Shiny, Happy

The Ideal Bite in my email inbox today was about natural metal polishes that make brass, silver and steel sparkle but are also non-toxic.

I once had a job as a household servant that required me to spend four hours on Thanksgiving morning polishing the household silver.

That may have been the last time I ever polished silver--bad, bad chemical smells and sore forearms. Besides, I rather like the tarnished-candlestick look...and yes, those candlesticks pictured are indeed my silver candlesticks although they now look like brass.

I'm a fan of non-toxic cleaners--in fact, my very first blog post was about them, and most of my subsequent posts on cleaners and cleaning promote, rather evangelically, non-toxic, homemade products.

So why choose non-toxic metal polish?

• Better for your body: free of chemicals that irritate (like ammonia) and also less chance of putting something fairly caustic in your mouth as you fork in the turkey or tofu



• Better for the planet: Ideal Bite reports that "the EPA estimates each U.S. household disposes of 1 lb of hazardous waste per year (including solvent-based polishes), which can make its way into groundwater if washed down the drain."

Ideal Bite lists several non-toxic products to buy--and also suggests the following home recipes:

For brass: equal parts lemon juice, salt and water

For silver: equal parts baking soda and water

For stainless steel: olive oil

Dontcha just love to use cleaners that you can also EAT?

Ideal Bite also offers this Fun Fact: If 10,000 households halve the amount of hazardous chemicals we use, we'll avert the weight of 833 sterling silver tea sets in dangerous waste.

833 sterling silver tea sets. Now there's an image that one doesn't often entertain.

Knit Nano Necklace

I like to listen to unabridged audio books (downloaded from Audible.com) while I dust and scrub the tile floors every Sunday morning.

The problem is that my iPod Nano gets in the way if stuck in my jeans pocket. It pokes me in the hip bone or falls out onto hard, wet surfaces as I bend and reach while cleaning.

So I stick it in my bra while doing housework or any other active, solitary activity.

But this looks very odd (and it feels a bit strange, too), so I have been looking for some kind of a Nano holder pattern.

I found this one and will give it a go tonight.

Seven Things Saturday, Week 7

For Week Seven of the project, I tackled the linen closet.

I still have old sheets given to me when I was first living on my own--cast-offs from my mom's linen closet. But they still have years of life left in them.

Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House advises that "It does not pay to overstock bed linens, for they will simply age on the shelf. An overstocked linen closet also makes more work for you. It is prey to odors and dust" (p. 672).

So I took her advice--somewhat. She advises stocking three sets of bed linens per bed. I kept some extra pillow cases and a few extra top sheets that I really love--but the rest--especially the polyestery sheets and pillow cases--go to Salvy Army:

TWO cotton flannel sheets (a fitted sheet and a flat sheet)
FIVE top sheets (white)
THREE pillow cases

Total this week: 10
Total so far: 56

Going Zero

I am a fan of buying by the case--more bang for my buck and I'm always well stocked.

I like to use earth friendly cleaners, and I recently bought a case of Seventh Generation dish soap from Gaiam.com.

Gaiam looks very, very fancy and thus too upmarket for me. But they had a pretty good price on a case of dish soap, so I placed my order.

At checkout, I was given the option to Go Zero--cancel out the carbon footprint that the shipping of my item makes by inviting me to pay/donate two bucks to plant trees. The trees offset the carbon dioxide emissions that result from shipping the order, helping to make a difference in the race against global climate change.

It is, apparently, the nation’s first carbon-zero order shipping program.

I live in a rural location and buy MUCH online: wine, cleaners, books, clothing. I hope other online retailers (Amazon, Wine.com, Sierra Trading Post) will also offer such carbon-neutral programs.

My case of soap arrived today, nicely packaged (no leaks) along with a certificate informing me that I am an official Hero of Zero. Which makes me feel good. And nudges me to shop with Gaiam again.

Roomba Rumba

I don’t think of myself as a gadget person. Among the reasons I so love knitting is that it is low-tech and time-honored.

But when the Roomba first came out, I was one of the first customers. The NPR Gadget-Guy's review coincided with Al throwing his back out so that he could not vacuum. And I wasn’t keen on adding vacuuming to my lists of chores.

The solution? A robot vacuum cleaner, of course.

The original Roomba worked ok for a few months but then rapidly declined, losing charge and effectiveness until it became sluggish and downright annoying. Then it sat in my house for a long time while I tried to figure out how to responsibly dispose of it or trade it in. Having failed on both counts, I sent it to a landfill somewhere in New Mexico and racked up many bad environmental karma points.

