earth week

I bitch and moan a lot because of all this pressure to go green or go to hell but going green is so expensive and I don't really have the bank required to buy those crunchy all purpose cleaners that don't really clean anything anyway but they smell nice. I found a great glass cleaner "recipe" online that costs about 8 cents. Well, maybe 18.

1/4 cup vinegar (I had regular Heinz white vinegar)
2 cups water
1tsp dish detergent

I added a little bit of blue food coloring and mixed it in the Windex bottle with the Mr. Yuk sticker on it so the boy wouldn't be tempted to drink it. Not that it would hurt him, but whatever.

Glass cleaning works better with old newspapers, so if you aren't already doing that you should try it.

I've also been putting some of the crappy vodka that someone brought over last Christmas on a cottonball and using it to wipe the computer screen and the television. It evaporates right away and doesn't leave streaks. I'd imagine that it probably works to disinfect toilets and sink handles too.
The only other thing it works for is to flare my temper and give me a raging headache, and that's no good for anyone.
Me? I'm not so good with the vodka. I get punchy.

I think I've hit a major milestone lately because I'm starting to associate the smell of vinegar with the concept of clean rather than the idea of 1970s vaginas! This is huge!

Also, I've finally run out of the store-bought wood soap that I've had kicking around for a couple years, so I refilled the bottle with one part olive oil and one part distilled white vinegar and one part water and it has been working wonders on my prized Ikea crap. I know you aren't supposed to store it for very long, or in a plastic bottle, but I've already violated both those rules and the world hasn't come to an end. I feel like buying a glass spray bottle is both dangerous and wasteful. I've also heard you can wipe your furniture down with a little oil and water and then use some vinegar and water to clean the residue, but that sounds like a lot of work.

My genius Re-use tip of the day is to take your empty tissue boxes and use them as mini wastebaskets in the car or by your bed. They are generally cute, and probably match your decor since you bought them because they did. They are also good for storing cotton balls and Q-tips and stuff because they are a lot more compact than those horrid bags and weird rectangle boxes that cotton stuff comes in. I keep my nail files, polishes, removers, clippers, and cotton balls in a tissue box. I'm famous for not being able to keep that kind of stuff together. They make nice portable snack boxes too. You can keep granola bars and raisins and chocolates and whatever else you like to dip into during the day partially hidden from your co-workers on a shelf. Jake loves to fill them with cars and crayons and then stack them up neatly in the corners. But he also likes to step on them so maybe this would be a better idea for grownups.

If you are anything like my sneezy snotty drippy self these days, you have tons of empty tissue boxes lying around. Let me know what you come up with!