How to Stop Losing Your Keys (and Everything Else)

You only need to do two things to stop losing things.

Establish "a place for everything and [put] everything in its place." 

The cubby by the entrance/exit to my apartment. This is where I keep my keys and wallet (in my purse), where I keep things we use outside regularly like Envirosax and bike helmet, and items to return to friends.

This means stop leaving your crap all over the place. 1. Establish a place to store an object. 2. Look for the object in this place when you need it. 3. Use the object. 4. When you're done, return the object to its storage place.

The best place to store an object is where you will be when you need it, a place that makes sense to you, is easy for you to access, and keeps the object safe from danger of being damaged. I keep my keys on a little cubby by the door for these reasons. I now keep my rain boots by the door for these reason too. Even though all my other shoes are stored in my closet, I like having my rain boots by the door because oftentimes I decide to carry or wear them last minute.

It takes time to discover the best place to store things, but if you pay attention to your needs and habits and you'll find a storage place for everything you use.

Practice Mindfulness.

If you pay attention to what you are doing, you won't loose things. When I think about the times that I've misplaced things, I was usually distracted from the present moment. I was either thinking about something that happened in the past, anxious about the future, or otherwise going through the motions of activity without focusing on what I was doing.

Slow down. Breathe. Be here now. All that good stuff! Adding meditation to your daily routine is a great way to practice mindfulness because all you have to do is focus on your breath. My friend Samuel Jakob Kirschner, founder of Artists of Living, introduced me to meditation. Check out his website for guided meditations and other resources.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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3 Eco-Friendly Containers for School Lunches

Packing lunch in reuseable containers is totally green for both the planet and your wallet. According to Zen Habits, brown bagging meals is a simple way to save $3,000 a year! Here are three non-toxic containers perfect for packing lunch for kids and adults.

Eco Lunchbox

ECO Lunchbox Three-in-One container has been on my list of awesome things I want but don't need (as I work mostly from home) since I first spotted it at the Park Slope Food Coop last year. It's a Bento-style stainless steel box, so no worries about BPA and all that other bad stuff. It's $22 at Amazon.

Insulated LunchBots container

LunchBots also makes stainless steel food containers. I like that they come with funky colored lids. LunchBot containers also come in a variety of sizes and compartments; many are leaf-proof and some are insulated. You can buy a green insulated one for $25 and an assortment of others at Amazon or at LunchBots.com.

Handmade Reusable Sandwich Bags by The Preppy Owl Boutique in CT.

Reuseable sandwich and snack sized bags in adorable prints are all over Etsy. Many are made with a food-safe nylon lining that is leak resistant and easy to clean. The Preppy Owl Boutique is offering a set of 4 reuseable sandwich bags on sale for just $18 and you can pick the prints!

(Getting ready for back-to-school? See my Green School Supply Shopping Guide.)

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Green School Supply Shopping Guide

Here's a list of some awesome eco-friendly and non-toxic school supplies I discovered online and while walking around town.

Beeswax crayons

One of my favorite things about going back to school was getting a big box of fresh sharp crayons. This box of 24 beeswax crayons is a great natural alternative to Crayola and many other crayons brands, which are made of paraffin wax. (Paraffin is a byproduct of petroleum, a non-renewable resource.)  I discovered these at the ever adorable Pink Olive in the East Village, but you can purchase them on Amazon for $13 too.

My jumbo EcoJot Journal and Seltzer Goods Seven Year Pen. Perfect pair for plotting blog posts!

EcoJot makes the most loveable notebooks ever! The paper content used is 100% post-consumer recycled and all products are designed with Carolyn Gavin's quirky illustrations and printed nearby in Canada, not China. Need another reason to buy EcoJot? With the purchase of a jumbo journal, Ecojot will give a workbook to a child in need. Their GIVE program, has provided over 200,000 notebooks to children. You can purchase a wide range of EcoJot products (notebooks, journals, cards, wrapping paper) at Sustainable NYC, Anthropologie, and at EcoJot.com.

Seltzer Goods makes The Seven Year Pen. These stylish, slim Swiss-design pens each feature a jumbo ink cartridge that enables the user to write 1.7 meters a day for seven years! Wow! I purchased my pen at Scaredy Kat Cards & Gifts in Park Slope for $8 but you can buy one (and lots of cool PCW cards and wrapping paper) at the Seltzer Goods website.