Several years have gone by—and in the last few months I have noticed the accumulation of dust bunnies under the couch and bed (I can see them when I do my floor exercises). That didn’t happen when we Roomba’d, because the pizza-shaped robot went under the furniture. Too cool.

So I wanted to have routine removal of dust bunnies again. And pet hair. Daily. We do not have a pet yet, but we are very close to getting a puppy—a long-haired, shedding breed of puppy.

And then I saw that Amazon sells factory refurbs of newer models of Roombas.

New ones can costs $300+, but my factory refurb of a recent (but not newest) model was $84. This one has several improvements over my first early model.

One is that it the new one charges in a docking station (Home Base) and returns itself to the docking station when it is finished vacuuming. (It knows when it is finished when it stops sucking up dirt.) The newer models recharge faster. And they come in fashion colors.

Geeked about Fels-Naptha

More birthday goodies!

So does my brother know me or what?

He sent a whole CASE of Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap as well as some lovely Olivella Face and Body Soap from Italy.

Yep, I love good, old fashioned cleaning supplies. Like chocolate but without the calories. And not edible.

Fels-Naptha is a product of yesteryear which boasts, according to Soaps Gone Buy, "100 years of stain fighting power...."

Their listing of specialty uses and recipes includes details on using Fels-Naptha for

• Poison ivy prevention and treatment
  
• Cleaning the shower
  
• Reducing the itching and discomfort from bug bites
  
• Removing ink, grease, or a variety of other nasty stains
  
• Cleaning paint brushes
  
• A spring and fall lawn tonic
  
• An aphid spray and other insect control
  
• Treating black-spot fungus on roses
  
• Cleaning black powder guns
  
• Tanning hides
  
• Ridding pets of fleas and ticks
  
• Washing your face

I might also grate it for my homemade laundry soap.

My brother and I remember Fels-Naptha, along with Lava Hand Soap, as the soap used for personal hygiene in my grandparents' home. You had to be tough to shower there.

Seven Things Saturday--Week 3

I'd almost forgotten! I got rid of my stuff so early this week that I'd forgotten that today's the day to share.

So, in adherence to the rules, here is this week's offload:

For the first four, I have no pictures (because I completely forgot to take them in the delight of ridding myself of four things!). They are two CDs I sold via Amazon Marketplace and two that I sent off in Lala trades. These were CDs we owned but didn't listen to--so no difficulty there.

But the rest of the load was a result of a major closet clean out. I have a guest coming next week, and I couldn't even close the sliding closet door in the guest room. Most of it was just stupid--empty boxes saved for shipping or gift-wrapping, etc.--and much of the rest just needed to be organized better. But the salvageable/donateable were:

a mostly functional boom box (the tape-player and radio work; the CD player does not); a hand-knit bag with a backgammon design (???); two old racquets (squash?) that no one ever uses; an adapter from my early Audible.com days that would let me use an MP3 player in a tape deck (since our old car had only a tape deck); and a red and black Chinese runner, a gift from a student that was very sweet but that we just haven't used. All went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store with no qualms whatsoever.

Total this week: 10
Total so far: 24

TipNut

I just discovered TipNut.

Not only does it have 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes (although I like mine better because it uses up junk soap bits), it also tells you How To Make A Solar Dehydrator and How To Make A Giant Twix Chocolate Bar!

And, adding to our diuscussion about cleaning with vodka, TipNut offers a recipe for Vodka Armpit Deodorizer. Now won't that come in handy for spring?

Laundry Soap Update

I am happy to report that I have used the homemade frugal laundry soap and, unlike the homemade dishwasher soap, it works!

I did five loads of laundry over the weekend, and they all came out looking clean and smelling great.

I do admit to using three or four tablespoons, instead of the recommended two tablespoons, for the extra-large loads--but that is still very little product and much bang for the buck.

Hurrah!

Knitted Wool Curtains

Follow up to last post:

For those of you wondering what-the-bleep handknitted wool curtains look like (!), here they are, Eucalaned and clean.

They're also still damp--I am using gravity to block them.

I made them from lace-weight red wool yarn and used the Dainty Chevron and Daintier Chevron patterns from Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Because of the color, it's sort of a Spanish lace look.

It is a bit like knitting a very, very, very long scarf.

I would have knit them longer, but my birding husband did not want his view of the bird feeders obscured. Hence the little, tiny valence on the large picture window. (Ah, the compromises of marriage!)

