Make a Change

OK, I know that vinegar is one of those great, simple products – along with Baking Soda – that keep your home clean in a sustainable manner.  But today I learned that there are … get this … 1001 uses for vinegar.  Who knew?  Not me.

So, until KC gets her groove on and reports in on Poo’in, skip on over to this website and try out some of the tips and tricks listed.  Better yet, tell us which ones you tried and how successful you found them!

PS: Yes, I know, I’ve just put in another entry about cleaning.  Truly, I’m not THAT obsessed!

Today the UN is meeting to discuss World Happiness.

What has that got to do with sustainabilty?  Each of us taking a step towards being more sustainable and we should be happy about that.  Give yourself a pat on the back – way to go!

I know, I know … I have a bit of a theme going on here,  don’t I?  Really, I’m not that into cleaning, but cleaning products just seem to have a lot of chemicals in them and it’s nice to find some alternatives that are simple, DIYish, and make you feel a little crafty.

Ingredients:

• 1 bar Soap
• 2 tablespoons Liquid Glycerin
• 16 cups Water

Directions:

Grate your bar of soap.  Generally, you get 2 cups of grated soap per bar of soap – measure your pile to be sure.  Next, get a large pot and put your grated soap in it.  For every cup of grated soap add 1 tablespoon liquid glycerin and 8 cups water to the pot.  Heat on medium, stirring until the soap dissolves.  At this point it will look more like soup than liqud soap.  Patience.  Let it sit overnight (at least 12 hours).  After it cools completely it should look more like the liquid soap you buy in the store.  If it’s a little too firm use some beaters to blend it, adding a little water to make the correct consistency.  Now, bottle and use.

This makes a lot of liquid soap.  Find a bar that you like the smell of, perferably one with no moisturizer in it as the moisturizer can change the end consistency.  Find some pretty bottles to store it in.  Because you’ll be making a lot think gift giving here.  You might even want to try DIYing your own pump jar bottle.

Cost per liter:  $2.29 (1 liter equals 33.8 oz or 4 1/4 cups) … if you use a full bar of soap you’ll have approximately 3.785 liters.

P.S. – the price is based on getting organic glycerin and organic bar soap.

Don’t waste money buying your laundry detergent when you can make your own in under 10 minutes!

Recipe:

• 2 parts grated bar soap
• 1 part Borax
• 1 part Washing Soda (not Baking Soda)

For the soap, select any bar soap you like, preferrably one with minimal packaging.  Ivory soap would be a good example.  You might also hold on to those slivers of soap that are hard to use … keep them in a jar until you have enough.

First, grate your soap on a medium fine grater.  The finer you can get it the better as it will be easier to mix all the ingredients together.  Some people use a food processor for the whole process.  Whatever works for you.

After you have grated your soap, measure it.  This measurement will help you in getting the right amount of Borax and Washing Soda.  For instance, one bar of Ivory soap will create 2 cups of grated soap.  Based on this measurement, 1 cup each of Borax and Washing Soda would be needed.

Dump all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and, either using a wooden spoon or your hands, mix the ingredients together for approximately 5-10 minutes.  I know this sounds like make-work work, but getting the ingredients to blend together is important to creating the best final product.  Consider this your workout for the day.

Once blended, find a nice container to store your homemade laundry detergent in.  I found a lovely glass jug with lid at London Drugs and also got a metal coffee measuring spoon to give that slightly elegant look (Italian made glass is so fashionable for laundry detergent, no?!).

This homemade laundry detergent works great in regular and HE washing machines.  It is low suds, so won’t harm your machine.  For HE machines use 1-2 tablespoons, for regular machines use 2-4 tablespoons.  (I use one coffee measuring spoon for my HE machine – no more suds at the end of the cycle and lovely clean clothes.)

