Broccoli Cupcake » Go Green

Green Your Car Wash

broccolicupcake — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:21:14 +0000

Have you guys seen all the pins on Pinterest with ideas for fun summer activities? I think washing the car made it onto almost every list. So what did we do on Friday to take advantage of the beautiful weather? We washed the car. The good news is I have some great tips on making your at home car wash a little more eco-friendly. The really good news is that our car washing experience was a comedy of errors so while you’re picking up green car washing tips I think you’ll also pick up a few laughs.

Step 1 of the green car wash is to completely empty out your car. If you find things you forgot you had, consider putting them in the donate pile. Make a separate pile for recyclables like empty water bottles and a third pile for trash.

Next pull out all the carpets, shake them off and sprinkle them with baking soda. We let it sit while we worked on the rest of the car so the baking soda could do it’s thing and absorb any unwanted odors.

With the car completely emptied out, it’s time to vacuum. I hooked the shop vac up to an extension car and got to work. As I was vacuuming I kept noticing a really rotten smell. It was garbage day in our neighborhood so at first I thought it was all the trash cans out on our street. Then I wondered if it was something that had spilled in the car. But the odor was traveling with me as moved. That’s when I realized it seemed to be coming from the shop vac. The smell was getting bad so when I finished vacuuming out the car I asked my husband to come check it out. I’m so glad I didn’t look myself! Apparently, our shop vac is the best mouse trap in the world. According to my husband, it captured an entire family of mice that got in, but couldn’t get back out. I won’t go into any more detail (and I’ll spare you a photo) but I’ve never been so grossed out in my life!

Once we recovered from the mouse situation we were ready to start cleaning and DISINFECTING the interior of the car. We went with our stand by, a spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water. Our seats are leather and this seemed to work really well. We did a little spot test first to be sure. If you’re seats are cloth, sprinkling them with baking soda and vacuuming is another good option. For the dusty dashboard I used a dry microfiber cloth. It was a great tool for getting in the vents and around all the details of the dash and it was a good job for our 4 year old.

Our next target was the interior carpeting. It had multiple stains including a recent smoothie spill that hadn’t been cleaned very well. We mixed up a batch of one part kosher salt, one part water to make a paste to help scrub out the stains.

Here’s a before pic of one of the stains. We scrubbed it with an old hairbrush after letting the salt paste sit for awhile.

Here’s the after photo. The stain isn’t completely gone, but it’s much better!

The final step was washing the outside of the car. We chose pure castille soap to give our van a green clean. Here are a few other tips for making the washing part a little more eco-friendly. If your husband and your neighbors can stand it, park the car in the grass (just for the car wash). The water will filter into the grass, which reduces waste and actually helps filter the water. Another tip is to prepare two buckets. One for soapy water and one for rinse water.

Here’s my little guy manning the rinse bucket. He was in charge of the clean sponges we used to rinse the car and followed after his big brother and I who were using the soapy water and a sponge to give the outside of the van a good wash. Using the two bucket system saves water because you aren’t running the hose the entire time. You really only need it to fill the buckets and give the car a quick rinse to start so you aren’t rubbing around chunks of rock or dirt when you wash, which could scratch it. You can empty and refill the buckets as needed. One suggestion, supervise the kids if you let them man the soap bucket. My oldest son poured the soap all by himself and I learned that you really only need a capful. He used about a cup full and we had a really hard time rinsing all the soap off. The hot sun was drying the soap onto the car faster than we could rinse it. It was quite a scene as I worked to chase down the soap streaks with a clean sponge and eventually the hose (I know that defeats the original idea of the two bucket system) before the sun could bake them onto the car.

The final step is vacuuming the rugs that you sprinkled with baking soda at the start of your car wash. I don’t have a photo because I had to go to the local car wash and pay $3 to use their vacuum. I wasn’t getting near the shop vac once I knew what had been in it!

So, that’s it. Our green car wash was a bit stressful with the mice infested shop vac and the soap that wouldn’t rinse. It didn’t leave as much time for water fights as we had hoped. But the car is clean and we still have the whole summer ahead of us to test the fun factor on all of the Pinterest activity lists.

Is a car wash on your summer bucket list? What activity are you most looking forward to over summer break?

