“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…” or my favourite lifestyle tips.
FACT FILES ON HANDMADE PURE, ORGANIC SOAP
Do you remember the song “My Favorite Things” (written by Rodgers & Hammerstein) featured in the movie “The Sound of Music”? I hate to think how many times I must have seen the movie over the years…the words to the song indelibly imprinted in my brain.
Every week for a few years now, I’ve been posting lifestyle tips on our Facebook page for those wanting to pursue a more chemical free existence. The suggested tips were largely absorbed through observation of methods used by my mother in the days before our lives became saturated with commercial products. Simpler times…when people used resources on hand and common sense to resolve cleaning issues etc.
I don’t buy many commercial products…preferring to stick with the methods taught to me and later modified by me to suit my current lifestyle. I don’t have a cupboard full of cleaning products. The products that I stock for cleaning are: bicarb, cream of tartar, salt, white vinegar, tea tree and eucalyptus oils, WD-40…and of course, ilo ORGANICS soap! There are not many cleaning issues that can’t be resolved with these goodies- either singularly or in combination.
Here are some of my favourite tips that I use regularly:
Clean pots and pans in a flash by rubbing over baked on oil with a stainless steel scourer, soap and a splash of tea tree oil for gleaming pots with minimal effort.
To clean a microwave oven in a snap, place 1 cup of white vinegar in a bowl & run on high for 5 minutes, or until condensation appears on the surfaces. Carefully remove bowl, and wipe surfaces over…too easy.
Clean scale build-up from a kettle by covering it with a sufficient depth of white vinegar- boil and stand for 15 minutes. Empty and rinse well.
Use bicarb on a dampened cloth to clean the fridge, dishwasher and washing machine. It’ll remove any odours in the process. It’s also a great cleaner for the rubber seal on front- loaders.
To remove rust spots from stainless steel appliances, rub over with a damp cloth dipped in cream of tartar with the direction of the grain. Wipe over and apply a stainless steel protective oil finish.
Make a lot of scratches and marks on timber furniture disappear by rubbing them with a fresh walnut.
A squirt of WD-40 will shift dried paint and glue off hands easily.
Apply a dab of clear nail-polish to the centre of button stitches on a new shirt to prevent them from unravelling.
Keep these ethylene producing fruit separated from others & vegetables to extend the life of both: apple, apricot, avocado, banana, custard apple, grapefruit, kiwi, mango, melons, nectarine, pawpaw, passionfruit, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, tomato. Also note that ethylene gas can build to 40 times the normal level when fruit is stored in the confinement of a fridge- reducing the storage life by as much as 50%.
Keep celery crisp for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, cut the stems in half and wrap/seal them in aluminium foil.
For chemical free, easy weed removal, spray those pesky little weeds with white vinegar. They’ll shrivel up within a few days after application.
Heading off to the park for a barbeque? Wipe over the table with white vinegar to naturally disinfect the surface and repel flies.
Back to the song. I remember when I first heard this version of it - off the album “Tenderness” by Al Jarreau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWMT-fpDQm0
It captured my brain for days and became a haunting obsession.
“…Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things…”
Indeed…’ilo’ packaging stands in testament of the fact!