Friday Favorites: Wean Green Cubes

I hate packing lunches.

It's literally one of my least favorite household tasks along with putting laundry away and doing dishes.

But I have found some ways to make packing lunches a little more exciting and a lot more green!

Enter the wean green containers! I have no idea where that name came from, but these little babies have changed my life for the better!

Before I tell you about today's Friday Favorite, I will give you a little background as to how I stumbled upon these pretty babies.


I had been been trying to find ways to green our lunches since my whole crusade started last year. I first purchased these Kids Konserve sandwich wrappers through amazon and they are a great way to wrap up a sandwich without using foil or Saran Wrap or a plastic baggie...all three of which creates unnecessary waste after just one use. They work really well for sandwiches, but I wanted something that I could use to put chips or grapes or other snacks in.

So then I found these cool lunchskins snack baggies on ecomom and they work really well for snacky kind of stuff. They wash out really well and are super cute.

I was using these two items but then we were still using plastic glad and ziploc containers for other messier items like cottage cheese or yogurt or soup.

The more research I did the more I realized the dangers of plastic food storage containers and the toxins that leach from the plastic, especially if the plastic is too old or when it is microwaved.  So I kept going in my search to find reusables that were glass. I couldn't find anything that A) I liked, or B) were affordable. So I just was really cognizant about not microwaving in plastic containers as much as I could.


Then around Christmas time this year I discovered ecomom. I LOVE this website. Consequently it's being revamped right now but will be back in a few months. Anyways, I discovered this site and that is where I found the wean green cubes. They are super affordable and are AMAZING! They are made of really heavy duty glass and can be kept cold, frozen, heated up, you name it! The lids are free from any of the dangerous stuff that is in plastic. They seal up really well too and won't leak! They come in tons of shapes and sizes, see?

They are great for lunches, baby food, storing leftovers, you name it!  Look how stinking cute they are!  

  

  I  LOVE the colors!

I think the prices are pretty reasonable, about $12-$18 for two. That may seem like a lot when you are comparing it to gladware, but these will last you a lot longer, and who can argue that it is worth it to pay a little bit more for something that is going to be better for your health? These babies have dropped on my kitchen floor and have not broken. They are made to last! I love these so much that I actually cried when my aussie ate one of my pink lids-little did I know you can order replacement parts!

Wean green cubes are my favorite this week because they are such a better option for packing lunches than using ziploc bags, and they are such a better option for food storage than chemical laden plastic containers. And the bottom line is that they make making lunches much more fun! In order to green my kitchen I have been trading my plastic containers for these, and using the plastic for non-food items or recycling it.

So go ahead and order yourself some wean green cubes. They are available from the wean green website, amazon, ecomom, and tons of other online retailers. Keep an eye out for sales and deals and eventually you can trade all that yucky plastic for safe, eco-friendly,  useful, and adorable glass!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle

Washing Cloth Diapers-Is it really better for the environment?

Lots of people ask me how I wash the diapers.

"You must spend hours doing laundry," they say.

"How can you be saving the environment if you do that much more laundry?" they say.

"How do you deal with the POOP?" they say!

"I couldn't do cloth diapers because I couldn't handle the laundry, I am MUCH too busy!" they say.

Guess what?

I'm busy. I have a full time job, a baby, a husband, two dogs, a house to run, and a blog that will NOT write itself! So if I can do it, so can you!

So on this Earth Day weekend, here is a little tutorial on how to wash and deal with the diapers!

Now first of all, as I mentioned above, people always say that all that washing MUST not make disposables better for the environment.

That's simply not true. Because you see, disposables are not disposable. Once you use them and throw them away even if they are out of YOUR sight, that doesn't mean they are gone. Once those sposies are hauled away to a landfill they will sit there for at least 500 years.

As this blog says:

"In other words, if Christopher Columbus had worn Pampers, his poop would still be in some landfill today."

Perspective?

Yes'm.

