Posts Tagged ‘green cleaning Fairfax’

GreenItUp! will be at the Fairfax Farmers’ Market tomorrow. Come by for a bottle of MultiPurpose cleaner and a chance to win a free home cleaning. Drawings will be held weekly for MultiPurpose winners and monthly for home cleanng winners.

This week’s MultiPurpose winner is Keith H. of Reston – hope to see you tomorrow, Keith. Come down anytime to pick up your free bottle. You can also come on Saturday the 18th. (GreenItUp! will be at the Celebrate Fairfax Festival on June 11th and on a weekend trip  June 25th.)

Share on Facebook

Mark your calendar for June 10th, 11th and 12th!

We know that commercial cleaners are dangerous for your health when inhaled or absorbed into the skin, but it is often overlooked that we are polluting our water every time we purchase, use and throw away a commercial cleaner. What goes around comes around. The production of cleaner contaminates water supplies in the form of company waste and run-off. When we use these cleaners they contaminate the water supply as they run down our drains. Finally, when we throw these products away they contaminate water supply through ground contamination at landfills.

GreenItUp! is teaming up with Nature’s Voice Our Choice, a DC Metro based non-profit organization committed to conserving water through local action. We will be assisting them at the Celebrate Fairfax! Festival‘s Greenology exhibit. The Festival draws thousands and will be held Friday June 10th through Sunday June 12th.

More to come on this project later. Plan on coming by – eat some food, ride a roller coaster and help support a matter of life or death cause!

Share on Facebook

In October I posted a summary of all the recipes I had blogged about so far:  The Joy of Cleaning!

Lots of good recipes. Below is a list of all recipes since that last collection for easy reference. Happy Cleaning!

Tile Cleaner: Q&A Forum: I’m Not Mad at You, I’m Mad at the Dirt!

Fill a bucket with water, 1/4 vegetable oil-based soap, 1/4 baking soda. and 15 drops of your favorite essential oil for fragrance.

Record Cleaner: Watch the Stained Glass Explode/Praise the Union/Praise God!

Cotton ball with equal parts water and vinegar. Lightly touch record as it spins and work towards the center.

Rust Remover: Turf Wars!

• 1 tbsp. of cream of tartar
• 1/4 c. of baking soda
• 1/4 c. of hydrogen peroxide

Laundry: Q&A: Theology and Geometry!

For the wash cycle add 1/8 cup of liquid vegetable soap and 1 tbsp. of washing soda. (Note: Washing soda – not baking soda. It is a little harder to find than baking soda but Arm & Hammer makes it also.) Add 1/4 cup of scented vinegar to the rinse cycle.

Swimming Pools: Q&A: Dirty White Boy!

switch from a chlorine based cleaning system to a salt based cleaning system

Ice Treatments: Q&A: Brother Sun and Sister Moon!

equal parts water and vinegar for windshield

birdseed for driveways and sidewalks

IceClear

Green Cat Toys: Today’s Trash is Tomorrow’s Fun!

Business cards, paper bags, junk mail

Share on Facebook

Did you ever notice that babies smell funny? Or that they look weird? Or that they are always crying or doing something annoying? OK, maybe it’s just me, but, I still think I have found out what’s making those chubby, little bundles of joy so cranky all the time. We slather them down all day long with gasoline! That’s right. Baby oil – and all of the other lotions and potions we smear on their bottoms and faces before putting them in those silly ‘onezies’ (I’d be cranky too if every time I stretched my toes it choked me) – is a byproduct of the production of gasoline.

Baby oil is mineral oil and fragrance. Mineral oil is a liquid byproduct of distilled crude oil for the production of gasoline. There is a lot of it and it is very cheap. It has been approved by the FDA as safe for human skin. So, it is used in the production of most baby oils, lotions, conditioners and cosmetics.

Despite the FDA’s opinion, serious health problems exist with the use of mineral oil. First, it clogs the pores making it difficult for the skin to release toxins. Once the skin absorbs it, the oil absorbs any fat soluble vitamins it comes in contact with thereby robbing the body of essential nutrients.

The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for mineral oil warns that it is harmful if inhaled, swallowed or if it comes in contact with the eyes. It also warns – and this is my favorite part – that mineral oil causes irritation to the skin! So, with all the risks and no benefit, exactly what is the point of using it? It’s making that diaper rash worse!

My research into baby oil has nothing to do with irritated bottoms. I was looking for a stainless steel polish. So, I needed to know what people use as an alternative to baby oil. The only baby with whom I am personally acquainted is Joshua C. in Columbia, SC. He’s not very talkative, so I contacted his Mom, MaryBeth, for a solution. She recommends Trader Joe’s 100% Jojoba oil. I bought some and noticed for the first time (I usually only look at food), that Trader Joe’s has really good prices on personal care items. They are, in many cases, less expensive than their toxic competition – which is unusual.

And I can tell you, honestly, that Joshua is not cranky at all. He is all smiles, curiosity and playfullness. He is more like a small person than a baby. Perhaps his parents deserve some credit for that. But, we cannot dismiss the fact that his diaper is a dumping ground for Joshua only – not for the oil companies!

