I had to go back

So I got out for a minute today to pick up some snacks to take to bunco tonight and mail a package. I stopped back to look at the sewing machine at the thrift shop again. And take some photos. And convince myself I do not need to buy it, even if it is only $5.

I talked to the guy a bit and gave him some information.

Ugh. So tempting. But my research seems to indicate it will cost a lot more money and trouble to have it refurbished than to buy one in working condition.

He is thinking about putting it on Ebay for parts. He was shocked to learn how much interest there is online for these in good condition. I told him I was shocked to walk in and see it just sitting there. He has had it for ten years.

Is it worth it? Is there any point in trying to find someone to restore it? Or should I just save my pennies and be glad I did a good turn letting this guy know what he had? I just know if I get it it will sit in my garage forever and I would hate that. This poor thing has already lived in an abandoned storage locker and with a dealer for ten years. It needs someone who knows how to revive it and will do it.

Cleaning up the cleaning supplies…

My green focus for the year is detoxification. I want to start moving all the toxins out of our house (and my body) and start educating myself and using more natural choices. I decided I may as well start with the kitchen.

Here is what I use to clean 90% of the time:

I figured it probably wasn’t perfect and was a lot of fancy labeling, but I was a little surprised to see it got an F from the EWG. I am still not entirely sure why. Most of the ingredients get A. It is the non descript “coloring, perservatives and fragrance” that give it an F. It is unknown if it is tested on animals. So, if my “good” cleaner gets an F…. time for a change. They do have better scoring cleaners, but let’s get down to basics. Then we know exactly what we are dealing with.

I have been doing a lot of research. The most recent blog I have gotten my information from is liverenewed.com, where I am currently following her green in 365 days series. But for this post, I am using 31 days to green clean. If I come across other sites I use, I will link those as well. So, my kitchen is a mess. It was errand day, and I thought no time like the present. So the kidlet and I trekked out today to a variety of places in part in search of cleaning ingredients.

Well, first I stopped at a little new thrift store that opened up down the street. We are mysteriously short on knives, and I have a sudden, inexplicable desire for mason jars. We didn’t find either of those there, but dude had a featherweight. For $5! I didn’t get it. I didn’t think it was worth carrying the item to the car. And further research has shown me that it will probably cost me more to repair this thing than to buy one in working condition. The belt was broken, the cord was frayed and covered in electrical tape, it was rusted throughout, it was missing part of the base. *sigh* He didn’t really know what it was – “an old Singer” that he got in a storage auction that he’s had for years. Ugh. Tell me I need to go back for it!

Then we checked My Favorite Fabric Store. Which has been anything but lately…. If’n they ever start selling the quilting cotton again, I will do a post about them.   But I used to drop a lot of money every week there, and I haven’t spent a dime in months. They are like a big fabric hunt hit or miss. I am actually in withdrawal. It’s been all apparel fabric lately.

Then we hit Dollar Tree. I was kind of surprised they did not have my shopping list items there. No baking soda or vinegar, etc… But what I did find were a variety of microfiber cloths, towels and bar mops.  We are in mid transition to cloth rather than paper products. I mainly use kitchen towels to clean and cloth napkins, but my husband is still pretty married to paper towels – for cooking, cleaning and napkins. I keep trying to encourage him to avoid them, but he keeps buying them. I also got some spray bottles. I have read criticism about using plastic, particularly from places like Dollar Tree, but I am taking one thing at a time. Once I have the cleaning down I will start investigating the containers. For now, we aren’t microwaving it or eating out of it, so I am not too worried.

Cloths from Dollar Tree: $1/1-3, Spray bottles: $1, Parmesan container: I am a container hoarder.

Well, now we’d been doing a lot of running around, and I was getting tired of the car seat. I had wanted to go to Goodwill for knives and mason jars, but they were a lot further away (All these other stores were all in the same area) and wouldn’t have the cleaning supplies. So I opted instead to stay focused on our main purpose and stopped instead at Walmart, which we passed on the way back home. Here, I collected baking soda, washing soda, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol (both of which we probably already had, but, you know), natural dish soap, knives (2/$1), and mason jars ($10/12. I can probably do better at thrift stores and will continue to look, but it’s a start).

Vinegar (on hand), Baking Soda: $2.24, Washing Sida: $3.24, Alcohol: $.97, Peroxide: $.88 and $1.23, Dish soap: $2.97

I knew we had a big jug of vinegar at home already, and I had trouble finding it at walmart. I also asked no less than THREE people where the Castile Soap is, not including Siri, and they all looked at me like I had three heads. Not only did they not know where it was, they didn’t know WHAT it was. So, I will have to keep looking for that. Once I got home, I noticed my baking soda has a huge gouge in the bottom. You can see some of the loss on the table. I have it in a ziplock now. Oh well.

Here are my new cleaning supplies (s0 far):

1/2 vinegar. 1/2 water all purpose spray
Baking Soda shaker

Well, it’s too late to clean now! LOL I will let you know how it goes. 😉