How to Kill Weeds Naturally

broccolicupcake — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:58:18 +0000

I have to start with a confession. We used to be those people who got our yards sprayed. What they sprayed it with, I honestly don’t know and I didn’t want to find out. It was something my husband insisted on after 2 years of trying to grow grass in Tennessee and finally investing in sod. He didn’t want the weeds to take over and our money to be wasted. I know the man on the spray truck used to tell me it was safe for our dogs and our kids as long as we waited for it to dry, but that never really made me feel better.

Over the last few years, we went from getting our lawn sprayed, to only getting it fertilized with a natural fertilizer, to not doing anything at all (except on our own.) We finally realized that the lush, perfectly manicured suburban lawn wasn’t worth the risk. And in one short season, the Tennessee heat turned our back yard into a full blown weed field. When the grass is cut you honestly can’t tell, it just looks green, and it’s soft enough for the kids to run around barefoot. So no big deal, until this spring. We have a new weed. It’s wide, it grows tall, it spreads like crazy and it’s covered in incredibly sharp prickers. Everyone one of us has ended up soaking a foot or hand in an Epsom salt bath trying to work one or three out from under our skin. In the interest of a fun, barefoot summer, I had to find a way to rid our back yard of this weed. But the question was how? I still didn’t want to introduce chemicals into the yard. I did a little research and decided to try two natural weed killers, boiling water and one of my favorite household tools, white vinegar.

Below are the results of my experiment.

Vinegar as a Natural Weed Killer:

Slightly discolored edges 24 hours after vinegar treatment.

I’ve heard the easiest way to tackle a bunch of weeds with white vinegar is to put in one of those pump bottles with a spray hose attached. I didn’t have one handy so I just carried several jugs of white vinegar into the backyard and started pouring it directly onto the weeds. I’d say I hit each one with anywhere from 1/4 cup to a full cup depending on it’s size. There was no immediate change in the weeds but the next day the edges started to turn brown and black. Over the course of 3-5 days several of the weeds I treated with white vinegar began to shrivel up and after about 10 days many of them were gone, but not all of them. Some of the bigger weeds, or those that didn’t get doused with as much vinegar, seemed to make a come back and required a second vinegar treatment. Next, I tested the vinegar on some less hardy and less aggressive weeds and it worked much better. They seemed to shrivel up right away and by the next morning they were brown and easy to pull out of the ground. My final theory is that white vinegar works best as a natural weed killer for smaller weeds or those growing in flower beds or sidewalk cracks. It takes a lot of white vinegar to tackle bigger weeds with deep roots and often requires several treatments before they’re totally gone.

Boiling Water as a Natural Weed Killer:

Almost totally brown 24 hours after boiling water treatment.

This seemed to be the most effective natural method for the giant weeds covered in prickers. The minute the boiling water hit them they started to shrink and wilt and within 5-10 minutes they started turning black around the edges. It was easy to keep track of which weeds I’d already treated because there was a noticeable difference in them. By the next morning, all of the weeds treated with boiling water were completely shriveled up and brown. Within in 3-5 days they were totally brown and crispy and there were no more prickers to worry about. Within 10 days they had completely disappeared. None of them needed a second treatment. The only negative is that the boiling water killed the grass around the weed and left small brown spots around the yard. But after a week or two those started to fill back in. Boiling water also worked well on smaller weeds in the flower beds and cracks in the sidewalk. I could usually pull the weeds treated with boiling water after letting them sit for about 10-15 minutes. Just be sure not to treat anything to close to a plant you love.

My conclusion – boiling water works faster and gives better overall results as a natural weed killer. I used a tea kettle to boil the water and carry it to the backyard so the biggest negative is that it was time consuming. The vinegar worked, but not as consistently or as quickly and it took a lot of vinegar to get the job done.

How do you kill weeds naturally?

SoapBerries: Natural Cleaning Products That Works

broccolicupcake — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:00:28 +0000

After your enthusiasm for the tips on naturally cleaning your bathroom with vinegar, baking soda and lemon I think you guys are gonna LOVE this post! I’ll start with a confession. I was super skeptical when I was asked to try soapberries. Haven’t heard of them? Neither had I. But I’m so glad I know about them now.

What is a Soapberry?

Soapberries are actual berries that contain saponin, which is a natural surfactant, the active ingredient in soaps that separate the dirt, oils and such from your clothes. Thanks to saponin, these natural little berries are capable of cleaning your dishes, your laundry, your windows and much more without a single chemical. And I’m about to show you the proof.

My Tests:

I decided to put my bag of soapberries to the test in 3 ways. First I dropped 2 soapberries into a spray bottle and mixed them with 8 oz of warm water to make a general cleaning solution. I shook the bottle up a little and used the natural solution to tackle an embarrassingly dirty built in bench in my kitchen. This bench is probably the most used piece of furniture in our home. It sits around our kitchen table where we do school every day, where we eat, where we play cards, where we color, you get the idea. And my sweet little boys love to stand on it, rather than sit, so it is covered in dirty little foot prints, hand prints, and yes, some food. After preparing the mix, all I did was spray it directly onto the bench and wipe it down. I think it’s clear from the photo below where I tried the soapberry solution and how it worked. It cut right through the dirt. After taking this photo, I went back and cleaned the whole bench, which now looks fabulous.

Next, I mixed up a second solution to tackle the dirt and streaks on my windows and mirrors. I dropped 2 soapberries into a clean spray bottle, mixed in 8 oz of warm water and 1 3/4 tablespoons of white vinegar. Below are the before and after photos from my back door, which the kids open with their hands as they run in and out from the backyard.

BEFORE

AFTER

My final test was a load of laundry. I wasn’t taking it easy on the remaining soapberries. I needed to wash two large blankets from our recent beach trip, both of which had been sitting in the laundry room under wet towels for two weeks! They smelled like a musty mix of seashells and sunscreen. I dropped the remaining 5 soapberries into the provided muslin drawstring bag, tied it shut and tossed them in the wash with the blankets. A photo can’t really do this justice since they haven’t invented smell-o-vision yet, but I will tell you that the blankets came out of the dryer fluffy, clean and smelling fresh. The reality is they basically had no smell at all, which I personally love. I couldn’t smell the musty old beach odor and I also didn’t smell any fragrances or chemicals. That’s exactly what I want from a clean load of laundry. Soapberries can be used over and over again in the wash until they are broken up and have lost their luster. That’s when you know it’s time to replace them.

I didn’t have time (or enough soapberries) to try some of the other recipes that come with these cool little natural cleansers. But you can grind them up to make a cleaning powder, which can be turned into dish soap or floor cleaner. You can also use them to clean jewelry. Because they’re natural and contain no preservatives, you want to use any liquid soapberry solutions in 3-4 days.

I was truly impressed with the soapberries and I will be ordering more to use around the house. If you’d like to give soapberries a try visit So Berry Clean. A 4 oz bag is $9.95 and will wash approximately 60 loads of laundry. Of course, you can use them for lots of other things as shown above.

What do you think? Have you used or would you like to try soapberries?

*I was given a bag of soapberries free to try. I was under no obligation to write about them and all opinions are my own.

Growing Green: Simple Tips to Green Your Fitness Routine

broccolicupcake — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:55:30 +0000

I’m excited to close out this month’s Growing Green series with a guest post from Suzanne of Suzanne Bowen Fitness. Watch this short video for Suzanne’s expert tips on greening your workout. She touches on everything from your moisturizer and water bottle to your sunscreen and yoga mat.

In case you didn’t catch all the helpful products Suzanne mentioned, here is a list.

Run Run Run - water bottles.
Mercola – mineral sunscreens
Sunshine Yoga – PVC free yoga mats
Vitacost - Grapeseed Oil Moisturizer
Blake Brody Footwear - studio footwear

How do you green your fitness routine?

Growing Green: Simple Tips to TEACH Green

broccolicupcake — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:06:09 +0000

The quote on the back of my Seventh Generation dish soap inspired the idea for this week’s post. It says,

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” – From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

When I think about teaching green, I naturally think of my boys and what I can do to raise them to be environmentally aware. Below are a few ideas to help nurture a respect for nature and a sense of responsibility for their environment.

1. Get Them Involved: Recycling, composting and gardening are three easy tasks that kids can actively participate in and even take responsibility for (depending on their age) that will help instill an Earth friendly mind-set and open up the door for conversations about caring for environment. Even the youngest in the family can help sort paper and plastic in the recycling bin or gather tomatoes from the garden. As you’re going about these tasks, talk to your kids about why they’re important. Ask them what they think and if they have any other ideas for reducing waste at home.

