Author: oi_admin

The holidays are here!

What a perfect time to get together with friends and family and celebrate. December is such a fun time for my family. Relatives from out of town visit. Our Christmas tree is filled with lights and hand-made ornaments from the kids. Special holiday cookies are baking in the oven, and presents are overflowing under the tree. School is out for ten days so there is nothing to do but eat, drink, and be merry!

Amongst all this celebrating, however, are stains, just waiting to show their colors. Don’t let stains ruin your holiday tablecloths and themed sweaters! Be prepared ahead of time to combat any stain that comes your way.

So here are the twelve stains of Christmas (far less pleasing than the twelve gifts of Christmas from the song), as well as easy ways to remove them. I have used these tips in the past and they have worked very well for me. Try them and let me know what you think:

1. Lovely, sticky candy canes! Rinse item in warm water to dilute stain.  Add one tablespoon of white distilled vinegar to warm water.  Let soak for one half hour.  Launder as usual.  Air dry.
2. Wine — everyone's favorite social buffer this time of year. Blot stain. Spray on club soda. Blot stain until it disappears. Or, for red wine, try pouring boiling water on stain (after you take it off, of course, if it's on your clothes!). Blot with a mixture of one tablespoon dish soap and two cups water. For white wine, pour cold water on stain and blot. Air dry.
3. Coffee and tea for those late nights curled up by the fire. For coffee stains, blot stain. Add one teaspoon liquid soap to a small cup of hot water. Pour slowly on stain and blot. For tea stains, place item into a mix of sugar and water and let soak for fifteen minutes. Rinse with warm water. Air dry.
4. Good ‘ole Eggnog. Blot. Let soak in mixture of cold water and enzyme detergent for half an hour. Launder as usual.
5. Yummy icing from those fun-to-decorate, messy-to-eat sugar cookies. Pour white distilled vinegar directly on the stain. Let vinegar soak in. Launder as usual. Air dry.
6. Holiday pies, just like grandma used to make. For cherry pie stains, pretreat with cold water. Wash with liquid soap. Soak in hot water and liquid dish soap overnight. Launder as usual. Air dry. For blueberry pie, combine vinegar, water, and liquid dish soap in a spray bottle. Spray stain and let item soak for half an hour. Wash.
7. Fat and grease from turkey dinner — a holiday indulgence you just can't say not to. Pre-treat stain with liquid dish soap (such as Castile soap or Dawn dish soap). Soak for thirty minutes. Wash in hot water. Air dry.
8. Butter, because everything's better with butter. Sprinkle salt directly on the stain and let it soak in. Pre-treat stain with liquid dish soap. Wash in hot water.
9. Gravy from Great Aunt Mabel's gravy boat with the dainty little holly leaves on it. Wipe off excess and pre-treat with liquid dish soap. Soak overnight in enzyme detergent. Wash with hot water. For gravy stains on carpets, pour baking soda on stain and let it soak in for 15 minutes. Blot with a microfiber cloth.
10. Chocolate, because what is a holiday with out some chocolate? Soak item in a mixture of baking soda, white vinegar and warm water. Rinse. Launder as usual.
11. Vegetables, to keep your meal nice and balanced after that turkey, pie, and gravy. To remove carrot stains, soak item in one part vinegar to three parts water until the stain lightens. Rinse with warm water. Air dry. For yam stains, wet the back of the stain. Add one tablespoon dish soap to two cups water. Rub on stain. Rinse. Air dry.
12. Lipstick stains from the nights you doll up for the parties. Dab excess lipstick with a white tissue. Cover lipstick with baking soda and rub gently with an old toothbrush. Shake off excess baking soda. Add a few drops of vinegar. Then a few drops of liquid dish soap to the baking soda on the stain. Rub mixture in good. Rinse with cold water. Launder as usual.

Always remember when dealing with stains to try not to put the item in the dryer. If any stain is left, the dryer will set it and can make some stains permanent. When trying to remove stains, push the stain out from the back of the fabric. Most stains that have already dried on the fabric are also easier to remove if they are soaked in cold water first before laundering. This will dilute and soften the stain.

So go ahead, drink some eggnog while singing Christmas carols! Eat that extra cookie topped with red and green icing, and bite down on that sugary candy cane. Simply enjoy your holiday season!  After all, you deserve it.

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Odors….we all have them! Some of them we like, but some can linger on for days. And sometimes, certain products designed to help cover up odors wind up making the air worse than it was before!

A few days ago, the weather here in New York was beautiful, so I decided to finish raking up the last bit of leaves from my lawn. I ran out of lawn bags, so I went to the store to buy some. To my surprise, there were only about three boxes left! The bags I usually buy were out of stock, so I bought a different kind — scented bags meant to keep foul odors from contents from leaking into the surrounding air.

As I was putting the leaves in the bags, I started smelling a weird smell. About a half hour later, I had a massive headache and had to stop raking the leaves. I finally realized that the smell of the lawn bags I purchased was so strong that it gave me a headache!  The bags I bought were the “odor control” kind, so basically, a fragrance was added to the bags to cover up the garbage smell. I will never buy these bags again.

There are countless products on the shelves these days designed to cover up or even "eliminate" foul odors, but at what cost?

The chemicals in these products that make them so scented are actually quite harmful at times, including causing headaches like those I experienced. But you can actually get rid of lingering odors in your home using natural, non-toxic ingredients. Here are some more health-friendly tips:

• Lemon juice gets rid of strong odors like fish, onion, garlic and spaghetti sauce from your pans, utensils, and even your hands! You can even add lemon juice to a damp microfiber cloth to clean odors on your counter tops and cutting blocks.
• For those of us who have garbage disposals that give off a stale odor every once in a while, grinding up a citrus peel while running hot water into your garbage disposal will help remove the smell. Adding citrus peels to the bottom of a kitchen garbage pail helps keep odors at bay, too.
• For refrigerator and freezer odors, placing a box of baking soda in each will absorb odors, leaving them smelling clean and fresh. You can also place a box of baking soda in your bathrooms behind the toilet to remove any odors that might arise there.
• If you ever get a strong foul odor from your washing machine, pour a cup of vinegar in the washer while doing a load of laundry to remove any odors from clothing and from the washing machine itself. I have a front load washer that gives out a “mildew-smelling” odor every couple of weeks because of liquid detergent buildup. I just add a cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle and voila! The smell is gone!
• Since odors also lurk in my car now and then, I just place a cotton ball soaked in pure vanilla extract in a small plastic cup and place it under the car seats. This really helps eliminate odors and freshen the air, giving it a sweetened scent. During cold and flu season, I use tea tree oil instead of vanilla oil.
• A majority of odors can be removed from your home by boiling cinnamon and cloves in two cups of water. If you don’t like the smell of cinnamon and cloves, you can add vinegar to the water instead. Either method will help freshen the air in your home.

We all have unwanted odors in our lives!  How do you get rid of yours?  Share your tips with us!

There is nothing better than cleaning your home with all-natural, homemade cleaners, especially when you find a recipe that works well.  I started making my own household cleaning products about four years ago when I learned the hazards of toxic cleaning products and the harmful health effects they can cause.

Making my own cleaning products is quick, easy and inexpensive.  Non-toxic cleaners also clean better than most of the products I have bought in the past.

One ingredient that I absolutely LOVE to clean with is vinegar.  I use it to clean just about everything!  Vinegar can be found in any foodstore.  In fact, you can find a gallon-sized jug of it at the grocery store for less than $4.  White vinegar cleans my floors, deodorizes rooms, and softens my fabrics in the laundry.  The best thing about vinegar is  it is a natural disinfectant .  When cleaning with vinegr, the smell usually goes away after the vinegar dries.

An all-purpose cleaning spray that I heavily rely on to clean my home with contains vinegar.  In a 32 ounce spray bottle, add 15 drops of tea tree oil and then fill the bottle halfway with white vinegar and halfway with water. Swirl it around to blend the ingredients.  Grab your color coded microfiber cloths and you are ready to clean!  Use this all-purpose cleaner on cabinets, countertops, in bathrooms, and on germ-ridden areas like computer keyboards, TV remotes, light switches and doorknobs.  It cleans like a charm!  I actually make two of these cleaners and  keep one upstairs and one  downstairs for easier access.

Baking Soda is another great ingredient to use when it comes to cleaning your home.  Not only do I use baking soda to clean my bathrooms, but I also use it as a deodorizer.  I usually make up a big batch of the powder by pouring a whole box of baking soda into a bowl and adding about 1 drop of pure lavender essential oil for every two ounces of baking soda. With a fork, I mix the baking soda and oil until all the lumps are smoothed out.  I pour the mixture into old Parmesan Cheese shakers and let them sit for 24 hours before I use them (this helps the lavender scent soak in).  This powder will freshen up rugs, carpets, and upholstry.  It also absorbs and deodorizes spills and potty-training accidents.  You can also use it to clean grime stains out of your toilet, sink and bathtub.

