Your Questions About Green Living

The Expert answers:

For the pet stains, you could try a dilution of tea tree oil and water – let sit on stain for a while and then soak up liquid with a rag. I would test this on a hidden patch of carpet first though.

For the glass shower doors and surround, use rubbing alcohol to get all the residual bought cleaning product off the surface and then you can just use white vinegar (not diluted) in a spray bottle. This of course works for mirrors and chorme fixtures. If there is hard water build up on the glass doors, let it sit for a while – although it may not get all that residue off right away. I also have a squeegy that I use to squeegy off the water from the tub surround – it reduces the chance that you’ll get mineral build up on the surround (that stuff that looks like water drops dried up, but you can’t seem to get rid of it easily).

For my stainless steel sink and such, I just use a baking soda paste that i make as the scrubber (it seems to work like ajax or comet) and then rinse. You tend to get a filmy residue afterward rinsing with water so i just take a dry flannel cloth and wipe it up (a piece of old pjs that I ripped up works wonders! – or I get them from the second hand store for CHEAP and rip them up if I am running low on cloths). Also, you can use 1/2 a lemon dipped in borax as a more abrasive cleaner but I never have a lemon around so I haven’t used it often (I find the soda works well to get grime off stuff anyway). Now that I think of it – try that for your tub surround too! It’ll scrub off scuzy stuff!!! If you want to polish the stainless steel after you’ve cleaned it, you can use mineral oil too.

Borax in water is a great way to get grease out and off of stuff.

I know you didn’t ask but I see that you have a septic field/tank so I thought you might be interested to know about laundry softner that you can use in your washing cycle rather than using those sheets… And this literally costs you about 3 cents per load
In a large container mix
2 c white vinegar
2 c baking soda
4 c water!
Shake everytime before using (the soda settles).
Get yourself a downey ball from the store, fill it with the regular amount of homemade softner. It’ll release in the rinse cycle! I use it and it works wonders!

I am not sure about safe septic cleaners for toilets. I would assume that using borax in water would suffice. Apparently 1/2 cup borax in 1 gallon of water meets the most sanitary requirements. I think it is considered the enviro-bleach!!

Hope that helps!!!

The Expert answers:

Eco-friendly produce doesn’t leach nasty chemicals into the environment and the more people who buy these products, the more likely mainstream companies will start to supply such products. Ever since I gave up cleaning the loo with bleach based products and started using unbleached loo paper, a green tree frog has started visiting our sewerage pipes. Some nights I can hear a big gurgle when I turn the light on, as it makes a quick getaway.
I switched to eco friendly products a couple of months ago, and that includes ALL my cosmetics too. I did it because it’s unatural to put nasty chemicals into or onto our bodies.
Recycling is important because it means we are reusing our planets resources instead of constantly depleting them.

The Expert answers:

1. Female
2. 58
3. No. I neither give or receive cards.
4. Yes. But they are usually too expensive.
5. No. I don’t buy cards or gift wrap.
6. Red.
7. I don’t have a favorite christmas color because I have no reason to celebrate any of the holidays.
8. None of them. I don’t celebrate any of the holidays.
9.See # 8.
10. See # 9.
You’re welcome.

The Expert answers:

1 ) Male

2) 20-29

3) Yes

4)Nope

5) Yes

6) Blue

7) Red

8) Other

9)Raindeer

10 ) Imm Fam

The Expert answers:

Yea