I have just been reading an article that made a request for readers to offer a solution to the problem that often occurs after cleaning the oven - how to get rid of the taste of the chemicals that is often transferred to food the first couple of times the oven is used after cleaning.  This appears to be a problem no matter how well the oven has been rinsed out.

So, I am sharing the reply I posted with you. The answer is DON’T use chemical cleaners!! There really is no need to use anything but store cupboard based products to clean your home. For the oven all you need to do is:

For spills: Let the oven cool and then sprinkle salt on the spill. Wipe over after about 10 minutes.

To scour: Let oven cool. Sprinkle baking powder over the area to be cleaned and rub vigerously with half a lemon. Rinse off with a wet cloth.

To clean without scouring: Let oven cool. Sprinkle baking soda liberally over the area to be cleaned. Dampen by spraying water over the baking soda. Leave for an hour, dampen down again, for best results I leave this on overnight, but a couple of hours will do. Rinse off with warm water.

If you would like more green cleaning solutions then contact me, helen@itsecotime.com. Or, if you have recipes/tips etc that you’d like to share then leave a comment.

I have been reading a lot of posts recently about how much energy is wasted because we allow our electronic appliances to stay in “standby” mode instead of switching them off. Although TV screens and computer monitors are blank the appliances still consume significant amounts of energy unless they are turned off at the socket.  Obviously this was of concern to me because although we try to be as energy efficient as possible, we do, like many other modern families have a significant amount of electronic equipment in our home and I wondered how much this inefficiency was costing us. So you can imagine how delighted I was to find a product that solves this problem. It’s an energy saving power strip. Autoswitching technology in these power strips turns off all peripheral devices as the PC goes to sleep mode or the TV is turned off, then automatically turns everything back on as the computer is activated or the TV turned on. We are installing them in the home office, media room and in our children’s rooms. If you’d like more information on these then look them up on www.itsecotime.com or contact me helen@itsecotime.com

We have just returned from another dinner party that, in my opinion, was spoiled by the excessive heat in the hosts house. On the drive home I was complaining about this and it struck me how often this happens and how much energy and money is wasted. When we invite guests for the evening or have people staying over the holidays we very often don’t adjust the central heating, yet we have spent hours cooking which produces additional heat, we may light fires for ambience, more heat! and then the fact there are additional people in confined spaces adds to the increased temperature of the house. Think about how often this happens. Then think of what happens when someone does decide that it’s very warm, we open a door or window!!!
I have decided to be pro active and adjust my heating the next time I am expecting guests and hope to make everyone more comfortable by doing so. In our home in Arizona we have installed programmable thermostats which allow us to controll the temperature to suit our needs at different times of the day and actually on different days of the week as well. This has actually saved us 20% - 30% on our energy bills over the last year. You can see more information on these thermostats if you visit www.itsecotime.com

In just a couple of days Peter and I leave the lovely warmth of Arizona to join our family and friends in the UK for Christmas and the New Year celebrations. As you kow from our web-site Peter and I promise NOT to obsess about “your carbon footpint” but look to focusing on what we can do on a day to day basis to lead a green, healthy, cost effective lifestyle so it was with huge interest I have been following the “100 mile meal” idea. I think it’s fantastic and so I decided to adopt this for all my holiday meals in the UK. However, given the size of the UK, I decided to reduce the 100 mile radius!! I started by looking at my menu for Christmas and at first thought I could get it down to 25 miles. Then the fish proved a problem! While the coast where they are actually caught is probably less than 25 miles from our home, the fishmonger from whom I would buy these fish is 35 miles from the coast. So I got confused and decided I could do it in 50 miles (we”ll see how this works!!) This should be possible for our Scottish New Year as well. The only product we will have to avoid is flour, in neither location would flour be processed within 50 miles, so we will have to look for alternatives, I’ll let you know how this works!!
We’ve dealt with the food but what about the booze!! It’s limited in our Newcastle home,if we follow this plan, Newcastle Brown Ale is produced locally but it’s not the sort of drink you serve up for Christmas cocktails. unless you can count lemon chello brewed at home with lemons from Spain? We have no locally produced wine. Now this is NOT a problem when we go to Scotland for the New Year Celebrations. We are right on the Whiskey Trail and so we can make hot toddies, Egg Nogg or just drink it neat!! All well within the guidlines of the project. I’ll let you know how this goes. Have a Very Happy Christmas and a safe healthy New Year.

