragrances are some of the most toxic substances that you can introduce into your home, and they’re some of the easiest to do without. Instead of these artificial scents, go for the real thing in the form of essential oils or fresh flowers. Or just open the window and enjoy fresh air! Bad smells in refrigerators can be eliminated by putting a little bowl of baking soda inside the compartment to absorb unwanted odours. In the toilet, try striking a match and letting the little flame burn off the methane causing the smell.
* If mice are a problem in your home, don’t lay poison baits. Use a spring-loaded mousetrap. The worst these can do to you is to give you a bruise if you put your finger on the trigger when it’s loaded. Mouse poison can poison you, however.
* Buy or make your own reusable shopping bags to reduce the amount of plastic bags in the environment as a whole. Reusable shopping bags not only reduce waste, but they are less of a hazard for small children.
* Cleaning little and often eliminates the need for heavy-duty products to shift stubborn gunk and dirt. Often, a bit of water is all you need to get things clean again.
* Don’t run down to the chemist’s shop for some brand name product next time you get a cold or some minor illness. Many home remedies are safer, cheaper and just as effective at treating minor ills. Try baking soda for beestings, or chicken soup and garlic for a cold.
* You have given up smoking, haven’t you? It’s amazing how many people want to reduce the amount of pollution and toxins they are exposed to don’t take this step. At the very least, keep your smoking for outdoors.
* For short journeys, don’t take the car, even if it’s a hybrid car. Walk or bike instead. You’ll not only cut down on the amount of pollution you produce; you’ll increase your activity levels and get some fresh air while you’re at it.
Look out for organic vegetables and free range eggs. Locally sourced produce is often best – try a farmers’ market. They’re lots of fun to go to.
The place in my house where I am most tempted to not use natural products is in the laundry. Confronted with a tough hard-to shift blotch of something, nothing seems more tempting than grabbing some stain removal stick made of goodness-knows-what that shifts the problem. However, I know that if I do this, I’m likely to give myself dry, itchy skin that lasts for days thanks to the harsh chemicals.
So what’s to be done? Well, the first thing to do is to sort out what sort of stain I’m dealing with (and the sort of fabric it’s on), as this makes a big difference to how to get the stain out without resorting to powerful chemicals that blitz more than just the stain.
Bloodstains: Often, just plain water will remove a fresh bloodstain, as long as the stained item has a good long soak. Cold water is essential to use, as hot water will cook the protein in the blood and set the stain permanently into the fabric, making it impossible to get out. If there’s a lot of blood on the whatever-it-is, then a bit of salt in the water helps to get it out.
Perspiration: Fresh sweat often just washes out with warm soapy water. However, if the sweat has made a stain, you need a bit of help getting it out. Plenty of standard natural home cleaning products will shift these without any trouble. A solution of baking soda in a bucket or bowl of water works – soak the shirt or blouse in the solution. Alternatively, dab on some dilute white vinegar onto the spot. The vinegar has the advantage of tackling the bacteria that love to live on sweat and are the culprits responsible for making sweat smell (fresh sweat doesn’t stink).
Fat, oil and butter: I presume you’ve tried hot water and plenty of soap to get an oil stain. Soap denatures grease and fats, and this is often all you need to get these stains out. If this method hasn’t worked, then either washing soda (sodium carbonate) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) will remove the stain. Make a solution of either of these stain removers and soak the item with the stain in it.
Grass: If you’re lucky, the grass stain is on something made from polyester, in which case, the stain won’t “take” to the garment and will just wash out in the regular wash. If you’re unlucky and the stain is on cotton or a cotton blend, you’ll need stronger measures. Vodka or some other strong alcohol (methylated spirits is another alcoholic solvent, but this is a bit more toxic than the alcohols in a drinks cabinet) is your best natural stain remover here. Blot the stained area with the alcohol and rub it in. Then leave it to do its work before washing the garment. Repeat if necessary. Sunlight often fades grass stains, so save the repeat until after the garment has had a chance to dry in full sunlight: often, if a grass stain is still present after going through the washing machine after the vodka treatment, hanging it out to dry in the sun shifts the stain. This method of stain removal also works for removing herbivore manure (cow, sheep, horse) from clothing after mucky work.
