Are Your Household Cleaners Safe?

There is nothing more frightening than a child making his or her way into your household cleaning supplies. It’s a parent’s worse nightmare!  To this end, it is important to find alternative ways to clean a home without jeopardizing the health of your children or your family.  We are all trying to become more environmentally aware of the dangers of toxins, not only in our home but as it relates to polluting our air, waters, and landscape.
Are your household cleaners safe? If not, here are some measures you can take to make your home a healthier one.

Vinegar, Borax, Lemon Juice, Olive Oil, Salt, and Baking Soda are all the ingredients you can use to clean your entire home. They are safe, non-toxic, and can do just as good a job as your more toxic household cleaners.

Let’s begin with windows. Instead of using a popular brand of glass cleaner, use water with vinegar and lemon juice to spray onto your windows. Vinegar can also be used to clean surfaces in your kitchen and bathroom; just add salt and water.  If the oven needs to be cleaned, use liquid soap, Borax and warm water. Borax can also be used as a disinfectant in hot water as well as for cleaning toilets.

Polish your furniture with olive oil and lemon juice. You can also use lemon juice to polish copper kettles; just add a bit of salt. For use in the bathroom, use baking soda and warm water. This can also be used to unclog the drain by pouring the baking soda down the drain with a cup of vinegar.

At a time when pollutants are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer; while gas and oil fumes are literally killing our natural resources; it is time to take a hard look at what we can do as individuals to decrease the toxins from our air and water. Perhaps if we begin to use alternative methods to using brand named household cleaners, we can send a clear and definitive message to these companies that toxins are no longer an acceptable form to be used in any capacity. It all begins with our taking a stand; it all begins at home.

Is Your Home Over Stuffed With Toys?

With the holidays behind you, no doubt your kids have received more toys for Christmas. Unfortunately, they are everywhere you turn. Keeping the toys from overtaking the house is a simple process. Let’s review some tips to help you bring your house back to order.

There are wonderful Tupperware chests you can purchase to store all of the toys skewed about the house. In addition, most of them come on wheels, which make the picking up of toys easier. They also come in colors and sizes, which can compliment any child’s room. Also available are hanging chests which would really make life easier for you. They can be hung on the wall of your child’s room, which is ideal especially if the bedroom is small.

Once you have all of the toys neatly assembled; the task before you is to get rid of the old or unwanted toys in your kids’ bedroom. This is something you will have to either confer with your kids, or determine on your own which toys should go and which should be kept. Just gather them up and place them in large boxes. If they are broken, and you can fix them, give them to a charitable organization. If they are intact; add them to the charity box as well.

When kids receive new toys, they quickly forget the old; well, usually they do. Again, the process doesn’t have to be traumatizing. Just discuss it with your kids, make a decision, and explain to them the importance of donating their old toys to charities. Make sure you explain to them the more room they have, the more toys they may receive next Christmas.

Check online to view all of the different toy chests available. Take your kids with you to buy these chests. In this way they can participate and choose whatever color or style they like. You can be assured once you arrive home; they will be bursting at the seams in anticipation of putting their toys in their new chests.

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