2. Enjoy Nature – There’s no better way to instill a respect for nature in a child than to let them experience the joy and beauty of it. Go for walks or hikes exploring your neighborhood, local parks or hiking trails. Create a scavenger hunt list of items you might expect to find in your local environment. Flowers, animals, even weeds can all be on the list. Bring along a camera and take photos of the items or purchase and inexpensive notebook and some crayons and let your kids build a nature journal. Each of our boys has a small back pack filled with a blank notebook, colored pencils, glue stick and magnifying glass. They take these on our nature walks or trips to the park and frequently draw photos of things they see or gather leaves and other items to glue in their notebooks and identify later.

3. Read – There are tons of great books that teach kids the importance of everything from recycling to water conservation. We have several that we love to read, but I’ve found that the boys favorites are the books that teach them about animals and their natural habitats. These have nurtured a love of animals that is starting to transition to a natural desire to care for the environment they call home. I’ve created a list of some of the boys favorite books below.

What would you add to this list? Do you have a favorite tip or book for teaching kids to be green?

This is the last week of the Growing Green series. Check back on Wednesday for a guest post on greening your fitness routine and don’t forget to visit The Frugal Seed, I Dream of Clean and Laurel of Leaves for tips on TEACHING green.

Growing Green: Simple Tips to Think Green

broccolicupcake — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:32:39 +0000

Being “green” has a variety of definitions depending on who you’re talking to. Some of us have just started paying attention to environmental issues while others have spent years adjusting their lifestyle to become a green machine! No matter where any of us are on the spectrum there’s always something we can learn.

In order to think green it’s helpful to have a starting point. That’s why I love the resources on Practically Green. Their online quiz helped me to see my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to living a green life and minimizing our negative impact on the environment. Click on the link and the site will walk you through a series of multiple choice questions. Once you complete the quiz, you’ll get a list of recommendations for ways to improve and you will have the opportunity to choose from over 400 actions to plan your personal route to a healthier lifestyle. For those of you who enjoy a little friendly competition, you can invite your friends, family and coworkers to join and compete to see who can complete more Earth friendly actions.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Power Down Electronics & Use More Solar Power

Replace Paper Towels with Reusable Dish Rags/Towels

Replace Bottled Water with Reusable Water Bottles

*Affiliate links used in this post.

Visit Practically Green and take their online assessment for more personalized ideas. While you’re at it, don’t forget to stop by the other blogs in this week’s Growing Green Series.

The Frugal Seed – Eating The Rainbow

I Dream of Clean – Repurpose to Avoid Waste

Laurel of Leaves – A Disposable Challenge

What are your simple tips for going green?

Growing Green: Meal Planning to Save Money & Avoid Waste

broccolicupcake — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:00:27 +0000

This week we’re all about simple ways to SAVE green. That means we’re saving money while also working toward a greener lifestyle.

I’m here with a few meal planning tips to help you save money and avoid waste. In the past, I was notorious for walking into the grocery store without a list and filling my cart with all the multi-colored goodness I wanted to share with my family. I had tunnel vision. I was so focused on simply getting the healthy food into our home, learning to prepare it, and trying to convince my family to eat it that I never took the time to plan. I shopped based on what I wanted to eat that week without any regard for what we already had or how much food we realistically needed. The result was a kitchen full of food that we couldn’t finish before it went bad and a lot of waste.

After awhile, I began to feel really convicted about all of that waste – food and money – and I started to meal plan.

If you aren’t meal planning already, here are 3 reasons you should be and a few of my favorite resources to help you get started.

Meal planning helps avoid food waste. (The average family of four wastes 122 lbs of edible food a month. Yikes!)
Meal planning saves you money. (It’s easier to shop sales, purchase in season and avoid unnecessary purchases when you plan.)
Meal planning saves you time & frustration. (How many times have you stood in the middle of the kitchen at 6 pm with no answer to the question “what’s for dinner?” How many times have you started dinner and realized you didn’t have everything you needed? Just me?)

If you think meal planning can help you save time, money and avoid food waste you’ll want to try these resources to help you get started. I use them both depending on my mood and time.

