“Fab Find: Angled Wall Shelving” on satori design for living
Who knew? Ikea EKBY RISET brackets are designed to lock at whatever angle you like so make a great storage solution for your slanted walls and ceilings.
You know these slanted walls and ceilings. These are the slanted walls and ceilings that silently mock you as you try to shop for bookshelves, cabinets, shelving units, or pretty much ANY piece of normal furniture that is built with right angles.
I can’t wait to install some of these shelves on my smug, slanty, formerly useless wall spaces. I think my love/hate relationship with Ikea is being rekindled…
If a household product can cause you immediate harm, it will have a warning on the label.
But many cleaning products contain toxic chemicals that can cause serious health problems through long-term exposure, and the law doesn’t require companies to warn consumers about these health risks.
Why Go Green?
In both Canada and the US, companies hide toxic ingredients from the label by using the word “parfum” or “fragrance,” even in so-called unscented products.
If you read the Material Safety Data Sheet for Febreeze, for example, it lists ethanol as the only chemical ingredient even though the report states that the product is perfumed.
Inhaling Febreeze might not make you sick immediately, but we know that long-term exposure to toxic scent ingredients – listed as “perfume” – can cause serious health problems.
Even when harmful cleaning ingredients are listed on the label, many people don’t know the risks.
These ingredients don’t just go away once you’ve sprayed them all over your house or doused your clothes in them. When you wash these products down the drain, they travel out into the environment where they can pollute our water and impact wildlife.
Greener Alternatives
The good news is that there are alternatives that will not only protect your health and the environment, they will save you money too.
Here’s my answer to pretty much any household cleaning task. Please DO try this at home, and let me know how it works out for you!
DIY All-Purpose Household Cleaner
1. A spray bottle filled with:
1 part water
1 part vinegar
(optional) 10-20 drops of essential oil – try tea tree for disinfecting, orange for cutting grease, peppermint for deterring mice, or whatever scent you like
2. A good textured cloth (cotton or microfiber cloths from the dollar store are fine, or knit your own cleaning cloth)
3. A box of baking soda
If the spray and cloth alone don’t do the job, sprinkle some baking soda and re-spray the area before scrubbing. This works better than even the nastiest, fume-releasing chemical stuff I’ve tried.
If you’re tackling a ridiculously stubborn mess and elbow-grease won’t help, try soaking the item overnight in hot soapy water, if possible. You can also heat up the spray to boost its cleaning power.
One bottle of spray lasts months. One box of baking soda goes a long way too – I use it in the package to deodorize my fridge or freezer for a few months, then dump it into another container to use for cleaning.
The essential oil is the most expensive ingredient, but even then I spend just a few dollars a year to clean my house.
If you need to tackle a specific cleaning task, WVE has a great list of Green Cleaning Recipes that are easy and cheap to make.
(This would make a great back-to-school gift for a cash-strapped college student.)
If you prefer to buy cleaners off the shelf, there are several eco-friendly and hypoallergenic brands available in health food stores and some supermarkets.
Speaking of infographics, here’s an interesting one about how much land a family of 4 would need to sustainably produce their own food and electricity.
Interesting. Two acres is less land than you might imagine. Food manufacturers would have us believe that we need to grow acres and acres of crops to mass produce food through industrial methods and that this is the correct way to feed the world’s population.
On the other hand, I do take issue with this persistent “all-or-nothing” attitude when it comes to environmentalism and sustainability. For some reason, no matter how simple or elegant the proposed solution is, people get sidetracked by fear that it will have to involve immediate, radical change.
Let’s be practical. As tempting as it may be, you don’t actually have to quit your job, sell your house and relocate to a beautiful pastoral fantasy farm just to live a more sustainable lifestyle. You can start today.
Why not start with a few small acts of kindness, like:
Grow your favourite herbs instead of buying them?
Grow 1 or 2 kinds of vegetable that your family loves?
You don’t need 2 acres of land to live more sustainably. It doesn’t have to be hard, intimidating or expensive. It doesn’t have to wait for ‘someday.’ It just takes a bit of conscious effort to adjust your day-to-day habits.
What small acts of kindness for the planet do you include in your daily life?
What other steps could you and your family take towards greater sustainability or respect for the environment?
Pinterest is the latest darling of the social networking world. It functions a bit like Twitter and Facebook – you post things; ‘Like,’ re-post and comment on posts; follow people, etc. – but unlike other social networks, Pinterest is all about the visuals.
Users create Boards organized by theme or topic, and ‘pin’ images to each board. Each image links back to the original web source, be it an online clothing store, a recipe blog, or a do-it-yourself instructional video.
My original source of pinspiration: the bulletin board of randomness above my desk.
The site is very popular with women. But wait, aren’t men supposed to be ‘more visual’? Apparently not. While text-based Twitter has mostly male users, Pinterest is a huge hit with the ladies.
In short, Pinterest is a window-shopper’s dream. This is where magpies meet shiny things. Women flock here to plan their weddings, get home decor ideas, and find fashion inspiration. It’s all free, but Pinterest does help buyers meet sellers: Include a price in a pin description and a price tag will appear on the image, which is then featured in the Gifts section of the site.
Besides the ‘want that’ flagging and fanciful shoe-gazing, the site also appeals to a nerdy urge to collect and organize things. You may spend hours sorting random images into categories. If that isn’t dorky enough, there’s an entire Geek category to browse!
At its girliest and nerdiest, Pinterest is like a neverending web-wide version of Animal Crossing.
You remember Animal Crossing, don't you?
But there is a lot to learn too, from how to peel a kiwi the RIGHT way and how to get more out of Google to how to conceal a handgun. There really is something for everyone. Pinterest is full of useful DIY and money-saving tips, projects to try, and ways to entertain your kids. So it’s not only a visually appealing catalog tailored to your own tastes and interests, it’s also endlessly useful.
In fact, the site has a lot of potential uses that have yet to really catch on. Forward-thinking businesses are paying attention and many have created Pinterest accounts.
What I’d like to see are more creative uses that don’t have anything to do with shopping or sales. What about…
ACTIVISTS: Want to build a case for your cause? Try posting: articles, infographics, pamphlets, photos or videos that send a message.
FUNDRAISERS: Want to raise money for your organization? Try posting: links to your online fundraising stars, reasons to donate, upcoming events or sales that support your charity.
STUDENTS: Want to organize your research sources? Try posting: books you’ve read or need to read, articles, academic journals, or other random biblio-graphics.
NEWS JUNKIES: Want to document a news story or political issue over time? Try posting: daily links to news articles, editorials or blogs about the topic as it develops.
You can also share Pinterest boards to collaborate with other users. What about…
FAMILIES: Want to plan your next vacation or family outing? Try posting: tourist attractions, things to do around town, places you’d like to visit.
CREATIVES & COWORKERS: Want your team to brainstorm on visuals for a creative project? Try posting: inspirational art, drawings, or concepts.
Do you have any ideas about how Pinterest could or should be used? