It's trash night tonight. Better yet, it's recycle night! We are big fans of recycling but we have a problem - the big ugly blue bin that sits in the kitchen. It's not the bin itself that is ugly, it just doesn't look good, and we have a pretty small kitchen, so there isn't a good place to put it.
I'm in luck! I recently learned about Rubbermaid's new Hidden Recycler. It's a recycle bin that I can put under the kitchen counter!
It's got a lot of fantastic features. You can check them out on the Rubbermaid website, or you can watch them in my video.
I mention "screws" in my video - there are none - I failed to read the directions first - it's super super easy to use. In fact, I've entered several giveaways to try to win a second one to use for my trash container.
You can win it right now! Enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway entrants must be 18 years of age or older and residents of the US. I have received a product free of charge for the purpose of review.
Do you love books? Do you ever find a book that you just HAVE to get for some reason or another?
The Peaceful Housewife: Natural Household Cleaners is one of those books! It's an excellent value at only $3! In this e-book, Jenny Deramo shares 30 recipes for do it yourself, natural cleaners for the household. She lists everything from diaper pail freshener to brass cleaner, laundry detergent to carpet cleaner.
If you know much about you, you know that I like to try and live um.. frugally. This is in part because I am very conscious about our finances, and partly because we have a fairly low income. We have to watch our pennies - one GREAT way to make our money stretch is making our own cleaning products. Jenny's laundry powder is slightly different than my own - it is simpler than what I generally use.
A majority of the "recipes" in The Peaceful Housewife: Natural Household Cleaners are filled with ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboards at home. These are simple, time tested recipes that somehow we have forgotten about. I highly recommend that you check out Jenny's blog and her book!
Jenny has offered a free copy of her e-book to 2 of my readers! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter.
I know, I know. It's silly, bubbles are NOT a sign that my dishes (or anything else) are getting clean. But the truth is, when I was dishes, I like to see bubbles. I BELIEVE my dishes are getting cleaner when I see the "evidence" of bubbles that stick around for a little while.
Green
I like products that are green. Not so much the color green, but free from added strange chemicals that may or may not harm my family as they are exposed to them over days, weeks, years, etc. I like the color green too. Mostly, I like learning ways to help keep our beautiful world healthy as my children (and hopefully someday grandchildren) are growing up. I also want my kids to live with the expectation that they will do what they can to protect their world and continue to make it a safer place.
Smells
I don't like products that stink. Who does? I'm very particular about the smells that I bring into my house. I don't tend to be big on flowery smells - but I'm not entirely opposed to them either. I do like sweet smells, and natural smells. I'm a very sensory person - the way things smell is definitely important to me.
Function
Why bring a product into my home that has no function, or does not function well? The truth is - we do plenty of that.. silly kid's meal trinkets, stickers, flyers... I'm working on getting rid of those things that have no function or don't function well. These things make clutter in my house and life and I don't like it. Products that work well are important to me, there is no reason to spend my money on things that are going to last for short amounts of time, or not work in the way I expect!
DISH LIQUID
Right, that's what I told you in my title that I was going to post about. Dish liquid. What do "Bubbles, Green, Smells, and Function" have to do with dish washing liquid?
Tropical Traditions (trusted retailer of so many amazing green household products) has a fantastic dish liquid that meets all of these categories. Now.. it says on the bottle that it's "low sudsing". I find that although it is low sudsing, the bubbles last for the entire time I am washing dishes.
I've also discovered that it works better on my dishes than some of the high priced, name brand dish soaps that you can find on your grocery shelves. I add just a teaspoon of soap to my water as I run it and have enough bubbles to wash a whole meal's worth of dishes.
The smell is light, much like many of my children's bubbles (I don't think I'd use these to make bubbles for my children though - I like them too much for my dishes.. my children can use the grocery store stuff).
