cleaning

Green cleaning fudged again

I can't tell you how many times I have read this statement, about "How to Clean Windows with Vinegar": "If cleaning with vinegar left streaks on your windows, it wasn't the fault of the vinegar, it was a residue left from commercial products." I may even have made this statement in one of my own books. It's nonsense, I'm sorry to say, one of those blithe green clean facts written by people who are simply repeating a convenient untruth - one that might be true sometimes, but certainly doesn't explain [...]

March 8th, 2008|Categories: Oddments|Tags: , |

How to wash dishes

Washing dishes is apparently one of the many household skills that has been lost, left behind in the 20th century I guess, though it's possible to watch YouTube videos to learn how. (And here's a rather fun overview of methods for handwashing dishes.) But I'm no longer the purist I was when I wrote the following in my first book, Home Ecology: A dishwasher probably saves time for a large family and certainly keeps the kitchen a lot tidier, but there are sound arguments against having one. You need more [...]

May 31st, 2005|Categories: Oddments|Tags: , , |

Nontoxic pest control

The words we use for this season are interesting to consider. In French and Spanish, the words for

May 3rd, 2005|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |