Showing posts with label healthy home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy home. Show all posts

Sunday, March 31, 2013

How to Trick Your Friends into Cleaning Your Bathroom

Harsh chemicals bombard our everyday lives.  We get so caught up in cleanliness that we forget about the nasty combinations of toxic fumes, formaldehyde, asbestos, petrochemicals and pesticides that we're putting onto our skin, clothing, and using when cleaning our homes.  In addition to being dangerous to our health, they are expensive.  We use our hard earned cash to voluntarily poison ourselves!  That's crazy town.

Sparkes Wellness and Motivated Nutrition say no more!

We're here to show you how to make a homemade bathroom cleaner using as little chemical as possible. 

It's cheap.   It's fast.  It will make your tub and shower clean!  (It made my tub smell like vanilla cake because of the milk and honey soap we used. Mmmm!)  AND, it's so novel, your friends will beg to help you!  (Rubs hands together with sinister smile).

Check out our homemade recipe below and watch as I get Sparkes Wellness to fall for cleaning my shower as I sneak off to eat lunch!




You will need: 
  •  Mixing bowl, spoon, sponge
  • 1 2/3 cups baking soda
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup liquid soap
  • 2 Tbsp vinegar
***This recipe make a lot!  We cut it in 1/2 because I have a very tiny Brooklyn bathroom.  Depending on your space, you may want to do the same.  
Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine baking soda, water, and liquid soap.  Mix well.
2. Add vinegar, watch it get frothy and mix again.
3. Apply to a sponge and scrub.
4. Convince your friend how fun this is so they scrub too!
5. Rinse
6. Back out of the room slowly as your friend cleans your bathroom.  ;)


Leave a comment if you have your own homemade cleaning recipe that you'd love to share. 


In healthy home happiness,

Joanie


www.motivatednutrition.net
joanie@motivatednutrition.net


*Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channels so you don't miss any of our "Spring Cleaning from the Inside Out" series!


Thursday, August 16, 2012

A Moment of Soapy Zen

#HealthUpYourHome

A Moment of Soapy Zen
Meditative laundry. A good book and my Toms!

 
There are few things I hate more than having to drag my stinky work-out clothes to the laundromat and eat up a precious 2 hrs of my week.  Our new apartment is inconveniently located a grueling 15min walk from the closest laundromat.  It's painful.  Last week's load was even worse because it contained all the extra moving day gems like bed linens, curtains, dust rags, and towels.  After lugging it down 4 flights of stairs, I had to bungee the load onto our hand truck to take it on it's 15min walk.  (All the while thinking to myself, "This is so not cool.")  

Yes, I know a civilized Brooklyn-ite would just use a pick up/ drop off service.  I've heard it from all my friends.  Someday, I hope to afford myself that luxury...or better yet have my own W/D!  

My solution to the madness was to make the dreaded process into a meditation.  I took a good book, decided to not check my phone and tried to zen myself out while my sports bras and yoga pants happily twirled in their suds.  

I noticed a woman using what looked to be homemade detergent and broke my no phone rule to google laundry soap recipes.  I'm dying to try!  It seems like a much better solution to the artificial fragrances and chemicals that are in my usual detergent.  

2 gallons Water (hot)
1 bar Soap (grated)
2 cups Baking soda 
  • Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. 
  • Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until melted.
  • In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted mixture, stir well.Then add the baking soda, stir well again.
  • Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load.

Do you or anyone you know use natural/ homemade laundry soap?  Do they work?  I'm intrigues and excited.  (Dork alert!)   Leave your comment, tweet  (#HealthUpYourHome), or post on the Motivated Nutrition Facebook page


In naturally sudsy health,


Joanie   


Joanie Johnson, CHC
Motivated Nutrition
814-442-5311




Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Making a List. Don't Leave Home Without It!

#HealthUpYourHome

Making a List.  Don't Leave Home Without It!  

Don't even try to go shopping without this life saver!

 
So my August challenge Operation: #HealthUpYourHome is getting off to a shaky start.  It's what, Aug 14th already?!  We've been unpacking and navigating boxes for 2 weeks now.  The process is slow when you're busy and active.  I get home from teaching at night and all I want to do is eat, veg out and hit the hay.  

I FINALLY unpacked my home office boxes today and am realizing I'm desperate for some organizing solutions.  I don't even have a desk yet!  Don't make the mistake Micah and I did by going shopping and accidentally leaving the list at home.  We've been back to Ikea 5 times now to make returns and buy things we forgot.  (Eyeballing a book shelf and "thinking" it will fit is not a wise idea.) 

The same thing happens to me when I go grocery shopping.  If I don't have a list, I come home with bags of goodies I don't need and end up whining "there's nothing to eat!" all week long.  I've since started keeping my list on my phone since it's rare I forget that at home.  

Moral of the story?  

Whether it be groceries, home shopping, or school shopping, Always Make A List- don't go shopping without one.  It's ESSENTIAL!

Do you always use a list?   What's the craziest idem you've bought without one?  Comment here, Tweet with #HealthUpYourHome, or post it to the Motivated Nutrition facebook page.   


In list checking health,


Joanie   


Joanie Johnson, CHC
Motivated Nutrition
814-442-5311