Eucalan or Kookaburra?

I just took down my hand-knit lace wool valence. It has been up for a few years, and I just noticed this morning how dusty it had gotten. Yuck.

This led me to the bucket and the Eucalan Woolwash.

I LOVE Eucalan. If you've never used it, it is an amazing product. I am not into endorsing products just for the heck of it--but there are some things everyone should know about because they are so good. Eucalan is one.

Eucalan is a Canadian product for handwashing wool. It is called Eucalan because it has eucalyptus oil in it--which makes everything smell good and acts as a moth repellent--and lanolin, the natural oil found in wool. They also have a lavender version--lavender oil used instead of eucalyptus oil.

Many knitters I know use Eucalan, and as soon as I tried it, I was sold. You use just one teaspoon per gallon of water. You put your soiled woollens in the solution, and soak them there for 15-30 minutes. Then you squeeze out (no rinsing!) and air dry (I usually blot first and then block my sweaters). It gets wool sweaters very clean, and the lanolin makes them soft and lustrous.

Woolite--a brand known well in the US--is a detergent, not a soap; it can do not-so-nice things to fibers, and those in the know--expert quilters, knitters, etc.--never touch the stuff.

One product that I haven't tried is Kookaburra Sheepskin Shampoo & Woolwash, which uses tea tree oil and lanolin. Has anyone used this? I think it is slightly cheaper per ounce than Eucalan, (and I love the label). It's on my Amazon wish list, but so far, no bites.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried both Kookaburra and Eucalan and has a preference for one over the other.

The Seven Things Project

The Blog Party has been more fun than I expected. I've visited many blogs and found some that I will regularly read (I've added them to my blog list on my sidebar should you want to check them out).

Earthchick has three of the blogs that I listed, and one is most intriguing and requires my action today: The Seven Things Project.

Starting last July, Earthchick has gotten rid of seven things a week. She intends to do this for one year, in order to de-clutter and simplify her life.

Sounds like a good project. I'm in!

Her guidelines are thus:

Sell, donate, give away, or recycle seven things a week. Every Saturday, post the Saturday Seven, a picture list of the seven things one got rid of that week, along with an explanation of how long one has had these things, what made it hard to get rid of them, and what one chose to do with them.

I have had my own less structured de-clutter strategies. I routinely drop things off at the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop. I sell books and videos and music on Half.com and Amazon.com's Marketplace. I sell other things on eBay, where I can give a percentage of the sale to a charity. And I recently joined lala.com in order to get rid of cds to which we no longer listen.

However, I've never approached this in a structured, goal-oriented way, so here we go!

My Seven for this Saturday:

1. A pair of boots from eBay that make my feet hurt because of the very pointy toes. Haven't had them very long--cannot wear them at all. I love the way they look, but the torture is not worth it.

2. A skirt that sometimes fits me but is mostly too tight and makes me feel like Butt-Girl. I have had this skirt for about seven years. I keep thinking that my butt will shrink. It hasn't.

3 and 4. Two classical music cds that I couldn't list on Lala (they were too obscure). I have no idea where we got these or why. They might have been freebies from an NPR fundraising campaign. One is a recording of the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra.

5. A random candle in a Spode china cup that has been collecting dust since the Millennium. It must have been a gift around seven years ago.

6. A box of photo frames that someone gave us for Christmas--and which we will never use.

7. A box of film (yes--actual film, for a camera). Not sure if it is too old to be useful, but we converted to digital years ago, so I have no idea why I found this in a drawer.

I find none of these things particularly difficulty to part with. I expect this becomes more difficult later in the year, when one has less stuff!

I will take all of these things to the Salvation Army Thrift Store--and I will try to restrain myself from going in and shopping for more junk that I don't need.

Frugal Laundry

In my search for less toxic and more environmentally friendly cleaners, I've been wanting to make the homemade laundry soap recipe from kidsorganics.

However, it calls for grated castile or glycerin soap flakes. Where do you buy that? Not at Wal-Mart. I can't even find good old-fashioned Ivory soap flakes anywhere. (Can you?)

So my thrifty self thought of a way to gain access to grated soap for free: you know those bits of soap bars* that are too big to throw away but fairly annoying to use? I started collecting them.

When I had a pile--actually, when I ran out of my Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent --I put the bits of saved soap in the Cuisinart and pulverized them. (Here I learned that soap grinds to a very fine powder--which wafts everywhere and makes one sneeze furiously.



