Commiserated with and by Accidental Housewife Julie Edelman Greetings fellow (or is it feline!) women! Welcome to the debut of "Hints from Hysteria Lane," a new social networking place just for us overscheduled, underappreciated moms where you and I will share, vent and exchange tips, tricks, personal stories and anything else that comes to mind, (PG please!) as we try to balance our daily lives and chaos. This will be our place to build a real relationship and community as we deal with whatever life throws at us, on what I lovingly refer to as Hysteria NOT Wisteria Lane — day to day, manicure to manicure, with and without our favorite libation or latte. And, in the process we’ll breathe a little more and realize that taking a break from the stuff being a mom overloads us with is OK and that we shouldn’t feel guilty when we do or say I can’t do any more because we’re all doing the best we can… Not in comparison to our mom, mother-in-law, best friend or Martha, but in relation to what works for us and our own personal style and schedule. So as we shuttle our kids to and from school and sports practices, work in the home or in an office, food shop, clean, do laundry, organize our homes and lives, keep our family from starvation and oh yes, maybe even squeeze in a manicure or that long overdue "root redo" -- we’ll feel there’s a light at the end of the laundry vent, or at least Hints from Hysteria Lane where we can vent. And, just as I do when I’m on TODAY with Kathy Lee and Hoda, my number one goal is to help make you smile and help you maintain your home, sanity and manicure. So in the days, weeks and months ahead we’ll share real life, real lack of time, easy, money-saving tips and tricks to deal with what life on Hysteria Lane throws our way including trying to be green enough — beginning with this week and the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. It's hard to believe it’s that old and that I was merely a babe wearing non-decomposable/land filling diapers then, but alas more on that in a moment. Now it's time to take a breath and start connecting TODAY on Hysteria Lane! A convenient truth: Just enough eco-friendly tips to celebrate Earth Day's 40th birthday!The environment is big news these days and particularly this week with Earth Day's 40th anniversary. And, clearly it’s for good reason since we’ve taken Mother Earth for granted. So it’s time to wake up, and though we may not need be smelling some organically grown coffee that we brew in our solar-powered coffeemaker, we can be greening without it being intimidating. And I’m not suggesting we take Sheryl Crow’s lead and count out toilet paper squares for our loved ones, nor that we become the queen of green overnight. That is not me and I trust not most of us… and besides it’ll create more laundry from our loved ones who won’t wipe their posteriors well! But the truth is, with relatively little effort or inconvenience in our everyday lives we can help save our planet one drip, watt, nontoxic cleaner at a time. And, in the process we’ll also save money as well as the Earth as well as money, which we can use toward a facial, massage or even that long overdue weekend away . . . And that my friends and in homage to Ms. Crow is, “All I wanna do!” So let’s start with the easy stuff: Using handy dandy, everyday household goodies to do some of those chores that bore! By the way in my introduction I mentioned landfills and my diapers, well here’s a scary fact: it takes 500 years for a disposable diaper to degrade and about 18 billion diapers wind up in landfills each year. Yuk and wow! For those of you who missed me on TODAY this morning, I showed Kathy Lee and Hoda some everyday staples around the home that are not only eco-friendly but are great household multi-taskers. Beginning with mayo! Bet you didn’t know that it not only makes great tuna salad, but can polish furniture and remove water ring marks! That’s right. It can also shine tires, plant leaves and remove glue from labels and stickers -- so next time you bring out the mayo, bring out the shine too! Here are a few other household, manicure-friendly, multi-taskers that you can find right at your fingertips.
Rice to the rescue: Uncooked rice:
- Coffee Grinder: It cleans and sharpens the blades at the same time.
- Cell phones: If you drop them in water or your phone gets wet, put in dry, raw rice to absorb the moisture.
Salad and shine: Extra virgin olive oil:
- Polishes hard wood floors.
- Removes eye make-up.
- Helps with squeaky doors.
- Removes candle wax.
Crystal clear: Kool Aid/Crystal Light (unsweetened lemonade flavor):
- Cleans dishwashers.
- Cleans toilets.
Smack attack: Lip balm:
- Fixes squeaky doors.
- Loses stuck drawers or doors.
Not the same ol' rind: Lemons:
- Cleans your microwave. Grab a lemon, cut it in half and squeeze the lemon into a bowl of water. Zap the bowl of lemon water for five minutes. Once cooled remove the bowl and wipe down any remaining yuck with paper towel.
- Cleans copper kettles.
- Naturally Sanitizes/cleans counters, switch plates, etc.
Breath of fresh air: Listerine:
- Disinfectant which kills germs.
- Use on counters, showers, rids tough stains and mineral build up.
- Floors, mix cap in gallon of water for linoleum floors.
- Mold and mildew on grout: Spray and let sit for a few minutes.
New news for old fav: Newspapers:
- Shine faucets.
- Cleans mirrors.
- Absorbs odors. (Is that why we read it in the bathrooms?)
Roll with it: Aluminum Foil:
- Polishes silver: Place sheet of aluminum foil on bottom of a pan. Put in cold water and two tablespoons of salt and let sit for three minutes.
- Pot scrubber vs. scouring pads.
Now it's time to share some of your ideas. Post them here and we may share your thoughts in an upcoming Hints from Hysteria Lane. Learn more about Accidental Housewife Julie Edelman and get more of her helpful advice by visiting her site: TheAccidentalHousewife.comRelated stories:Video: Julie Edelman shares some of her favorite green spring cleaning tips