about the house

Filed Under Going Green, Stuff | November 27, 2009

You know you’ve reached a certain age or stage in your life when the thought of great kitchen gadgets is almost as exciting as the thought of a new pair of shoes. Apparently we’re well entrenched in that stage. So here are a few, handy, eco-friendly household items we’ve discovered of late:

Abeego Flats: Just like Abeego’s snack and food wraps their flats are made of hemp/cotton fabric infused with a blend of beeswax and plant extracts. They come in sets of three (six-, nine- and 12-inch squares) and the waxy coating makes it easy to secure them across the tops of bowls and containers. They need to be cold water washed, which we forgot once, but they survived their immersion. We like how they leave a lingering beeswax scent on your hands and we’re looking forward to spending way less on plastic wrap and tin foil.

Buncha Farmers All Natural Stain Remover: Did you know that conventional stain removers can contain benzene, toluene and xylene, which are neurotoxins? And also formaldehyde and chlorine? Yet every mama needs a stain fighter in her arsenal – how else can you beat blueberry and banana stains? This Canadian-made, biodegradable stain remover stick is free from artificial dyes and perfumes and it smells great, but most importantly it works. Buncha Farmers recommend that you wet the stick and rub it on the stain, but our tester grated it very fine, shook it up in a spray bottle with water and used it like a spray, be sure to shake it really well though, to avoid clogging the sprayer.

Recyclable Plastic Vases: We added these to the mix because they’re fun. They’re flat plastic vases in vibrant prints but when you fill them with water they stand up and can be used repeatedly and then recycled. They’re handy for taking flowers to a new mum or as a little teacher or hostess gift over the holidays. You can always up the gift ante by adding a bunch of flowers.

All these products use a titch more of your elbow grease than their conventional alternatives, but only a titch, and isn’t a little bit of eco-elbow grease worth it?