I didn't have the required eight cups of flakes--I had two. Adjusting the recipe, I added three cups of borax and four cups of baking soda, along with the little bit of bergamot essential oil I had left in my little jar (less than 1 tablespoon).

The result is nine cups of very beautiful smelling laundry soap, made for very little cash or labor. Also, according to kidsorganics, I need use only 1/8 cup (that's two tablespoons) for every load. If my math is right, that makes 72 loads. Wow.

If it works, it will be fine value indeed--recycling soap and using cheap, natural, non-petroleum, phosphate-free ingredients.

Can't wait to do laundry!


*I'm talking real soap, not detergent bars. To learn about the difference, please read The Dope on Soap.

Eraser Evangelism

I am not sure why I am moved to do an unofficial product endorsement (grimace!), but I need to tell someone about my new discovery.

I live a fairly isolated, non-mainstream life, and so I had never heard of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sponge until my friend Steph blogged about its amazing powers.

And then I forgot about it--until yesterday, when I bought its cousin, SCOTCH-BRITE 4004CC HAND PAD,EASY ERASING--also available in bulk: Scotch-Brite Easy Erasing Pad (MCO4004CC).

Wow!

I have lived for ten years in a house which was never painted, but which has what is called "builder's primer" on the walls.

This means that when I squash a bug or spill tea onto a wall (it happens), I cannot really wash it off, because the primer rubs off and I see drywall. Result: ugly, dirty, shameful walls.

(You might well ask, "Why not paint your walls?" Answer: because it is isn't my house; it is a loaner from my employer, and I am not sure (1) if it is permitted and (2) how much energy I want to put into a house that is not really mine.)

But back to Scotch-Brite!

Have you seen this amazing technology? I wet the pad, I rub it on a stain, et voila! No more stain. It makes me want to buy a case and just rub every surface in my house until it is all unblemished. It is magical.

Is there some horrible, hidden environmental catch (besides the obvious one of using something non-recyclable)? What kinds of chemicals allow this magic to happen? Does anyone know?

La-la

I'm in a housecleaning, de-cluttering mood, and I've just discovered lala.com.

They have over 1.8 million CD titles to choose from, and you can trade-in your old CDs for CDs you really want for only $1 each. (If you are desperate, you can also buy new CDs from their store.) Signing up is free.

I listed one pile of old CDs (see below), and within five minutes, I made my first trade!

Unfortunately, they do not have all the artists I am looking for in their database, and I need to figure out how to alert them to Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week, as well as the existence of Jim Geezil.

This seems to me the kind of sustainable business that Steph recently blogged about.

Lala.com also reports that it has established the 'Z' Foundation, inspired by Charlie Chaplin's visionary creation of the Motion Picture Relief Fund and United Artists:

The "Z" Foundation is a non-profit that seeks to unite working musicians to address the economic challenges they face. Like Chaplin's endeavors to assist and empower entertainment industry workers nearly a century ago, the "Z" Foundation is a collaborative effort. The "Z" Foundation will initially be funded with monthly contributions of between $10,000 and $50,000 from lala.com and its members (actual amounts may vary based on CD trading volume on lala.com.) The "Z" Foundation will focus on providing health and dental care that is often inaccessible to working musicians.

In addition, For the first time, musicians will receive economic support directly from their fans. Each time a lala.com member trades a CD from a 1.8 million-title catalog with another member, 20% of the trading revenue will be contributed to performing artists. This new model for direct contributions is enabled by lala.com's social accounting technology.

Click here to get any of my CDs for $1

The Dope on Soap

There is a difference between soap and detergent. Many people I know use detergent to clean their bodies rather than soap.

The big difference is that soaps are made from animal or vegetable fats, while detergents are made from petroleum products.

Many of the “sports bars” people buy are actually detergent bars—and if you look carefully at the packaging of your “soap”, you’ll see that often it doesn’t say “soap” at all—it says “bath bar” or “body bar”—and that usually means it is detergent.

Natural soap is a more environmentally friendly choice, since soap is made from renewable resources and is less toxic to fish and wildlife since soap does not use the chemical builders (like phosphates) which detergents use and which are not very biodegradable.

The drawback of using real soap is that soap is more reactive to minerals, and it is this reaction that leads to soap scum—the harder your water, the worse the scum.

But I do love real soap, and I love the way it makes my skin feel.