Cost?  What you see in the glass jar is 26 coffee measuring spoons worth of laundry soap – one scoop per load for me.  Washing soda cost me $7.49 for 3 kilos (105.8 oz or 13.125 cups = 57 cents a cup); Borax cost me $5.03 for 2 kilos (70.5 oz or 8.8125 cups = 57 cents a cup).  A two bar package of Sunlight laundry bars cost me less than $2.  I can buy Sunlight laundry detergent for $8.95 for a powdered product that gives me 40 uses.  My homemade laundry soap costs me 8 cents a load; the purchased product costs me 22 cents a load.  Quite the savings!

White Vinegar (Don’t use Malt!)

The queen of getting it clean, white vinegar, is mildly acidic and disinfecting.  It’s great for removing calcium deposits, such as those in your humidifier.  It’s also a potent grease and stain remover.  You can use it to clean hard surfaces such as countertops and glass.

White Vinegar Recipes:

Dusting Spray:  Combine 1 tsp olive oil and 1/2 cup of vinegar.  Store in a squirt bottle or keep in a jar.  Apply small amount of mixture to a soft cloth for use on your wooden furniture.

Glass/Hard Surface Cleaner:  Combine 1/2 cup white vinegar with a gallon of water.  Soak cloth, ring it out slightly and use on your surfaces.  Keep a clean chore towel handy for drying.

Fabric Softener:  Add 1/4 cup white vinegar to your washer’s final rinse cycle.

Pure Soap

Pure soaps, such as Castile, don’t contain any synthetic colours, scents or additives and are usually available in health and natural product stores.  Pure soap is great for basic light cleaning and can be combined with a few drops of an essential oil for an added air-freshener effect.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice is a great grease-cutter.  When washing your dishes, add it to your water along with a pure soap.  Lemon juice is also great for cutting through grease on porcelain and aluminum.

Lemon Juice Recipe:

All-Purpose Cleanser:  Combine 1/2 cup of pure soap, such as Castile, with one gallon of hot water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

Salt

Salt is a great basic scrub that will give you extra cleaning power.  Great for smaller jobs like removing tea stains from the inside of cups or cleaning out the coffee pot.  Just fill pot with ice-cubes, pour in some salt and swirl.

Baking Soda

Baking soda is another effective scrub and a gentler alternative to salt.  You can also place an open box in your fridge and freezer to help eliminate odors.

Recipes for Baking Soda:

Bathroom Tub and Tile Cleaner:  Soak a firm bristle brush in a good all-purpose cleaner.  Then add baking soda for extra cleaning power.  You can also clean grout by combining one part water and three parts baking soda to make a scrub.

Sink Scrub:  Combine equal amounts of salt and baking soda to make a scrub for your kitchen sink.

From HGTV Website

Every few days you might be heading to the supermarket to purchase some cold cuts from the deli. If you observe how much plastic is used in this process, it is really shocking. The meat is placed on plastic when it is cut and then it gets put into a plastic bag. At home, you might (or might not) take the meat out of the plastic bag and put it into a container for your fridge. Have you ever thought about bringing the container to the deli itself? It works great and you can easily avoid all the single-use plastic. Just ask the staff at the deli to put your items directly into your container. They can deduct the weight of the container on the scale in advance and stick the price tag on top of the lid. Once you get home you can directly place your own re-usable container into your fridge.

While a lot of people carry around a re-usable mug, it is much less so with cutlery. A ton of single-use forks, knives and spoons get thrown out, in particular with catered events. If you order catering from UBC for meetings and committees, you will get a lot of cups and cutlery. For large events this will be hard to avoid. However, this happens even if you do internal events in your own office/department. People grab the single-use cutlery because they tend to forget their own cutlery that most people have at their desk anyway. As so often, waste is created based on convenience. Let’s make an effort to encourage colleagues to use their own cutlery, e.g. when we send out event invitations. A simple reminder to bring cutlery could be enough to help re-use waste.

Let’s start with the easiest thing to reduce single use plastic which just goes into the landfill. If you bring your own mug, you not only save the planet, but money as well. Most coffee shops on campus deduct 10-15 cents when you bring your re-usable container!