Now onto producing disposables versus laundering cloth diapers. I am again going to quote this blog. Here's why washing cloth is STILL not even coming CLOSE to making the negative impact on our world that disposables are:
  
"Disposables Help Increase Gas Prices

We, as a nation, pay through the nose for disposable diapers throughout their life-cycle. In the full-cost accounting, from farm to factory to storefront, compared to cloth diapers, disposables:

• create 2.3 times more water waste,
• use 3.5 times more energy,
• use 8.3 times more non-renewable raw materials (like oil and minerals),
• use 90 times more renewable raw materials (like tree pulp and cotton),
• and use 4 to 30 times as much land for growing or mining raw materials.

Yikes!
Let’s break it down further…
A disposable diaper is practically dripping in oil. Oil is the raw material for the polyethylene plastic in disposables and it takes about 1 cup of crude oil just to make the plastic for 1 disposable diaper. Taking that a bit further, assuming you use at least 6,500 diapers, this means that it takes about 1,625 quarts of oil to diaper your baby for 30 months—not including the oil involved in the diapers’ manufacture and delivery.

Yes, that’s right: It takes more oil to keep your baby dry for 2-1/2 years than it does to lubricate all the cars you will ever own in your lifetime.

For the nation, this means that over 250,000 trees are destroyed and over 3.4 billion gallons of oil are used every single year to manufacture disposable diapers in the United States. For that amount of oil, we could have powered over 5,222,000 cars in the same time period.
The importance of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels through our diaper choices cannot be overestimated. Using up what little affordable oil we have left on this planet to improperly manage baby poop is possibly the stupidest use of oil we could think of, besides the disposable water bottle.
Such recklessly wasteful use of oil threatens not only our environmental security, but also our economic and homeland security, too. As we waste all the easy, cheap-to-produce oil we have left on unnecessary conveniences like disposable diapers and water bottles, we will increasingly have to rely on risky, costly-to-produce oil from deep in the ocean, the pristine Arctic, the Tarsands, and the Mideast and Venezuela, and suffer the price hikes, environmental disasters, and scary, scarcity politics that go with that. (War again, anyone?)
Would you go to war for the resources to continue to cover our children’s bottoms in sweaty, chemical-laden plastic? Oh yeah, we already did."

Try telling me NOW that washing cloth is worse/just as bad for the environment than disposables.

So with that being said, let me give you an easy peasy wash routine that doesn't take long, doesn't break the bank, and will let you do more important things with your little one than constantly run to the store to buy diapers!

 We keep our diapers in a pail in the nursery. The pail has a pail liner in it. Once we change a diaper we remove the insert and throw the whole thing into the pail along with the wipes. For diaper covers, we close the aplix tabs and put them in a wet bag that hangs from the changing table. You don't want to keep your covers in the pail because it will help wear them out faster, but all in ones and pockets can go right in the pail.

You are ready to wash (usually every 2-3 days) when the pail is full.





  

Step 1: Make sure all of your inserts have been removed and your aplix tabs are closed so as to avoid getting stuck on other diapers in the wash (Remember, it's easier to do this as you go!)


 

Step 2: Turn on your washing machine. Now each load gets a rinse cycle first in COLD water. On our machine I just turn the knob to the rinse cycle and put all the contents of the pail into the wash and let it rinse cold with NO detergent.
 
Think to self, "Yikes, my machine is dusty. I should probably do something about that, but the dust can wait. I have to finish these diapers so I can go snuggle my little one!"

So while the diapers are in the rinse cycle I go upstairs and do other stuff like hang out with my baby or clean, or watch TV (yea right!) But the point is, I can get stuff done, even though I have to wash diapers....SHOCKING I know! but it's true!!! :)


Step 3: About 20 minutes or so later (or the next day, because the wash can always wait! Your baby can't!) I run down and turn the washer to the HOT wash/COLD rinse setting and set the knob back to the full wash cycle. I add two tablespoons of Planet detergent. You can use a variety of different detergents, but we like Planet because it has NO dyes, NO brighteners, NO fragrance, NO bad stuff. So it's good for my little one's sensitive skin AND good for the environment! It's available locally at Feel Rite and the Lexingtion Co-Op. It's $13 or so for a 100 fl oz. To put that in perspective, we have bought a bottle of it TWICE since July. TWICE. So it lasts forever because you only use a small amount, and it is CHEAP! Can't say that about Tide! 

So once I change it to hot and add the detergent I am done for now! The diapers wash and I go about my life.