Share on Facebook

Fried chicken (breast), creamed corn, mashed potatoes (no gravy), okra and tomatoes and corn bread is my favorite meal from Lizard’s Thicket. That is only my favorite – over the course of 35 years I have tried almost everything on the menu: fried flounder, cornbread stuffing, skillet apples, fried okra, cole slaw, fried squash, mac & cheese, fried pork chop, collards, black-eye peas, squash casserole, pickled beets and fried catfish – and don’t forget breakfast. Just thinking about it all I believe my stomach is going to try to eat my backbone!

Lizard’s Thicket is a Columbia based meat and three restaurant. A chain – but a Columbia chain – the family is local (I taught English to one of the sons). Yesterday Mika and Joe (Morning Joe - our morning ritual – Eric loves Willy, I love Mika) had South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn on and mentioned Lizard’s Thicket. I do not believe I have felt more homesick since moving to NOVA than I did at that moment.

So, I decided I would go and get a meat and three. They are all about the same anyway. Lizard’s Thicket is certainly not the best that I have ever had. Most small towns in SC have a better option and Charleston has a better option on almost every block. Columbia even had the iconic Martin’s, Hootie’s Nathan’s and the short-lived Lucille’s – all better in different ways. The Thicket is often OK, sometimes dry and tasteless, and sometimes a religious experience – they have helped me nurse many a hangover. But, The Thicket is there - it is always an option. An option I do not appear to have in NOVA.

I googled ‘meat and three in Fairfax’ and got a pathetic list of places including a Chinese restaurant, the Highway standard Cracker Barrel (will do in a pinch),  and a place that requires reservations! Reservations – it’s ludicrous – I don’t want to take a date somewhere that I can discuss how ‘the slums have so much soul’  - I want a hearty Church supper for less than $10! I understand that I am in a part of the South that thinks it is in the North (think Atlanta) – but this is a major Metropolitan area with people from all over the World! DC has a Krispy Kreme and a Chik-fil-a! Where are the meat and threes? If anyone knows of one, please contact me!

I may be asking a lot of Fairfax, but there is no way that there is not a family owned country diner sitting in obscurity somewhere in the District serving up 2000 calorie plates of Heaven for $7.95. I am on a mission to find it. As it says in Corinthians, God will never test you beyond what you can handle.

Share on Facebook

GreenItUp! will be at the Fairfax Earth Day / Arbor Day Event this coming Saturday April 16th. The Event will be from 9AM to 2PM at the Fairfax Government Center. Workshops and seminars will be available to teach adults and children practices for cleaner living. Come out and meet the vendors and non-profit organizational members who are making everyday Earth Day. Don’t forget to pick up a bottle of GreenItUp!’s MultiPurpose Cleaner!

Share on Facebook

Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger.

Listening to soap commercials these days could lead you to believe that there are flesh-eating bacteria around every corner, on every child’s toy, on every doorknob, on every part of your body and in the very air that you breathe. This also seems to be the common consensus when you consider that around 75% of liquid soaps on the market have antibacterial agents in them. Antibacterial agents can also be found in large percentages of laundry soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, body washes, dish soaps, and many household cleaning products. And don’t forget all those little portable bottles of hand sanitizing gel all of the healthier-than-thou-eugenicists whip out every time they touch anything. These “cleaners” are actually making us dirtier and more susceptible to infection. That’s an example of real irony, Alanis!

Antibacterial soaps were created for use in Hospitals to prevent the spread of infections. Of course, a billion dollar industry was created by marketing them to the rest of us. Although soap industries would have us believe otherwise, the CDC has maintained through all the antibacterial hype that we all just need to wash with warm water and soap for twenty seconds to avoid harmful bacteria. (For more information on soap and how it works, see my previous Blog: Soaps vs. Detergents!) Interestingly, antibacterial agents need to be on a surface for at least two minutes to work completely. In fact, a study demonstrated that an antibacterial agent would have to be four times stronger than ones that are used in soaps and sit on a surface for four hours to kill 90% of an E-Coli bacteria.

So, if antibacterial soaps aren’t killing the really scary stuff, what are they doing? The component that makes them work is triclosan which inhibits the production of a fatty acid vital to life within bacteria cells. One problem with this is that useful bacteria is removed. Our bodies are full (inside and out) of a variety of bacteria that protects us from harmful bacteria. Most often we get sick from a virus rather than a bacteria anyway.

Risking your own immune system is one thing, but what about the rest of us? The primary problem with antibacterial agents is that the bacteria that survives will usually mutate into a new strain that resists the antimicrobial chemical effect. Let me make sure you got that: more resistant, stronger, more virulent bacteria are created through natural selection. That means that when we get sick, we get really sick. And here’s the kicker – most antibacterial agents go after the same bacteria as antibiotics. This means that you won’t get better when you take your meds if the bacteria that got you sick is one of these new super-bugs that slithered up out of the mushy, soapy wasteland of your shower and learned to walk. That is until, of course, a stronger antibiotic is made and then –  well, the cycle could go on and on. (This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends…)

Clean yourself, your children, and your pets on a regular basis with soap. Take your vitamins and get regular exercise. Eat a healthy diet and choose organic foods when possible. If you still feel you must disinfect something use 3% hydrogen peroxide or salt and warm water – only after you have removed any soil from the surface. You will be okay. Afterall, the big, scary man at the center of the heart of darkness is just a short, fat, bald guy.

