Archive for October, 2008

October 31, 2008 | Company news, Being Green, Organics, Shopping, News

Check out this post over at Organicasm. They have list of 50 must-read blogs, separated by category. I’d have to say, these are some of the best green blogs in the blogosphere. Parenting, home, food, etc. - there’s something for everyone there. (And you’ll see Broom Huggers is listed there too! Not to toot our own horn, just giving a humble, inconspicuous plug…)

Check out the blogs there - you’ll probably find a few new ones you’ll like - I know I did!

October 29, 2008 | Kitchen, Vinegar, Cleaning tips

 

Bread dough, cookie dough, pastry mess… When you have a sticky icky kitchen mess on your hands, what’s the quickest way to clean it up? Most of the stickies we’re talking about need an acidic cleaner to wipe them up. Flour, water, oil, shortening, or butter… It’s an alkaline mess and what better to clean an alkaline with than an acid? That means you need something like vinegar or lemon juice.

The easiest thing to do is to let it dry a bit, then use a plastic scraper to scrape up the dried mess. You’ll have some residue left on your counters (or your hands or floors), and that’s where you’ll spray your vinegar or lemon juice. They’ll cut the grease and help ease the gunk from your surfaces. Easy as pie!

October 25, 2008 | Cleaning tips

 

No more need for expensive leather shoe polish! Why bother when you can clean them just as well with vegetable oil? Wipe off any dirt or dust with a damp cloth, then dab some vegetable oil onto the cloth and rub all over the shoes - even patent leather! Let it sit for 20-40 minutes and rub off any excess with a dry cloth. The oil will clean and condition the leather to keep it in tip-top shape.

October 24, 2008 | Kitchen, Health, Cleaning tips

Q from Anna: I need to clean my oven and it seems like food is baked into the enamel. My cleaning person wants to use easy off but I don’t.  I read you can use cider vinegar and baking soda and it will clean it.  Others say put your racks in a bath tub with dishing washing detergent and everything will come off. Can you suggest a nontoxic product or home made remedy?   I have a self cleaning oven but I am afraid that it will embed into the enamel.

Thanks, Anna. I applaud you in not wanting to use Easy Off. It has acute health risks (acute meaning immediate, upon exposure). In fact, according to the MSDS the health risk is a 3 on a scale of 4 - ingestion, touch, and inhalation are all risks. But it also contains glycol ethers, a volatile organic compound (VOC) and developmental and reproductive toxicant.

As for what you can use… my all-time favorite product is Shaklee’s Scour Off. It’s made from cherry pits and it’s amazing. It has a light, natural cherry smell that just makes you want to clean something. Better yet, it’s a very mild abrasive and it cleans everything from the inside of your oven to stainless steel, laminate countertops, and tub and tile too. Baking soda, similarly, is a mild abrasive, only you’ll need to scrub a lot more with baking soda than you will with Scour Off.

I like the idea of pulling out your racks and soaking them in the bath. If you do, you’ll need something that cuts grease in the water. Dishwashing detergent would probably do the trick, but adding some Borax detergent booster would probably help too. I’d suggest scrubbing with a mild abrasive before you soak - something like Scour Off or baking soda, then soak, scrub again, and soak again. The scrubbing will help loosen what’s baked on and help the detergent penetrate through it.

If you’re worried about the actual oven (which you can’t soak in the tub), I’ve found that the greenest cleaner that makes it easy to clean an oven is Simple Green. As far as green cleaners go, it isn’t perfect, but it’s way better than any ‘oven cleaner’ on the market.  If you don’t want to buy a big bottle of it look for it in the ‘travel size’ department of your supermarket. I keep a small bottle on hand just for my oven.

I hope this helps!

October 22, 2008 | Food & drink

 

Green your Halloween and roast your pumpkin seeds! The pulp of your pumpkins can be used to make awesome pumpkin muffins, pumpkin waffles, or pumpkin pie, but surely you know about that.

In case you’ve never done, pumpkin seeds are a wholesome salty snack. Ditch the potato chips and pop some pumkin seeds!

Rinse the pulp off your seeds and leave to dry overnight. Preaheat oven to 250 degrees and generously season your seeds with salt, pepper, garlic powder,  and/or seasoned salt. Bake for 1 hour, tossing frequently to ensure even roasting. Yum!

October 19, 2008 | Hiring help

1. You certainly don’t need to clean your house before I come, but the less clutter knick-knacks and personal items on your shelves and countertops, the faster I’ll be out of your hair and the faster you can get on with your day.
2. I would love to put fresh sheets on your bed, so please leave them somewhere I can find them, like at the foot of the bed.
3. I’m happy to clean a few dishes in your kitchen, but if you leave me last night’s dishes (along with the dishes from the party you had last week) it’s going to take more time, and your cleaning rate may reflect that.
4. When I take out your trash, I really want to make your life easy by putting fresh liners in your trash can, but I can only do that if you put them somewhere I can find them.
5. There are some nifty daily shower sprays on the market that will keep away things like shower scum and mildew. We maids love to clean showers where that has been used. (And your rate just might reflect the time we save on scrubbing…)
6. I know you want to save some dough on heating and A/C when you’re not home, but it would be oh so nice if you’d leave the setting somewhat comfortable on the day I’m there to clean.
7. I generally don’t mess with piles of ’stuff’ and areas where your ‘controlled chaos’ are seemingly volatile. If you want me to pick up your piles and clean under them, please tell me. Otherwise, I won’t mess up your creative organization.
8. Please do expect me to move things around so I can dust them and dust underneath them. I’ll do my very best to put them back where they were, but please have patience with me if they’re a few inches off or turned by a degrees. I really am doing my best.
9. I’m in the service business and I really want to make you happy. That’s my job. The more you can share with me about your expectations and pet peeves, the more successful I’ll be at pleasing you.
10. When I let you know that we’re just about done and we’d love for you to take a look at things, we really do want you to do that. And please let me know if there’s anything that’s not up to spec. See, I really do want you to be pleased with my work, and I want the opportunity to fix anything that’s not quite right.

