Our Air Cleaners

Once we had our own home, we wanted to make sure our air was clean and fresh. I read about some ways to do this that don't involve spraying mist in the air that makes you sneeze.

1. We open our windows. Our apartment permanently had its windows open throughout the Summer and Fall. Now that it's colder, we keep them closed, but air out for at least an hour a day!

2. We bought plants. And named them.

This is Spidey. He's a Spider Plant. He grows like CRAZY.

This is Craig. He's a Janet Craig.

This is Palm. He's an Areca Palm.

This is Lily. She's a Peace Lily. Without flowers at the moment...

3. We bought a Pheylonian Pure Beeswax Candle. Ya. I didn't know it was called that. But we got it from Grassroots and here's some more info on it, very interesting!

Smells good and cleans the air!

All three of these things are what we do to breathe easier. Between that and our cleaning products, there's no smells that we don't want in our home!

Mini update

It's been awhile!
Here's a little update on the previous blogs.

So we did buy that IKEA couch.
It's in our livingroom looking all cool.

We love Dark City coffee. Went through our lb of coffee with family and friends and purchased some for friends and family as well. Really great company.

We're married and living in our own space now. So far it's been kept clean with water and nature clean products. Here's what we've been using to clean!

Good ol' steam mop. We really love our steam mop for our floors and bathroom. No added chemicals, just the pure power of steam.

H20 Mop Ultra

Nature clean products, here we come! We use and love all of these:

Nature Clean Dishwashing Soap

Nature Clean Shampoo

Nature Clean Liquid Detergent

Nature Clean Fabric Softener

Nature Clean Oxygen Bleach (on white and colours!)

Nature Clean All Purpose Cleaner

Peppermint Hand Soap

That's the update for now.

The next post will feature some of the things we've done to keep the air clean in our home, besides using water and Nature Clean products.

Until then, keep fit and have fun.

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January 2013 Update

The only thing we still use on this page is the dishwash soap. Other than that we clean with this spray and this scrub and steam. And use this shampoo and this for laundry!

Dark City Coffee

I'm really excited to try this coffee.



I heard about it from a friend and it comes highly, highly recommended. You call to place your order, they roast your beans after the call is made, and you get the freshly roasted beans delivered to your door the next day. How fresh is that?!

They have a great selection or Organic, Certified, Organic Fair Trade and Shade Grown blends.

Can't wait!

You can read more about them and their coffee here: Dark City Coffee

Couch Concerns

So we were going to buy this couch from IKEA today for our apartment.



We loved the size, colour, cuteness and functionality. And IKEA is a great store that uses sustainable materials to create their products and most of their products are very safe for you and the environment.

However.

We found out it was stuffed with polyurethane which is supposedly bad?

This was Keith's email to me yesterday:

Our couch is:
"Seat cushions filled with high-resilient polyurethane foam and polyester fiber wadding provide great seating comfort."

But the problem is:
"Avoid furniture cushions and mattresses made from polyurethane foam/plastic as well as any fabric with acrylic, polyester or polyvinyl chloride, all of which can be toxic to the respiratory system. Polyurethane foam, which can cause bronchitis, coughing, and skin and eye irritations, may also release toluene diisocyanate, which can produce severe lung problems."

Hmmm...
K

We're definitely still going to look at IKEA furniture, because they really do have great initiatives on a lot of their other items. Also going to look more into this couch and polyurethane foam before we make our decision, still may buy it!

Ecoholic Home

Finished reading this book last week, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Andréa for buying it! My awesome environmentalist cousin got it as a wedding shower gift for Keith and I, so great!
It's very easy to read, great product reviews that are actually helpful and so many DIY recipes to try out in your home.

As I was reading it was great to read about the products we already use and see that they got good reviews from the author Adria Vasil as well (a lot of Nature Clean stuff, w00t!).

It was neat to see how we're definitely on the right track but also how there is so much more to learn and consider. If you live in Canada, this is definitely a must read with many local shops mentioned and great Canadian-made products.

Some products/companies I will check out thanks to this book are:
Blue Wonder
Twist Clean
Zia and Tia
Pampered Chef (already knew about their products, but haven't purchased one yet!)
Pink Solution
Bio-Clean

Sunglitz

I found a place that does something called Sunglitz. It doesn't strip away colour or use chemicals, it brings out your natural pigments in your hair. I don't get it. But it smelled good, like almond or something. No chemically smell. And I turn out blonder.

I'm sold.

Supposedly the guy who makes this product, when he's at his tradeshows etc. he'll eat his products just to show that they're natural. I love it. Because that's been my rule for the last bit - don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't put in your mouth.

And if someone can eat the stuff that makes hair lighter, AWESOME.

Going back today for touch ups. 3rd time getting Sunglitz so far. Loving it.

Go Glue Go!

I haven't used this product yet, but as a future teacher (God-willing!) I know my classroom will most likely have this in stock!

The Paper Place featured this today on their blog, here is what they said about it:

"We would like to introduce you to another one of our favourite adhesives – the intoxicating Coccoina. This almond scented potato starch paste has been used for decades in Italian classrooms. It is non-toxic, solvent free, dries quickly, reversible with water and will not wrinkle paper. Quite the resume! And it all comes packaged in a lovely retro looking tin with a brush, or the more portable glue stick – both of which are available at our Queen St. store. Much more enjoyable to work with glue that smells like marzipan, instead of nasty solvents!"

My teacher heart couldn't be happier to hear this exists. Remember that rubber cement stuff we used to use?!? Horrible. Glad it was finally banned.