Home sweet home – I’ve always love that saying. There is something wonderful about coming to place where you can feel safe, peaceful and rejuvenated. With all of the known dangers out in the big world, home can be a wonderful respite. Sadly, we are bombarded on a daily basis with the news of things that can harm us. Unfortunately some of those things can be found in our safe haven…our home.
Instead of throwing up our hands in frustration, I believe in the power of getting educated and making small changes with big impact on or health and environment. Here are three small changes that can improve the quality of life in your home sweet home.
Cleaning
To maintain a healthy eco-friendly kitchen the first place to start is to get replace any products that contain ammonia and bleach. Both of these ingredients are clearly labeled as toxic and do not belong in the same room where you prepare food. While small exposures to these toxins may simply irritate your breathing, skin and eyes, it can be very harmful to young children and anyone with a compromised immune system. There is a reason the labels say “poison”. There are better, safer ways to clean up in green style.
Another very important reason to skip the commercial brand in your kitchen is that they wreak havoc on our environment. Just think of the runoff into our drains, water supply and eventually our local water systems, lakes, rivers and oceans.
Here are some safer alternatives that I use in my very own kitchen. Not only will you turn your kitchen green, but you will save some ‘green’ along the way.
- Borax – aka sodium borate, is a naturally occurring compound that disinfects when used as a cleaning agent– Simply use anywhere you would use commercial brand abrasive. You can make a pretty fabulous cleaning paste by mixing together a paste of borax and natural liquid soap.
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Plant-based liquid soap (with no fragrance)
- Lemons
- Olive Oil
Eating
The food choices you make every day can help to create a greener kitchen for you and your loved ones. One of the most profound changes you can make is to begin to educate yourself about what you are REALLY eating on a daily basis. The best tool you have to create a green healthy eating life is to read the labels on everything you buy and to choose more things that don’t even have labels, other than those cute little stickers, i.e. fruits and veggies.
When it comes to buying produce, there is a coding system that is universally used in the industry to indicate whether an item has been grown organically, conventionally (read: with pesticides), or in a lab. Here are the codes you will find in all stores:
- Organically grown food has five digits and starts with #9
- Conventionally grown food always has four digits
- Genetically grown food has five numbers and will start with the #8 or #3
To keep it simple, I always remember to look for the nine! And whether you choose organic or not, always remember to thoroughly wash your fruits and vegetables with either a store bought natural produce wash or simply use a bit of plant based soap and wash any residue or dirt away before eating.
Storing
When it comes to storing food in our fridge or pantry, we have been taught over the years that plastic is the way to go. We’ve learned that the “burp” of the trusty Tupperware is what we need to watch for to keep foods fresh and healthy. Today, we know about some of the dangers of plastic when it comes to food storage. The two main words that have come to light are Phthalates and BPA.
Phthalates are a type of additive that is used to make plastic softer and more flexible. They are also found in a wide variety of other places like cosmetics and cleaning materials. They are even found in some foods like milk, meat and butter! There has been much controversy as to the safety of phthalates and its effect as an endocrine disruptor, especially in younger children.
Personally, I understand that we are exposed to so many toxins in our environment, and you may ask “does this REALLY make a difference”. Well, as the mother of a young child I am always looking for ways to reduce the toxic burden in my home and in our lives. Choosing to eliminate plastics is a simple way to create a cleaner, greener kitchen in my home.
BPA – Bisphenol A – is used to make plastics such as water bottles, food can lining and sports equipment. BPA, another endocrine disrupter has been linked to obesity, neurological issues, and because of its levels of estrogen levels, has even been linked to breast cancer, among other conditions.
Yes, this seems like a pretty bad situation. However there is good news. Choosing alternative storage is healthier and actually less expensive. Here are some great ways to eliminate Phthalates and BPA in your kitchen.
- Choose stainless steel and glass containers – I like to keep glass jars from food products such as olive and pickle containers. These make wonderful storage containers for grains, nuts and anything else you can think of. I even use an apple sauce jar for my daily green smoothie on the go.
- Mason jars make great cups and storage jars.
- There are non-leaching PBA free plastic alternatives showing up at markets around the country due to high demand. If your store doesn’t carry one, make sure to let the manager know you are interested.
What are some ways you are “greening” your kitchen?