Share on Facebook

A google of green cleaning in Northern Virginia or green cleaning in any NOVA city will bring up several company names. I checked them all out for two reasons. First, as a business I need to “know the competition”. Secondly, because of the nature of my business, I (Teresa – not just GreenItUp!) am pleased to see signs that our culture is moving in directions I support. What I found, though, is that “green” can be a meaningless marketing tool in the hands of some cleaning companies. Of course, we are already aware that “natural” and “green” are overused, unregulated terms. (See my Blog from last summer on popular green cleaning products:  The Dirt on Commercial “Natural” Cleaners!) The Executives at Clorox are one thing, but I expected a little more legitimacy from local businesses!

Other than one DC-based company, none listed the names of the products they would use in your home. Some claim, though, that their products have a green certification. While green certification programs usually have minimum required standards for product certification, typically this means only that the product in question has less impact on the environment and human health than other products that deliver similar results. But it does NOT mean that the product is non-toxic or harmless to the environment, as many of these labels seem to imply. Giving up heroin for Methadone does not make you any less of an addict, either.

To find out whether a cleaning product really is non-toxic or truly friendly to the environment, one usually has to do some hunting and questioning. When I inquired with one company, they provided the name of another company’s product they use. After some research and a call to the cleaning product’s manufacturer, I was able to find the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on the product. It wasn’t Clorox, but it wasn’t what I would call “green” either.

All I am saying is know what you are purchasing. It is so easy with food – just look at the label and you know exactly what you are getting. Food has labels because people demanded to know. If a company does not disclose to you what they are using, ask them. Ask them what is in their cleaning products. Look up the MSDS sheets. Ask them if they use paper towels. Ask them if they use disposable mops and sponges. And if they won’t tell you, ask yourself why not. Then find a company that WILL be honest with you about exactly what they use and exactly how they use it.

As for GreenItUp!, my ingredients are already on my website: http://www.greenitupllc.com/products.html. I do not use paper towels. I use clean, recycled cotton towels and t-shirts that have outlived their usefulness as towels and t-shirts, as well as microfiber mops and sponges that are cleaned and disinfected for each reuse until they have no more life in them. I breathe easily and I do not lose any sleep at night.

“Green” and “Natural” are extremely fashionable marketing terms. To be a smart consumer you need to know exactly what you are getting. So, are you REALLY Green, or are you just wearing a ridiculously ugly dress?

Share on Facebook

Initial consultations are free of charge!

3 Month Paid in Advance Commitment 10% Off

6 Month Paid in Advance Commitment 20% Off

Move In/Out Unfurnished Cleanings

Up to 2000 square feet $75 to $250

2000+ square feet $200 to $400

Pricing ranges account for clutter, pet hair, amounts of furniture, location and additional space.

Not all homes or cleaning plans will fit the above structures. GreenItUp! will work with you to determine the best price for your needs.

Share on Facebook

Dear Teresa,

As you know, we are having a long, miserable winter. The treatments that are used for snow and ice are extremely hard on me, both because I am concrete and because I am a steward of God’s creation and all that it contains. The rock salt and other chemicals that are commonly used break down concrete, and when the ice and snow melts, a toxic mixture is created that runs off into our natural water supplies. Unlike those former models and sportscasters over on Fox News, I know that this extreme winter is part of the crisis commonly referred to as global warming. When severe weather strikes, we can no longer put ourselves and our sisters and brothers of the animal community in harm’s way, just so we can continue to go about our regular routines. It is our obligation as creatures of this world and to the Creator of all things. Please advise how we can treat ice and snow hazards without endangering both our own and our fellow creatures’ welfare.

In His Name,

Francis

Assisi

Dear Francis,

Thank you for your question! You are correct about global warming, the hazards of snow and ice treatments, and most importantly our obligation to the environment and the innocent animals of the world. Fortunately, there are alternatives that individuals can use, and research is being done in several states for alternatives to be used on major roadways.

To keep your windshield from icing over, spray equal parts water and vinegar on it the night before bad weather is coming. For your sidewalk and driveway, scatter birdseed. The seeds give you better traction than sand or salt and the birds help break up the ice when they eat it. I know how you feel about birds! Also, look for a product called IceClear. It is a 100% organic ice treatment that will not harm your pets, lawn, or concrete. It actually works as a fertilizer when it breaks down. All of these options are easy to use and will leave you with more time to preach to the animals, since you won’t be shovelling and scraping so much. Do me a favor Francis, when you are preaching to the animals can you concentrate on the Fox and the Elephant. Thank you!

Via con Dios and Happy Cleaning!

Teresa

Share on Facebook