O'BON pencils are O' so gorgeous!

O'BON makes deliciously designed colored and graphite pencils from rolled 100% recycled post-consumer newspaper. They're claimed to be stronger than wood pencils and O'BON channels some of it's profits into tree planting initiatives. I love that you can buy a pack of 40 pencils on Amazon for just $14 and be the pencil fairy all year. (I am totally that person who is always prepared and happy to share a pencil!)

O'Bon Binders feature a vivid design.

Visit Myobon.com to purchase all sorts of eco-friendly office and school supplies, including binders and folders made from recycled paper and decorated with soy-ink designs, as well as journals filled with white paper pages made from bagasse (sugarcane).

Elmer's School Glue is a non-toxic mainstay.

Elmer's School Glue is non-toxic and ubiquitous. However, if you've got time (and the desire) to do a project with your kids, I totally love the spirit of this homemade glue at icanteachmychild.com which doesn't list cow hooves in the recipe. Yay Kosher!

Brown paper bag book cover. (Image from WikiHow.)

Finally, do you remember covering your text books with brown paper bags? I do!!!! I loved adorning my homemade covers with my doodles and Garfield stickers. WikiHow has instructions on how to make book covers in case you've forgotten.

Check out Environmental Working Group's Back to School Guide for more tips on picking safer school supplies.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Bokashi: Another Composting Option for Lazy Folks

Bokashi is an ancient Japanese, two step method of composting organic waste. The first step is placing waste in an airtight bucket and allowing it to ferment with the help of a microbial starter. The second step is burying the fermented waste into the ground to create healthy soil.

Blogger Jenny is all about bokashi! Image via Bokashi Composting HQ

Embraced by permaculture enthusiasts, bokashi differs from other composting methods. One big difference is animal waste (dairy and meat) can be composted alongside plant waste. You can even compost pet waste with bokashi! Waste takes less time compost with bokashi. It's also unique because the alcohol smell of the fermented waste deters pests like rats and flies. There is minimal labor required. Once you've buried your trench of waste, you never need to turn it or do anything else.

You can start your own at home bokashi compost project with this great bokashi resource guide from The Compost Guy. You can purchase an entire Bokashi system kit via Amazon. Fermented starter can be purchased via my friend DeeDee at MoS Collective.

Bokashi seems so easy! I am totally going to give it a go once my CSA share pick-up ends in November and I can no longer drop off my scraps for composting as part of my weekly routine.

NYC residents and small businesses have the option of signing up for Vokashi, a Brooklyn-based composting service. Vokashi provides members with savvy green air tight buckets and a supply of ferment starter for $40-$60 a month. They also pick up the buckets once they are full. (Yay!) Vokashi then uses the waste to improve the soil in community gardens and other public green spaces.

Random fact: The liquid created by bokashi fermentation process can be used to clean drains!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Thank You

Image from Seltzer Goods Card

Sending love everyone who has supported Olivia Cleans Green lately. I truly appreciate every single Facebook share, comment, and "like". Thank you for answering my questions on Facebook. Thank you for the sweet retweets on Twitter. Thank you for asking me questions about cleaning and about my company. Thank you for requesting workshops and videos. (Yes, they are coming!)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I feel so lucky to have people interested in what I'm doing here and encouraging me to do more. Recognizing this is adding even more beauty to my already gorgeous day. I hope you have a beautiful day too. Big hugs!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Leave a comment here or on Facebook to let me know if you have any specific green homekeeping topics or questions you'd like me to cover next week.

4 Easy Green Cleaning Supermarket Swaps

These are my favorite healthy alternatives to conventional, toxic cleaning products. I've used all of these products at my home and at client's homes with excellent results.

If you love Ajax or Comet powder, try Bon Ami Powder Cleanser.

Bon Ami is a true friend to green homemakers!

This gentle chlorine-free scrub is excellent. I use it for a variety of surfaces in the kitchen and the bathroom, including pots, stainless steel sink basin, stove top, ceramic tub and sink basin, and the toilet bowl.

If you love Pine Sol, try Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds.

Sal Suds

Unlike other Dr. Bronner's products, Sal Suds is not soap-based. Sal Suds is a balanced formulation of naturally derived surfactants with pure fir and spruce essential oils. It is made specifically for household cleaning. In addition to using it to clean a variety of floor surfaces, I keep a dilution of it in a spray bottle for all-purpose cleaning and use it to launder my cleaning rags.