With Thanksgiving this week and the Christmas holidays approaching fast remember that all those food scraps, veggie peelings etc can be turned into rich compost. Studies have shown that home composting significantly reduces the amount of waste that becomes landfill each year.

There are 3 components necessary for successful composting:
Aeration - this means turning the compost regularly. Most composting bins make this process very simple process.
Moisture - Ideally the compost should be just slightly damp, too much moisture will hinder the aeration process and also cause the compost to smell.
Carbon/Nitrogen Ratio - Carbon is generally referred to as “brown” material and Nitrogen as “green” material. Ideally you should aim for a ratio of 30 parts brown:1 part green.

Examples of Green waste: grass cuttings, tea bags, leaves, fruit and vegetables, bread, cooked pasta and rice.
Examples of Brown waste: egg shells, dry leaves, newspaper (shredded), coffee filters, brown paper bags (shredded), cardboard.

Unsuitable Materials: Bones, cheese or other dairy products, fish, meat, rhubarb leaves, fats (oil, grease etc), treated paper.

Although you can simply create a composting pile in your yard, this could attract rodents so purchasing a closed composting bin is probably the best option and there are plenty of different ones on the market.

With food waste and yard clippings making up 30% of the waste in the US composting can make a significant impact on the environment.

In the past, the high cost of installing solar power was prohibitive to many of us, however, there are now leasing programs which make this a much more affordable option. You simply pay a monthly lease payment that, combined with the reduced utility bill, results in an overall cost that is less than the prior monthly utility bill. This is an exciting development and while I know that it is not yet available in every state I’m sure it will be a market which developes quickly in these economically challenging times. If you’d like more detailed information on how the leasing structure operates and some examples of the type of savings you can expect then see the article that Peter has written on this subject. Go to http://itsecotime.com/is-solar-power-coming-of-age or visit www.itsecotime.com and click on the article link.

Yesterday I wrote offering to do some research for you. I don’t know if anyone tried to contact us via the link I posted but you certainly wouldn’t reach us if you did! If you’d like us to research the most energy efficient products for you then just go to http://itsecotime.com/contact-us. Again, apologies for the error, I don’t know whether these blips are caused by being blond or 50+ probably a combination of both. Be assured there are some reliable, sane people at Its Eco Time.
Helen

If your kids have requested electronic games for christmas or if you are updating or replacing appliances around the home, remember it’s NOT enough to check the best prices!! You NEED to check for the most energy efficient products too. These will reduce your ongoing utility bills. Energy star products use between 10% and 50% less energy than standard options, this makes them the perfect green choice.

Remember also that home electronic products use energy even when they are “off”, to power features such as clocks and remote controls. Products that carry the Energy Star use less energy to perform these functions while giveing the same performance.

When shopping on-line, or if the store you are shopping in does not display the energy star rating, then you can carry out your own research at : www.energystar.gov. You search under category for the brand you are interested in and you can see it’s rating and also compare it to other models and brands.

Want to go green but haven’t the time to do the research? We can help you with this. If you go to contactus@itsecotime.com and enter as many details as possible as to what you want to purchase then we will do the research and email the findings to you. We can also provide you with the names of the stores that stock that brand and model.

Advertising Companies spend billions of $ trying to convince us that bottled water comes from naturally occurring sources. The truth is that bottled water is very often tap water in a bottle!

Here are three major points to consider when making your choice:

• There are no government standards that require bottled water to be purer or safer than tap water.

• We have to recycle the plastic bottles at enormous expense

• Bottled water is more expensive than tap water

Quality home water treatment options are a far more economical and convenient method of providing truly healthy water for all your family needs.

Get your water report from www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo.htm

Worried about your water then visit www.watercheck.com

In these economically challenging times we should be looking at ways to reduce the need to recycle. 

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to reduce the need to use dwindling natural resources.

The Question is:  Is recycling as economically efficient and environmentally friendly as we are led to believe?Do we know what ultimately happens to recycled material? Does it end up being used as landfill rather than being reprocessed? How costly is the sorting of the recycled material? 

So why not become even more efficient and reduce your need to recycle

Here are some ideas to consider:Buying rechargeable batteries is more environmentally friendly than recycling traditional batteries, which, because of their toxicity, make recycling costs extremely high.Using home water filtration systems to produce safe water for your household requirements removes the need to recycle plastic bottles from bottled water. Food, garden waste and newspapers can all be composted to reduce the cost of recycling. The key is: Just because the packaging/container can be recycled this doesn’t make it the greenest option!