Step 4: The diapers are done and now they need to dry. I put all the inserts and wipes into the dryer and dry on medium heat with my wool dryer balls for about 20-30 minutes.  Any covers, wet bags, or pockets/all in ones get hung on the line to dry. My hubs hung a LONG laundry line in my basement for drying on the line in the winter, and in the summer I dry all the diapers on the line outside (sunning removes stains too!) which reduces energy use even further!

Step 5: The next morning take the diapers off the line and stuff them (if you use pockets) and put them away. You're done!  No running to the store, no spending money on new diapers once the diapers are dirtied, and only a few minutes every few days to do the laundry.

See? It's not bad at all!!! I probably spend one hour or less doing diaper laundry per week from start to finish. So it's not daunting, and the laundry is not a reason to decide NOT to do cloth diapers. Because it's not that big a deal!

Now I know you are wondering what happens when your baby turns 6 or so months old and starts solids? What happens when there is actual poop to deal with? Well that's just one extra step. 

All you do is get a diaper sprayer and hook it up to your toilet. This took my hubs about 15 minutes. When you change a poopy diaper you bring it to the bathroom and spray it clean. The diaper goes into the pail until wash day. Done.

Now you might be saying, "Gross, I don't want to spray the poop off my child's diapers." Well did you know:
 
  "...that human waste is not actually supposed to end up in landfills?  The directions of the backs of each package of disposable clearly states that users are to take the diaper to the toilet and rinse or shake the poop off before throwing the diaper into the garbage!

Here's exactly what this particular package says...

"Rinse or shake diaper contents into the toilet.  Wrap diaper securely inside it's back sheet before discarding into waste receptacle."

Now imagine, if families really followed the directions.  How many more disposable diaper users would be converted to cloth because they would no longer find disposables so much more convenient?"


Yep. That is what it says on most packages of disposables. Because your child's waste is NOT supposed to be in a landfill.

    
"Imagine a world where all disposable diapering families had to take each soiled diaper home in a baggie, take each disposable diaper to the toilet, and rinse or shake the poop off before disposing of the diaper?

Nevermind whether they all actually would do it, but do you think they'd think twice about the convenience of disposables compared to cloth diapers?  After all, part of what people think is so gross and inconvenient about cloth is having to deal with the poop, take the diaper to the toilet, etc."

Source: http://www.knickernappiesblog.com/2011/04/are-disposables-really-that-convenient.html
 

So on this Earth Day think twice about cloth diapers. It is not as hard as you think. And for every child that is cloth diapered that is thousands of diapers and fecal matter that is not in a landfill for our  children's generations to deal with.

Happy Earth Day!!!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle

Friday Favorites: Wool Dryer Balls

Happy Friday to you!

It's a dreary day here in Western New York, the perfect day for doing laundry! (Exactly what you want to be doing on a Friday night, right?)


Speaking of laundry, how many of you use dryer sheets? Probably a lot. I used to as well. Until I read about the dangers of using them. Here's one study from the University of Washington that tells about the dangers in your dryer sheets. Check that out. Don't worry, I will wait.

Ok, are you back? Here's some of what is lurking in your dryer sheets:

1.  Alpha-Terpineol–This chemical has been linked to disorders of the brain and nervous system, loss of muscle control, depression, and headaches
2.  Benzyl acetate–Benzyl acetate has been linked to cancer of the pancreas
3.  Benzyl alcohol–Linked to headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, depression, as well as disorders of the brain and nervous system
4.  Chloroform–Chloroform is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Hazardous Waste list because it has been identified as a carcinogen and neurotoxin (toxic to the brain and nervous system)
5.  Ethanol–also on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list for its ability to cause brain and nervous system disorder
6.  Ethyl Acetate–causes headaches and is on the EPA Hazardous Waste list
7.  Linalool–in studies, this chemical caused loss of muscle coordination, nervous system and brain disorders, and depression
8.  Pentane–causes headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, drowsiness, and depression

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-toxins-lurking-in-your-fabric-softener.html#ixzz2Qwv6sNfJ


AWESOME.

Once again, guess what? The EPA does not have to list or tell you about all the dangers of these toxins. Supposedly:

"The standard argument in favor of using fabric softeners is that the amount of the chemicals to which a person is exposed is insufficient to cause harm."

I call BS on that!

