Herbs in the home

I'm very late with this post, mainly because we've had some trouble with our Internet connection, broke down in my car on the motorway yesterday - long story - and we've been packing for our holiday. But today's post is one I feel passionate about. I love herbs, growing them and using them for cooking. But herbs are also great to use around the home. In fact, have you seen the BBC show 'How to grow your own drugs' ? Sounds a bit dodgy I know, but it's not at all. The presenter is a botanist showing how to make basic health remedies from herbs you can grow in the garden... I've got my eye on the book, and it's on my Amazon wish list now. One of the great recipes shows how to use hops under your pillow to relieve insomnia - so simple, but apparently is works.



As you might have noticed before, I am not a fan of chemicals and generally prefer 'natural' solutions. I've gathered some great simple and natural recipes for using herbs to clean and freshen the home, I hope you can make use of them. I've not tried all of these myself, but do let me know if you use any of these successfully. And I think Spring is just the right time to try them out!

Many of these recipes include Eucalyptus oil. Eucalyptus is a great oil that every household should have alongside a bottle of Lavender oil. It's also readily available from supermarkets and chemists. Eucalyptus is not only a disinfectant, but will also keep pests such as moths and fleas out of your home, and it smells really fresh too.

Lavender fresh carpets
The first recipe is one I saw on the program "How Clean is Your House?" with the brilliant and funny Kim and Aggie. Mind you, it's a pretty grim program, and I reckon most people watch it to be able to say 'at least my house isn't THAT bad'. Goodness, I hope there aren't many houses around as dirty as those ones - some of the houses shown on the program makes me feel ill, yuk! This recipe is to freshen up carpets in preparation for vacuuming...


Mix some bicarbonate of soda with some fresh lavender that has been slightly bruised and crushed in a pestle and mortar. Add them to a shaker pot and sprinkle over the carpet surface. Leave for approximately 30 minutes before vacuuming the carpet thoroughly.

The lavender not only makes your carpet smells nice, but as it gets vacuumed up, the lavender scent will be spread around the room through the vacuum's air outlet... lovely!


All Purpouse Thyme Cleaner
Thyme is a disinfecting herb that can be used safely around the house.

2 1/2 cups water
1 handful thyme (fresh or dried)
Vinegar
Liquid castille soap (squirt)

Boil the water and then add the thyme. Simmer for 3 hours over medium-low heat, covered. Cool, then strain. Pour the water into a spray bottle, top with white vinegar and add a squirt of soap. Use as needed.


Herb Disinfectant Cleaner
This spray cleaner disinfects surfaces, kills mold, and discourages its return. Eucalyptus,
lavender, and tea tree are all known for their antimicrobial properties.
1 tsp. sodium lauryl sulfate
1 tsp. borax
2 Tbs. white vinegar
2 cups hot water
1/4 tsp. eucalyptus essential oil
1/4 tsp. lavender essential oil
3 drops tea tree essential oil
Mix all ingredients together and stir until dry ingredients dissolve. Pour into spray bottle. To use, spray as needed on any surface except glass. Scrub and rinse with clean, damp cloth.
*Source: The Herb Companion, September 1999

Lavender Laundry
A brilliant Martha tip: Add a Lavender Bag to your dryer when drying your linen and sheets. Can be used at least 25 times.


Lavender Gentle Scourer
3/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/8 cup (one-eighth) liquid castile soap
5 drops lavender Essential Oil

Combine all ingredients and add enough water to make a smooth paste. Apply to surface, then wipe area clean with a damp sponge or cloth. Rinse well.

Linen Spray
1/2 cup Distilled Water
1/2 cup Vodka
10 drops Eucalyptus oil or any other favourite essential oil

Mix the ingredients and pour into a spray bottle. Shake before use.

Tub Scrub
1 cup Baking Soda
15 drops Eucalyptus oil

Mix the baking soda and oil well then scrub onto bathroom tub and sink with a damp sponge. Leave sit for a bit before rinsing off with clear warm water. I can personally vouch for this recipe working a treat! It really does take the hard work out of cleaning a dirty bathtub and leaves the bathroom smelling clean.

I hope you enjoy and try out some of these - do let me know how you find them in comparison to the usual chemicals in brightly coloured bottles you can buy? I still get sidetracked and end up buying some, but I'm always sorry when I smell those nasty smells.

I found many of the recipes from this fabulous website, take a look for some more:
http://tipnut.com/homemade-herbal-cleaner-recipes/

And a great website to buy bulk cleaning basics such as borax and castille soap in the UK is Summer Naturals.

I'll be away for two weeks - we're off to Egypt! It will be our first ever visit there, and I'm ridiculously excited about it, walking around the house singing 'walk like an Egyptian' over and over. It also means two weeks to get me out of my cleaning routine, so I'll need to remind myself how to do things by the time I get back, so right now I'm off to clean the house before our holiday. Getting back from holiday is always a bit of a downer, but less so if you return to a clean and fresh home. Have a great couple of weeks!


xxx

To bleach or not to bleach...

