And by deskunk, I literally mean how to get the skunk smell out if one of your pets (or god forbid, YOU) have tangoed with one of these smelly critters….its actually pretty simple, you just need 4 ingredients. White vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and water. If your carpet or couch are affected, I recommend a steam-type cleaner, I used a “Little Green Machine,” made by Bissell.

For carpeting (or upholstery, I’m guessing), sprinkle a liberal coating of baking soda on the affected area….don’t be afraid to use too much…we’ll take care of it in a moment or two. Now, if you don’t have a carpet/upholstery cleaner…you’re going to have to let the next step dry for a bit before you can vacuum it up…but spray some of the white vinegar directly onto the baking soda. It’ll fizz a bit, maybe a lot, depending how much of each ingredient you’re using. My entire house reeked before we did this…and I think if not all the smell, we got most of the smell out in about 10 minutes.

If you’re using a carpet cleaner…spare yourself the spraying and just add as much white vinegar to the resivoir as you would use cleaning solution….fill to where its to be filled with warm water….and apply to the carpet. I recommend spraying it on and letting it do its thing with the baking soda for a few seconds before extracting it all.

For the pet who’s been affected….do this as quickly as possible after the encounter. However, I rinsed our dog w/plain water last night and some shampoo, just to make sure her eyes were ok, and left her sleep on the old couch in the garage….so about 7-8 hours had passed before we tried this….

Mix two quarts of hydrogen peroxide with 1/2 a cup baking soda and rub into the pet’s fur. Let sit for just a moment or two…as long as you can with a wiggly critter. Then, rinse them well, and voila! They’ll be clean and should be stink free. If it doesn’t work, its safe to repeat…hopefully you’ll be lucky like we were and not have to repeat a second time.

If you actually need these tricks….I’m so sorry. We discovered very quickly that its not a pleasant experience. Hoping you never need to know this stuff….. Diane

Today is a bit of a rainy, dreary day, so with the exception of a couple of errands I just ran, I’ll be getting things done around the house today. I thought I’d share the little things I’m doing along the way that help make an average day’s activities a little greener….

I’m about to sit down and serge some cloth baby wipes. For months after I began cloth diapering, I just never switched over to cloth wipes. I thought that disposable ones were easier and just never went past that. However….I soon realized that picking used disposable wipes out of a poopy diaper is just not appealing. If you use cloth, you don’t have to bother with that…..they just go in the wash right along with the diapers. They’re handy that way. And they’re really soft and cute (see above photo). And….they’re green.

I have down a few loads of laundry today with my Purex Natural Elements detergent. It’s concentrated, so the bottle isn’t excessivly large. Its ingredients are Earth-friendly. And it smells veryyummy with it’s natural apple & melon scent! While I don’t find that it’s a great cloth diaper detergent, I love it for the rest of our laundry.

Later on, I need to clean my linoleum floors (which I recently discovered are relatively green themselves! But that’s another story for another day.). I absolutely despise mops, so when I clean our linoleum, I get down on hands and knees and scrub. I use cotton bar towels (love the natural fibers) and I just pour straight vinegar onto the floor. My floors have never felt and looked so clean as they do with a good vinegar scrubbing!!

So….what have you done today that’s green?