Homemade laundry detergent, a bang for your money
Making your own all-natural and cheap laundry detergent can be a bit of a hassle. Avoid failure and learn from my mistakes.
Author: Kerly
Windows open for health – fall is here!
Though it is colder outside, do not think that the windows have to be closed. Now it is the right time to keep them open for your better health!
Cleaning your mattress is easy as baking soda
Now we are happy owners of a free bed plus many other items of furniture. How to clean the mattress and what keep to mind, when caring for new old things?
The five items we got were free, but for the van rental, we had to pay – 50€. Divided by the items, each item cost us 10€. Not bad, not bad at all. Plus on top of it, we got a mirror and two floor/doormats!
Anyway, one thing you definitely have to keep in mind, when getting things for free, is their condition. They may come from a neat household, well-taken care of and tidy. Or from a smoker’s home, with stains, smells, and signs of wear. If you have never brought free furniture into your home, it may be a bit scary, as the items may need some work. In our case, the mattress needed the most care.
You may be thinking, why talk about about a bed (or you may wonder why to save one from a landfill), as this is what we just use when sleeping. That’s it, this is the reason we need to talk about it and take care of it. I hope this post will help people like myself. I had to do thorough research on the internet to complete my cleaning task.
Get to know your mattress
Our mattress came with a cover and an extra cover. These were both dirty. Had stains and everything smelled of cigar smoke. Pretty gross – for many a garbage, but for us a treasure, which needed a little TLC. I wasn’t sure if the cleaning was going to work out. Really, how was I supposed to get rid of the smoking smell??? Google to rescue. After my many unfruitful searches, finally, a treasure revealed itself – Clean My Space. I really enjoyed their video and the “leading actress” does a great role, talking about cleaning and maintenance.
What to keep in mind while cleaning the mattress and maintaining it:
*cleaning mattress is not only necessary, when getting a used mattress, but it has to be carried out with every one you are owning and using to sleep on, even if they are brand new and once came from the store, like brand new;
*mattresses become extremely dirty, as we sweat every night a lot, which all will be stored in the mattress, therefore the airing of mattress and your bedclothes is very important;
*turn and flip your mattress every season;
*no water/liquids on your mattress, especially on memory foam mattresses, use a fan to try any wet spots;
*get the protector to protect your mattress, wash it and clean often;
*most mattresses are not cleanable, as they do not come with a cover, you can zip off
Cleaning a mattress without a zip-off cover
If the cover can’t be zipped off, then you should follow these steps:
*vacuum the mattress, to get rid of whatever may be there; do that at least once a season;
*deodorize your mattress, while shifting baking soda on your mattress and letting it sit for a little and then vacuuming it off, adding few drops of essential oils, will add a nice aroma to the cleaning;
*spot cleaning and stains, better tune in the video to get a complete overview of the stain types and how to handle them, but the main thing to know is, tackle the stains ASAP.
Take a look at the video HERE.
Clean My Space is an awesome outlet for all cleaning related questions you may ever have, check them definitely out!
The place where we are living at the moment is not our permanent home. So, therefore, all these mishaps are easier to handle. As we really do not want to bury so much money into something we are not going to use in the long run. Remember you can use these tips in your permanent home. Don’t be afraid of trying.
Read more on how we managed to get the cigarette smells out of our old new mattress in our future posts!
Why go vegan and take your vitamins
Veganism plays a really big role in our lives. Health is the main word, what comes to mind when we think of eating foods made of plants. Vitamins, anybody?
Empty home? eBay to the rescue!
How easy it is to fill your empty apartment? Which one of these comes the most help – malls, friends or eBay? I guess you are about to find out!
How to appreciate the environment?
As I wrote in my earlier post, I became vegan mostly for animals. I didn’t want to participate in their killing, but while as a vegetarian I was seemingly okay with the trauma, misfortunes, and death happening to fish, cows, chickens. I still consumed seafood and the bodily fluids and products made from them. Also, I wasn’t thinking so much about the environment.
Vegan for all
More than 10 years, I didn’t think of the environment, just the pain of animals. However, as a vegan, I became really awake, environmental protection really came to my mind. I am not an avid user of social media, but Instagram has been a really great tool for me on educating myself. At first, I following Peta, James Aspey and Animal Liberation Front and later many vegan individuals all around the world.
On this day, I am vegan for all – for animals, for the planet, and for health. I really love the way I feel without eating any animal products. I am not in a haze, nor do I feel overstuffed after rich meals and I am definitely a smarter shopper, as I make wiser decisions, taking into consideration planet Earth.
Since there are more vegans, actually the number of vegans has increased 160% over the past 10 years. Because of that, there is a higher demand and shops are responding to the changing needs. Many big supermarket chains all over the world have created special vegan range of foods and also free-from items such as in Tesco’s in the UK. If you haven’t noticed them, then I guess you really haven’t been looking for them in your home store.
Support local products
A great place to start is looking more closely at where most fresh produce and many packaged foods come from. When entering supermarkets to get our fresh produce, we oftentimes do not think from where these items have traveled from. But we should consider the environmental impact, and what we are supporting while buying these items. The foods that travel from the other side of the world, are not so environmentally-friendly as the produce coming near where you live.
Our eating habits can affect other countries’ economics and well-being. Exporting is good for any country’s well-being, but of course only to an extent. If we exploit a country and its resources, the people who live there cannot eat the products we demand from them. Then, this is a problem caused by us, for instance, quinoa and avocados are known to cause such problems in their country of origin. Kenya, for example, has banned the exporting of avocados, because the country’s supply is at risk. There is little room to think about what this means for the environment. More forests are cut down, oftentimes illegally, so more avocado trees can be planted.