According to the link above:

 Studies are showing that even small amounts of these toxins can have serious effects.  So, think twice before you add that dryer sheet or liquid fabric softener to your laundry, particularly for children whose developing brains are more vulnerable to the effects of toxins.

But I want my laundry to smell fresh! I want my laundry to dry faster! I want my clothes to be softer!


So what are we to use?


Enter wool dryer balls!

Source: http://lovelivegrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/felted-wool-dryer-balls.jpg

These pretty balls rock. They help dry your laundry and fluff it up quickly! And we got rid of the fabric softener because it's toxic but guess what? They help soften your clothes too! According to Jillee here's how they work:

"The balls circulate and separate the clothing and get the warm dry air right down to the core of the laundry load! The more balls you add, the faster the drying time. They also soften your clothes through gentle friction of the felted wool fibers against your clothing fibers. And as if that weren’t enough…..they LAST for YEARS!"

These are one of my favorite things ever because they just make sense. In the past I'd heard you could use tennis balls, but then I imagine your clothes would smell like rubber, and I don't even want to know what bad stuff might be in hot rubber! And tennis balls are loud. Wool dryer balls are really quiet so they won't wake your napping baby!

Wool dryer balls are also super soft and come in so many cute colors and patterns! The ones I have are purple, green, and white. Lame compared to some, but I enjoy them. But you should see all the choices!

Check out these cute ones:

Source: http://img0.etsystatic.com/015/0/7758642/il_340x270.431303036_4utz.jpg

And these:

Source: http://jessiegunderson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dryer-balls.jpg

And OMG are you kidding I can't take the cuteness!

 Source: http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t634/pardoheather/Butternut/a91d0a1c-bddf-43b4-9cc9-dd338f10ff7f_zps1678ca22.jpg

Who are these people that are so creative and talented?! On Etsy there are tons and tons of stores you can buy these from. You can also purchase them from time to time on green baby bargains if you keep an eye out. They are available in abundance on the internet if you do a simple google search. Look at that, I did it for you, you don't even have to type the words now!

I bought mine locally at fresh & fluffy.  I can't stress enough how important it is to shop local and shop at mom and pop stores. But that's another blog post! Stephanie has lot of varieties and sizes in stock.

Or if you are crafty (not I said the fly), you can make your own. Here's a fun and easy tutorial. Easy peasy.

The coolest thing is that they last and last and last I have had mine since last spring and they barely show any signs of wear, minus one loose string where my Aussie got a hold of one of them. But they still work! You literally never have to replace them. At some point I am sure they will loosen and fall apart, but mine are still going strong after over a year!

Did I mention that they are reasonably priced as well? I bought my pair for $12 and I plan to keep them forever. You can find them on Etsy for about $20 for 4 give or take.  And did I mention that they shorten your drying time?! Another bonus for being green AND frugal!

So if you want to avoid chemicals AND have softer, faster drying clothes, pick some wool dryer balls up! You will be so glad you did.

I hope you enjoyed my first Friday Favorite!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Happy weekend!

Love and Laughs,

 Danielle

Coming soon: Friday Favorites

Welcome back to the good life! Thanks for stopping!

Since a lot of my posts tend to take time, research, and yes, even some experimentation before I can write them, I thought it would be fun to start a quick category for the blog that I could do quickly even if it's not a "long post" week!

Enter, "Friday Favorites."

I will try my best to write a quick post each Friday sharing one of my favorite "green" things. It might be a product, website, tip, etc. We shall see where it goes from here!

My goal is to share information about the great products and places I have come to know and love since becoming what my sister affectionately calls crunchy granola.

So make sure you subscribe to the blog by e-mail  over on the top left side of the page (under my picture!) so you never miss a post and look out for the new column starting on Friday!

I hope that you too will continue to embrace being crunchy granola right along with me!

Crunch crunch!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle

Greening the medicine cabinet: Part 1

This is the first post of what will become a series. I'm excited, my first blog series!

I have been working for quite some time on making my medicine cabinet more "green." Let me tell you that this is NOT an easy task! If you remember from this post, I gave some options for taking small and easy steps to lead a greener life. Trading the cosmetics has proved to be not so easy, BUT I am not giving up! Let's talk about what's been happening.

