Monthly Archives: August 2008
Product Review: Twist
| August 31, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I have another eco-friendly company to add to my list of favorites! Twist was founded in 2006 by Egil Wigert and Brian Ross. They saw that while almost every other product in the cleaning aisle had changed, sponges had not.
Sponges are made from cellulose sheets which are 100% tree fiber and then they mix it with cotton. All of this leads to lots of waste. Twist has changed this by making sure 99.97% of the waste they make is reused in production. They get there cellulose from renewable tree farms in Norway.
Here is the info and my thoughts and the products they make-
Euro Sponge #10
This sponge is awesome, I’m not a big sponge user but this one is a shape I like better, it’s a bit more like a cloth. It’s very strong but biodegradable! It’s great for spills. It is dishwasher safe so you can use it over and over. You can also boil it to sterilize it.
European Sponge Cloth #20
I love these!!! They are like a sponge got it on with a paper towel and had an awesome love child. They wipe like a paper towel but absorb like a sponge. One Euro Sponge Cloth outlasts 17 rolls of paper towels! That is a lot of waste and money saved. They also can be put in the dishwasher or boiled so you can use them over and over. And of course they are biodegradable. I have put mine in the dishwasher and they came out great. Another neat fact is that they disappear after 7 weeks when buried in soil!
Loofah Sponge #50
These are really cool. They have a cellulose sponge on one side and a loofah on the other. The loofah is great for scrubbing. I liked cleaning my counter with this sponge because if something was stuck on I could just turn it over to scrub. As all Twist products these are also biodegradable. They also don’t scratch things as easily as other heavy duty sponges. I meant to link to another bloggers post about how they really are biodegradable because she tested it but for the life of me I can’t remember which of the green blogs I read it was on. If you are reading please post the link. 
Naked Sponge #55
This sponge works like a normal sponge but is 100% cellulose and biodegradable of course! They are also dye-free which is another plus for the environment. They are great for day to day cleaning.
Bamboo Cloth #35
This is the favorite thing I got to try! I told my friend the other day I wish I could have a shirt made of this fabric! It’s so soft!!! These are my new dusting cloths, never will I go back to a t-shirt rag for dusting again. Those have been demoted to bathroom cleaning. They are made of bamboo (duh!) and corn. They are a great size for dusting and pick up more dust than your normal cloth, seem to work even better than microfiber on dust! And of course best of all when you can’t use them anymore they are 100% biodegradable. When they are dirty throw them in the washer and they are ready to use again. I have washed mine a few times and they hold up great.
Another neat thing about Twist is on all their product packaging there are little crafts. Like bird feeders and a bird mobile. I don’t have kids but I may still have to make a bird feeder or two.
Twist will be making more products soon including a plant based dish soap and biodegradable brooms! There will be a total of 12 different cleaning products. I can’t wait to see all of it!!
And for all my frugal readers, they are very affordable. The Euro Sponge (1-pack) is $1.99, European Sponge Cloth (3-pack) is $3.99, Loofah Sponge (2-pack) is $4.99, Naked Sponge (2-pack) is $2.79, and Bamboo Cloth (3-pack) is $3.99.
Twist products are sold at Whole Foods and other grocery stores around the US and Canada. Check out there website for local stores and online stores that carry their products.
Be sure to check out their site because I couldn’t begin to include all the wonderful things about them in this review. I very highly recommend these products. If you only plan to try one, my favorite was the bamboo cloths. They are amazing! Feel free to share your thoughts on these products as well.
Thrifty Green Thursday- Skip the sandwich bag
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
My husband just started his first teaching job and it’s 25 minutes from our house so he of course is not going to come home for lunch so I send him his lunch each day. For his sandwiches we use Wrap-N-Mats. These things are awesome. I just throw them in the washer after he uses them. They keep the sandwich fresh and the liner is food safe PEVA liner.
While you will pay $18.95 up front for a set of 3 you will end up saving a ton on sandwich bags and save lots of trash (plastic trash at that!).
I got mine from ReusableBags.com a favorite eco site of mine.
Now while I put my in the washer they say to hand wash, I have a front loader with a hand wash cycle and that is what I use. I of course don’t put them in the dryer.
They are PEVA plastic which from what I have read is safe but if you are worried about it you can use wax paper then the wrap (will stay fresher than just the wax paper). The plastic is lead free as well.
You will find more great tips here at Green Baby Guide
Giveaway: Dryer Balls from Nellie’s All Natural *closed*
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
The awesome people at Nellie’s All Natural want to help one of my readers go green with a set of dryer balls! So if you have been wanted to try them out here is a great chance. You can find more info about the on the website. But I will say I love mine!
Rules:
1. Post your e-mail!!!!! Every time people forget, you can’t win if you don’t leave an e-mail address. If you don’t want to leave it say in the comment that you don’t then send it to my e-mail address- love_cats05@yahoo.com (if you have a blogger account that has your e-mail that works as well, or if you fill it out in the info, just somewhere please!)
2. Go to Nellie’s All Natural and tell me a neat fact you learned about any of the products.
3. US addresses only.
4. Enter by Sept. 3rd at 11:59 p.m.
Have fun and tell your friends!
Product Review: Dryer Balls
| August 28, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Nellie’s All Natural dryer balls are a great way to not just save the environment but some money as well. I still buy some natural dryer sheets but I don’t use them in every load now. And dryer balls work GREAT for pillows and bulky items. They help get rid of wrinkles and do really make clothes softer.
I feel like the dryer balls from Nellie’s All Natural are much nicer than the cheap ones I got. They are bigger for one which seems to work better.
Also dryer balls reduce drying time by making sure clothes get moved around better, I have found this with my sheets for sure! Once again good for money and the environment!
Dryer balls also come in handy when you dryer stops spinning because the belt broke because you hear your dryer balls aren’t making noise haha. I hope that is never something they help you with but it was nice for me when it happened.
So go check out Nellie’s All Natural, they have other cool products as well. And the next post will have a set of dryer balls for you to win!
WFMW: Reusable Swiffers
| August 27, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I don’t have time to take pictures of mine but check out the page below to make your own reusable Swiffer duster. I love mine!! I don’t have a sewing machine, I did it by hand, it’s not super pretty but it works great! I got some really good microfiber to make mine. I hope to make more so I always have one clean. I use mine everyday and then just throw it in the washer when it’s dirty.
Think of all the waste and money you will save not buying the throw away kind.
Bowl Appetit
| August 26, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Betty Crocker’s Bowl Appetit pasta bowls are one of the few items my husband still eats that aren’t organic or close to natural. I can’t seem to find something to replace it. It needs to be quick so he can make it himself at work and taste good. The Annie’s micro mac & cheese didn’t work so what now??
Doesn’t have to be organic just not so far from natural would be good. Anyone got ideas? My husband will try just about anything. And if it’s cheaper he is really likely to stick to it lol.
Winner of Soda Club Giveaway!
| August 24, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Kygirl is the winner of the awesome Soda Club Giveaway.
Thanks to everyone that entered!!! Keep coming back. I’m going to post another giveaway today or tomorrow!
How Do You Food Shop?
| August 22, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I’m a kind of nosy person I blame my mom for it. So I was wondering how you grocery shop. Here is what I do, in case you are noisy like me.
My husband and I shop together for a few reasons. First off he has a hard time remembering to tell me everything he wants to make sure it ends up on the list and so I would rather he just picked out his snacks so if he doesn’t have enough or doesn’t like something it’s his own doing. Also I don’t drive so that would make it hard haha. AND we drive over an hour to grocery shop. Yes I know not very eco-friendly of us BUT it’s only once a month and we are in a small town with a Wal-Mart (no organic food there, or VERY VERY little), a small grocery store (also no organic) and a very small health food store (couldn’t begin to get all our food there).
So we go to Norman (the home of the OU Sooners) and go to Super Target and this awesome health food store called Dodson’s Nutritional Food Center.
Anyway, shopping for me starts a good week or two before the trip to the store. I start searching the web for coupons and recipes. I also clean out my kitchen to know what food we need and what we don’t. I plan recipes using what we have and fill in after that. As I find recipes I put them on my meal plan list and put any ingredients I need on my shopping list.
The week of our trip (we go on a Friday) I check Super Target’s specials and coupons. I then print all the coupons I will be using and go through the ones I already have and get them grouped together so it’s easier when paying. I also check amazon.com if it’s something that would be good to get in bulk.
The day of, I get all my shopping bags together, my coupon file, and my list and then after my hubby is off work we head to Norman. We normally stop at PetSmart to get at least a small treat for our dog if we don’t need food that month, then we go eat (this is one of the few times a month we eat out), then we go to the health food store to get what we can’t get at Super Target, then to Super Target. Normally I get some Cold Stone ice cream and Justin gets Starbucks (I know not very eco of us but it’s once a month so a rare treat.), and then the shopping starts, sometimes Justin has non food items and he will go get that stuff while I start food shopping to save some time, then when we are done we go to the check out, I help the checker fill my shopping bags, give him or her my coupons, and we both go into shock at that total. We must keep telling ourselves it’s cheaper than eating out and it’s for our health.
Then throughout the month we get milk at our local Braum’s which is a store that sales from a local dairy (all no hormone or antibiotic milk) and sometimes have to go to Walgreens for a few items we run out of but this is rare and it’s more often we go because they have a sale on something we use a lot.
Most people think we are crazy for shopping once a month but it really cuts down on our bills. First off it would be crazy to drive an hour each way to shop once a week, it just wouldn’t happen and my husband works full time and is going to school full time so time is an issue. We don’t buy as much extra crap when we shop like this and we always have lots of food. I do a lot of freezing of food so that it lasts the whole month.
A new thing that will be added in with our food shopping is seeing my best friend, she just moved up there so we plan to go out to eat with her or get ice cream or something. So all the more reason it’s worth it to shop so far away. Also this is pretty common in my town for people to go up there to do shopping, we all seem to hate Wal-Mart around here.
I was so proud last month, it was my first month to have enough bags to use only reusable bags for our whole months worth of shopping! What a wonderful feeling.
So how do you shop? Alone? With a friend? Spouse? Once a week? Once a month? Whenever you need something? Do you have a list? Do you use coupons? Come on share your maybe dirty secrets. I shared that I eat ice cream almost every time I go shopping lol.
The Waste Of Fast Food
| August 20, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I have severe food allergies which has been helpful for one thing, I eat at home almost all the time. We have a favorite Italian place in town (well they have two locations with different menus at each.) which is the only place we go to other than the rare fast food, because the staff is well trained and the owners are almost always around and the wife is a former nurse. So they can deal with my allergy. Anyway they have real dishes, cloth napkins and such so just remember not to use a straw and I’m good.
But today my mom and I went to Subway and while they have no mushrooms (what my allergy is to) and it’s pretty low calorie and not as full of crap as other fast food, it’s shocking the amount of waste. They made our sandwiches on the wax paper like things, then wrap them in more paper, give you a paper napkin, put the paper wrapped sandwich in a plastic bag, give you a paper cup with a plastic lid or if you wanted water like me you get a plastic cup (#6 the HORROR!) and you can even get a plastic straw if you want to. I should have asked for no bag or napkin but didn’t think fast enough and was sure if I took it back they would throw it out. I did take my napkin home and I of course checked to see if the cup could be recycled but NO.
I will say the napkin was 100% recycled so kudos for that Subway. And I know fast food has to be some what wasteful. I wish they would use paper for as much as they can and all recycled and for plastic cups #1 or #2. I saw Starbucks now uses #1 plastic cups so it can be done! (I take my own still…)
I still feel guilty for the amount of trash wasted for one meal haha. My husband would just roll his eyes, maybe this is why he doesn’t read my blog.
On a better note the rest of our trip was pretty eco-friendly. We went to the farmers market, sadly nothing we wanted but we were armed with reusable bags just in case. Went to a few stores for my mom to do some grocery shopping and my mom used her reusable bags in both stores, I was so proud. We also stopped by recycling to drop off lots of stuff.
I think next time I go to Subway I will remember to ask for no bag and take my Sigg bottle.
Product Review: Baggu Bags
| August 20, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I got to review a Baggu reusable bag. They fold in to tiny pouches which fit in purses so well! They come in great colors even ones guys can carry, which seems hard to find these days. They can hold up to 25 lbs! I love mine. I have used it a ton. They are also very stylish.
The company was started by a mother and daughter they wanted something very eco-chic and I think they have done it. They have been in Teen Vogue, iVillage, US Weekly, InStyle, and the list goes on.
If you haven’t started using reusable bags what are you waiting for? These start at only $8 a bag and lots of stores will give you a discount for using them. It’s such a low cost for saving our planet. Each bag holds the same as two-three plastic bags so you don’t need as many as you think. They are easier to carry and just so cute! If you want something cheap and easy to do to help save our planet buy some of these bags and start using them.
Baggu Bags can be found on amazon.com and in many stores. Check out BagguBag.com to find out what stores carry them and more info about them.
