Castile Soap – The Best in the World

I love sharing information about a product that is safe and effective. In a recent blog post on the Maid Brigade corporate blog, they talk about the benefits of using Castile Soap. 

Castile soap is a plant-based soap that loosens grime and dirt from surfaces.  It is more gentle than soap, so it won’t dull surfaces.  Castile soap can be used in many different ways:

For washing the car, mix ¼ cup liquid Castile soap with hot water in a bucket, filling the bucket almost to the top. Rub a generous amount of the solution on your car’s exterior, windshield, hubcaps, and tires with a large sponge, then thoroughly hose it off.

To clean your floors, make a solution of ¼ cup liquid Castile soap and 2 gallons warm water. If the floors are greasy, add ¼ cup distilled white vinegar to the bucket.

For cleaning my leather couch, add 2 drops liquid Castile soap to 1 quart warm water. Apply to the leather with a barely moist sponge.
 
Stir 1 tablespoon liquid Castile soap into 1 quart warm water. Dampen a cloth with the solution and wipe down countertops.  Rinse, then dry with a clean cloth.
 
Create a homemade soft scrubber that you can use to clean sinks, showers, tubs and tile, by combining 1 tablespoon liquid Castile soap and 1/3 cup baking soda.
 
Add a few squirts of liquid Castile soap to 2 cups hot water and apply to your stovetop.  You can also use Castile soap to clean the grease off of the burners, and the vent hood.

Although you can buy products with castile soap, here is a video with how to instructions for making your own liquid castile soap:

Maid Brigade Calls Attention to American Heart Month

February is American Heart Month - a month when we should be aware and proactive about our heart health.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. February is a month set aside to focus on heart disease and ways to be more heart health conscious. The American Heart Associations invites groups, organizations and neighborhoods to plan a “Wear Red Day” to raise awareness and donations to help fight this disease.

The American Heart Association has put together a series of marketing and promotional materials to help you with your grass roots effort. Click here for the marketing kit.

From now until February 23, the American Heart Association invites groups to show their support and post updates on their Wear Red Day. Visit their Wear Red Facebook page and post pictures and information about your efforts to build awareness.

 

 

7 Green Cleaning and Lifestyle Tips for 2012

Looking for a few tips to start your new year off right? Check out these seven tips.

 

1. Read Labels! Household cleaning products often contain ingredients that can be harmful to humans and pets, so reading the fine print is essential. Of course the safest cleaning solutions are those made from natural ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda.

 

2. Say no to Fragrance! The fragrances in cleaning products may smell “clean,” but they can actually be very harmful to your health and have nothing to do with the effectiveness of the product. Fragrances contain endocrine disruptors, which can trigger asthma/allergy attacks and cause an array of health problems.

 

3. Prioritize your cleaning! Aim for cleanliness where it counts by removing dirt and combating germs in critical areas like the bathroom and around food preparation centers. Focus on dirt and germ removal rather than achieving ”spotlessly clean.” You’ll free up time for important family activities, and to keep your sanity!

 

4. Learn how to properly disinfect!  Spraying and wiping home surfaces immediately doesn’t  allow time for proper disinfection, which requires a “dwell time” to be effective.

 

5. Avoid de-clutter disaster! We’ve all done it, started a big project to organize and ended up pulling everything out and making a huge mess. Try using a 360-degree approach and tackle one portion of a room at a time. Set all donations aside and then make a single trip to each charity location.

 

6. Buy fresh, local and organic! Buying local produce supports your community and you’ll know exactly what you are putting on the table for dinner. If you can’t buy local, most grocery stores have extensive organic sections. 

 

7. Know when to call for help! Getting the house in order can be a daunting task. And even those of us who think we can do it all benefit from cleaning expertise from time to time. If your time is at a premium a cleaning service is the practical solution for a healthier home!

Maid Brigade  of NE Ohio 330.453.6000 http://neohio.maidbrigade.com

Daily Home Cleaning Checklist

Do you remember the poem that had a different home task for each day of the week?

• Wash on Monday
• Iron on Tuesday
• Mend on Wednesday
• Churn on Thursday
• Clean on Friday
• Bake on Saturday

Now with more homes than not having both partners working outside the home, this daily task list has been totally abandoned. Never mind the fact that we no longer churn our butter or that baking consists of a trip to the bakery section of the grocery store, we are often so tired at the end of the day that the thought of cleaning is enough to make us groan.

And yet the dust continues to collect, the floors need mopping and the laundry needs to be done.

Real Simple magazine offers a quick and detailed checklist for cleaning your home. Each task is “bite sized” so that it can easily be delegated to other members of your family. Real Simple says this list can be completed in 30 minutes, but if everyone chips in, the load should be much lighter.

Here’s just the kitchen section of the list;

Kitchen

• Clear out and wipe down the sink (5 minutes). No piles of dirty dishes! Move them into the dishwasher, and wipe the sink with a sponge.
• Wipe down countertops and stove (1 minute). Clean splatters and spills with a damp cloth or sponge and an all-purpose cleanser.
• Wipe problem spots on the floor (2 minutes). You can save a full-floor mop for the weekend, but use the same cloth (once you’ve finished with the countertops) to quickly clean any spills or sticky spots, which will attract dirt and get more noticeable if left alone.
• Fold or hang dish towels (30 seconds). Even if they’re clean, a jumble of dish towels on the counter can look messy. Take a few moments to fold or hang them.

For the complete list, click on the Daily Quick Cleaning Checklist.

Is 30 minutes still too long? CNN Living offers this article on How to Clean Your Home in 19 Minutes! 

On your mark, get set, CLEAN!

Of course, you can always call Northeast Ohio Maid Brigade to keep your home clean – weekly, every other week or as needed.

Keeping Your Home Safe

Have you ever considered how safe your home is? I’m not talking about intruders, but safe from fire, falls, injury.  The Home Safety Council offers a quick survey (just seven questions) that, once completed, provide a customized safety checklist for your home.

Answer the 7 yes/no questions and then receive a detailed guide for your home. The guide offers such suggestions as:

• Tape small area rugs to the floor to avoid trips and falls
• Learn to use a fire extinguisher (have one handy for kitchen fires)
• Have grab bars in the shower and non slip tape on the floor of your tub
• Have a fire escape plan for your family
• Call the 1-800-222-1222 if someone takes poison. This number will connect you to emergency help in your area. Keep the number by every phone.

Some of the information is familiar while other suggestions are new; but the entire list is filled with great value to keep you and your family safe at home.

Check it out. Home Safety Personalized Checklist.

Keep Your Water Bottle Fresh

We all know that we are supposed to drink water everyday to stay healthy but do you know how to keep your travel water bottle fresh? I found this recipe in an issue of Good Housekeeping not long ago.

TO CLEAN Good news: Some containers are dishwasher-safe (check manufacturers’ sites). If yours is, put the vessel over the tines in the top rack; place the lid in the flatware basket. For hand-wash-only bottles, fill halfway with hot water and a squirt of dish liquid. Cap; shake; then empty the sudsy water through the drinking spout. Open; rinse with hot water, flushing the threads of the rim. Dry.

TO ELIMINATE SMELLS With daily use. these bottles trap odors, even if thoroughly cleaned. Whenever that happens, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and ‘ 2 teaspoon of chlorine bleach to the bottle. Fill halfway with hot water, shake to mix, top off with water and screw on the cap. Let sit for 30 minutes then empty, wash, rinse and dry. Scrub lid with a toothbrush and baking soda. Rinse well.

 

Recycling Your Christmas Tree

It is hard to believe that the holiday season is coming to a close and the new year is upon us. As you prepare to undecorate your home, you may be wondering what the best way is to dispose of your tree.

Something like 33 million live trees are sold every year! That’s a lot of evergreen to recycle. Here is an article by Trey Granger that offers five tips to recycling your tree.

Here is one of them:

Recycle It Yourself

If you’re completely opposed to paying fees, or are worried about getting your tree to the curb on time, there are plenty of ways to take care of the tree on your own without a recycling program:

• Chop it into firewood and kindling—A standard Noble Fir tree can be turned into more than 13 pounds of firewood to keep you warm this winter. The needles can be used for art projects or as mulch in your backyard.
• Improve water quality—If you have a pond or other body of water in the backyard, tossing in your Christmas tree actually helps the fish by providing shelter and nutrients. Many communities have drop-off locations near bodies of water for this purpose. If you do not officially own the body of water (such as beach-front properties), you must get permission before disposing of your tree in this way.

He also offers a link to the national directory of recycling centers. Earth911′s Christmas Tree Recycling Directory. So this year, be green and recycle.