October 15, 2008 | Reviews, Cleaning products

 

Of the ‘conventional’ cleaners out there Magic Eraser is a little different. No powder, no liquid, just a little white sponge. It got a bad rap a while back due to an email that went around claiming that it’s filled with formaldehyde. The truth is, there’s no formaldehyde in it, according to the manufacturer and their MSDS. There’s a chemical compound - specifically a melamine foam substance - that has the word formaldehyde in it’s name. Unfortunately I’m not a chemist, so I can’t tell you how that works, but if there are any chemists out there, do share your knowledge.

In terms of how it works, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t have a success story with Magic Eraser. The consensus is, it is indeed magic. In fact, I’ve heard people call it divine glory. Personally, I keep one on hand simply for crayon on the wall. It’s the only thing that works (with non washable crayons, that is).

But we’re here to talk about how ‘green’ it is. The answer? When Mr. Clean made the Magic Eraser, he (or the corporate magnate behind him) wasn’t concerned with things like sustainability, biodegradability, safety for marine life, and all the things we look for here at Broom Huggers. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find any information about it from Mr. Clean.

If we’re looking at toxicity though, it doesn’t contain any of the big worries - no petrochemicals, neurotoxins, respiratory irritants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, mutagens. I haven’t seen any data that would classify Magic Eraser as ’safe’ (though it’s said to be safe unless swallowed). But let’s just say that there are much worse things you’re exposed to every day. The PBDEs in your matress and pillow, the stain proof coating on your carpet, the adhesive in your cabinets, the list goes on. As for Magic Eraser, there are no tests that prove its safety, but likewise we know that none of the really bad stuff is in there. Even if swallowed, it’s not the chemicals that will hurt you, it’s the fact that swallowing a sponge will adversely affect the way your gastrointestinal tract works. If it’s something that you use on occasion when nothing else works, you’re good to go. If you have a basement stacked full of them that you use all day for every cleaning purpose, you might want to  consider something a little healthier for the environment and something that has been proven safe to people and pets.

October 13, 2008 | Kids, Being Green, Organics, Shopping

Jules, a fellow mommy-blogger, over at Everyday Mommy is giving away a complete set of Kiss My Face kids’ products. It’s chemical free and they don’t test on animals. Organic ingredients too! They use responsible production methods and take care of the environment. The set includes hand wash, soap, lip balm, toothpaste, detangler, and more! (I’d enter it just for the detangler alone - my daughter’s curly hair would rival a bird’s nest most days.)

If you have kids you’ll want to head over there and enter the giveaway.  And while you’re there, check out her other posts - she’s got a great thing going on there.

October 10, 2008 | Company news

 

We’ve spent almost the last year trying to get accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Who knows? Maybe there was a mishap in the paper shuffling or something gone terribly wrong over fax transmissions, but as of today, Broom Huggers is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau!

We thank our clients for their loyalty to us, and if you’re in our service area - Gwinnett, North Fulton, parts of South Forsyth, please let us know if we can help you with your housekeeping! Our maids are fully trained, very well screened, and, well, let’s just say they Rock! I love my employees and if you let us clean your house, you’ll love ‘em too. They’re just awesome.

We use all-natural, green, hypo-allergenic, biodegradable, Kosher products to clean homes in the metro Atlanta area. Johns Creek, Suwanee, Alpharetta, Norcross, Duluth, Buford, and Sugar Hill too. We’re pretty excited about what we do, and now the BBB is behind us!

October 8, 2008 | Food & drink, Shopping

In a culture of instant gratification, what’s your idea of a good family dinner? Sure, it’s different from family to family and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to food. But what is it to you? Do you eat as a family? At the table? Is there a TV droning in the background? Do you cook the meal? From scratch? Is dinner more about the food or the company? Is it a raucous, boisterous fun time, or a more serious, quiet meal? What’s more of a factor to you about the food - the health, the cost, or the convenience?

Chef’s Diary at Gristmill posted what I would call an awesome post that challenges KFC’s ad that a family KFC meal is cheaper than cooking dinner.  It talks about providing sustenance for your loved ones as a vital, spiritual act that deserves reverence. I think there’s so much to that, especially when I read Gabriella Garcia Marquez novels, where everything from love, bitterness, jealousy, and warmth are actually cooked into the food. Not everyone has the opportunity to cook for their family every day, and for those of us who do, it truly is a luxury, not a burden.

He went to the grocery store and bought what you’d need to make a KFC family meal, and did it for a few bucks less than the fast food version would cost. I think $10 for a meal for 4 is pretty steep. I cook for 7 daily and the majority of my meals - healthy, crowd-pleasers that require under an hour to prepare - cost under $10.

So, what’s for dinner at your house? Have you been decieved to believe that cooking is less noble than other pursuits? That your time could be spent doing something more ‘meaningful’? For me, there’s nothing more meaningful and creative than providing healthy meals that my family will love. Somehow it would seem like a cop-out to bring home take out. But that’s my family. What about yours?