First of all, I am way too busy (read: LAZY) to make all of my own products. I am a creature of convenience, I 100% admit that. I do know it would be a lot easier in the long run, but I just feel like there HAS to be products out there that are affordable and natural. I am working on finding them. Which is why I think this will be a series of posts. But I digress. So yes, we have established that I am too lazy to make my own products, but I have already found some nice alternatives to products I use that are easier than others to switch to.

Today we will focus on my green alternative for:

Eye Makeup Remover

When I worked for Mary Kay ( I know ::gasp::) I used their eye makeup remover. Check out the ingredients of concern as listed on EWG's cosmetic database:

POLOXAMER 184	Data gaps, Ecotoxicology, Contamination concerns (ACETIC ACID, FORMIC ACID, PROPYLENE OXIDE, ETHYLENE OXIDE, 1,4-DIOXANE, ALDEHYDES), Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Persistence and bioaccumulation	Data: Limited
CYCLOTETRASILOXANE	Developmental/reproductive toxicity, Ecotoxicology, Endocrine disruption, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Persistence and bioaccumulation	Data: Limited
BENZYL ALCOHOL	Allergies/immunotoxicity, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Occupational hazards, Use restrictions	Data: Fair
BENZALKONIUM CHLORIDE	Allergies/immunotoxicity, Use restrictions	Data: Fair
IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA	Allergies/immunotoxicity, Contamination concerns (FORMALDEHYDE)	Data: Limited
HEXYLENE GLYCOL	Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs)	Data: Fair
ISOHEXADECANE	Ecotoxicology, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Use restrictions

Um no thank you?! I used this on my EYES.

FTR (For the record) you don't want the ingrdients in your product to be higher than 0-2, which is considered "low hazard." This had 5s. SCARY stuff!

Might I remind you, I wasn't into checking the ingredients at this point in my life. I foolishly trusted the FDA and cosmetics companies and believed they wouldn't possibly put anything into my stuff that was unhealthy. It's amazing how drinking the cloth diaper kool-aid takes you down a rabbit hole of epic proportions. Scary stuff in these products I used to use, yes, but I am so glad that I am educated about this stuff now so I can make educated decisions about products that I am using on my body.

Now the reason I stopped using this stuff was because it was $14 a bottle. Not because of the toxins, (remember I was still clueless at that point) but because of the price. So what did I start using?

Good old Dollar General brand. $1.50. Yea buddy!

Until I read the back:

That's a WHOLE lot of toxic stuff. Parabens, SLS, sulfates, mystery "fragrance." Yikes. So I just tried to use water for awhile but still ended up with raccoon eyes. Something had to be done.

So as I was browsing the interwebs one day I came across this post where I read that you can use coconut oil as an eye makeup remover. Of course I HAD to try it. I had coconut oil in the house because we use it for a natural diaper cream when we're out of CJs and I also use it for oil pulling. Well who knew all the awesome uses for it! More research led me to this post where I learned all the other uses for this amazing stuff! It's so amazing. You want to know what's in it?

coconut oil.

That's it.

Here's the brand I use: Spectrum

So you can either take a little and put it on a cotton ball or cloth with some water and wipe the makeup off, or you can mix it with a little bit of distilled water and Dr. Bronner's and voila! The makeup comes right off and leaves nothing behind! I love love love it!

Other ways I use coconut oil in our home:

• diaper cream
• moisturizer
• hair defrizzer
• hangnails 
• shaving cream
• oil pulling
• taken orally for general health
• scars
• deodorant (more on this coming soon-I am currently participating in my own experiment to find an all natural deodorant solution that actually works!)
• cooking
• toothpaste (for whitening!)

As you can see coconut is a necessity in any green medicine cabinet. Eye makeup remover aside, there are literally hundreds of other uses for it! And the best part is that a jar of it costs between $8 and $14 depending on the brand, but it lasts FOREVER. Well not forever, but a really LONG time.

So if you are currently using a toxic eye makeup remover go ahead and try to swap it out for coconut oil. Remember it's all about the little changes that you make to your life over time that count, not getting overwhelmed by trying to change everything at once!

So go ahead and buy a jar of coconut oil next time you are out grocery shopping and put it right in that medicine cabinet! You won't be sorry!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle