TLC IN A COLUMN - March 07 - Spring Cleaning

Talking from the Heart certainly struck a chord with me last month; G. Habron's email was full of inspirational ideas on how to curb our wastefulness…..

….and as promised, here are some recycled tips on how to spring-clean your home naturally. As G. Habron stated, none of this is new, but it will save you money & care for your beautiful planet, ensuring we take another step to keep it beautiful for our kids…….

Most chemical cleaners available on the shelves have very toxic ingredients, which can for example, disrupt your hormones, deposit themselves in your body fat, which can be difficult for our body or our environment to break down. Just because it hasn't got a skull & crossbones on the label does not mean it is safe.

The staple diet of cleaning is lemon, vinegar bicarbonate of soda, & borax, so maybe popping these on your next shopping list will be your 1 st step to an ecologically clean house:

•  Use borax to soak stains out or to add to your wash for super-clean deodorising laundry. Alternatively rub your whites with lemon juice & leave it out in the sun to let it do the hard work for you.

•  You can use borax in warm water to clean & deodorise your fridge, freezer or bin too.

•  For wine stains on the carpet, dissolve ½ a cup of borax in ½ litre of warm water…..leave on carpet for 30mins, then sponge off. You can obtain borax from some independent chemists, or from www.dripak.co.uk

•  A paste of baking soda left on your oven then washed off with a scourer & hot water, or pour salt on a spillage while it's warm, then wipe off with a hot damp cloth when the oven is cool.

•  Dissolve a cup of baking soda & 50ml vinegar in boiling water to help unblock drains, then flush through with an infusion of yarrow to encourage break down of waste matter in your septic tank. You can also use the latter to help speed up your composting process by pouring it over the top of your compost.

•  Treat hard water deposits in your bathroom with neat vinegar.

•  Squirt white vinegar around your toilet bowl, add some bicarbonate of soda, leave for as long as poss, then scrub n flush.

•  Use 2 tbsp. of distilled white vinegar & some borax in a spray bottle for cleaning windows. Some times a waxy residue is left from previous cleaners, but the borax will help this.

•  Get a spray bottle & add a small amount of vodka/gin. Add a few drops of your fave essential oils, shake & top up with water for a cheap air, carpet, animal bed or furniture freshener. Add ti tree or thyme to the mix if you want a disinfectant.

•  Ti tree oil can be used on mould & mildew too.

•  Use olive oil or vegetable oil to buff up your wooden furniture giving it protection & a rich lustre.

•  Add a couple of drops of essential oil to your hoover bag to create a lovely happy smell as you go.

•  Pop a drop of rose or lavender oil on a tissue & pop it in your airing cupboard to make your linen smell divine.

•  & if this all sounds too much like hard work, then Tesco's & Country Store Health Food Store, Bond St, Redruth now sell a wide range of eco-friendly cleaning products. I am a fan of Ecover, & Country Store offer a refill service which is even better as we are reusing the plastic bottles more than once.

•  Another wee tip, now you are cleaning more ecologically, why not, if you have the room, channel your outpipe from the washing machine or your bathroom onto your garden. My washing machine goes into an outpipe which goes under a rockery lining my flower bed & into a sedge grass draining system which naturally sifts the water before soaking into another flower bed……who says Its not easy being green!

Toodle ooh for now eco-scrubbers!

Next month, love the skin you're in.

Have fun, be well,.

Nicolle Mitchell I.T.E.C., EMBODY, A.C. Registered

Holistic Health Therapist & Practice Manager

THE LITTLE MASSAGE CLINIC

THE PENVENTON HOTEL & HALF MOON SALON

TEL: 01209 203230 OR 711686

Email: nicolle@tlcinabottle.co.uk