If you love Windex, try club soda.

Tip: Keep club soda banned together with newspaper so you have everything you need together for impulse glass cleaning. C'mon! It happens!

Soda manufactures often add baking soda to club soda. The minerals added to this carbonated water make club soda excellent for cleaning glass, mirrors, and interior windows. Put some in a spray bottle. Be sure to avoid flavored varieties for cleaning purposes. (Update: Sodium-free is fine.) Check out this list of 6 ways to clean with club soda by Angela, a fellow cleaning blogger.

If you love Fantastik, try white vinegar.

White vinegar: cheap and awesome!

You can clean almost anything with vinegar. It's a wonderful all-purpose household cleaner. I always buy a big gallon jug of it so that I have some on hand to refill my spray bottle with a 50/50 water vinegar dilution and for mixing with different things to make a variety of more complex cleaners.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Lazy Person's Guide to Composting

You can compost! Even if you live in a tiny apartment. Even if you're not ready to share your tiny apartment with a few hundred worms or a few thousand fruit flies. Even if you don't have a few spare hundred dollars bills to plunk down on an electric composting machine. Even if you have a million other things to do. Even if you're just plain lazy. You can compost by participating in community composting efforts.

Here's how:

Image from Ditmas Park Blog.

Find a community composting project in your neighborhood. Ask Google. If you don't find anything, don't be deterred. A lot of community stuff like this isn't on the web yet. Ask at the info booth at your local farmers market, drop in at a community garden, call the local food coop, and ask customer service reps your Whole Foods or natural foods store. Crunchy people are always in the loop with composting.

Instead of tossing vegetable scraps, bread, grains, wilted flowers, coffee grounds, hair, pet fur, nail clippings, and a lot of other compostable things in the trash, save them. Store them in a paper or plastic bag, a coffee bag, a compostable bio bag (including the green bags that Whole Foods offers for produce), an empty juice or milk carton, or a plastic salad greens container. Tuck the bag or carton of compostables in your freezer where it won't decompose, get funky, and attract fruit flies.

Tip: Keep bread or old produce bags organized by storing them in a toilet paper tube near your food scraps.

If you want to hold your compost in something more sturdy, use a milk carton.

Next time you're headed out to your community compost collection site, carry your frozen compostables with you. It's a good idea to double bag them if there is a chance you'll be out long enough for things to thaw. Definitely double bag or put it in something waterproof if you are using a paper bag.

When you get to the compost collection site, follow the rules. If you don't know the rules, ask the person managing the booth. Some places require that everything be frozen. Some places let you dump the whole compostable bio bag or paper bag into a bin. Some require that you empty the contents of the bag in to a bin. Some gardens ask you to put your scraps into the actual composting bin and cover it with newspaper scraps. Do whatever they say will help them the most.

LES Ecology Center collection booth at Union Square Greenmarket. Image from The Power Brokers.

If you are in NYC, Grow-NYC collects food scraps for composting at farmers markets in four of the five boroughs. (More info on their composting program.) Some farmers have their own indie collections going too! We used to leave our scraps with a farmer at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

Now that we live in Providence, RI we drop off our food scraps at the collection site near our farm share pick up stand at Thursday Armory Farmers Market.

Check out this list of 75 Things You Can Compost, but Thought You Couldn't. According to the article, you can compost latex condoms, ripped up pizza and cereal boxes, and pencil shavings. Of course, it's always best to consult with the collection site before you put anything too weird in the collection bin. Some composting systems are more delicate than others.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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What's Better: Digital or Paper Planners?

Last November, I reluctantly joined the masses and got an iPhone4s. I'm a bit of a technophobe. I didn't call anyone the first week I had it. For about a month or two, I was overwhelmed and ignored every feature on my phone beside the actual phone and text capacities. In January, I finally made the switch from a paper planner to a digital calendar.

This planner saw a lot of action in 2011.