Rust marks: If the iron has left rust marks on your favourite white shirt, dab the spots with lemon juice. Leave the lemon juice on the item, then put it out in full sunlight. The combination of lemon juice and sunlight will bleach the spots away. Then rinse out the lemon juice. Use this method with caution on coloured items.
Biro: Biro is soluble in alcohol, so you can dab this onto the stain where your pen has leaked in your pocket to get the mark out. Smaller amounts of biro will just wash out, even on cotton. In my silly university student days, I attempted to decorate my jeans with biro graffiti. All my lovely designs and quirky comments washed out next time I threw my jeans in the machine, never to be seen again.
Egg yolk: This is a protein stain, so first of all, wash out as much of they yellow as you can to get the protein out with cold water. Soak the item if necessary. Sometimes grease or fat from the yolk will be left after this treatment. Add some baking soda or washing soda to the soaking water to deal with this part of the stain.
Beetroot: Beetroot isn’t as bad a stain as you might think. Tackle it as soon as possible and it just washes out normally.
Lipstick: Lipstick is soluble in alcohol, so dab some vodka or other strong spirits onto the spot and leave it to work before washing as normal. Some greasy marks may be left, so if this remains after washing the garment, treat with a solution of baking soda.
Mystery stains on whites that I hope aren’t mildew: Lemon juice and vinegar both kill mildew, so dabbing lemon juice onto the mystery marks and putting the item into the sun will shift them.
A group of women were once discussing the household chore they hated the most. Two chores stood out as the clear unfavourites: cleaning the inside of the oven and cleaning glass shower doors (cleaning the toilet came in third place).
Cleaning glass is a bit of a headache for many people – you have to try so hard not to leave streaks (or, what’s worse, scratches) and the dirt you can see is always on the other side (cue old joke about the similarity between window cleaning and political campaigns).
Natural glass cleaners won’t make the deeply hated chore of cleaning glass shower doors into a pleasure that you’ll look forward to doing. But they will be easier on your hands and less toxic. Natural cleaners will save you from the experience (as happened to this writer) of spraying on some commercial cleaner onto glass you had to get up close and personal with in order to clean it and promptly gagging on the ghastly fumes, and having a headache and itchy eyes for the rest of the day. And those commercial cleaners always stink – that’s the ammonia in them.
No matter what method you use for cleaning glass, these tips apply to everyone and every method:
* If you use a cloth, make sure that it’s lint free, or you’ll spread fluff all over the glass. The cloth should also be clean – if you have a lot of windows or glass to clean and the cloth starts getting greyish, get a fresh one straight away or you will start spreading dirt from window to window. And use a second cloth that’s also lint free to dry the window off afterwards and buff it up. Once this starts getting damp, you don’t need to change it: it becomes your new cleaning cloth to apply your natural cleaning product of choice with.
* Have a wiper blade on hand – the sort used by those annoying hit-and-run car window cleaners at traffic lights or that the petrol filling station has handy for motorists to clean windows with while they’re refilling the tank. This does get a lot of excess water off so you don’t get the problem of watermarks drying on and staining the window. Some people suggest keeping one in the shower and encouraging everyone to wipe down the door and surrounds after using the shower to make the cleanup job less hellish (if a family member is short sighted, do bear in mind that they won’t do a brilliant job of this, as nobody wears glasses or contact lenses in the shower and they won’t be able to see the mess).
* Fly spots need either friction, time or water to remove.
* Some people recommend using vertical strokes to clean one side of the glass and horizontal strokes to clean the other so you know which side the dirt or smears are on. However, using a circular motion can keep streaking to a minimum.
* If you have a very large amount of glass to clean (e.g. a conservatory or a glasshouse), go for efficiency rather than streak-free perfection and just use hot water and detergent. This also applies to high external windows that can only be reached with a long-handled window cleaning brush.
Some natural methods of cleaning glass:
* Microfibre cloths: These require just a little water to get the glass sparkling and crystal clear. You need one cloth to dampen and do the actual cleaning and another to dry the glass off afterwards. At a demonstration of these cleaning cloths, the demonstrator cleaned a French door – which someone later tried to walk through while it was still closed because it was so clean.
* Scrunched newspaper. Roll newspaper into a ball and get it damp (not wet) and buff the window, the mirror or the glass-fronted computer/TV screen. The ink seems to act as a cleaner. Get a fresh piece of paper when the original starts to crumble.
* Vodka or some other strong alcoholic spirit: Either spray it on the glass or apply it with a cloth. It has the advantage of evaporating quickly and leaving very few streaks, and killing germs. Alcoholic substances do give off strong fumes, but they are not all that unpleasant to inhale. Quite the reverse, in fact.
* Vinegar: Again, this can be sprayed on or dabbed on with a cloth. While it doesn’t evaporate quite as readily as alcohol, it still evaporates easily without leaving streaks. White vinegar is best to use. Vinegar also kills mould spores, so it’s great to use in bathrooms.
* Ordinary water is one of the most efficient and effective substances for removing dirt and is the closest thing to a Universal Solvent known. Substances like soap and detergent work by increasing the “wetting power” of water because the soap breaks the surface tension of the water. Good old soap and water will get rid of most dirt. Sometimes, however, water needs time to saturate and loosen dirt or grime, so with really tough stains, splash or spray on the water (preferably with a bit of soap) and leave it for a while. Scrubbing also helps loosen dirt physically.
* If you dislike the smell of natural cleaning products “in the raw” (e.g. neat vinegar or baking soda), add a few drops of essential oil to the cleaner of your choice. Essential oil doesn’t just smell nice, either. Some essential oils also have a disinfectant or germ-killing effect, and these will enhance the effectiveness of your cleaner with a bit of germ-killing action. Essential oils to choose from include pine, lavender and lemon – the scents that are often used in commercial cleaners – and also thyme, oregano and eucalyptus.
* Recipes for natural home-made cleaning products sometimes for rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. The truth is that you can substitute any strong spirit for the rubbing alcohol and still get the same results. Good choices include vodka, brandy, whisky and gin, but avoid sticky, sugary ready-mixed drinks or liqueurs – these will leave a sticky residue behind them. Low alcohol drinks such as beer and wine won’t work, either, as it’s the alcohol that does the cleaning and evaporates off afterwards. Also avoid substituting methylated spirits if you are likely to be using large quantities of the product (meths is OK for removing stains from clothes, especially grass stains).
* Patience and/or elbow grease are important with any natural products. Sometimes, you will need to spray on or spread on the home-made cleaner and leave it for a while so it can act. You will also need to put in a bit of effort to remove really stubborn bits of grime.
* If you plan on making your own domestic cleaning products, stock up on suitable containers and dispensers. Shallow screw-top jars are ideal for powders and pastes (don’t use tall jars, as reaching down to the bottom with a cleaning cloth to get the last little bit out is quite tricky). For liquid products, use a spray dispenser (the sort with the squeezy pump handle). If you have been using proprietary cleaners in the past, save the old containers if they are likely to be useful rather than throwing them out and buying new ones. Rinse them out well first, so you don’t get any of the old residues in your new natural cleaner. And remember to label your jar, container or spray bottle so you know what’s in it.
* Natural cleaners that use lemon juice will go off if stored. Only use freshly cut lemons for making natural cleaning products. If you are lucky enough to have access to a large amount of lemons for cleaning purposes (e.g. if you have a lemon tree), squeeze out the juice when lemons are abundant and freeze the juice in a regular ice cube tray for use later on. And, of course, you can use the lemon juice in cooking as well as for cleaning.
* White vinegar works best as a natural cleaning product, with malt vinegar taking second place. Wine vinegar and cider vinegar also work, but as they are more expensive, you may not want to waste them as cleaners. The same applies to balsamic vinegar but this is too dark and sticky to use as a cleaning product – save it for a salad dressing or for putting on your hot chips.
* Invest in good scrubbing brushes, as these will do a lot of the actual work. Replace them when they start to look malformed. To extend the working life of brushes, don’t push down on them so the bristles bend – the bristles will bend and do their job with the horizontally-applied force of friction and your hand, rather than downward pressure (this assumes that you’re cleaning a horizontal surface). Natural bristles last longer than plastic ones, but they will need to be stored properly so the bristles dry out.
If you’ve never tried making your own cleaning products for everyday round-the-house work, give these a go. The fanciest ingredient that gets used is essential oil – which you can easily pick up at a chemist’s shop or a health food store, or even at flea markets – and won’t sent you on a search for diatomaceous earth, glycerine or washing soda. Instead, these household cleaner recipes use everyday ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboards.
Super spray:
Hardware needed: a spray dispenser. Either buy something meant as a plant mister, or rinse out and reuse a bottle that formerly contained a commercial cleaning spray.
-2 parts plain white vinegar (let’s say 400 ml)
-1 part ordinary tap water (200 ml)
-20+ drops essential oil of tea tree or lavender
Put the liquids in the bottle and shake well to combine. This super spray can be used for all sorts of cleaning jobs. It’s great for cleaning mirrors and cleaning glass, removing fly spots, wiping down kitchen benches, disinfecting the toilet seat and as an air freshener. Leave out the water (i.e. just use the vinegar and essential oil) and you can use it as a fabric softener.
Soap slime:
Hardware: a kettle and a plastic container (something recycled like a 1-litre yoghurt tub is great). If saving soap scraps, a plastic mesh bag is handy.
-Soap, any sort, either grated, chopped up or in little pieces too small to use for washing hands and faces
-Boiling water
-Essential oil (optional) –again, any sort will do
Fill the kettle with the water and boil the water. Chop up or grate the soap and put in the plastic container. Pour the boiling water over the soap scraps, stir and leave for a few hours. The soap will melt, combine with the water and create a slimy goo. If you save soap scraps, collect the scraps in a plastic mesh bag (the sort oranges are often sold in) and keep this permanently in the container. The bag help you strain out the lumps from the gel, and you just pour in boiling water when the container has more unmelted scraps than goo.
Soap slime can be used for washing floors, especially tiles, vinyl or lino, washing the paintwork of cars, cleaning toilet bowls, spot-cleaning carpets, cleaning toys cleaning rugs and for handwashing woollens. It can also be used as liquid soap, if put into an appropriate pump dispenser, and as shampoo. Add some food colouring (not too much) and you have something that’s perfect for a preschool messy play day – slimy, squishy, stringy and messy, but washes out like a charm.
The Old Sailor’s Brass Polish
Hardware: a saucer or small pottle and at least two rags, one (or more) damp with fresh water.
-half a cup of salt
-enough white vinegar to make a paste (less than you think – salt dissolves readily)
Mix the salt and vinegar to make a paste. Apply the paste to the brass, bronze or copper to be cleaned, and coat whatever it is thoroughly. Leave the paste on for at least five minutes. Scrub as much paste off with the dry rag, giving the brass or whatever a good rub as you take it off. Clean off any residue with the damp rag(s). This worked a treat to clean a brass candelabra that had been neglected for years (tarnish, dust, fly spots…) and left it gleaming like gold. The paste can also be used as a marinade for meat, as a disinfectant for open wounds (stings like heck, but works) and as an addition to the bath for deep cleaning.
First of all, locate where the equipment has been stored in the back of the garage and remove the bike helmets, seed packets, watering cans, screwdrivers and tins of paint off it. Now get to work with a duster and some hot soapy water and a brush or three– you might actually be able to find out what colour the machine was. You probably also need to apply a bit of spray-on lubricant to get all the moving parts moving again, as they’ve seized up.
