Green

Okay, I'm finally going to post about the Green and Brown thing. But today you'll just be hearing about Green. I'll post on Brown another day.

Aside from the fact that I'm currently wearing a Saskatchewan Roughrider's hoody, which is a lovely bright shade of green, we've been making some green changes around the house. And aside from the fact that I now have two complimentary green shades of paint with which to paint my living room/dining room area, this post has nothing to do with painting the house.

It's referring to going green, as in, becoming more environmentally friendly. Working in a recycling depot with my student four days a week over the past year has really opened my eyes to the world of recycling, and our responsibility as occupants of this earth (even for the short while we are here), to take good care of it. There are small things we can do in order to eliminate waste and to just become more conscientious of what our actions are doing to our earth.

Two things I wish to touch on here . . . one is an amazing new dish soap I've discovered; the other is a recipe for a home-made cleaning agent, made from vinegar and citrus fruit. (I'll also mention baking soda, which has been long-known for its ability to do some heavy duty cleaning without being abrasive). Plus, at the end of this post is a handy-dandy laundry tip that I know you're going to love.

First of all, the "recipe" for the cleaning agent is as follows (thanks to Lindsay, where I originally got the idea from to make this):

Citrus All-Purpose Cleaner

What you need:
The peel from 1 orange, grapefruit, lemon or lime

3 C. white vinegar

1 clean quart jar with lid

1 clean 1L (32oz) spray bottle

What you do:
1. Combine the citrus peel and vinegar in the quart jar. Fasten the lid on the jar and store the mixture in a cupboard for two weeks, giving it an occasional shake.

2. Remove the peel from the jar, strain the vinegar, and return it to the jar.

3. To use as a spray cleaner, pour 1C. of the citrus vinegar in the spray bottle and fill with water.

4. To clean floors, add 1C. citrus vinegar to 7.5L (2 gallons) water.

5. For use in a bathroom, spray everything down, let it sit a couple minutes, then wipe everything clean. If more cleaning power is required, sprinkle a little baking soda and use a green scrubby.

Secondly, since we moved to our acreage two years ago, the battle with hard water began, and thus, I began searching for a dish detergent that has both staying power and cleaning power. Finally, the desperate search is over, and the winner of my quest for the best is:

Chlorox Green Works Water Lily Dish Detergent

I love this stuff. And if you couldn't be bothered to create your own Citrus All-Purpose Cleaner, Green Works has an entire line of environmentally-friendly cleaning products as well.

That's all I've got for you as far as promoting the environment. However, I will sneak in a little tip here that one of my good friends passed along to me . . . While doing laundry, socks seem to always go missing on me. I've concluded that my dryer has a mouth and stomach, and its only diet is socks. My friend suggested buying some plastic clothes pins (you can get them for a great deal at Dollarama, The Dollar Store, etc.) and whenever a pair of socks is put into the laundry hamper, they are first clipped together with a clothespin. When placed into the washing machine and dryer, they remain clipped together and therefore stay together. This has literally been one of the best household tips I've ever received. Socks stay together throughout the laundry process and I haven't had a single incident of missing socks in the dryer since I began this adventure a couple of weeks ago. Cool, huh?