Ruby Wax rules my universe...
Love the way the universe spurs us into action. Last week I wrote on my profile, tell god your plans and she'll have a good laugh. Well I bet she was ROFL this morning.
Having decided on the niche of natural cleaning products, I've been trying to locate some locally to test. I've got to know what I'm talking about. But that a pretty tall order in here in Turkey. I've found a website, but it's all in Turkish. The supermarkets are very um, well let's say I've found 2 types of washing up liquid, and some all purpose cleaner that we use on the boat, but that's about it as far as alternatives go. I went into a natural food store and asked, and he directed me to the supermarket next door. When I asked 'do?al?' (Natural), he shook his head.
So, the challenge is on. I've been looking at the state of my once-white-now-dingy-dirt-coloured rugs with dismay for some time. We paid around 150 lira to have them cleaned at a local car wash (some do rugs as well, good use of the high pressure hose) but I'm sure they came back greyer than before they went...
I've got to try something myself, I thought. I've got to do something to write about to show I know what I'm doing. The thought got pushed aside as we rescued our favourite street cat last week. Badly injured in one eye after a fight, she gave birth to three tiny kittens in the car park last Monday. We found them all in a patch of dirt under a scraggy bush, a tempting snack for the wild pigs that ocasionally wander from the mountain in search of tasty bin leftovers. So, going against my usual rule of bringing them inside, we now have a crate of gorgeous little kitties and a mum that thinks she's in a hotel.
Long story short, last night, mum was confused I think and couldn't wake us to let her out. Hubby woke me this morning with the news she had left a message on the kitchen rug. He'd found it with his foot and wasn't amused. "Look on the bright side," I quipped. "At least for once you were wearing your slippers..."
Joking aside, it was disgusting. I waved him off to work and stared in dismay, recalling Ruby Wax once deriding vegans, "I wipe 'natural' off the sole of my shoe..."
Yup, I think my god is Ruby Wax. So, still without the natural products I want, and have yet to learn how to ask for, I've just had to improvise with what I've got. So far I've sprayed the whole rug with a soapy solution of mild washing liquid and Sprinkled a little normal washing powder over it all. Now crunching the granules around the house on the base of my slippers and trying not to kill myself sliding over on the laminate. I'll be hoovering it all up after posting this and hoping that the results are better than the car wash and
worth all the effort.
Ah well, thank you kitty, thank you universe, thank you Ruby. You gotta laugh. At least the house will smell good. :-)
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Wonder how you got on.... generally a mixture of either white vinegar, water and baking soda or lemon juice and baking soda works well.
Sponge the carpet with a mixture of one quarter cup white vinegar and 2 cups of water. Then sprinkle the area with baking soda, leave for a few hours and vacuum.
Thank you for the advice. It didn't come up too bad considering. I'll get the ingredients above and give it another go.
Glad it's come up reasonably ok.
My suggestion comes from a little book called 'Natural Stain Remover - clean your home without harmful chemicals', and I know that bicarbonate of soda, which I believe is the same as baking soda, is good at soaking up smells.
I used to have all this stuff in my cupboard at home, but I have to learn what I'm looking for here. Time for me to make a bit more effort I think! I've only seen apple or grape vinegar, so maybe Apple will do for white. :-)
Very entertaining read, thanks Mel,
I was going to say --- then realized Isabella (Internetgranny), beat me to some of the cleaning standards.
@ Isabella, If I haven't got that particular book Isabella, I have ones with similar names - must check when I get them out of storage (Inbetween homes : / )...
As far as Turkish websites are concerned Mel, G**gle has a language converter extension for Chrome (called - G**gle Translate, which translates a whole site, & one for just sections of text - IM translator). They don't do a great job, but for a monolingual like me, it's far better than nothing.
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Cute kitties, and I see Hoover is a verb (sort of like google) :-)