Magazines

Over at my other blog, I am talking about my sad addiction to magazines. I realize that this isn't a very green addiction so I'm here to ask for your ideas.

What do you do with magazines once you are done with them? If you don't subscribe to any or even like to read them, just pretend that you do.

I have several options for the magazines that I have around my house. Some are recycled when I'm done. This is usually if my daughter has cut out all the pages and used them for her weekly homework assignments that require cutting out pictures that begin with the letter they are studying for the week. So, really, I get another use out of them before they get recycled.

Another option is to donate them. Whenever I have a dentist or doctor appointment, I call ahead and ask if they need any new magazines in their waiting rooms. I've never had them turn me down. I black out or cut out my name and address on the front and take them in. Everyone wins here because the ones I have are usually more recent publications than what are usually the waiting rooms. We also send them to my husband's friends who are deployed. We ship them over and one of his friends will either put them in the lounge of the dorms or fitness centers to be shared.

The last option that I have is to keep them. I try to only do this with magazines that I know I will use or look at again like cooking magazines or ones with articles that I found helpful for whatever reason.

Tell me, what do you do when you're done?

Clorox Green Works

Have you tried the Green Works line from Clorox? I recently had the opportunity to try several of their products thanks to my lovely friends at Mom Central.

Let me cut to the chase with these products. I love them! I've been testing green cleaning products for a while now and I've been disappointed time and again. I opened the All Purpose Spray and went right to work on my kitchen. The smell of this product is amazing! In the past, the natural cleaners have seriously lacked in the smell department and that is very important to me. Another good thing is that the spray actually works, too! Good smell, safe product AND it works? I'm devoted.

In addition to the All Purpose Cleaner, I also tried the Dishwashing Liquid, Bathroom Cleaner, and Dilutable Cleaner. I love each one so far. They all have a nice smell without being overpowering, which I've mentioned is very important to me. More importantly, they all WORK. Even better than that, I feel good about letting my kids come around after I've cleaned because I know the products are safe. I also know I'm not washing something down the drain that could contaminate our water supply. I'll be using these products from now on.

The folks at Green Works have developed a web site, 30 Days To Natural, to help you on your own journey to being green. You can receive tips on going green from them and watch videos about regular people who are doing the same. You can invite your friends to learn along with you. This is a site that I'm learning to love. There are a lot of tips, ranging from the very simple to things I hadn't thought of.

If you've tried these products, let me know what you think. I personally love them and since they are affordable and they work so well, I'll be using them for a long time.

Oil Cleansing Method

Recently, my friend Christy posted about something new she was trying for facial cleansing. My initial reaction was, “Ewww.” Getting over that, I was intrigued.

Have you heard of the Oil Cleansing Method? Basically, you combine caster oil with either olive oil or sunflower oil and clean your face with it rather than your normal, most likely chemical based facial cleanser.

Sounds simple, right?

It totally is! The hardest part was finding caster oil. Let me save you some time, head for Walgreens because I live in a fairly large city and they were still the only place that carried it.

You can experiment with how much of each oil you’ll need. I have crazy skin that’s oily in some places and flaky dry in some so I started with mixing a small amount in case I needed to adjust. I started with 20% castor oil and 80% extra virgin olive oil and that seems to be working well for me. Read the article to find out what mixture will work best for you.

I had some fears going into this. First, that I’d smell like an Italian hoagie. Not at all! While I’m massaging the oil into my skin, the smell of the olive oil drives me batty. As soon as I’m done, the smell is gone. I have even asked my husband if he can smell it and he says that he can’t.

I was also afraid that I’d have problems with this making my skin really oily. Sure, I’d read that the castor oil actually breaks up the oil on your skin but the thought of rubbing oil on my skin seemed contrary to taking the oil off. Believe it, friends. It works!

My final fear was that I'd have to use a seperate product to remove my mascara. This works as well as any cleaner I've used in the past (and I think I've used them all!) at removing all of my eye makeup.

I have been able to eliminate my nightly moisturizer since I started using this method just over a week ago. On top of that, I hadn’t yet found a “green” facial cleanser and this keeps me from having to try out all of the expensive ones.

If you have tried this method, please let me know! I’d love to hear how you like it.

**Photo credit: Liv Friis-larsen - Fotolia.com

Stinky Subjects

Back in the spring, I started looking at switching deodorants. I wanted an aluminum free version that would keep me from smelling like an unwashed farm animal. I tried Tom's of Maine first since it's most readily available at all of the mainstream stores.

I thought I had hit the jackpot. I didn't notice any smelliness coming from the pits and I felt good about using a product that didn't have the potential to give me cancer. Along came summer. Tom let me down. As it turns out, he wasn't as good in the summer heat as I needed him to be.

