The process was simply, really. I had read other stories of people using enzyme cleaners, like Bac-Out, to wash their floors and discovering that ants, bugs and lizards didn’t like the smell.  Surprising, really, because Bac-Out doesn’t smell bad it all — it’s smells like citrus, and does a great job of getting rid of bathroom odors. Really? Pine Sol smells worse — and even that doesn’t permanently get rid of ants.

I can’t help myself. If I see an ant, I grab it an plop it into a carefully prepared bowl of sugar mixed with a lethal dose of Diatomaceous Earth (not lethal to humans). Same thing I use to handle pantry moths. 

Inspired, and curious, I started moping my floors with enzymes. Within seconds of distributing the enzymes on my floor, ants that I didn’t even know I had, came scurrying out of the woodwork. I swear, if I could hear them, they were saying,  ”Get me outta here!”

But are the floors clean? One person commented that the grout on her tile floor gets progressively whiter every time she cleans with enzymes. Guess what? My grout, is now  back to “cream-colored” so bright and pretty.  I’m talking about the grout in our first floor bathroom that gets a tremendous amount of traffic from the boys and their friends, constantly. I had accepted it would be “gray” forever.

So, you know where this is headed, don’t you? I couldn’t resist. I bit the bullet and started making my own, garbage enzymes. I just wanted to see if I could do it — you know, kind of an experiement.  How hard could it be? I’m already saving citrus peels for my own do-it-yourself Citrasol.

Why do this? I know, you can simply go out and buy Bac-Out. But, making your own garbage enzyme makes a “mash” that is so good for cleaning the sludge out of your drains, which also eliminates fruit flies.

More on that in the coming weeks. In short, the benefits of the “mash” is worth the trouble. In the third-world, Garbage Enzymes is the latest craze to save the environment. A  Study of the Garbage Enzyme’s Effects in Domestic Wastewate by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, helped me sleep better. Garbage Enzymes are the “new compost.”

“It makes good use of kitchen waste which would otherwise end up in landfills and generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is something that housewives can do. And the enzyme also reduces our reliance on chemical cleaners, detergent. The Star.

Yet, The whole time I was preparing the materials, I was saying under my breath, “You DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS,” but the other voice kept saying — “but enzymes are so powerful, you need the extra cleaning power, and making  your own is practically free!”

The battle raged in my mind for two weeks, until the first batch of garbage enzymes was completed. That battle stopped once the first batch of garbage enzyme was done, and I saw for myself how simple it was to make. The whole process, hands-on time, was probably about 10 minutes, tops. Now the enzymes “make themselves” over a period of two weeks. Think of it as yeast rising a bread, except this takes longer.

I know this sounds terribly complicated, and most of you have already stopped reading by now. Who wants to go to all the trouble to “make” a cleaner.  But, if you’re still with me, keep reading. Again, this is pretty much a “hands-off” process, and one that I highly recommend.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started.

• A plastic container with a lid, large enough to hold 2 liters. Plastic is best. I used an old pickle jar… but be sure to leave the lid slightly ajar, as the gases in the concoction need to expand. This goes for plastic and glass.
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast. Without this, the garbage enzyme will take 3 months to ferment.
• 1 liter water
• 2 cups citrus scraps. Technically, you can use vegetables and fruits. But, let’s be honest. Do you want to clean with tomatoes? Let’s keep it sweet-smelling by only using citrus.
• If you don’t have 2 cups of citrus peels, just keep adding them to the container until you have two cups. The enzymes will start being created on the day you have the full two cups.

1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Mark the date you created the mixture on the container.
3. Shake once a day for one week.
4. After one week, just let it sit.
5. Keep the lid slightly loose, to let the gas escape for the first week.
6. After two weeks, strain the mixture and store it in an empty container. Once, I let it sit an extra 10 days, and it was still in perfect shape.
7. Keep the leftover pulp, the mash. Flush it down your toilets to clean out the drains.

This post has a lot of information. But this is not the last thing I have to say on the topic. I’ll continue to give updates on how great it is to have your own garbage enzyme around your house.

White vinegar builds the core of my cleaning supplies. It’s cheap, environmentally friendly, and it’s effective.  Vinegar and water wash the hardwood floors, vinegar is my fabric softener in the laundry (gets rid of lint and pet hair),  as a  wrinkle release spray. Vinegar is the base ingredient of my window cleaner, and when mixed with baking soda, makes a great sink scrub/polisher that simultaneously works to clean out the drains. And how about those fixtures? Nothing polishes like vinegar.  And, I even use vinegar as a vegetable wash.

I also use vinegar to pour into that little place in the dishwasher where the “Jet Dry” goes. And Vinegar eliminates odors — and with a few drops of essential oils… you have a nontoxic air freshener.

But I’ve been missing out… and maybe you have too. We’ve been putting up with that awful vinegar smell (the worse it smells, the better, right?!)  For years, we’ve been throwing out and missing one of the biggest cleaning powerhouses there is: Citrus.

On Pinterest, I kept seeing all of these photos of dried orange peels. Most commercial cleaners contains orange oil — the stuff from orange peels that you must extract — as a powerful cleaning agent. So, I began some research.

After reading pages and pages of documents, I saved you some time — and I’m going to save you some money.  I discovered this: All you need to create your own citrus cleaner, is vinegar and citrus peels. That’s it.

• Save all your citrus peels!!! You can either add them a little bit as a time, as you eat the fruit, or make Lemon Shake Ups, and add them all at once.  (Need an excuse to eat more grapefruit? This is it… grapefruit smells great!)
• Rather than compost them, let them dry out… which doesn’t take very long — overnight.
• If you’re like me — skip the drying step. I plow through a bottle of vinegar so quickly, that the drying step isn’t important.
• Use a vinegar jug that is about 1/2 – 3/4 full.

• Start stuffing citrus peels inside…you can do it all at once, or keep adding as you accumulate them.
• Keep stuffing until the bottle is full.

• The vinegar helps to release the oils from the orange peels… and the oils permeate your vinegar…. creating a powerhouse. A natural cleaner, like you have never seen before! (Or smelled.)
• Place the cap on the vinegar bottle, and let it “steep” for about two weeks.
• (Is this vaguely familiar? Like creating your own vanilla extract? This gives me an idea… adding a vanilla bean?! Or Maybe lavender … roses… anything goes, I guess)
• Now, you’re bottle is ready to go. Strain out your peels, if you want, but if you’re like me, you can manage with the peels intact.
• Start your next bottle… this one can be steeping while you’re using the first one.
• Throw your leftover peels out into the compost pile — if you’re lucky enough to have one. My hair stylist throws citrus peels around his plants, as he says it helps his soil. I can imagine the vinegar infused citrus peels would do a great job of keeping insects away.
• This citrus vinegar not only smells awesome, but it’s so much more powerful than regular vinegar… just Google citrus cleaner for some insights.
• Start using this citrus vinegar as your laundry softener ( makes the washer and your clothes smell great). Make a paste with baking soda and scrub your porcelain, the chrome on your faucets, start washing your floors with it!!! It’s quite amazing… I’ll stop now… before I turn into an infomercial.

Those of you on my PRIVATE email list — if you haven’t received at least two emails from me, check your spam folder…

Hate ironing? I know you’re tempted by that high-priced wrinkle releaser spray — but it’s pricey… and it smells awful. You can make your own wrinkle releaser spray — for cheap — and scent it any way you like.

All you need is an empty, clean spray bottle. By the way, did you know that a glass pop bottle, with a screw-top lid can make your own diy sprayer? A sprayer screws right on top of a screw-top glass bottle. Perfectly. (You made need to cut off the “stem” of the sprayer to get it to fit — but a Windex sprayer, by the way, fits perfectly.)

Now to get rid of the wrinkles, the answer, of course, is the workhorse of the laundry room, vinegar.

All you need is one part vinegar, to 3 parts water. That’s it. Keep in mind that the vinegar smell will go away quickly — and vinegar in itself, is a great deodorizer. If you want to make it smell nice, add orange peels, or 20 drops of your favorite essential oil, and you have a perfectly scented wrinkle releaser. (About the orange peels… strain them out after one week.)

When you’re running low, add more water and vinegar to your existing spray — take advantage of the scent you’ve already built in your bottle and use it in your next batch.

Use this concoction the way you would use any commercial wrinkle releaser spray: Spray, tug, and smooth. Shake the bottle each time before use.

Keep a bottle in your closet, as well as by the dryer, and spray away the wrinkles as you need. If using the oils, this is a great way to scent your clothes, and your closet.

For heavy duty wrinkles, you may have to break out your ironing board. If that’s the case, keep a spray bottle of equal parts water and vinegar (and essential oils) to use as a spray starch. The vinegar helps you make sharp creases and crisp lines in fabric.

By the way — this spray makes a great air freshener — and in a pinch can do double duty as a monster sprayer.  It’s amazing — after someone has a bad dream, simply spritz the room, and the monsters are completely gone.

It’s important to know that this is not a sponsored post. I have used  Bac-Out for years to clean the bathroom, and get the odors out of mattresses — and, after so many people asking me about bathroom odors, I just wanted to share how much I love this product. However, after researching enzyme cleaners for this post, I was surprised to find so many people enzymes as a powerful all-surface cleaner — floors, glass, etc. So, today, I put the cleaner to the test. I have a stainless steel sink that is impossible to keep clean. I greeted it today only to find “dried cheese” staring at me… one of the toughest grimes known to my sink. The enzyme cleaners, people say, eliminate the use of elbow grease. Caked-on cheese screams of elbow grease power —  – or a good, long soaking. If enzymes passed this test, I’d start using it for all of my cleaning.

I sprayed the cheese, and the sink with the enzyme cleaner, Bac-Out. Do I wait? Do I dare to just wipe it off right away, just to prove it’s not that powerful? I couldn’t wait. I wiped it right off… and I mean, that caked-on cheese came right off. See photos of my dirty sink, transformed with a few wipes, to a shinny sink.

One dirty sink… with a serving of hardened melted cheese.

Voila! Just a few squirts of enzymes, and one dirty rag later… And, not until I wrote this post, did I ever realize what a cleaning machine I had under my sink!

Hmmm… I just might have to look into those making your own enzyme recipes…

Funny that I pick Super Bowl weekend to post the answer to this long-sought after question. (Yes, people ask me this all the time.) To get your bathroom clean, you have to get it clean. I know you’ve tried that — but it’s not working. You’ve used bleach, ammonia, baking soda and vinegar — and your bathroom still has an “odor.” I know exactly what you’re talking about — I have four boys. The problem is not you, or your lack of thoroughness — it’s with the type of cleaner you’re using. Your goal is to remove odors, rather than mask them, by cleaning the source of the odor. Thankfully, you don’t need a “harsher” chemical. The key is in the enzymes.

Enzymes are a biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning agent that are quite effective at removing odors because they break down the grime causing the odors. Detergents do not do this. Enzymes also work faster on stains than regular chemical cleaners, by breaking down dirt and urine into their basic elements: oxygen, hydrogen and proteins.

Yet, they do this without damaging your surfaces, and pretty much eliminate the scrubbing. So, yes, you can safely clean the walls, ceramic tiles, and all of those surfaces (the ceiling) where the boys “splash.” And because this cleaner is not a harsh detergent, but yet still an aggressive cleaner, it’s perfect for grout and tile surfaces. Enzymes are actually “green cleaners” — but not all products
labeled “green” are enzyme cleaners.

So, you do not need a “harsher” chemical to get rid of those smells — you need an enzyme. Where to find them? You can usually find them in pet stores (for pet odors) but those products usually smell awful — and I’m not sure how well they work. The one I use is Bac-Out, which is usually on the shelves at Kroger (organic section) and Whole Foods. This one has a great citrus scent. I also use this to spray the mattresses the morning after an accident — and it does eliminate that horrible odor.