The wonderful thing about homemade cleaning products is the versatility. The same powder can dry a spill or scrub a toilet, the same spray can wipe off the table before dinner or clean the corners around the toilet and sink. Many of the ingredients, like vinegar, baking soda, and tea tree oil, are relatively inexpensive too! I trust these ingredients in my home every day because they're safe, effective, and simple.

Make the change to homemade natural cleaning  products, and tell us what you think!

The holiday season is almost here and in a few weeks most of our homes will be filled with house guests, family members and fun!  But who wants to spend the next few weeks cleaning?  I would rather be shopping, decorating, working, and exercising!

For the past ten years, I have had the privilege of having Thanksgiving dinner in my home.  This Thanksgiving will be a little more special than others because my family and I will celebrating two other occasions as well:

1. My daughter's birthday, which falls on Thanksgiving Day this year; and
2. After one year, my mother is finally a few months away from moving back into her home that was destroyed from Hurricaine Sandy. It's been a long ride, but we are moving on!

This holiday season, I have a lot to be thankful for.  My home will be filled with loving family, happy smiles and future memories, so I want my house to sparkle! But I don't want to spend every second of the next few weeks cleaning. Here are some quick tips that I use around the holidays to keep my home fresh and clean throughout the season:

Keep the entryway clean. The first thing guests see when they arrive is the entryway, so keep it clean!  Wipe down the front door, give the doormat a good shake, and make sure dust and dirt are not building up on the legs of the furniture and floors.  Use a microfiber cloth to wipe down dust off of furniture and baseboards and use a HEPA filter vacuum to clean the floor.

Make that kitchen sparkle.  Guests always seem to gather around the food during the holidays, so make sure your kitchen looks and smells nice.  Dust light fixtures with a microfiber cloth.  Clean garbage disposals and garbage pails by cutting up a lemon and dropping half of it in the bottom of the pail and the other half into the disposal.  Flush drains with baking soda, white vinegar and warm water to remove grime.  Clean countertops with Castile soap and warm water.  Wipe down appliances with a clean microfiber cloth.

Got smells?  Bring a pot of water and your favorite holiday herbs to a boil.  This will keep your home smelling fresh for hours!  If all else fails, brew some coffee....the aroma of the coffee will cover up odors.

Remove stuck on food from ovens, sinks, and countertops.  aking soda and water combined makes a simple scouring solution that easily scrubs off baked-on gunk.

Keep your windows clean.  Clean, streak-free windows always makes a home sparkle.  For an easy window cleaner, mix vinegar and water in a spray bottle.  Mix well and spray!  Wipe down windows with a reusable microfiber cloth.

Prep your oven for all of that delicious holiday cooking. Even though I have a self-cleaning oven, there are a few stuck on food stains here and there that don't come off when the oven cleans itself.  So, I have to rely on my good 'ole natural oven cleaners to make my oven sparkle!

Toxic commercial oven cleaners always give me headaches and the fumes that come out of the can when I spray the cleaner are so strong that I have a hard time breathing.  One of the main ingredients in oven cleaners is lye.  Lye is extremely corrosive and can burn your skin and eyes, and it is usually fatal if swallowed.  Why would anyone want to clean their homes with such harmful products? Believe it or not, I make my oven sparkle by cleaning it with baking soda and water....that's it!  A simple household mineral like baking soda can clean like magic!  The key is using enough of the mineral.

I like to clean my oven in the evening.  To clean my oven, I sprinkle baking soda all over the bottom of the oven until it is covered completely (about 1/4 of an inch of baking soda).  Next, using a clean spray bottle, I spray the baking soda with water until the baking soda is thoroughly damp but not flooded. After that, I let the mixture soak and do its thing!  Every couple of minutes, I dampen the baking soda again if it is drying out.  If the oven is filled with tough stains, I let the baking soda soak in the oven overnight.  In the morning, I just grab my microfiber cloth and wipe off the baking soda and the grime.  It's that easy!  No scrubbing needed!  Just keeping wiping and rinsing until all of the baking soda is gone.

These are just a few of my favorite quick tips that can help keep your home ready for guests throughout the holidays.  What are your tips for keeping your home guest-ready during the holiday season? Share them with us!

