Some Little Things

I've been saving up ideas... little things I'm trying to do to conserve, or be conscientious with resources, or rely more on natural items.

And tonight I am SO EXCITED!
it is a small thing to be so excited about. But BAKING SODA WORKS! So well! I used it tonight to scrub my bathroom sink, which was sadly neglected with layers of soap scum other things I don't want to think about. And the drain was a little slow to drain. Since we don't have draino, and I didn't really want to go to the effort of snaking the thing, I decided to try a little trick I read about somewhere. Apparently, if you transfer the elementary-school volcano experiment with baking soda and vinegar into your drain, it can help to clear out gunky slowdowns. I got everything together, then figured I might as well scrub my sink bowl while I was at it. IT WAS SO EASY. I've been pretty skeptical with all the suggestions I've read that baking soda paste would be able to clean my sink as easily as my Soft Scrub, or even the old Comet I used to use. I was pretty hesitant to even think of giving SS up. And now, I'm over it! Not only was it just as quick to clean--maybe even a little quicker--but I could do it with my bare hands and not be anxious about anything getting on my clothes, or any residue that might find its way somewhere undesirable (like brown towels, etc.) Baking soda is my new best scrubbing friend!! And then I dumped the rest of my little ramekin-full down my drain, and followed it up with some vinegar, and left it for about 10 minutes. (In that time, I actually went and Soft-Scrubbed my sink, just to compare, and it really took a little more scrubbing with the bleachy stuff...in my rubber gloves, with a burning sensation where a little got on my arm anyway.) Another little shot of vinegar, and then some hot water down the drain... it's going much better. Now mind you, I don't think it has dissolved whatever strands of hair might be caught in there--let's be realistic--but it has helped with whatever else was slowing it down.
That was what I just had to share tonight. Baking soda is the best!

Another small thing I thought about was how to minimize my Amazon boxes. I love Amazon. I can order things that I can't find in stores near me, and I can get stuff we need while Beckett is sleeping. I don't know how moms were moms before it. No, I do. I remember my mom having midnight shopping trips to Safeway with a huge list. That's how. I'm grateful for another way. But I don't have a good reuse for all the boxes, and I'm not satisfied with just tossing them in the recycling (though paper recycling seems to be some of the best that we have, in terms of recycling.) I have, however, figured out that if I just check one little box, I can often eliminate one or more extra boxes. It's the box that says "Group my items in as few shipments as possible" as opposed to the automatic "Ship my items as soon as possible."  And really, since I have free Prime thru Amazon Mom (again, how amazing is this website?!), I don't have to worry about things taking too forever to get here.

Also, just bought some beeswax crayons for Beckett to start playing with drawing. There are apparently not that many natural crayon companies out there, and the ones that are can be hard to find. Even the little Palo Alto toystore that I like to go to for safer toy items had nothing other than Crayola. Seriously, who has a monopoly? But anyway, I found some recommendations online, and then found that Amazon had Stockmar crayon blocks. We just got them today. I'm eager to have him try them... I'll try to follow up about how they work. Apparently they are supposed to be a little like watercolors, where they can be layered in a way that regular wax crayons can't be. Hmm.
All right, I think that's all for tonight. I know it's been a while. Is anyone still reading anyway?