When we switched to using soap in the shower (rather than a deodorant body bar), our skin showed an immediate difference—it was softer and less dry.

There is an aesthetic pleasure in using nicely crafted and subtely scented traditional soap.

There is also the feeling that we are supporting smaller producers rather than the Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Complex which pollutes our lives with heavy advertising and heavy petroleum use.

I sometimes buy locally made soaps from artisans—you can find these at farmers’ markets, craft shows, local co-ops.

There are also some good online sources. One special source is The Enterprising Kitchen, a nonprofit social enterprise located in Chicago which enables lower-income women who have been unemployed and underemployed to sustainable employment after 6-12 months.

In producing natural soaps and spa products, female workers receive intensive workforce preparation and skills development including paid employment, work and life skills training, individualized career planning, high school equivalency preparation, technology training, financial planning and a variety of other support services.

I first bought their product in bulk from Overstock.com, but they now successfully manage their own store from their own web site. Each product includes the mission statement on its label and is signed by the woman who packages it; I have given these soaps as gifts (along with my own hand-knitted cotton chenille washcloths).

When I’m feeling thrifty, I buy good soap in bulk from Amazon.com, such as Olivella Face and Body Soap, All-Natural 100% Virgin Olive Oil from Italy, 5.29-Ounce Bars (Pack of 12). For liquid soap. I look for a vegetable castile soap and try to buy it in bulk, such as the excellent Dr. Bronner - Pure-Castile Soap Peppermint, 1 gallon, which I dilute for liquid hand soap and also use to make my own shampoo.

A longevitiy tip: if you dry out bar soap, it lasts longer. I unwrap my fancy bar soaps as soon as I buy them and put them in my clothing drawers. They make my clothes smell great, and when I need a new bar of soap, they ar sufficiently dry so that they last a good, long while.

Rats!

Fact or fiction: you go into your bathroom, and AGHHH! Treading water in your toilet is a living, breathing rat.

I was telling my friend Anne that I had just read about sewer rats (aka commode rats)—the kind that apparently turn up in people’s toilets. She was repulsed. And we both were disbelieving.

Could this really happen?

But there it is, in the section on “clog busting” in Ellen Sandbeck’s Organic Housekeeping.

According to Sandbeck, these critters are attracted by the trail of food particles left by garbage disposal use. The rat takes a wrong turn--and there it is, smiling up at you from the porcelain throne.

Apparently, Washington State is not stranger to these guys. The King County web site has some very explicit advice:

• Keep your kitchen sink rinsed clean and use garbage disposals as little as possible.*
• Rinse out your kitchen sink once or twice a month.
• Use 1 cup of bleach (an alternative to using bleach, 1 cup of baking soda followed by 1 cup of vinegar) and rinse with boiling water.
• Never throw grease down the drain.
• Keep your toilet lid down when not in use.
• If you find a rat in your toilet, flush it! (hint: squirt a little dishwashing liquid under the lid into the bowl, wait a couple of minutes then flush)

*In fact, why not compost instead?

Re flushing the rat: Sandbeck says not to worry about it-—these guys can tread water for three days. (!)

She also cites a recommendation to flush at least five times, and, if the critter is still there, call Animal Control.

Yikes.

Cleaning with vodka

Although I am more of a gin girl myself, I think I am about to stock up on cheap vodka.

In my quest for a less toxic home, I am always on the lookout for new strategies.

For Christmas, my boss gave me a gift certificate to Tome on the Range, my local independent bookstore, and I picked up Organic Housekeeping: In Which the Non-Toxic Avenger Shows You How to Improve Your Health and That of Your Family, While You Save Time, Money, and, Perhaps, Your Sanity.

This is the kind of book I read for fun.

While browsing through it over lunch, I found several references to vodka as a cleaning agent.

Vodka can replace rubbing alcohol, which is extremely toxic, in home cleaner recipes such as glass cleaner. While vodka is technically drinkable and therefore non-toxic, it is also colorless and, once the alcohol evaporates, odorless. Apparently, it shines chrome and glass and is a good spot-remover for oily stains.

Now is the time to admit that my wise mom had already suggested vodka as a cleaning agent, but I had reacted skeptically. She puts a concoction of vodka, lavender essential oil (and water?) into her iron's water-for-steam reservoir, and it makes ironed clothes smell great.

Secrets of the Spas: Pamper and Vitalize Yourself at Home (Life's Little Luxuries) has a great recipe for a spray room deodorizer, but it calls for rubbing alcohol. I am about to mix some up with the vodka that has been in my cabinet for three years.