Before using Google Calendar, I loved loved loved my Do-It-All Planner for the following reasons:

• Each weekly spread had tons of space for writing in activities.
• Each week featured a positive quote.
• Each spread had shaded rows that were perfect for keeping track of different areas of my life, including scheduled things like work and appointments, as well as meeting goals like exercise and water consumption. 
• There were no printed time slots. This is great because my day doesn't start at 8am or end at 8pm, contrary to what lots of planners seem to think.
• It had a folder pocket in the cover page. Brilliant!
• There was a contact book in the back with prompts to fill out important numbers like doctor, handyman, and food delivery! 
• A generous number of note pages in the back also left space to record other important info. I wrote mine and Richard's sizes in everything, account info and customer service numbers for every utility service I use, and the hours of my favorite places there.
• The last pages were slim perforated tear-off grocery and to-do lists that could be used as a book mark to find the current week and record tasks that didn't need to be done on a specific day. 

The Do-It-All Planner is the best paper planner I have ever used. It was nearly perfect for me. Nearly. One problem was the papers kept falling out of the front folder. That was easily solved when I got hip and used a binder clip to attach them to the cover. Another problem was occasionally I'd accidentally leave it at home. (I guess that's more of a personal problem, though.)

There's a new sheriff in town and she's dressed in pink.

Is my Google Calendar better? In some ways.

• It's much smaller and lighter than my planner.
• I can include links to websites with more info (like Facebook event pages) or cut and paste details from email or websites. This is so much easier than writing out all the info.
• I can access my calendar from my SmartPhone, my laptop, my iPad, or any other computer with the internet access.
• I can schedule pop up reminders.
• I can click on an address and be taken to a map. I get lost a lot so I love this feature!

What's not great about digital calendars?

• I need to have a SmartPhone to really use it effectively because I'm (thankfully) not glued to my laptop or other wifi enabled devices all day. SmartPhone data packages are an additional expense on top of my regular cell phone minutes package. This stinks!
• Sometimes I find myself on the kind of block or train line where I do not want to whip out my iPhone but need to look at it to check an address or train stop. #imightgetmugged 
• You can't cozy up with a mug of hot cocoa and read through years old entries in a digital calendar and get the same sense of nostalgia you would get from a print planner.

What do you think? Do you use a paper planner or a digital calendar like iCal or Google Calendar?

If you'd like to buy the Do-It-All Planner 2013 (good for August 2012 through December 2013) on Amazon, please use this link to help support my blog. Thanks!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Use Plants to Clean Indoor Air

A rubber plant is an easy to care for, air cleaning machine. It's also fun to draw!

You've probably heard that plants and trees are important because they help keep our air clean. This is true outdoors and indoors.

According to an article on Care2.com, "houseplants are our often-overlooked helpers in ridding the air of pollutants and toxins, counteracting outgassing and contributing to balanced internal humidity."

How do plants clean the air? According to an eFIG article:

Plants use two well known processes to move chemicals in the air to their roots: leaves absorb certain chemicals in the air and transport them inside plant tissue down to the roots, and plants pull air down around their roots when moisture is emitted from leaves during transpiration. In the rhizosphere, or root area, microbes living there turn the VOCs [pollutants] into food for the plant. Plants and their root microbes are nature’s biological cleaning machines.

 Also, there was totally a TED talk on the topic!

The Care2 article mentioned earlier points out that rubber plants are one of the top 10 houseplants for cleaner air. Yay! I love my rubber plant because it's easy for even someone without a green thumb like me to care for. It doesn't need a lot of light. You just have to remember to water it. I've kept mine alive for over 2 years! Mother-in-Law's Tongue (aka Snake Plant), mentioned in the TED Talk, is another great air cleaning plant I own that has survived occasional spells of neglect.

My friend Liz who is a healthy home consultant, among other amazing things, recommends How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants That Purify Your Home or Office for more info on the best plants for supporting healthy indoor air quality.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Please Take My Poll

I want my blog to be a winner!

Please take my poll on Facebook. I want to know which new topic you would most want to learn about on this blog. You can only choose one option out of five so it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds. You're also welcome to leave a comment on the Olivia Cleans Green Facebook page.

Why? I'm curious what my readers would like learn about. I want have a new blog post on OliviaCleansGreen.com every day. (Lately, I've been posting five or six days a week.) I'd also love to have the voices of friends who are experts in various green home and lifestyle related topics appear here. I plan to invite folks to guest blog weekly on Sundays. Your answers will help me determine who to invite.

Thank you! Big hugs!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Home for the Weekend: DIY Painted Spoons, Gravel & Gold, and Grocery Shopping Made Easy

A list of awesome green home and lifestyle related things that I discovered earlier this week. Let me know if you like them too!