If you’re ambitious, you can also make your own enzyme cleaner…For that recipe, click here. There are also more tips on how to use this cleaner all around your house — including glass — which I had never thought of before!

Even though the party doesn’t start until 7:30, I like to have everything done before the kids walk into the door from school. Because, after that, I could loose my cool. Cucumbers, onions and tomatoes are already cut, covered and on the porch (it’s cool there) and waiting to be turned into Greek Nachos. (Don’t you just love the thought of cool, crunchy fresh vegetables in winter, smothered on top of something warm?)  The roast is simmering in the crock pot (smothered in Greek spices like mint, cinnamon), the yogurt is drained for the Tzatziki Sauce.

The cheese is cut on the board, with chalk labels on brown craft paper. The board is covered on the porch with the veggies.

I’m sipping this big chai latte that I made for myself…

trees are not done — but my friend suggested a dowel stuck in STYROFOAM! ( How genius is that?) … but I’m making these wreaths for the back kitchen windows. Honestly, they are not turning out. But with a sprig of fresh garlands, it should be fine.

I’m covering the tables in white and brown craft paper and the platters are sitting dining room table. All I have left to make are the onion crostinis.

‘Tis the season, right? So, that’s how we  ended up hosting a Christmas party this Friday night. Decided on Tuesday… this Friday. Crazy and twisted. But, tis the season. We’re at this awkward stage when we still have little ones who expect all this fancy Christmas tradition stuff — but not too young to prevent me from doing extra stuff.

Did you know I was in a Bunco group? I am. And this year’s Christmas party was an orphan — it had no parents. And this Friday night is the big night in the mallway with the Ice Sculptures, the Carriage Rides…it’s all very Charles Dickensy. And normally, we head into another friend’s house for dinner, after the host “forces” us out of her house into the cold streets to see the ice sculptures, and reindeer, (they are caged) and Santa. But this year, our friend is in Napa. So, no warm dinner to warm up to after seeing the ice.

So, I invited just a couple of friends over for “after” the ice. Then one friend said, “should I just invite the whole Bunco group?” Because that would mean, with husbands, and double the number. “Oh no!” I said, as I looked around my backpack strewn kitchen, with half-opened tubs full of Christmas decorations, sticky floor and counters.

Then, she offered help –as in, I don’t have to do all the food prep — because, you know — it’s last minute and everything. So, I got busy on Pinterest and created a party board, (would you expect anything less?!)  and started collecting recipes, and centerpiece ideas.

I told my friend, “OK… I can handle the apps (that’s short for appetizers) but I can’t do cookies this quick. Because Christmas cookies take extra fuss. So, the invitation goes out — bring cookies — or wine. We won’t know the difference.

Then, I called my other girlfriend, and broke the news — “you guys are coming here Friday night.” She laughed, and said, “I was going to offer to host it.. but I’m two months away from that.” (She just moved.)

“That’s OK. You can do Valentine’s Day.  But anyway, I think I’m ready, because I have the wreath on the door and everything… but I just wish I could figure out how to make those confetti-looking trees that came out on Anthropologie today….”

I was kidding, you know. But it would be nice.

She said, “Hmmmmmm. Sounds interesting. What day are we making those?”

My girlfriend was serious. And she is VERY crafty. I realized I had a bite. I LOVE friends like here. She fills me up!  ”Well, the base is hard to figure out — not sure how to make it work.” She asked me to send her the link.

So, in addition to cookies, and just make have some adorable trees by Friday.

I’m already wearing a scarf around my neck most days…some days, the chill is so heavy I am wearing an extra camisole beneath my t-shirt and cardigan sweater.

Fall is here, and the air is chilly. On good days, there may be a good solid 3.5 hours of heat, before that nippy Jack Frost chill creeps in and sweeps away the heat of the day. And even on those days, the heat is never enough to penetrate through the brick walls of our house.