And if it doesn't work? I guess I'll just have to make a Chocolate Martini.

Chores

It's Sunday, and in my house that means weekly morning chores.

The beauty of a 1200-square-foot house is that is takes almost exactly one hour for two adults to give it a pretty good cleaning. With no kids and no pets, it doesn’t get too disgusting before the next Sunday comes around.

The secret to no-fight, harmonious housecleaning is to have a sacred routine (Sunday morning, 9 o’clock) with a fair balance of labor.

We divide tasks according to both skill and preference:

Both

Quick tidying up—putting away the detritus that has collected on the coffee table, desk, counter, etc.

Me:

dusting and furniture polishing*

washing hard-surfaced floors (kitchen, bathrooms, foyers) in the old-fashioned hands-and-knees way

watering houseplants

Al:

vacuuming and rug-shaking

bathrooms (everything but the floors)

mirrors and windows, as needed

Other tasks are fit in during the week:

Me:

grocery shopping

cooking

laundry

Al:

washing up kitchen stuff after meals

ironing

garbage emptying

*I tried the salad-dressing furniture polish from "Natural Alternatives to Pesticides and Other Toxins"—lemon juice and olive oil—but it seems have made all my wooden furniture sort of sticky and dull-looking. Yuck.

I used to use a Holloway House Lemon Oil Furniture Cleaner, 16 fl oz, but I was pretty sure it had some unwanted things in it. I now use Method Wood For Good Furniture Polish, Almond Scent, 12 fl oz, which smells rather nice until you've been using it for 30 minutes. I am not convinced it provides much protection for the wood, but it does wipe smears away and makes things look and smell clean.

Does anyone have any favorite recipes or products for furniture polish?

A less toxic year?

The New Year promises to be somewhat less toxic –politically (due to new congressional leadership!) and also personally.

In the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with natural cleaning products and have made some discoveries.

I started out by taking Sally Fallon’s advice from Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Automatic dishwasher powder is, she says, “extremely poisonous.” Fallon recommends using half the recommended amount and putting it in the first-wash cycle dispenser only so that the dishes get two rinse cycles (the second wash cycle + the actual rinse cycle). I slosh a bit of powder into both soap compartments, but I don’t latch the door on either one. The dishes get rinsed twice, I use less soap, and it all still comes out clean.

However, the suggestion that I was using “extremely poisonous” products on the very equipment I eat off of was disturbing, so I looked around for other alternatives. I have bought and do buy products from "natural" cleaning brands like Seventh Generation, EarthFriendly, Caldrea, Ecover, Mrs. Meyers, Bi-O-Kleen, etc. But they are very expensive and still somewhat toxic.

The Kidsorganics page on "Natural Alternatives to Pesticides and Other Toxins" suggests using a mixture of one part borax and one part baking soda as an automatic dishwasher soap. I tried that, but it left the glassware rather filmy with a powdery residue.

My mother suggests using no soap at all, using only one wash cycle, and sloshing in one cup of white vinegar—which does get the dishes pretty clean if they are not too dirty to start with. Since I live in a state of water scarcity, I do not pre-rinse my dishes, and my dishwasher loads are extremely full to maximize the water use, so the vinegar idea doesn't always work for me.

So I am back to Fallon's recommendation of "less is more" until I hear of a better one.

The "Natural Alternatives to Pesticides and Other Toxins" page has some good suggestions for other aspects of the housecleaning—I now use a solution of white vinegar and water for nearly everything I wash—floors, counters, toilets, showers, mirrors. It is very economical—at $1.87 per gallon of vinegar, I am spending far less on cleaning products, and I also know that I have fewer toxins on the surfaces that surround me.

Ecocycle is another site I’ve found helpful for recipes for less toxic cleaners, as well as Charity Guide's page on natural cleaners.

I was also astonished to see that my very own government (well, a tiny branch of it) seems to agree with me:

Because Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, it is crucial to make the home environment as safe as possible. Indoor pollutants have proliferated in recent years, often either because modern construction techniques and furnishings manufacturers utilize hazardous materials or because consumers do not know enough about the products they buy to make informed
choices.

But safe, nontoxic alternatives exist for nearly every real need around the home, and the search for them may help consumers distinguish between what they really do need, and what may be "luxuries" that could compromise their families' health.

What are these "luxuries"? For me, they are often perfumey things: synthetic air fresheners, room deodorizers, fabric softeners.