Food on the Table

Everything is in one place with this easy to use meal planning program. It boils down to this. Pick your favorite grocery store and select the meals/recipes you’d like to prepare that week. The program gives you a complete grocery list and matches your meal plan to the weekly sales at your local store. It’s quick, it’s inspiring, it saves time and money and does pretty much everything for you short of preparing dinner. Check out the website or download the app to your phone. You can plan up to 3 meals a week for free or purchase their monthly subscription for unlimited use.

Faithful Provisions Downloads

Kelly has a fabulously helpful and well thought out series of free printable downloads on her site. I keep copies of these on hand all the time now to help save time and money. As much as love my phone and apps, sometimes I prefer a good old fashioned handwritten list to hang on the fridge or stuff in my purse. If you feel the same way, check out Kelly’s site and download one or all of the following worksheets to help you plan and organize your kitchen.

Meal Plan Calendar
Freezer Inventory List
Pantry Inventory List

Do you meal plan? Do you think it would help you save money and avoid waste?

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you’ll take a minute to visit the other green bloggers in the Growing Green series for their tips to SAVE green.

Laurel of Leaves - tips to save on your utility bill

I Dream of Clean - tips to save energy with your appliances

The Frugal Seed - tips on where to find healthy living coupons to help your budget

*This post contains affiliate links.

Growing Green: 3 Simple Tips to Go Green in the Kitchen

broccolicupcake — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:00:11 +0000

Today is the beginning of an exciting new series in honor of Earth month. Over the next four weeks, I’ll be working with Christine at I Dream of Clean, Michelle at The Frugal Seed and Lori at Laurel of Leaves, to share simple tips to green your lifestyle. Each week has a theme starting with this week’s – GO Green. We’re going to walk you through everything from greening your kitchen and bedroom to composting and making your own cleaning supplies.

To kick it off, here are 3 easy steps you can take today to go green in your kitchen.

1. If you’ve ever visited my blog, you probably know how much I love natural cleaning products. I can clean my entire bathroom with nothing more than white vinegar, baking soda and a lemon. The same is true for the kitchen and it’s even more important in this areas of the house. If you buy even some organic produce and then prepare it on surfaces cleaned with harsh chemicals then you’ve undone much of the good of buying the organic produce to begin with. So tip #1 is to make the switch to natural cleaning products. If you don’t trust homemade products I recommend Seventh Generation. I use their dish soap and dishwasher detergent. For counter tops, the stove and the fridge I turn to my trusty vinegar, baking soda and lemon. Here’s how it works.

This was my kitchen sink after cleaning up the dinner dishes the other night. You can’t see it very well, but I have some spots on the faucet from hard water and the basins have lines and marks from the breakfast and lunch dishes that sat all day. So I start with the baking soda because I know I need the scrubbing power.

I sprinkle baking soda all over the sink basins, the edges and even the faucet. Then I spray it with my mix of white vinegar and water and let it sit a few minutes. The fizzing action starts to lift some of the food and stains.

Next I scrub the sink with a textured rag. The mixture of baking soda, vinegar and water makes a paste that doesn’t scratch the sink, but helps lift all the rings and stuck on food. Once I’ve scrubbed it clean I rinse it with hot water until there is no more white residue from the baking soda.

Now it’s shiny, clean and disinfected. If the hard water spots are bad I rub them with 1/2 a lemon, rinse, spray with the vinegar, wipe and rinse again.

Here are a few other suggestions for naturally cleaning the kitchen.

The vinegar/water mixture is also great for disinfecting counter tops, inside the fridge and any kitchen appliances.
When I’m working with raw meat I will usually spray the counter down with hydrogen peroxide once I’m finished and wipe it clean/dry. Then I spray it down again with the vinegar/water mixture and wipe that clean/dry. This is a double dose of disinfectant and germ killing power and gives me peace of mind that the counters are clean and safe for food and little hands.
I use my steam cleaner for the floor. It’s great at lifting up sticky, stuck on food and scuff marks from chairs and shoes.

