Art | Resources
Sladust
All-wool Dry mops and hand dusters. This is just one of those products from the past that is simple, natural and useful for cleaning: wool dusters. “Comes complete with a removable natural lacquered wood handle. This is an all natural product and does NOT require any chemical treatment, nor expensive disposable pads. Replacement heads are available, which are also washable and reusable….The Slack Family continues a tradition of success in the face of progress with a fourth generation family business. Sla-Dust Wool Dust Mop products are the highest quality, literally the “World’s Finest Dust Mops.” Great for dusting tile, laminates, marble and hard wood floors!”
Wool Shop
A variety of premium natural dusters made from lambswool or ostrich feathers—everything from the classic lambswool dusters with handles from 8 inches to 4 feet (including a telescopic angle duster for hard-to-reach places), dust mitts, all kinds of lambswool mops, and even a ceiling fan duster with a telescopic handle that slips around the blades to dust tops and bottoms at the same time (I need one of those!).
Meiling Skincare
I love this soap for a number of reasons. It’s made with certified organic ingredients, each soap has a skincare benefit, the soap is made by a husband who wanted to make a soap that his wife would love for him to use, and it’s just an exceptional soap to use. I’ve tried a lot of handmade soaps and this one really stands out. It’s a a heavy, slightly oversized bar with a delicate natural fragrance from certified organic essential oils (unscented is also available), and it rinses very clean. I’m very happy with this soap.
Hook & Loom
Delightful area rugs in colors and patterns hand-woven on special looms from their unique recycled Eco Cotton or wool. “Handcrafted patterns and a unique springy feel lend cozy credibility to any room…Using our unique and innovative process, we create colored yarns from recovered textile fiber. Then we hand-weave our cotton rugs from this new yarn without dyes, chemicals, or latex. The result: delightful, durable rugs that last for years, and won’t bleed or fade in the washing machine. They’re soft on your feet and spectacular on your floor.”
Michigan Sloyd
Wooden spoons and other utensils made in the”Sloyd” tradition. Sloyd is a Scandinavian-based handcraft movement and educational system with woodworking as the traditional focus. Items produced through Sloyd are meant to be practical for everyday use: spoons, bowls, cups, buttons, coat hooks, furniture, etc. The woodworker lives and works on a 6th generation family farm in Harbor Springs, MI. He has spent the last several years learning traditional methods to transform the trees and branches of his local woods into everyday household goods.
All Natural Wood Floor Refinishing
The portion on the right is dry and has been wiped down. The portion straight ahead I did this morning and the oil is soaking in and drying. Obviously the dull part on the left is the floor before I refinished it. I love this!
Question from Judy
Hi Debra,
Here is a natural way to refinish very old floors where much of the finish has worn off. We are doing it and I think it’s going to be great! Thought you would like it.
- Sweep floors
- Any greasy stains? Use WHITE VINEGAR. Scrub the stains in a circular motion with a sponge. Use the scrubbing side, but make sure you buy the ones that have the non-scratch scrubbing side. Let the vinegar dry. If stain is still visible, do it one more time. Let dry.
- Scrub the same stains with Dawn and hot water – in a circular motion. then with the grain. Let dry.
- Mop entire floor – we used Murphy’s Oil Soap and water. Let dry.
- With the soft side of a sponge, spread olive oil over entire floor. Let dry. This could take up to 24 hours. Then take a clean towel and wipe over entire floor (vigorously).
That’s it.
On one of our floors, I let the oil stay on for only about 6 hours, then used the towel, because we needed use of that floor! It still looks fine. We did all of this in December, and the floors still look great!
DON”T SLIP! FLOORS ARE VERY SLIPPERY UNTIL AFTER THE TOWEL IS USED!!!!
I’m doing it a little bit at a time, and there’s no lines where you stop and no smell, and it looks fabulous!
I found out about this because I’ve been wanting to refinish my floors but it was too expensive and I didn’t want the chemicals in my house. Then I went to the home of a friend for dinner who lives in an old house and her floors looked fabulous! I asked her what she did and she gave me the information. And now I’m doing mine and they look great too.
I’m so excited! I can’t wait to do the whole house.
Debra’s Answer
This sounds great. I need this for my floors too! I’m going to try it.
Rack for Sprouting Jars
For years I have been wanting to grow sprouts at home, but didn’t because I couldn’t figure out where to put the jars that would:
- have enough light
- be near a water source
- be in a place where it’s OK to drip
- not get in the way of other things I’m doing
- be in a place where I would see them on a regular basis so I would remember to water them and could monitor their progress
Finally, yesterday I came across sprouting yet again and wanted to do it. But again ran into the question “where do I put the jars?”
You know that old saying. “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
Well I decided I was going to figure out where to put the jars so I could sprout.
And then last night I went to Target to buy another half-gallon glass refrigerator pitcher and then decided to just walk around the store and see if I could find something that would hold the sprouting jars.
And I did! I found these metal baskets that I could hang in my kitchen window right over the sink and they are perfect in every way! They are designed to hang on a cabinet door to hold cleaning supplies, but I just used it for a different purpose. I would give you the link but this item doesn’t seem to be on the Target website. It might be in your local store.
Anyway, if this type of basket would be useful for you in some way, search for “cabinet basket” and you’ll find similar products.
The Greatest Danger to Firefighters Isn’t the Fire—It’s Cancer from Toxic Smoke
An article in this month’s Boston Magazine tells how chemicals released from the items in homes as they are burning are more deadly than the fire itself.
Today’s homes and offices are jam-packed with plastics, electronics, and furniture covered in flame-retardants. “When they combust,” Finn explains about household goods, “they are extremely toxic.” That means the smoke firefighters are exposed to is often loaded with a litany of septic chemicals—formaldehyde, vinyl chloride, chlorophenols, dioxins, trichloroethylene, ethylene oxide, polychlorinated biphenyls, methylene chloride, orthotoluidine, and arsenic, to name a few. Alone, any one of these may be harmful; mixed together they could make a potent cocktail of carcinogens with the capacity to do untold damage to the body’s organs, cells, and DNA.
It might seem odd that flame-retardants—ostensibly a firefighter’s best friend—would be a problem. They are, after all, designed to help slow the spread of fires or prevent them from starting in the first place. For decades, chemical mixtures were added to couches, mattresses, drapes, highchairs, cribs, televisions, computers, and countless other household items. But these chemical mixtures are not foolproof. They become ineffective at high temperatures, and when they go up in smoke they can take on the form of carcinogenic particles that are easy to inhale and capable of seeping through skin and into the bloodstream.
Read more at…
BOSTON MAGAZINE: Why Cancer Is Killing Boston’s Firefighters
Nontoxic Cat Box Cleaner
Question from Mary
Hi Debra,
I am looking for a toxic free way to clean the cat boxes. I have always used bleach to soak them in.
Debra’s Answer
I don’t have a cat. Readers, how do you clean your cat box in a nontoxic way?
Can Vitamins Protect You From Air Pollution?
A new study from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, found that a combination of vitamins could help protect your health when exposed to high levels of fine particles in the air.
An international research team found that a combination of three B vitamins – folic acid, B6 and B12 – could strengthen the self-defence mechanism of genome molecules, which are prone to mutate when exposed to high levels of PM2.5 (respirable suspended particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less). In addition, these vitamins could help healthy adults offset the inflammatory and other symptoms of short-term exposure, especially if they came from an area low in pollution.
While no dosages have yet been given, researchers recommended eating more food rich in vitamin B when traveling to an area of high air pollution. Leafy green vegetables and beans which are rich in folic acid. Fish, beef liver and starchy vegetables are high in B6. And B12 requires eating animal products, such as fish, meat, eggs and milk.
This is the first test on living humans to suggest a remedy for genetic damage caused by smog.
Well known symptoms of smog exposure include chest pain, dizziness, headaches and heart disease. Smog has also been associated with an increased in death rates, damage to human brain cells and interfering with the way genes work.
More than 90 per cent of the world’s population live in places where the annual average PM2.5 level is worse than the 10mcg per cubic metre of air recommended by the World Health Organisation.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: How vitamins can protect you from the damaging effects of air pollution
