How can I be sure a new article of clothing is colorfast and what is the test when using color safe bleach?
This is mostly common sense, but there are also some simple tests that take very little time to be sure your clothing is not damaged when washing or bleaching.
With a new article of clothing, especially on vibrant colors, always do this quick test before washing for the first time. Moisten an inside seam, and rub with a white cotton towel or a cotton ball. If any of the color transfers to the white cloth or ball, treat this article of clothing like dynamite. It has the potential to turn sports socks pink, make blue jeans purple, and other wise ruin perfectly good clothing.
Wash separately, according to the manufacturers label. One garment can be easily laundered in a sink to save energy, instead of running your washer with only one piece of clothing in it! Wash in cold water to prevent the dye from running out, and follow the label for drying. If the clothing cannot be placed in a dryer, wrap it up in an old terry towel, to remove as much moisture as possible, before laying flat to dry. Hanging a non-colorfast garment to dry, may leave dye run marks. For articles of clothing that can be placed in a dryer, the heat will usually set the color, making the piece colorfast, but to be certain, re-test before the next laundering.
As for bleaches, the two most common types are chlorine (whites) and oxygen (all-fabric) based. For either of these you will mix a small amount to use as a tester. For whites mix a tablespoon of chlorine bleach in a cup of water, for colors mix 1 teaspoon of all fabric bleach to a cup of water. Place a drop on an inside seam, or on a shirttail. Allow the drop to sit for 5 to 10 minutes, and check to see if the color has lightened. If it does not change color, it is safe to treat with that type of bleach. You can add the remaining test mixture into the wash water, but always be sure to follow the manufacturers directions for dilution rates.
Baking soda also makes a great stain remover when used in tandem with other substances, such as lemon juice and vinegar. Simply mix the liquids with the powder until they become a paste, and apply to the surface using a scrub brush.
Cleaning your microwave is as simple as microwaving a cup of water for about five minutes. When it’s done, the inside should be nice and steamy, and wiping out the grime inside will be easier than trying to wipe off the hardened baked on food from multiple plates of leftover spaghetti with sauce incinerated to oblivion.
I also sometimes add a slice of lemon (if I have any) to make the aroma more pleasant. And if the teenagers have been particularly messy I may have to repeat to procedure a few times to get the inside spic and span…
Also be careful not to burn your self with the hot water etc.
The number one rule for speed cleaning is to have quick and easy access to your tools and supplies. When it’s time to clean, it zaps all of your motivation when you have to hunt for needed supplies. Consider creating a cleaning caddy for different areas of your home. You’ll always have your supplies right where you need them.
I place a mini cleaning kit under each sink so I can touch up washrooms if I have a last minute guest. The mini cleaning kit in the kitchen I have what I need to touch up kitchen counters, tables, doors, walls if I need to do an emergency clean up or if last minute guests show up. I keep a mini dust mop/doodle bug in the closet so I can touch up spills or do a quick spray and wipe of the dirty spots on the floors.
ActiveIon’s Ionator HOM is a battery operated cleaning machine that is a green alternative to the everyday chemicals people use in cleaning. It ionizes the water by giving it a slight electrical charge. Intended as a replacement for endless bottles of spray cleaner, the device converts regular tap water into an ionized mist that lifts dirt off of surfaces and kills bacteria. There are no chemicals involved. It is really an excellent way to completely make you’re cleaning chemical free… if it works.
For two months we’ve been putting it through its paces in both a home and commercial environment to see how it stands up. Can regular tap water clean what normally you use Windex, or any other general purpose cleaner around the house.
Activeion Ionator Hom Review
The ionater has a refillable reservoir which you fill with normal tap water. The receptacle holds about a cup and a half, or 350mL, of water; you fill it up with regular tap water, pop it back into the spray bottle and you’re good to go. There’s no instructions necessary and the shape of the receptacle means it only fits into the gun one way. I found the spray bottle to be designed well; it’s more sturdy and stable than any standard spray bottle.
Activeion Ionator Battery Life
I have found the charge lasts a very long time, hours and hours of cleaning in fact. There is an LED light that glows green when it is being used, letting you know it is working properly, and it glows red when it needs a charge or it is not working properly. It says that if you put anything in the reservoir other than water it will not work.
Using the Activeion Ionator
Once it’s charged and filled, you just hit the trigger button and spray the watery mist over whatever you need to clean. It raises dirt, grease, fingerprints etc. up off the surface, and then you simply wipe it away.
I used it on all the surfaces where I would use glass cleaner or general purpose cleaner. Glass, mirrors, counters, stove top, tables, switch plates, door jams, doors, toilet seats and edges. It pretty much did the job that every cleaner I had in the house did except inside the toilet bowl. Since the bowl is already full of water it could not clean the bowl, so I still used the standard bowl cleaner and brush. But I have to say I was impressed that it pretty much has the ability to reduce the amount of chemicals in the house to just one, my toilet bowl cleaner.
My Favorite Things About the Activeion Ionator
What I liked about it as well since we are just talking ionized water, I also used it as a hand sanitizer. So after cleaning I would just spray my hands and rub around for several seconds and dry. Also by keeping it under the sink it was a back up hand sanitizer for the kids as well if they didn’t clean up before a quick lunch break etc.
No Chemicals
To me, the complete lack of chemicals is the best thing about the Ionator. I can spray it all over my cooking surface, cutting boards and knives without having to worry about dousing them in chemicals I’ll later ingest. The Ionator leaves behind no residue or chemical scent. With the added bonus of never running out of cleaner, as long your battery is charged.
What I didn’t Like About Activeion Ionator
The base is stable and the design is solid, the only issue I had was a couple of times the unit was not upright went stored and I noticed the water from the reservoir leaked out of the reservoir and in between the plastic the protects the computer control panel. So water was inside the actual unit and my perception is that if I operated the unit that the computer panel might have shorted out. So I drained the water out as best as I could and let it dry out completely before using (a few days). The plastic housing is clear which is cool because you see the computer control panel so you know you are using a high tech devise, which was good otherwise I would have never seen the water inside. It might be better if this computer control panel was water tight in future designs.
It does spray a lot of ionized water, so you have to have lots of good cotton or microfiber cleaning cloths on hand to effective clean and polish.
Some Final Thoughts…
Every time you hit the button to spray, the water receptacle glows green with an “okay” light. If it glows red, something is wrong with the ionizing mechanism concealed in the body. The company says the device will effectively ionize for about three years. Since we only tested it out for two months, we have no way of confirming this. So I am not sure if you have to replace it every three years or you just use it until it always glows red when you use it.
My hope is it last longer than three years, my guess is that it would save about $50 per year clean cleaning chemical for an average family living in an average three bedroom home. So it would have to last at least three years to get your investment back. Although it seems like there is a large benefit to cleaning your home with no chemicals that you can’t put a price tag on.
In my case my wife was diagnosed with cancer early in the year, and while I am certain she didn’t get cancer as a result of our cleaning chemicals that fact that she is a 40 year old woman getting cancer just makes you realize that we sort of life in a toxic world. I think that if you can do even a very small thing to reduce the amount of toxic residue when we live our day to day life, it is hard to imagine that not helping.
From a practical point of view having someone in the house going through Chemotherapy the Ionater has been excellent as well since keeping the house clean is very important since her immune system is compromised as well as she has sensitivity to smells and the unit produces no smells when cleaning.
Activeion Ionator: My Verdict
The Ionator’s hefty price tag may dissuade some; but we hope people won’t be swayed into not buying one out of sheer scepticism at its tap water fuel source. The device cleans fantastically, as well as or better than household cleaners in our opinion, and we find the chemical-free nature of it to be a huge plus. I highly recommend this product.
Soft cloth, Computer cleaning fluid, compressed air, pre-treated computer wipes, vacuum and computer vacuum attachments. Before cleaning the keyboard, shut down your computer, and unplug the keyboard.
Technique:
1. Turn the keyboard upside down and shake so loose dust, dirt, and food crumbs will fall out. Spray between the keys with compressed air or vacuum the keyboard. If you are vacuuming the keyboard, leave it key side up and work in a well lit area. Specialized vacuum attachments are available that slip onto a regular sized vacuum hose which reduces it to a very small opening with a variety of dusting and crevice attachments. This is the most efficient method because the vacuum becomes not only more powerful, but you will actually remove the offending debris as opposed to redistributing it with compressed air.
2. Wipe down the keyboard with a soft cloth dampened with your specialized computer cleaning fluid or plain water. Never spray any kind off chemical directly onto your office equipment, always spray a clean cloth and wipe the hardware. Use a cotton swab to clean between the keys. For hard to remove stains such as ink, use a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol or an alcohol saturated wipe.
3. If you spill cola or coffee in your keyboard the first thing to do stop working. Save your data using the mouse instead of key stroke commands, if possible, and quickly turn the keyboard upside down and unplug it. Allow as much of the fluid as possible to drip from the keyboard, and wipe it down as described above.
4. Although not recommended for the faint of heart, there are more extreme measures you can take to rescue a liquid saturated keyboard. Unplug the keyboard and borrow a co workers for the next couple of days. If the keyboard has an old, or dried spill, you must first saturate the dried liquid. This means submersing it (yes, completely underwater) in a pan of water for a few hours, press any sticky keys to help loosen the dried material. When the dried spill has dissolved into the pan of water, or if the spill is fresh, rinse off the keyboard with distilled water. Use distilled water, as tap water contains minerals that can affect performance even after it is dry. Allow the keyboard to air dry for at least a day or two.
5. Sssssingle sssssticky keysssss can be removed on most keyboards. Just use a small flat head screwdriver to pry the offending key off and after cleaning they snap right back on. Use the corner of a soft cloth or a cotton swab and to clean the key socket as best you can, using a special computer cleaner, rubbing alcohol, or distilled water. If you remove more than one key, remember where it belongs! In fact, it was someone cleaning a typewriter decades ago who wasn’t paying attention, that left us with the jumbled Qwerty mess that we have today.
6. Remember keyboards are inexpensive and plentiful, with each upgraded computer there is usually a lonely unused keyboard sitting in a box in the IT department.
Gung Hey Fat Choy (a New Year greeting meaning “May you become prosperous.).The year of the Rabbit starts on February 3rd according to our Western calendars. While the western world celebrated year 2001 according to Gregorian calendars, the traditional Chinese are celebrating the coming of the 18th year in the 78th cycle of a repeating 60 year calendar. The long and short means that this is Chinese new year 4638 since the introduction of this calendar in 2637 B.C.
Well, now that everyone, including me, is thoroughly confused I can get to the cleaning bit. My wife is Chinese, and I can say there are more traditions, superstitions, and things to do with ‘luck’ than I can ever hope to remember.
The big one for us on Chinese New Year is to do with cleaning. The last week or so of the Chinese calendar is spent cleaning the home. Not just vacuuming and dusting, but heavy duty cleaning. We are washing away the last year, getting ready for a fresh start.
That seems reasonable, but part of the reasoning is that when the new year arrives, you should NOT do any cleaning. This is so you don’t sweep out any of the good luck that arrives with the new year. I thought wow! This is a great way to start a new year, considering when hung over, the last thing you want to do is scrub the toilets. My glee subsided when I was caught on a bit of a technicality. Apparently bathing, brushing teeth, doing dishes, and normal regular cleaning are acceptable, but just nothing ‘extra’.
I know the ‘extra’ thing is subjective, but it is nice being held to your own opinion of what is acceptable. We have even carried over this ‘tradition’ to the western New Year, and on the 1st of January our duster and vacuum stay in the linen closet, right where we put them at the end of December.
There are two sources of recycled content, PCW (post consumer waste) made from resources already used. Flyers or newspapers you have read and have recycled etc keeping it out of the garbage. The other is pre-consumer waste, printing over runs, trim from newspaper etc. still good but not as good as keeping paper out of the landfill from material we have used already. The PCW content varies from 10% -100% so check the label.
You can refresh your black clothes by adding bluing, or strong coffee, or tea (2 cups) to the rinse water. Although I prefer the bluing (found in the laundry section of most stores) to Grandmas old fashioned method of coffee or tea…I prefer to drink my coffee. Actually with two young kids and a full-time job I NEED to drink my coffee!
They should return to their original dark black state. To prevent future fading, wash them in cold water, with Ivory Flakes plus only a small amount of detergent.
