Hard Water and Dishwashers

Sorry for the delay between posts; I just finished up with my midterms. Whew am I glad that is over; now I can concentrate on what I love; talking about green cleaning.

I saw this article in today’s Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/bootleg_detergent. The article talks about the difficulties Spokane residents are having at getting their dishes clean now that phosphate soap is banned. Yes, that’s right, the residents of Spokane Washington can no longer buy Cascade or Electra dish washer soap which contain eco killing phosphates. Soon there will be a state wide ban on the use of phosphates. The residents are noticing that the eco or green soaps are not getting the dishes as clean and are leaving greasy spots on their “clean” dishes. Many say they are now washing them a second time by hand and question whether the ban, which is in place for environmental reasons, is not itself causing another environmental problem.

As I read further in the article I saw why the green detergents are not working; hard water is interfering with the breakdown of the molecules, thereby leaving the detergent intact or partially dissolved. “Ah, ha”, I thought, “I can solve this problem. I already have where I work”.

Mound House Nevada has got to have the hardest water on record! No kidding, I have lived in four states, including Washington State, and have never come across water as hard as this. How hard is it? It is so hard, that when spilled on concrete or wood floors and left to dry, you can see the minerals and deposits. All drains must be cleaned out monthly or they back up and clog. You can actually see the minerals build up around the drain pipes. It is so bad that our brand new dishwasher stopped getting the dishes cleaned six months after we bought it; at least that is what we here at work thought. After talking to the repair man from Valley Appliances where we bought the machine I learned the culprit is our hard water, so being the green advocate I am, I tried to fix it without expensive rinse aids. After trying just plain vinegar as the rinse aid and failing, I came up with a nice combo that works well for our situation.

Use white vinegar as your rinse aid, but also add two tablespoons to your detergent.
Wash your dishes on the hottest setting possible (no, this is not the most eco friendly setting but it is better than washing the dishes twice).
What comes out are squeaky clean dishes. The best part, you will find you do not have to use as much detergent plus the inside of your dishwasher and water spouts will clean and fresh smelling.

Let me know if this works for you. As always write me at sarij@sbcglobal if you have questions or want to see a subject tackled.

Just cause its green doesn't mean its clean

So the other day I turned on the TV to watch a new show on the Plant Green channel called Wasted. If you are not familiar with this show,two experts (though what their field of expertise is I am not quite sure) share tips with homeowners on how they can save thousands of dollars a year by turning to green technology and practices. As I watched one expert tout the wonders of cleaning with sponges and dish cloths my stomach turned. This expert did not warn of the dangers of cleaning with dirty cloths and sponges. Let me back up.

A few of years ago I came across an illness in my American College of Physicians Complete Medical Guide.Gastroenteritis an inflammation of the lining of the stomach. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, cramping and fever. Sound familiar? Turns out the 24 hour flu we think we have is not a flu at all, but a bout of this illness caused by improper hygiene. I asked a doctor I know about this; what improper hygiene are they talking about? I was told the bacteria picked up when using sponges and cloths to clean can be easily spread to us. Specifically salmonella and Escherichia coli or E coli as we laymen know it.

Imagine you are preparing chicken for dinner. You make a small mess so naturally you grab your sponge to clean it up. If there is salmonella or E coli on the chicken it is now on your sponge. You may have just rubbed the bacteria all over your counter and if you use the sponge on your dishes and don't use super hot water, guess where the bacteria ends up? That's right, now it is on your dishes. If you don't use the dishes right away the bacteria will most likely die, but if you place raw food on your just "cleaned" counter there is a chance the bacteria jumps to the food then to your mouth. Often we use the same clothe or sponge to wipe our counters, stove and refrigerator spreading germs and bacteria that can easily be picked up by our family as they use the kitchen.

So what can we do to avoid these potential health hazards and still feel good about being green? Forget using sponges; these are harbors of germs that can not be properly cleaned. Cloths can be easily cleaned and sanitized.

I use paper towels to clean up my counters after I have worked with meat and raw vegetables. If there were any germs they got tossed out with the towel. After I wash my dishes with a cloth, I run a little hot water in my sink, pour a small amount of bleach or vinegar depending on my mood and soak the cloth over night. In the morning I wring it out and let it dry knowing any germs it may have held are long dead.

Grapefruit and Salt who would have thought?

I have a really great 17 year old son named Alex. Alex, like a lot of teens these days, likes to dye his hair. I am not thrilled with the colors he chooses so we compromise; he can color his hair if he uses gel that easily washes out. A couple of weeks ago Alex colored his spikes blue but failed to clean his comb when he was done, just left it on the porcelain sink. The gel washes out of hair all right, but failed to wash off the sink! When I went into his bathroom a couple of days later the stain had set and I was stumped on how to get it out. I tried my favorite cleaner baking soda, vinegar and water but even that left a faded blue stain. It then dawned on me this was a good time to try something I had seen on the BBC show How Clean is your house. If you have not seen this show you are missing a treat!

The show stars Aggie Mackenzie and Kim Woodburn two clean queens of England. Each episode they visit a filthy home to show the owner cleaning tips and lesson on hygiene and germs. Some of the homes are horrid; once such home was owned by a woman who claimed to be super sensitive to cleaners so therefore she refuses to clean. I have to admit as much as I hate my chemical induced migraines, I would gladly suffer them over living in filth. One of the cleaning tips for this sensitive woman involved a grapefruit and salt.

Kim took a grapefruit, cut it in half poured salt on one half and used it to scrub the woman’s long suffering porcelain sink. Off came years and years of grime. It was almost too good to be true; after all what is more natural and inexpensive than a grapefruit and some table salt?

I took one of our last grapefruits, grabbed some salt, put on my gloves and set out to test this tip out. Wow was I amazed! Not only did the grapefruit and salt take the blue stain right off it put a real shine on the sink. I don’t think the sink had looked this good in years! The grapefruit left such a clean fresh fragrance I went around trying it on everything! Itried it on fiberglass as I have an old worn fiberglass tub, no luck it did not work. It does however work on hard water stains on stainless steel. The acid in the grapefruit breaks down the grime ,kills germs and viruses while the salt acts as a safe scrubbing agent.

Aggie and Kim came through again; grapefruit and salt, who would have thought?

Intro to Chemical Free Cleaning

If you are anything like me you love a clean house but hate the idea of lugging out the chemical spray bottles to get the job done. The thought of having multiple plastic bottles containing expensive toxins in my cupboards used to bother me. I longed for a way to have a clean home without using chemicals. Once I realized a lot of my headaches came right after I cleaned with certain chemical cleaners I started experimenting with chemical free cleaning. This blog is a result of my experiments. Some things I recommend using may have traces of chemicals, but nothing that will spew out, give off fumes or get in the ground water.

I love getting cleaning recipes and look for them in various places. When I do see a natural recipe I first check to see if any of the ingredients help kill bacteria; no use in “cleaning” when in fact all you are doing is making the germs smell good! The second thing I do is look at how easy it is to make; I don’t have time to lug out every pot and pan I own to make a few ounces of cleaning solution, I doubt you do too. The next thing I do is try the recipe. If it does not work for me, it won’t be on this blog.

I need to point out to you that although I am not a professional cleaner (meaning no one pays me to clean my house) I am a well educated germaphobe! I will never recommend you use or do something that will spread germs around your house. I cringe every time I see a “professional” (or paid TV self professed cleaning guru) recommend something that will only lead to poor hygiene and ensure germs flourish in your kitchen and bath. I can get on quite the soap box about these idiots and the people who let them get away with it. I will address these no no’s in an upcoming blog.

If you follow my blog I promise you a cleaner/germ free house without the use of all those chemical spray bottles. You will breathe better and spend less money! Let’s get started; here is an easy everyday cleaning tip;

Small spray bottle (I get mine at the dollar store)
Roughly two cups water
½ cup White Vinegar (if you do not like the smell, use less but then be sure to use tea tree oil to kill the germs)
10 drops of your favorite essential oil if you like. I use extract of grapefruit or peppermint depending on my mood. The picture shows lavender as I use this in my spring cleaning ritual.
Mix then shake; it is that easy! Now you have a everyday kitchen counter spray. I use this when I am cleaning up after dinner or after I have prepared some chicken.


Enjoy!!