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GREEN CLEANING TIPS (from Organic Style)
Many household cleaning products contain toxic chemicals. Common household products found in your cupboard can prove to be excellent nontoxic alternatives.Countertop ink stain (from a grocery receipt)
Ingredients:
Lemon juice
Baking sodaPour lemon juice onto stain. Wait 5 minutes. Add baking soda and scrub with a sponge.
Bleach alternative
Ingredients:
1 part hydrogen peroxide
8 parts waterMix the hydrogen peroxide and water. Soak stain for 5 to 30 minutes. Launder as usual.
Ant repellent
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon boric acid (available at any drugstore)
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cups waterThoroughly dissolve the boric acid and sugar in the water. Do this in a clear jar so you can see when all the boric acid crystals are dissolved. Then soak some cotton balls in the bait solution.
Make bait dispensers out of some old plastic cartons with lids. Punch holes in them so the ants can get inside, then put the soaked cotton balls into the containers and cover them with lids so the bait won't dry out.
Place the bait containers wherever you see ant trails, in and/or outside the house.
Clean the containers and use fresh bait solution at least once a week.
Be patient! The key to effective control is to get worker ants to continually carry low doses of boric acid back to feed the ants in their nest. After a few weeks of using the solution, reduce the boric acid content even further, to 1/2 teaspoon, and use this weaker solution for long-term control. Boric acid is mildly repellent to ants, and using a very low dose makes it more likely that surviving ants will continue eating the bait and taking it back to the nest.
Glass cleaner alternative
Ingredients:
2 to 3 ounces vinegar
Several drops dishwashing liquidPour vinegar and dishwashing liquid into a spray bottle.
Oil stain remover
Ingredients:
Baby powder or cornstarchPour enough baby power or cornstarch on the area of the stain to soak up oil. Wait a few minutes. Launder as directed on instruction tag.
More cleaning information:
Kelly Preston was on Oprah one day. She is a member of The Children's Health Environmental Coalition.
Some of Kelly's suggestions:
Use any cleaning product labeled "non-toxic".
Beware of New Décor. Don't install new carpet in your baby's room. That new carpet smell could be fumes from plastics, formaldehyde and glues.
Don't paint. Read the small print on paint cans. Many paint cans say that they contain solvents that could cause permanent brain and nervous system damage.
For more information on The Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), visit http://www.checnet.org/.
If you have a poisoning emergency call 1-800-222-1222.
Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean is a marvelous collection of miraculous cleaning tips and surprising shortcuts that get the job done quickly and well. She also has Talking Dirty Laundry with the Queen of Clean! Check her out at www.QueenofClean.com.