Clean house, Clean Planet

[rainsmom]

Found this wonderful book "Clean House, Clean Planet" by Karen Logan. Has recipes to make your own non-toxic cleaners, all using baking soda, vinegar and essential oils. Saves money and is fun! And she does comparisons so you can see how they compare to the store bought cleaners. A real eye opener on what is in the products we use and how unnecessary it is to spend so much money on toxins that are dangerous to us, our kids and our pets.

[Elphaba]

yep, i love this book, too.
i've been having a great time with my dr. bronner's peppermint soap. i kill ladybugs with it, my hubby calls it peppermint death.

[staceyleanne]

I use recipes from this book all of the time!!! I'll never buy another toxic chemical cleaner again. I love mixing the cleaners!! Who knew club soda could clean glass like it does!!

[MommyErin]

I love the "earth scrub" recipe and I use it all the time. It works really well and rinses easily.

I actually enjoy making my cleaners. And I don't have to worry about what clothes I'm wearing when I clean since there is no bleaching agents in them.

[spughy]

Originally Posted by Elphaba

yep, i love this book, too.
i've been having a great time with my dr. bronner's peppermint soap. i kill ladybugs with it, my hubby calls it peppermint death.

Why on earth would you want to kill ladybugs?!?!

...off to order the book from Amazon. My DH will love it, he is always cooking up new cleaning solutions. We made an all-purpose spray cleaner for our friends as a christmas gift and now they're all wanting more!

[chandistar]

Originally Posted by spughy

Why on earth would you want to kill ladybugs?!?!

...off to order the book from Amazon. My DH will love it, he is always cooking up new cleaning solutions. We made an all-purpose spray cleaner for our friends as a christmas gift and now they're all wanting more!

ditto about killing the ladybugs part. why??

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by chandistar

ditto about killing the ladybugs part. why??

She is probably talking about the Asian lady beetles, not ladybugs. http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef416.asp

They come in your house, sometimes in huge numbers, and really stink!!

[spughy]

Originally Posted by lindberg99

She is probably talking about the Asian lady beetles, not ladybugs. http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef416.asp

They come in your house, sometimes in huge numbers, and really stink!!

Say.... I bet those are the ladybugs we've had in OUR house this year!

Granted, they're not in huge numbers. We try to treat them with respect and leave them alone, but they fly into our flourescent torchiere light and die

That site recommends vaccuming them up using a handkerchief to catch them before the vaccum filter and releasing them outside. They still eat aphids and other nasties.

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by spughy

but they fly into our flourescent torchiere light and die

That happened to me one year. It was one of those fluorescent bulbs that was kind of a twisty spiral and I didn't know they were going in there. When I finally figured it out, the whole bulb was PACKED full of dead lady beetles. :Puke

I also had a lady beetle fall in my dinner once when I was eating lentils and I ate it. They taste as bad as they smell! Thankfully we haven't had too many the past few years.

That's amazing they are up to BC. I thought they were more of a south/midwest US thing.

[jenerationx]

That is a great book!

[kawa kamuri]

It's a great book

[Naturalyst]

Originally Posted by Elphaba

i kill ladybugs with it, my hubby calls it peppermint death.

Why would you target ladybugs? I trust you understand ladybugs are beneficial insects and pose no risk to people or pets.

[StrongSingleMama]

Cool I am going to check that book out.

Aww ladybugs are my fave bugs. They are so cute.