Image from HonesttoNod.com

I crossed paths with The Land of Nod catalog for the first time last weekend while I was cat sitting. It's full of adorable kid's furniture, bedding, storage, and decor. Their bright, happy, and cute print collection makes me so excited I get a little nauseous! Aside from selling really cute things, they have a blog of cute DIY projects. I think this easy painted wooden spoon one looks really fun. (To protect my health, I'd skip the shellac- which is toxic while wet, seal with Mod Podge, and use exclusively for decoration.)

I wanna go!

I'm totally crushing on Gravel & Gold shop in San Francisco.  Here's how they describe their store: "We sell useful goods from stand-up makers—hand-picked vintage and new things to wear, to adorn, to hear, to read & write, to furnish, and to love up. We like to know where our things come from and to directly support the people who create them." I have to visit next time I'm in SF and take a class. Their past events look so fun!

It's time for real talk: Not everyone can always afford to buy everything organic. But how do you decide where to splurge and where to save? Check out the Environmental Working Group's Shoppers 2012 Guide to Pesticides. It will show you which foods to always buy organic (Dirty Dozen) and which ones are usually safe in conventional form (Clean 15). They even have an app!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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How to Clean Up Pet Stains Naturally

I love Nature's Miracle!

I'm all for DIY but there are certain situations where a store bought cleaner is actually the best choice. This is true in the case of pet stains.

Unless you are a scientist, it's best to invest in a bottle of Nature's Miracle. The bio-enzematic formula in this cleaner attacks the proteins and starches that compose various pet bio-blowouts (poos, urine, and vomit). More impressively, it does so without using synthetic fragrances or other nasty chemicals.

Nature's Miracle has a wide range of products designed for specific pet accidents. Just for Cats Urine Destroyer was very useful when I was training my kittens. I always keep a gallon of the original Stain & Odor Remover formula on hand. We babysit my mom's dog Coco often and it's useful when she misses the wee wee pad or pukes.

Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Removal treats more than just stains originating from pets. I just learned from their website that the product was originally marketed for cleaning in preschools. That makes since. It removes all organic stains and odors, including foods, blood, vomit, feces, grease, dirt, grass, smoke, and perspiration. You can use it on carpets, floors (including wood), furniture, clothing, cages, litter boxes, and all pet living and sleeping areas.

I discovered Nature's Miracle at my favorite pet supply store, Whiskers Holistic Pet Store in NYC. (I love love love them!) You can find it at Amazon and any pet supply store that knows what's good!

Update/ Caution: This product contains isopropyl alcohol, which I recently learned is considered toxic. I've begun using Better Life Natural Stain & Odor Eliminator as an alternative.

Lucy didn't want to leave her box under my BF's desk for a photo shoot, but I figured only using a picture of Nature's Miracle with a cactus wouldn't cut it.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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4 Tips for Packing for Trips

Alchemy Goods Toiletry Bag is made from repurposed truck tire inner tube.

Always keep a stocked toiletry bag!
Today, compose a list of each product and tool you use to get ready to go out and to prep for bed.

Next time you are in a drug or beauty supply store to buy enough trail size containers of those things. Alternately, you can save money by buying empty small 3oz bottles, jars, and spray bottles that you can refill yourself.  (I've bought great ones at both Whole Foods and Bed Bath and Beyond.) Just remember to label the bottles! Buy an extra toothbrush, spool of dental floss, razor, nail clipper, contact lens case, and other tools while you are there too.

Place everything in a waterproof toiletry bag. I love the Alchemy Goods Recycled Truck Inner Tub Toiletry Bag, but if you're on a budget a freezer bag will do. Keep that bag in your suitcase forever! When you return from a trip, just refill the bottles during your unpacking process and shove 'em back in the bag.

The awesome Do-It-All Planner 2013 (August 2012-December 2013).

Pack with your agenda in mind and in front of you. 
Look at your scheduled events. If you don't have a schedule, look at the type of activities the place you are going offers and consider what you might be interested in doing. Pull out what you need for each activity. Spread clothes, accessories, notebooks, crayons, etc. on a bed or table so you have a visual of everything you need for every activity. This would also be a good time to fill a pill box with vitamins and medication. Don't put anything into your bag or suitcase until you've finished doing this.

These beautiful fair-trade jewelry bags are perfect for travel and made from repurposed saris.

Once I was in a rush and didn't do this. I just packed the kind of clothes I normally wear- dresses and leggings. Had I spared myself a single minute to think about it, I would have realized this was not ideal attire for a yoga retreat and spared myself a $30 t-shirt purchase from the Kripalu gift shop. Ouch!

Don't wait until the day you are leaving to pack.
If it's possible, pack at least the night before you leave. You'll be less edgy and sleep better knowing things like that are taken care of. Packing the same day usually results in poor judgement, like not packing gym clothes for a yoga retreat.

Yummy smelling EO hand sanitizer made with organic lavender essential oil.

Always pack hand sanitizer and two snack bars. 
Put them in your carry on. When you need them, you'll be happy you did.

Do you have any other packing tips?

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Genius Bath Toy Storage

Lori's Boon Frog Pod is brilliant!

Showering in bathrooms shared with kids usually involves scooping a dozen toys out of the tub and into god-knows-where before you can hop in. Since I'm usually just visiting while on vacation it's no biggie for me, but imagine doing that every day? No thank you! I wonder how the parents manage.

Well, I was so impressed when I saw this huge frog stuck to the wall of the shower at my boyfriend's sister house. Clearly, she's not into having any of that morning hassle either! I totally snapped this photo of it when I got out of the shower because parents everywhere need to know about the Boon Frog Pod. It scoops, drains, and store bath toys. Brilliant! It's also BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free. Woo hoo!

If you don't like frogs, Boon also makes whale and ladybug pods in various colors.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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7 Healthy Bathroom Air Fresheners

Everybody poops, so we keep a box of matches by the toilet.

Lots of people find that lighting and burning a match for a few minutes covers up post poop stench. I don't fully understand the science behind it but the [skeptics] website suggests the sulfur dioxide created by lighting a match is working the magic. They write:

In the initial burst of combustion products there is therefore a lot of sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is an extremely pungent substance, to which the smell receptors are extremely sensitive. But it also has a very efficient numbing effect on the sense of smell. You can smell a minute amount of sulfur dioxide, but when you have done so, you will not smell anything else for a while.

A little Zum Mist goes a long way. Hence, I've had this bottle forever.

Aromatherapy mist is a great choice if you'd like to cover funks with a more pleasant smell. Just be sure to choose one without fragrances or other synthetic ingredients. I love Zum Mist Aromatherapy Room and Body Spray. It smells lovely and more importantly it has only four ingredients- purified water, pure essential oils, aloe and vegetable glycerin- all of which are safe. You can make your own simple room spray by mixing 1 cup of water with 5 drops of your favorite essential oil or oils in a mist bottle.

Richard gifted me this gorgeous Laurel Leaf & Olive scented Lucia soy candle for Xmas!

Naturally scented candles are also a nice choice. I like to keep one burning in the bathroom whenever I have a party. It not only keeps the rooms smelling warm and fresh but the glow helps guests find the light switch. Avoid toxic paraffin candles. Beeswax candles are the healthiest choice, followed by soy wax candles. Choose candles with cotton or wood wicks. You won't find these kinds of candles in the dollar store but the value difference is huge.

Juniper Ridge Incense. Image from GravelandGold.com

I like incense but when I pass incense vendors of the street and the smell of it makes my stomach turn. According to Mountain Rose Herbs website, "Mass manufactured incense blends contain synthetic fragrances, chemical binders, and petroleum by-products that often have negative impacts on our health and harmony. This is exacerbated as we burn these combustibles in our homes and breathe them in." That explains it. Not all incense is created equally! Juniper Ridge has great incense sticks made from 100% wild harvested herbs, woods, and sap. They're made without fragrance. Mountain Rose Herbs sells burnable bundles of plants like sage and mugwort.

Indoor lavender plant. Image from Gardeners.com

Once in a while someone gives me flowers. I try not to hog them all for my desk and put some of the bunch in the bathroom. I am grateful every time I enter my bathroom. I think a fragrant lavender or rosemary plant would be nice in there too.

An open box of baking soda behind the toilet can help absorb offensive odors. The fridge-n-freezer pack would work too without the risk of spilling.

My bathroom window stays open pretty much all the time.

If you have a window in your bathroom, keep it open and enjoy the fresh air.

To learn why it's better to choose natural alternatives to commercial air fresheners, check out this fact sheet from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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