My sweater, my camisole, and the cotton socks constantly on my feet are my personal “green” contribution to our home energy bill.

But there are more things we can do to keep our global footprint minimal. Last summer, we signed up for a free energy audit through our electric company. They provided us with free energy efficient light bulbs, showed us where we should insulate the attic, talked to us about insulating our basement windows and our hot water tank.

They were all little projects, and required very little investment. And yes, the little things, every second of every day, add up to big savings in the end. How much? There’s a calculation on Green Living that shows that energy efficient light bulbs can save you about $11 per month, or about 11% of your electric bill, if you pay about $100 per month.

Another thing we learned about was door sweeps. They are little wipers on the bottom of your exterior doors, that sort of “sweep” the floor when you open and close the door. The flap keeps the cold air out and the warm air in. We have door sweeps on all of our exterior doors, but they are getting thin, and a few spots on them are even torn. Boy, oh boy. Boys are hard on a house.

While windows attract most of the attention when it comes to home energy efficiency, doors can play a major part in keeping the house warm. You can weatherstrip the top and sides of the door, the toughest area to address is the threshold. Some replacement thresholds are complicated to install. They may require removing the door or even cutting off the bottom of the door. Others are easier to install but don’t last long in extreme environmental conditions.

Instead of ripping out the entire old threshold and replacing it with something new, we are installing door sweeps; they attach to the bottom of a door and can be adjusted to lightly graze the existing threshold as the door closes.

Door sweeps attach to the inside of the door near the bottom edge–the door does not have to be removed–and consist of a brush or pad that contacts the edge of the threshold as the door shuts. There are lots of little things you can do to keep your house warm this winter. Check out the latest Eco-friendly products at The Home Depot to learn more.

Want more tips on how to become eco-conscious? Visit the Prizes & Promotions Section on BlogHer!

Look closely.

This is an Indian Corn Husk Wreath. The corn husk are precisely what gives this wreath its flair. The corn husks are all wildly spread out around the symmetrical circle that the corn cobs create. If you attempt to make this wreath, don’t overlook the vital importance of the husks — and be sure to open them up and spread them out.

Let me be honest right now. I’m wondering if you are laughing at this wreath…or perhspa, you are disgusted, and wondering… what has gotten into her… that she would think that looks amazing…I think it looks amazing… but maybe it’s one of those things like when you hold your newborn seconds after birth, and you are convinced that this is the most beautiful thing in the world… because it is.

Yes, the inspiration for this wreath came from none other than Pinterest. I could not wait to make this. Pinterest has freed me from spending time and money searching for a fabulous wreath to adorn my door. It was tough to find a wreath that was not too frilly, and not too expensive. Pinterest has freed me from department store wreath shopping.

To make this wreath, use miniature Indian Corn. The Corn is heavy, and you will need a very firm wreath base to start with. We started with a simple cardboard base (my youngest proudly traced the circle and cut it from a cereal box), but it was woefully too weak to support the corn.

Not wanting to hurt his feelings for his contribution to the wreath, I took some wire coat hangers, 3, and unwound them, to create a circle that we wrapped, with twine to the cardboard base. A grapevine wreath would have been ideal, but in the interest of being creative and using what I have around the house — don’t buy something you don’t really need.

Next, I wrapped the cardboard base in burlap.

The second step? Be sure to treat your corn cobs with a dusting of  Diatomaceous Earth. The corn cobs are covered with nasty little bugs… and will attract them in your home.

Diatomaceous Earth is a simple powder that is safe for humans, yet deadly to insects. You can leave the powder on… I suggest you do… as all you need is a dusting, and it will keep your wreath from attracting fruit flies and everything else.

Start gluing with your glue gun.

Spread out the husks…

And be thankful. And, if appropriate, send me a gentle private email to let me know if this is hideous or not. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It’s true. Surprisingly, decades of studies by National Institute’s of Health have revealed that the tiny insects, fruit flies, which, thankfully, bear little resemblance to people, share, alarmingly, much of our genetic heritage.  The list of human-related topics fruit fly researchers are currently working on is surprisingly broad in scope: cancer; birth defects; development of the respiratory and circulatory systems; cardiovascular development and disease; taste, sight, smell and hearing; learning and memory; brain disease; sleep; drug abuse; aging; and diabetes.