Information from the Tropical Traditions Website:
Household Traditions Dish Liquid is free of:
Fragrances
Dyes
Petroleum Solvents
Respiratory and Skin irritants
Household Traditions Dish Liquid is an effective and concentrated dish soap developed by and for people with allergies, asthma and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.* Household Traditions Dish Liquid is a coconut-based product—it contains nature’s versatile, renewable harvest. With coconut’s natural moisturizing qualities, washing dishes is even soothing to your hands. Household Traditions Dish Liquid is safe for you but tough on dirty, greasy dishes. It breaks down safely and rapidly making it safer for the environment. It is also low sudsing, making it ideal for camping or other outdoor uses. Household Traditions Dish Liquid is free of fragrances, phosphates, petroleum solvents, chlorine, dyes and other common triggers for respiratory or skin irritations.
Ingredients: Deionized water, coconut and sugar-based cleansing and sudsing agents, plant-based surfactants, emulsifiers.
Tropical Traditions Dish Liquid is top of the line. It is also on SALE right now! Check out their current prices!
This stuff lasts a long time and is well worth the cost of buying it right away.
Tropical Traditions has offered to send one of my readers a bottle of dish liquid to try for themselves!
The first thing you need to know is that I am not currently nursing. However, I hope that eventually, when we have another baby, I will be nursing again.
I had the opportunity to test GladRags Organic Cotton Nursing Pads. A challenge? Not really. I wore the pads for a day to see how they felt. They were soft, they stayed discreet, I forgot I was wearing them. GladRags Nursing Pads are a unique shape that helps keep them hidden. They form much better to fit your shape than the traditional circle shaped pad. They are washable, therefore reusable. I like products that help me live a greener life. When I am getting ready to nurse again, I will want a stash of these for sure.
The top side of the pad after 6 ml of water
I wanted to test the absorbency of these pads, so I decided to do a little science experiment. I got out a 1 ml dropper and slowly emptied it onto one of the nursing pads. The pad was sitting on a cloth napkin, so I could clearly see how much liquid it took before the pad started to leak. It took 6 ml of water! I can't imagine leaking that much milk without leaking through a disposable pad.
The underside of the pad after 6ml of water - it has just started to seep through.
GladRags offers a variety of great green products for the women in your family.
BUY IT: GladRags has a number of great products on their website. Nursing Pads are $12.99 a pair!
WIN IT: One reader will win a pair of GladRags Organic Cotton Nursing Pads. Contest open to US residents.
HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:
Leave a comment for each entry including your email address. If I cannot reach the winner within 48 hours of the contest close, I will be forced to draw a new winner. This contest will close on March 31 at noon EST. Winner will be selected at random from all of the entries using random.org.
1) Visit GladRags and tell me which product you most want to try.
2) Subscribe to my email newsfeed, this will keep you up to date on new contests, giveaways, and articles. To subscribe, enter your email address in the form at the top right column of my blog.
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4) "Like" Crum's This N That on Facebook or "Follow" me on Twitter.
5) "Like" GladRags on Facebook, thank them for the giveaway on Crum's This N That.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.
Friends, I recently learned about cradlejoy.com, it is a fantastic online store that features great products for green, natural living! They focus on products for mama and baby and have a wide variety of products from skin care, to diapers, to vitamins, and more. This is a GREAT shop for all moms to go to for baby needs. I would love to have some of their featured products for my next baby! Take a look at a few of these great products:
Oh so sweet baby set!
Mambino Organics
We chose to get a Thirsties Duo Diaper Wrap and some Fuzzibunz inserts:
Blackbird is one of my favorite prints right now!
I LOVED the service I received from Cradlejoy.com! When I had a question about the products or the gift codes, there was someone right there waiting to answer me. Yep, They've got help waiting to talk with you on live chat! How great is that?
There's even more - They run specials all the time! Click HERE to see the current specials at Cradlejoy.
The products that I ordered came quickly and were in excellent condition. I even got a few samples of other products to try, what a great surprise! There was a small mix-up with paperwork, but that in no way effected my order, and I have been assured that they have fixed the problem.
I will definitely choose to shop Cradlejoy again!
Now, for the promised discount code... Be aware this has a limited use - it can only be used by 50 of my readers. For 15% off of your Cradlejoy order, enter the code CRUMREADER at checkout. Please come back here and let me know what you ordered. I would love to hear that you have had the same wonderful shopping experience that I had.
Disclaimer: I was provided a gift code in exchange for promoting Cradlejoy. All opinions are my own. This in no way effects my opinions of the Cradlejoy shopping services.