Being vegan is definitely a better choice for the planet. Balance is the key to everything and also educating yourself. The long-haul produce traveling is not disappearing, but perhaps we do not have to eat quinoa and avocados every day. Maybe there are other people who do the same. I haven’t been a follower of popular food items. I have had quinoa, every now and then, but I haven’t bought it for years myself. What we should keep in mind is that there are products we can buy and therefore support small country economics. So the idea is not to boycott everything that comes from far away.
Choices and needs?
It all comes down to our choices and needs. We do not have to eat products shipped from far away when we could eat the locally grown food variety instead. Not only eat, but we should grow more of the nutrient-rich foods, like beans, millet, peas, and hemp. What is good about pulses, is that they do not require nitrogen inputs and carbon emissions. Also, they are insect-pollinated thus boosting wildlife and biodiversity.
We basically have to grow more food locally for us, not to grab the food from other countries half the world away. Growing plant food is better for the land as well, because of the increased diversity, a grower doesn’t have to control so much the diseases, as usually happens when growing wheat from year to year.
Writing this article was heavily inspired by the Independent article, which you can read here.
What is being vegan all about?
Sounds simple? On top of it all, vegans do not wear leather, wool, silk or any other fabrics derived from animals and also do not use products tested on animals. Vegans are known to be more environmentally friendly, active, healthier and often avoid smoking, alcohol, and drugs.
A change introduced itself
Whether we want to or not, a change may just happen. It may creep in secretly or it may come on full force. Read here, how a most likely change may appear and what to expect. Are you ready for a change? Locating to a …
How can you not have a fridge?!
Do we really need a fridge or it has become one of those commodity items in our households? Read here about our life without a fridge in a quite warm climate.
While looking for furniture for our new home, we were also looking to get a fridge. Our new kitchen didn’t come with one. We wanted just something small for our little needs. I almost got the fridge and was quite happy about it. But when I showed the ad to my friend asking for his help to pick it up, he said it was an old model and probably uses lots of electricity.
This got me thinking, do we really need a fridge? Google came to help and I came across a wonderful article at a very lovely webpage www.survivalsullivan.com. They had published a gorgeous article on How to live without a fridge. After finishing it – I was sold. Hahaaa, I am such an easy customer! Read below and see if these few points would work for you to start your own adventure. You can find the link of the whole article below.
Is it possible to live without a fridge?
Our major reason for going fridge-free was that it was a hassle to get one and we wanted trying out living green. Fridges suck up a lot of electricity, so we were open to using less electricity.
Remember I wrote about a change. The idea of having no fridge was nicely adding to the big picture of changing our habits and start saving some money. We were eagerly making this big step, a change and be different. I know we all are afraid of being different. But it doesn’t hurt to test the waters and get comfortable in your own skin and with your choices.
Going fridge free is super easy when you are vegan!
If you do not consume any animal products, which usually demand being stored in the fridge, you really do not need a fridge. Or if you are mostly eating fruits and vegetables, legumes, grains, condiments and as luck has it – none of those really have to be in the fridge. Keep in mind something when buying fruits and vegetables. Though the produce may not come from the fridge in the shopping hall, they most likely were kept in the fridge. It is easy to understand when touching the fruit/vegetable. If possible it is recommended to purchase those items, which weren’t refrigerated before.
NB! If you are not vegan, don’t worry Survival Sullivan has you still covered for making it a step closer becoming fridge-free!
Forgetting having a fridge if you have any of these:
*A cold room in the basement
*A root cellar
*Large 5-gallon buckets (get used ones from wine or grocery store) and place them in a hole in your yard; if the bucket has a lid and the food is underground, it will stay cooler
*A cooler or cooler bag
*A zeer pot or pot-in-pot refrigerator (one smaller clay or terracotta pot inside a larger pot and separated by a barrier of wet sand)
*The great outdoors, such as a backyard or balcony, which is obviously only an option for people who live in colder climates.
We are lucky to have a basement just below us. So it is easy to go there and store vegetables or whatever needs a cooler environment. Plus, it is great to also have a balcony, which I can already imagine, treats us well in the wintertime. Especially during the colder times, we can buy more products, which otherwise need refrigerating.
So how do you feel? Ready to make that big change? If not fully, then give yourself a month or two and see if you manage. As you can always get a fridge if you need.
Read Survival Sullivan’s article how to live without a fridge HERE.
*UPDATE! We survived the hot summer with a constant degree of 30 C and nothing we cooked went bad. All the food stored in the basement was edible. We are completely satisfied and definitely, we are not looking for a fridge in our life.
… A note from Eve:
When Kerly first brought up the idea of living without a fridge, I was more supportive than even I thought I would be. Again, after living on so little for months, I was simply happy to have a beautiful roof over our heads. Living minimally makes sense in the mind and heart too. It feels good to choose to live on less. I was ready for the challenge, therefore positive.
The biggest blessing and an important factor in the no fridge equation is our cold room located in the basement. As Kerly stated, living on the first floor is a huge blessing because we care able to have immediate access. At first, I enjoyed taking a backseat while Kerly went up and down with food, but I soon started going myself.
She also made it super homey, by cleaning and organizing this massive storage/fridge of ours. Adding a new LED light made it even more comfortable. It’s now beautiful, bright when we need to see everything, and most of all, it helps us live happily fridge-free!