Oh sorry – you’re in the minority of people who actually uses their home gym equipment regularly and has kept up the good work for more than six months. Your self-discipline and dedication is to be congratulated. Either that, or you’re one of the smart folk who has hired a machine of some kind. But either way, you want to clean the machine and have it looking sparkling.
The main cleaning issue when it comes to home gym equipment is sweat. As the seats and other places that come in contact with your person are probably covered in vinyl or some synthetic material, staining is unlikely to be a problem as it would be with natural fibres. Old sweat will make your machine sweaty and sticky, so regular house cleaning is important. Your best bet for cleaning this is to use a natural cleaning product – after all, your skin will be in contact with the surface with your pores wide open, so you don’t want unpleasant chemicals getting in. You want to use the machine to improve your health, after all.
A home-made vinegar based cleaning spray is your best bet for cleaning home gym equipment. If you use a strong solution of vinegar, you will be more able to kill any bacteria that (yummy!) are feeding off your old sweat. Besides, the vinegar will also help tackle any staining that is trying to happen. To improve the germ-killing powers and the scent of this home-made cleaning spray, add some lemon essential oil – it will also make you feel more alert when you breathe it in. One of the real beauties of this spray is that it’s not just good for cleaning the sweaty bits of the home gym equipment, but it’s also good for cleaning the chrome/metal bits and for a host of other cleaning jobs such as cleaning windows and even cleaning toilets.
You can also prevent a lot of the sweat getting all over the machine if you put a towel down on the seat or other pad to soak up your shed body fluids, and use the dry bits of this towel to wipe things down (including yourself) after your workout. Wash the towel after each use, and add vinegar to the final rinse to keep it smelling fresh and feeling fluffy – you can even use about half a cup of the vinegar spray mentioned above. This is also a good move if you don’t have home gym equipment and go to a “proper” gym so you don’t wallow in someone else’s sweat and don’t leave yours for other people.
If you have had the machine for a long time, it pays to make sure that the moving parts are well lubricated so you don’t have to work harder than you have to (OK, this may be a bonus, but you may damage the machine). While natural products are usually best, you really can’t beat mineral oil for lubricating moving parts. You can use the old oil from your car for lubricating this (it’s also good for lubricating bike chains) – apply it carefully and sparingly with an old rag or with an old toothbrush.
If you are using a window cleaning company to have your home or office cleaned regularly, you are probably thinking that since this is something that the cleaning company will be doing anyway, there’s no need for you to bother about this. Please don’t jump to conclusions and read on.
Blinds reflect the condition of your home or office both internally and externally. A person looking at your windows from outside and seeing dirty blinds will jump to conclusions about the state of the interior and a person seeing dirty blinds inside will focus on that and not on the rest of the room, no matter how clean it may be.
The problem with blinds, especially in a place like London, is that open windows and pollution often wreak havoc upon them. It may at times be necessary to clean the blinds before the visit of a London cleaning company is due.
Here are a few tips on how to go about it with the minimum of effort. These apply to all blind materials Ð wood, vinyl, fabric or aluminum.
Start by vacuuming the blinds using a brush attachment. If need be wash the brush before use so it does not leave more dirt than it removes. Always move the vacuum cleaner nozzle in an up to down movement because doing it upwards could cause the blinds to un- hooked at the top.
Once the vacuuming is done, use a clean lamb’s wool or feather duster on the slats, once again using an up to down movement. If after this you see some stains or spots on the slats, use an all purpose cleaner to remove them. Never spray or apply the cleaning product directly to the slats. Dampen a cloth and rub the stain the remove it. If the stain does not come off, leave it alone and either wait for the cleaning company next visit or get a professional blind cleaning service to do the job for you. Many London window cleaning companies will offer blinds cleaning as a part of their services portfolio.