Fruit Flies are multiplying like crazy this year. Once I get rid of them in the house, they come home with me every single time I come home from the grocery store with a bundle of bananas, grapes or apples.

The grocery store is full of them, and I even see them in restaurants. I cringe when the waiter leaves the bottle of wine sitting open on the table. I just know those fruit flies, those tiny red-eyed animals — known to scientists as the species Drosophila melanogaster, are heading for my wine.

This fall, I’ve also noticed quite an increase in the number of google searchers looking for rememdies. The search string people type in makes me laugh:

How to catch fruit flies with honey?

I guess it goes from the adage that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar? Perhaps. Actually, honey can play a dominate role in catching the fruit fly. You can trap the fly into your empty wine or beer bottle, and dab some honey around the top rim of the bottle to “catch” the fruit flies as they try to crawl out. That’s a yummy proposition. I’m ruthless when it comes to fruit flies, because, after all, researchers now know that flies don’t even have hearts.

What do fruit flies do when I’m sleeping?

Really? This is what concerns you? Maybe, this person was merely driven to madness trying to get rid of hte fruit fly… because they are so tenacious, and figuring out what they do at night, could give the searcher some insight. Interestingly,  Joan Hendricks, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has turned to Drosophila to study sleep. Information that has demonstrated a nearly identical set of working parts in higher organisms such as mice and people, by studying the circadian rhythm of flies. Hmmmmm.

Why are Fruit Flies attracted to Mirrors?

Good question. Because, they are always on my bathroom mirrors. Maybe they’re vain? But take advantage of this — put some poison, the Diatomaceous Earth on the mirrors, as you’ll know that’s where they’ll be walking. All you need is a thin film… a bit messy, but oh so effective.

Can an Exterminator Get Rid of Fruit Flies?

Interesting. I think you would have much better luck with a good plumber, to clean your drains, and heading to your hardware store for some  Diatomaceous Earth.

 The Scoop: How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

• The ultimate fruit fly trap is still, a dark beer or wine bottle, with a bit of fruit, or vinegar inside as bait. Forget about covering the top with saran wrap, and sticking pin holes in them. The fruit flies will crawl right out. Instead, cover the top of the bottle with a sprinkling of Diatomaceous Earth. You could do the saran wrap thing with pin holes, just be sure to give the saran wrap a sprinkling of the DE.
• Clean your drains with baking soda and vinegar.
• Wipe a thin film of Diatomaceous Earth on your mirrors.
• Diatomaceous Earth is harmless to humans. Feel free to sprinkle some of the powder on the bannans you bring home from the store that are sitting in your fruit basket.
• Repeat every time you go to the grocery store.

The rats and mice used in research may be waning, as scientific labs are increasing the number of fruit flies used in research. Perhaps, those of use plagued with fruit flies could open our kitchen up to scientific labs who could have a field day working with the flies we have. Are we expecting a “fruit fly” activist group to stand up to protect their interest?

This is part II of the reorganization. It’s a  process. I wanted to stop and share this clever way I came up with to store sugar, baking soda, and all of those powder things you need to have quick access to around the kitchen.

Rather than a sugar bowl, why not have a sugar “jar.”  A recycled wine/pop bottle, and a cap, and a simple label with a permanent marker. (I can’t find the awesome chalkboard Chalkboard Contact Paper
I’ve been seeing on Pinterest… wouldn’t that make an awesome label?)

Seems simple, but can I say how nice it is to be able to pour sugar into my tea cup, without having to dip a spoon into the whole canister?  And who can ever get their measuring spoon into the baking soda and have it come out without that gap in the corner where the baking soda falls out, because of gravity?

Ahhhh…. using these bottles is making my life so much easier.