I picked up Trader Joe's brand next. It goes on a little sticky. As in, you put it on and hold up your arms a little bit to wait for it to dry...like a roll on, but it's not. However, Joe has been so much better to me than Tom. I haven't had any smelliness yet. I've been using it for almost a month now and the temps here have been in the high 90's many times. I'm impressed.

I'll post a little more later on why it's important to use deodorant without aluminum but for now, I wanted to get this out there in case you are struggling in the dog days of summer, like me.

Cloth Napkins

I've been hoping for some time now to start using cloth napkins for our family. I didn't have big hopes of completely replacing paper napkins with them yet but I figured as with most things, we'd move towards the goal slowly. Within the past two weeks, I realized that we are using more paper napkins than ever before and it started to bother me. It bothers me to the point that every time I hand out the napkins for a meal, I cringe a little on the inside. People, this is a major step for me.

Last weekend, I was doing some shopping with my Sisters and I ran across some beautiful cloth napkins on clearance. They are well made and I loved the way they looked. I decided to pick them up and give them a try with our family. My kids thought we were celebrating something! They looked nice and my Son didn't need to go through three of them in one meal to keep his hands clean. (He HATES being dirty!) I've decided that I can make them just as easily myself because I like to sew and I have lots of material left over from various projects that will be just the right size. If you don't sew, check out Etsy and Ebay because I found some great deals on both of those sites. My thinking is that if I keep enough on hand, I won't have to scramble to keep them washed up and it will be easier to resist the temptation to use paper napkins. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

I've told you before that I'm not an all or nothing girl. I'm also not someone who you'd consider totally green. I'm getting there. But daily I'm seeing changes in myself and my way of thinking that I know are for the better. I'm liking it! This is one thing that I'm hoping to be all or nothing about. I'd love to not have to buy napkins again!

What about you? Do you use cloth? Make your own or buy from other places?

Recipe for Clean

Here is one of the recipes I came across for making your own cleaning supplies. If you have others, I'd love to hear them! I'll post more soon. I've found so many that use Borax but I'm still trying to decide if that is something that's really safe for me to use in a house with small kids.

You will see that a lot of them use essential oils. These can be found online easily or at your local health food store. I've seen several at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, as well.



This is Gorgeously Green All Purpose Spray:



32 oz. Plastic Spray Bottle

2 Cups Water

1/2 Cup Distilled White Vinegar

1 Teaspoon Pure Castile Soap

3/4 Cup Hydrogen Peroxide

20 Drops Tea Tree Oil

20 Drops Lavender or Lemongrass Essential Oil



Fill the spray bottle with the water first. Then, add all the other ingredients and use! This is safe for acrylic, ceramic tile, wood, marble and granite.

Junk Mail, Part 1

There was a time when I loved getting catalogs. I loved to browse them and marvel at all of the pretty things that I would never have. It didn't occur to me that those catalogs that I'd peruse and then toss (and not even in the recycling bin...GASP!) were going to a landfill to sit. I never considered that thousands of trees were being wasted on my desire to window shop from the comfort of my couch.

I'm now disgusted with the amount of junk mail that comes into our house and I've been looking for a way to stop it. One obvious way to stop getting massive amounts of junk mail is to call or email individual companies and ask to be removed from their mailing lists. You may also call your bank and credit card companies and request that your information not be released for marketing or sales purposes. The Financial Modernization Act passed in 2000 gives you the right to do this.

Other things that may help you reduce the amount of junk mail that comes into your house:

1. Send a letter to the Direct Marketing Association at P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512 and they can reduce almost 75 percent of the mailings you receive.

2. Call 1-888-567-8688 and go through the automated system to remove yourself from the mailing lists of major credit bureaus for five years. This means that those ridiculous pre-approved credit card mailings will stop. Thank you, Lord.

Tomorrow, I'll post some reasons we want to to eliminate the junk mail overload from our boxes. You know, aside from the obvious.

Did You Know?

Something I've learned from Gorgeously Green recently is what good those little stickers on your fruits and veggies are. I've always thought the number was just what the cashiers used to key in the item. WRONG! They are way more important than that.

If your sticker has a four digit number, beginning with a 4, it is not organic.

If your sticker has a five digit number, beginning with a 9, it is organic.

If your sticker has a five digit number beginning with an 8, it is genetically modified.

Did you catch that last one? Genetically modified fruits and veggies? NO THANK YOU.

The way Sophie Uliano says to remember this is, "Four is a bore. I hate eight. Nine is just fine." Cheesy? Yes, I'd say so. Helpful? Sure! I can't tell you how much I've repeated that in my head as I cruise the produce section. I have yet to run into any with an eight but I'm on the lookout.

I hope to discuss more about eating organic foods soon but in the meantime, my beautiful friend Andrea has a great post about it up today! Go visit her and check it out!