Please note that blinds should never be soaked as this will lead to the loss of the fire retardant and grime repellant chemicals they are coated with. Fabric blinds may also shrink. Also never wipe blinds with hot water as this may cause fabric colours to run.
For fabric and vinyl blinds use a dry sponge to scrub away stubborn dust and grime. Be careful not to rub too hard or you could damage the surface finish of the slats.
The market is flooded with hundreds and thousands of solutions cleaning products. However people are always on the lookout for effective solutions for cleaning. You can use the traditional or conventional products, but some of these may be harmful to the skin and general health due to their semi-poisonous fumes and harmful chemicals. Today, there has been a significant shift from the conventional products to natural and biodegradable cleaning products. The biodegradable products are safe to use and environment friendly and have many advantages. You can use many natural cleaning solutions like lemon juice, vinegar, mineral oils, pine oils, vegetable extracts, fruit extracts and so on which are safe and less expensive than the other products.
Daily Cleaning: All people would love to stay in sparkling clean houses. One has to take due care on a regular basis to keep one’s house neat and tidy. If one plans out a daily and regular cleaning schedule, then the task is simplified to a great extent and one will be able to achieve it easily as well. You can work out a time table for a daily, weekly and monthly task. In this way, you will not be overloaded with work at one time. Kitchen cleaning and bathroom cleaning can be done on a daily basis. You can do the vacuum cleaning and dusting on a weekly basis. The curtains and furnishings can be washed once every two months and so on.
Cleaning Products Solutions: The consumers can choose from a wide range of cleaning products solutions based on their requirements. The various types of cleaning liquids available are liquid detergents, detergent boosters, delicate fabric wash liquids, hydrogen peroxide bleaching agent, detergent neutralizer, fabric softener, machine ware washing liquid detergent, liquid rinse aid, silver ware detarnisher, lime scale remover, grease cutter, surface sanitizer, shower sprays, antibacterial liquid hand soap wash, floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, odorisers, glass cleaning solutions, carpet cleaners and so on. There are some specialty products also like floor polish, wooden surface polish, metal polish water based and solvent based stain removers.
Different Brands for Solutions Cleaning Products: There are many brands in the market for solutions of cleaning products. They include Stanley Home Care Products of the Fuller Brush Company, CleanAir America, Blue Wonder, American Cleaning Solutions and Clean Solutions and so on. You can get extremely valuable resources online as well for the purpose of cleaning solutions.
In the fast moving and jet setting world of toady, life has become very busy and not much time is left for tasks like house cleaning. Both the partners are busy with their respective careers and have little time for cleaning up of the house. In USA, professional home cleaning solutions are offered by US House Cleaning Services. Home Cleaning is a booming business in the USA.
Natural Solutions for Cleaning Products: Natural solutions used in cleaning products are getting popular by the day as they are efficient, effective, cheap and biodegradable. They have many health benefits and reduce the chemical pollution to a great extent. You can make home based cleaning products by using various natural ingredients like baking soda, borax, white vinegar, washing soda, isopropyl alcohol and so on.
There are many age-old and homemade methods to clean the mildew from various fabrics. Lemon juice and salt is probably the most common and oldest method of cleaning the mildew from fabric. As soon as you discover there is mildew on your clothes, first step would be to brush off the surface immediately. Mildew is actually a living organism, a mold that thrives in places that are warm and lives longer in humid environment.
Here are some instructions you can follow to clean the mildew from your clothes.
Take the piece of clothe/s away from rest of the clothing and take it to area where you can brush off the mold growth from the cloth. You can use a soft bristle brush to do this or you can just do it with your gloved hand. If you delay in brushing off the mold, there are high chances that the mold will eat your clothes away and soon you will find small holes in the place of the mold. Take enough care not to scatter the mildew spores in your house or anywhere on the clothes you are wearing. Sometimes when the mildew hasn’t grown much just cleaning it with a brush and washing it in a detergent and drying in the sun would be sufficient. But even after dusting the mold from your cloth if you still find the mildew spores on the cloth then you can use any of the following remedies listed here.
Mixture of natural cleaning products like lemon juice and salt as mentioned before is the safest and easiest method to clean the mold from your clothes. Make a thin paste of lemon juice and salt in a bowl and slowly spread it on the area where you see the mildew spots. Allow the clothes to dry in the sun and once it is dry, rinse it under the running tap water and sun-dry it again. The mixture of lemon juice and salt works as a natural bleach to remove the mildew and the mold stains from the fabric.
If the mildew stains are stubborn and are spread wider on the fabric then try using Peroxygen bleach to clean it. Take a pint of water and make a mixture using about one to two tablespoons of sodium perborate or powdered bleach that has sodium perborate also in it. If you do not have powdered bleach with sodium perborate then alternatively you can use same amount of potassium monopersulfate. If your fabric can be washed with hot water, use hot water to soak the cloth with the mildew stains and apply this mixture of powdered chemicals. You can also soak the cloth directly into the solution for at least 30 minutes and then rinse it off thoroughly with cold water and allow it to dry in sun. If the stains are old and are not gone after the first wash then you might have to soak the fabric in the solution for one night and then follow the same procedure. Only risk you have with this method of natural cleaning is that you might end up harming the fabric texture and color. Hence ensure that you check your clothes for colorfastness before trying this method.
Disposable nappies are very convenient for a busy mother (or father) but they are an environmental nightmare! They aren’t reusable or recyclable, so the only thing you can do with them is to throw them into the landfill – where they create nasty leachates and take centuries to break down again. Cloth nappies are by far the greener option – and, ultimately, the cheaper option.
However, cloth nappies do have their own problems, mostly to do with washing. In some centres, you can find nappy washing services, where someone will take away the dirty nappies and give you back clean ones. If you don’t live near a nappy cleaning service or if you can’t afford their services (or don’t’ want to pay for them), you will have to wash them yourself.
To wash cloth nappies, you will need a disinfecting/bleaching solution or powder, and a very large bucket with a lid. Nappies should be soaked in a bleaching solution for an hour or more before washing so excess bacteria can be killed, and any stains can be dealt with. Change the solution daily – one handy hint is to wash one load with nappies every day and to change the solution after putting the nappies in the machine. The lid is to prevent things falling into the solution – particularly alarming if the thing is a toddler or an over-curious kitten.
Dirty (as opposed to just wet) nappies will have to have the solids removed before going into the solution. This waste can, of course, be flushed down the toilet like any other solid body waste. Use a flushable liner to catch waste – you peel this off the main part of the nappy and flush it down. Alternatively, scrape the mess off with a spatula reserved for the purpose. Keep this in a container of dilute disinfectant in between uses.
Washing the nappies after they have been in the solution is easy – just put them in the machine and wash as normal. Nappies can stand a hot wash without any difficulties, if you want to do this, but a cold wash is also good. You can use fabric softener, but this is optional. According to some people, adding natural cleaning product like vinegar to the final rinse helps to prevent nappy rash.
Drying the nappies is also straightforward. Line drying in the sunshine is a cheap method, as is drying on a rack or in front of a radiator. Line drying especially is good for freshening and softening the nappies and the sunlight acts as a final germ-killer and bleach. But most of us will resort to the dryer at some time while our children are in nappies.
After the nappies have dried, you will need to fold them ready for re-use. Don’t bother ironing nappies – ever! It’s a waste of time, effort and electricity. A few creases and crinkles on a nappy won’t matter at all. If the idea of ironing nappies makes you laugh, I have heard of one person who did…honest! A number of different methods can be used for folding nappies and everyone has their own favourite. It’s quite like doing origami, but don’t panic if you’re new to it. If you can fold a paper plane, you can fold a nappy without any problems!
Some new styles of cloth nappies have been shaped so they don’t need folding. Good for you if you can get hold of these!
