Simple Living Tips

Our grandparents did not have all the industrial goods and chemicals we do in their homes. Maybe we can learn from generations before us how to use natural resources in and around our homes. Saving money and not filling your home with harmful chemicals while still getting your home clean can be helpful to the environment as well as to you and your family.  Here are a few simple basic ingredients which can keep your home clean and healthful.

• Baking Soda (dissolves a lot of corrosion, rust, baked on food)
• Lemon Juice (an acidic base that neutralizes odors and sanitizes as it cleans)
• White Vinegar (an acid base that cleans and dissolves corrosion)
• Salt (as a sanitizing scrub)
• Hydrogen Peroxide (takes stains out, disinfects)
• Essential oils (disinfectant, repellant, air purifying, etc.)
• Castile Soap (sudsing cleaner)

More on these ingredients and their combinations and uses are to follow. Come back or subscribe to this site for more ideas.

PLANT PURIFIERS

A large majority of people spend most of their time indoors. How clean is the air they breathe in these homes? Did you know that there is a real phenomenon called "sick building syndrome"? In an effort in recent years to make homes energy efficient, we have also cased a decrease in healthful indoor air.  As we seek to cover all the air cracks in the house and make our heating bills lower, we also prevent fresh air exchange which traps stale or polluted air inside.  Fresh air exchange is vitally important and plays a role in renergizing every cell in our bodies with pure unused oxygen.

Gas stove and wood burning stoves can be a source of indoor pollution.  But another key source is home cleaning product, aerosols, air freseners, disinfectants, and certain types of candles.  These products may also contain hidden carcinogens.

A 1989 study by NASA and Associated Landscape Contractors of America found that common house plants such as bamboo palms and spider plants not only make indoor spaces more attractive, they also help to purify the air!  While the researchers were aware of the well-known fact that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis, the study also showed that many house plants also removed harmful elements such as tricholorethylene, benzene,a dn formaldehyde from the air.

The study concluded with a list of house plants that are easily available from your local nursery.  Heartleaf philodendrons, elephant ear philodendrons, cornstalk dracaenas, English ivy, spider plans, Janet Craig draceinas, Warneck dracaenas, weeping figs, golden pothos, peace lilies, philodendrons, Chinese evergreens, bamboo or reed palms, snake plants, and red-edged dracaenas.  The study recommends using at least 15 samples froma good variety of these plants grown in six inch containers, or larger, for an average size home of under 2,000 square feet.

It is interesting to note that the very first home in Eden was nothing but plantlife under the starry heavens when there was pleasant tropical weather continually and the animals and pests were all under perfect law and order, not as now! We have come a long way due to the need to protect from the weather, pests, and animals. But we stll can learn from the original plan!