NOT my bathroom, thank goodness! If it was, the answer to this post wold be more straightforward - hose and bleach! But most of us don't have bathrooms like this, so let's talk about bleach in a calm and rational manner.

Just the other morning on the BBC Breakfast show, they were talking about the "hygiene hypothesis"... a term used to describe the clean and hygienic state of our homes leading to more allergies because children aren't exposed to enough microbes. Now I know that I have blogged about 'whitening whites' wherein I said that chlorine bleach is unnecessary, but what about around the rest of the house? Should we abandon bleach for good? Well on the same breakfast show, the had a hygiene specialist who brought along all sorts of cleaning products - many of them containing bleach, and she was saying that there really are only two areas of our homes where dangerous bacteria lurch and that we should be disinfecting these areas. She was of course talking of the bathroom and kitchen.

I cannot write about liquid chlorine bleach without going into the health risks. Chlorine bleach is not to be taken lightly, and you really should never use it without wearing gloves to protect your skin. It can cause respiratory problems, skin irritation, chest pain, and vomiting, coughing, and excess fluid in the lungs. People most susceptible to these symptoms when exposed to chlorine bleach are the young, the elderly and anyone with health concerns such as respiratory problems. A colleague of mine once decided to spring clean his bathroom with bleach. The bathroom was just off the bedroom where he sleeps and he woke up the following morning after a night of nightmares, with a painful headaches and dizziness and as a result had to take the day off work he felt so ill.

So why would anyone even use chlorine bleach, or a product containing chlorine bleach? Well, bleach is a disinfectant, Chlorine bleach is effectively a pesticide since it kills of viruses (2). And truth be told, household bleach isn't all bad, it is a relatively weak solution of sodium hypochlorite. The trouble with household bleach is that it poses a risk due to carelessness and misuse and of course it's not great that so much of it is going down the drains into the water system because of the environmental impact it has (1).

So as with many things in life, I think it's best not to get radical. By all means, keep the bottle of bleach, but remember, it's your home you are cleaning, not a hospital. So don't over use the bleach. Remember that the best way to keep you and your family safe from bacteria is good old hand washing with warm water and soap!

But here are some safety tips if you decide to keep the bleach:

• Always avoid direct skin contact with bleach, wear gloves for goodness sake!
• Dilute as per the instructions and use the diluted solution immediately since diluted chlorine bleach loses its antibacterial properties after a couple of days.
• Never, ever mix anything else with bleach, especially ammonia based products. That goes for toilet bowl cleaners, wash away all traces of other cleaners before adding bleach to the toilet bowl and don't even think about making your own concoction of vinegar and bleach -it's lethal!
• Try to only use bleach around the toilet area and in your kitchen where necessary, and in the kitchen, make double sure you have properly rinsed off any traces of bleach with water.
• Avoid using bleach in confined spaces. The oven is one example, this is a space that is hard to ventilate, you would be better off with some bicarbonate of soda for that job.
• Don't buy scented bleach - on it's own it's nasty enough, it certainly doesn't need any extra chemicals to make it worse.
• ALWAYS ALWAYS store bleach, or any products containing bleach well out of reach of children and pets!!!

Now, if I've scared you enough with the talk of respiratory problems and headaches and you would like to give bleach a miss, there are some alternatives, although perhaps not as powerful. But once again, some hand washing will do more to protect your family than that bottle of bleach.

• White vinegar can help to keep surfaces clean and bacteria free.
• Hot soapy water is the best way to kill off salmonella and e-coli, so if you're washing your dishes in hot soapy water you're already doing a good job of getting rid of them.
• There are some non-chlorine bleach products out there such as from the Ecover range to use in and around the toilet bowl.
• Scrubbing sinks, tubs, and counter tops with a paste of baking soda and water effectively removes dirt rings and some stains (3).
• A steam cleaner effectively kills bacteria and is a wonderful device if you or any members of your family suffer from Asthma or allergies.
• Bacteria and mould grow in moist conditions, so use a used towel in the bathroom to dry off any surfaces after a bath or shower, and you'll hardly ever need to disinfect your bathroom again.
  

I hope you've been informed by this post, and that you will all avoid reaching for the bottle of bleach every time you clean. I think with a bit of caution and careful dilution, using bleach once in a while is not such a bad thing. But consider using gentler products for everyday cleaning, and by that I mean avoid any general household cleaning products that may also contain chlorine bleach (so many of them do), it just isn't necessary and not worth the risk.

For some more facts on the uses of bleach:

1http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/95/bleach

2http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/products/bleach.htm

3 http://www.grist.org/advice/possessions/2003/03/18/possessions-cleaning/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/may/18/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth

http://www.ehow.com/how_2123272_use-bleach-around-house.html