(Photo: elanaspantry)
3 Easy Steps to a Greener Kitchen from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.
Read more here:
3 Easy Steps to a Greener Kitchen.
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August 13th, 2010 at 4:08 am
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August 16th, 2010 at 2:00 am
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August 16th, 2010 at 3:09 am
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August 16th, 2010 at 11:39 am
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August 16th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
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August 17th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
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August 17th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
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August 19th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
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August 20th, 2010 at 12:35 am
you could use the usb cable that came with ur player and connect the player to the laptop and go to my computer open the new drive found or the F: and copy it to ur laptop
August 20th, 2010 at 2:24 am
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August 20th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Well it depends on what you are going to use it for. The Apple Macbook is better for movie creating and stuff like that and not to mention that the new mac osx 10.5 came out and it is wonderful and macs dont get viruses. Sony makes good just about anything but it probably runs vista and vista is memory hungry so if it is short on memory than go with the macbook from apple
August 20th, 2010 at 9:05 am
percent of body fat is more important, not weight. if weight was more important then most bodybuilders would be considered overweight. weight loss pills usually dont work and if they do they arent good for the heart and more than likely you will gain all that weight back when off the pills…
August 20th, 2010 at 9:49 am
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August 20th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Search engine optimization is a pretty involved process and methods and opinions can sometimes differ. All search engines use different algorithms to rank how websites are displayed and they are usually kept secret, but some of it is known and can be inferred. Older search engines were much easier to exploit (such as Infoseek) as they often only considered a single page so repetition of keywords and placement of terms could bump you to the top. Newer search engines such as Google use other factors often beyond your control to ensure that the top results are more relevant and trustworthy. There are entire sites and books devoted to search engine optimization which provide various tips, but a lot of it just takes time. There’s no single trick to use.
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August 20th, 2010 at 10:41 am
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August 20th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
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August 21st, 2010 at 7:53 am
Look for the book that you want at this search engine. It’ll look it up for you from different websites that offer books for free. Just type the name of author or title.
August 21st, 2010 at 8:23 am
Americans have shorter attention spans than the people who live in India, I guess. Most movies in the USA are targeted toward younger people, while Bollywood movies are targeted to an older section of the population. Those are the two biggest differences.
August 21st, 2010 at 8:39 am
You must be American; in Bollywood, and in MOST of the world, they don’t wear bras with dresses not designed for for them. They certainly wouldn’t wear a strapless bra, as they make your boobs look funny, and leave massive VBL’s. As Bollywood actresses are young and fit, they are usually firm enough not to need a bra. Having been to India, I can assure you, plenty is visible, and it is not considered a bad thing; these are the people who wrote and worship the Kama Sutra!
August 21st, 2010 at 8:53 am
When you run WebUpdater, you can choose different languages and accents for your device. However, Garmin is not like TomTom and does not have celebrity voices for download.
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:27 pm
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August 23rd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I use make-up to enhance my beauty (I use mostly sunblock on my face) and don’t have time to go around comparing myself to other girls. Sh*t, I don’t go around telling everyone if I am smart or not when I have to learn Linear Algebra and Stats for engineers and scientists for next semester. It is not nice going around ranting that other women are dragging you down when you should be spending more time on things that will prepare for your future. I know what my future will be when I get my degree for my dream job. What about yours?
August 24th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Get Syphon Filter because it is a really cool game, but if u don’t like shooting games then get Star Wars. I hav star wars for the 360 and my friend has it for psp. If u hav a 360 or ps3 then get star wars on that because the psp and the 360/ps3 versions are completely different and i think the 360/ps3 version is better because the psp version’s story is weird and the controls and graphics are awful.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:35 am
Have you updated the firmware? It sounds like a firmware problem that needs to be reinstalled. Geek Squad can do this at any Best Buy or you can do it yourself and save some money… either way. The download from the Garmin server is usually about 2 hours and then another hour to reinstall… Try this first.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:28 am
You can, but watch that it’s not already added to the dog food. A better alternative is salmon. It contains lots of essential fatty oils and is a great protein for dogs.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:14 am
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August 25th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
do more reseach on the subject. ask the doctor what kind of side efects there are and look for different web sites containing information about the different kind of pills to give your dog. but all in all it is your choice give give it to your dog or not.
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August 31st, 2010 at 9:14 am
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Cheers .
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September 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 am
I still cant afford an ipad for myself
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:04 am
after reading this im thinking of selling my iphone and getting an ipad
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:46 pm
You probably only need a machine with a staight stitch and ziz zag stich. Some of the computerized machines are pretty complicated for a beginner, and the price is higher on the computer machines. As far as brand names I wouldn’t worry about that a lot maybe something pretty cheap from Wal-Mart or Target to begin with and save your money for later after you’ve learning the basics. Good Luck!!!