Walnuts and pumice clean kitchen pots, flower pots and...feet!

In the world of natural products there are some surprising ingredient overlaps. The Goodbye Detergent! line of cleaning scrubs and pads has products that use walnut shells and pumice as gentle abrasives: the Kitchen Cleaning Pads for Enamel and for Anodized Aluminum, and the Outdoor Scouring Pad Soft. A favorite product of ours from the world of skin care also uses walnut shells and pumice: the Buffing Bar from Collective Wellbeing. It blends pure volcanic pumice and ground walnut shells in a gentle vegetable oil base, for a serious soap for smoothing thickened, rough skin on the feet. Goodbye Detergent's Kitchen Cleaning Pad for anodized aluminum has ground up walnut shells on the surface of the spongy pad that allow you to use less, or no detergent when washing pots and pans. The Kitchen Cleaning Pad for Enamel has a layer of pumice for cleaning needs that require a little more grit than walnut shells provide. The Outdoor Scouring Pad Soft is great for cleaning patio furniture and the outsides of flower pots. It gets stuff clean without detergents, and without leaving scratch marks like metal scouring pads. So, whether you're cleaning your body or your environment, pumice and walnut shells can get the job done; no chemicals needed.

Electrolyzed Alkaline Water

Alkaline water?

It sounds so scary, so chemical... yet it's slowly but surely becoming a conversation topic for eco-minded folks curious about the alternative ways to clean and be clean, without doing damage to the environment.

At this point, its popularity has been more fervent in countries such as Korea and Japan, but the curiosity has spread around the world.

In this LA Times article, Marla Dickerson writes:

"The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water -- hardly as catchy as Mr. Clean...

Used as a sanitizer for decades in Russia and Japan, it's slowly winning acceptance in the United States. A New York poultry processor uses it to kill salmonella on chicken carcasses. Minnesota grocery clerks spray sticky conveyors in the checkout lanes. Michigan jailers mop with electrolyzed water to keep potentially lethal cleaners out of the hands of inmates."

If you're one to Google everything, you'll find many companies marketing their ionizers to make drinkable alkaline water for the home. Or you'll find information on large, industrial-sized machines that electrolyze alkaline water for mass usage. But you'll be hard pressed to find a solid, legitimate article or product that focuses directly on consumer-based, household usage electrolyzed alkaline water cleaning products.

What's great about electrolyzed alkaline water?

As far as we are able to research, it seems to be considered a miraculous method of de-greasing, disinfecting, and cleaning. AND IT'S JUST WATER! Articles such as FoodMagazine and Raw People list the benefits of alkaline water (an objective viewpoint!) for your body and overall balance and well-being.

We all know that there are risks in believing what you read on-line. If there's no stamp of certification, or published scientific proof reports, we are wary of drinking and being in contact with something as odd sounding as "electrolyzed alkaline water".

But we have a strong feeling that soon, very soon, we will be hearing more about this concept. And with hope, we say that perhaps every home might consider the benefits of switching to more environmentally-friendly methods of cleaning!