Cleaning with soap and water effectively removes germs from most surfaces, but some areas may require an additional step: disinfection. Disinfecting works by oxidizing  the germs and breaking down their cell walls (deactivating them). Disinfecting properly can provide added safeguard for areas where people come into contact with contaminated surfaces. This can help reduce the presence of asthma and allergy triggers in a way that basic cleaning can't.

Disinfectants can kill germs on commonly used surfaces, but there are many unseen health risks involved with using store-bought and chemical-based products:

• Repeated exposure to toxic disinfectants can cause health problems.
• Products that contain chlorine can cause eye and skin irritation.
• Extended exposure to certain chemicals can cause respiratory irritation and distress.
• Negative effects may be worsened if chlorine is mixed with other cleaners.
• Ammonia, another common disinfectant, can burn the skin and cause blindness if it gets into the eyes.

In the end, it's just not worth the risk! On the other hand, natural disinfectants can be just as effective as chemical disinfectants but are safer for use around pets and children, and they often cost less to make than more hazardous products cost to buy.

If you want to disinfect your home but don't want to subject your family to toxic chemicals, try these two homemade recipes:

(1) Combine two tablespoons of borax, 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 2 cups water in a spray bottle. Cover bottle and shake until the borax is dissolved. Add twenty drops of either tea tree oil or thyme essential oil. Shake. Spray.

(2) Mix 2 cups white distilled vinegar with three drops tea tree, thyme, or eucalyptus essential oil. Spray.

Properly disinfecting surfaces goes a long way in keeping homes and families healthy, but it's important to be sure that your cleaners aren't doing more harm than good.  Cleaning your home instead with nontoxic, natural, homemade, and green cleaners will save you money and protect your family from both the germs and the chemicals.

Halloween brings fun times, lots of candy, and beautifully thought-out costumes. It is a time to make new memories and friends. But after the fun is gone, we are left with paint on our faces, fake blood on our clothes, and chocolate all over our children and their bedroom floors.

But don't let Halloween stains spook you! There are many different methods for cleaning up post-trick-or-treat without using harsh chemicals. Here are some ways to get you started based on common types of frightening Halloween stains:

Fake Blood

The best way to remove fake blood is to lather on some shaving cream, rub, and rinse with warm water.  The shaving cream foam prevents the dye from seeping into the pores of your skin.

Face Paint

To remove face paint, use a product that contains oil.  The oil will break down the makeup and face paint quickly without damaging your skin.  Try using Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil.

Fake Tattoos

A pair of scrub gloves and some warm soapy water is the easiest and quickest way to remove fake tattoos.  Try using Earth Therapeutics Exfoliating Hydro Gloves, which won't harm your skin.

Pumpkin Stains

To remove pumpkin stains on fabric and carpets, start by scraping off the excess pumpkin.  Add 1 tablespoon dish liquid to 2 cups cold water.  Dip sponge into solution and blot stain until liquid is absorbed.  Once the stain is dry, rinse with cold water.

Candle Wax

Scrape off excess wax.  For fabrics, place in freezer until wax hardens.  Scrape off the rest.  For removing candle wax on carpets, scrape off excess wax first.  Next, cover carpet stained area with a clean white cloth.  Use the tip of a warm iron and press into the cloth until the wax is transferred from the carpet to the cloth.

Apple Stains

Run the fabric inside out under cold water to remove as much juice as possible.  Dab some liquid dish soap onto stain.  Launder as usual.

Lipstick

Using a dry white washcloth, dampen the lipstick stain with alcohol.  With a dry paper towel, blot the area until it is no longer picking up any lipstick.  Treat stain with liquid dish soap.  Launder as usual.

Chocolate

Scrape off as much chocolate as possible without spreading the chocolate deeper into the fabric.  Spray on hydrogen peroxide or vinegar.  Soak.  Rinse.  Machine wash.

Colored Spray from Hair

To remove colored dye from hair, mix a small amount of clarifying shampoo and dish detergent into a small bowl.  Wearing gloves, apply mixture to hair.  Wait 20 minutes and rinse with cool water.  If color is still in hair, combine apple cider vinegar with luke warm water in an applicator bottle and apply to hair.  Wait 20 minutes.  Rinse with warm water then with cool water.

What are you going to be for Halloween? Share you costume ideas (and your ideas for cleaning them up) with us!