2. I don’t know about you guys, but our kitchen was stocked about 10 years ago through wedding shower gifts. Unfortunately, we didn’t know then what we know now so we had a lot of pots, pans, and bowls that needed to be replaced and we just couldn’t afford to replace everything at once. Over the last 3 years, I’ve been working to slowly replace cookware and storage containers that contain harmful chemicals that can leach into our food. I started with Tupperware and we’ve now replaced it all with glass storage containers. Next, we’re working on cookware. I have two Bialetti Aeternum nonstick pans that I absolutely love! They are free of all the scary nasty chemicals that normally make cookware “nonstick” but are really easy to use and clean. Unfortunately, they aren’t dishwasher safe. I plan to invest in more of these or to add them to my Christmas list. The rest of my pans are basic aluminum. I threw all of our Teflon out about years ago. For baking, I use a silpat mat on aluminum cookie sheets. It prevents sticking and it’s easy to clean. My philosophy here again is that if I’m investing in organic food I don’t want to spoil it by introducing chemicals when I store it or cook it. I know what a slow process it can be for those of us who can’t afford to replace everything all at once, but it can be done over time. When a pan wears out or you realize you no longer have lids for any of your Tupperware – replace it with a safer option. Eventually, your cookware will be as clean as the organic food your preparing in it.

3. Recycle. We started recycling about 8 years ago because our neighborhood provided recycling containers and picked them up with the trash. There really was no good excuse not to do it. It became habit so when we moved to a new town that didn’t offer curbside recycling we found the local recycling center and would stock up and drop off. My husband estimates we cut our weekly trash in half through recycling. If your town doesn’t have curbside pick up do a quick search. There are a lot of independent businesses that offer recycling services for a small fee. If not, you can usually find a recycling center close by where you can drop off. It’s not convenient, but if you save up in big bins and drop off once a month it’s not too bad. Recycling reduces waste and the need for local landfills, it protects the environment and wildlife, helps prevent global warming, protects natural resources and even creates jobs. There are lots of good reasons to do it and it’s a great way to GO green.

Of course, there’s tons more we can do, but these are just 3 simple tips to get your started. Clean green, cook and store in chemical free kitchenware and recycle.

My next green challenge in the kitchen is paper towel waste! There so convenient and they don’t add to my laundry pile, but we’ve been slowly stocking up on inexpensive rags and dishtowels and cutting way back on our paper towel use. We haven’t eliminated them completely, but we’re getting there. What do you think? Would you ever give up paper towels in your kitchen?

Don’t forget to visit the blogs below for more tips on GOing Green!

I Dream of Clean – making your own cleaning products

The Frugal Seed – greening your bedroom

Laurel of Leaves – go green outdoors (compost, rain barrels, etc)

Stop by next Monday for tips to help you SAVE green!

*This post contains affiliate links.

Growing Green Series

broccolicupcake — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:01:00 +0000

Earth month is a great time to focus on new ways to BE GREEN. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing every Monday this month with the help of I Dream Of Clean, The Frugal Seed and Laurel of Leaves. Beginning April 9, each of our blogs will feature simple tips to help us all GO green, SAVE green, THINK green, and TEACH green. I hope you’ll check back and share your own tips for living a greener lifestyle.

Spring Cleaning: Natural Ways to Clean Hardwood

broccolicupcake — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:19 +0000

Yes. I’m still working my way through the house. It seems never ending, but it is really clean and that feels good!

This week I decided to give the hardwood floors a new spring shine. Normally, I just vacuum then steam clean them with our Oreck Steam Cleaner. It works really well. Shoe scuffs come right up, as well as any stick spills from the many play-dates that happen around here. But since we’re spring cleaning and putting in a little extra effort, I wanted to try something special. A few minutes of research revealed a Better Homes & Garden pin on Pinterest. They suggest used boiling tea to mop on hardwoods. I had to give it a try.

The verdict…I LOVE it! All natural, light, fresh scent, shiny, plus a brilliant shine and clean floors. It’s exactly what I was hoping for. Here are the details.

Put a pan or tea kettle on to boil and drop 3 tea bags into a large bowl or bucket. Be sure to use a black tea because it’s the tannins in this particular tea that give your floor the fabulous shine we’re looking for.

Add boiling water

Dunk your mop head or rag into your bowl and ring it out well. It’s best if it’s not too wet or the floor will take awhile to dry. If you have little ones like I do, it’s hard enough to keep them off it for a few minutes.

Mop as usual and watch it shine. Thank you tannic acid!

I think I’ll add this to the regular cleaning rotation. I love the ease of using the steam cleaner, but the shine from the black tea gave me a huge sense of accomplishment. I felt like I had really put a lot of effort into cleaning the hardwood, but it was honestly pretty easy and very inexpensive.

How do you clean your hardwood?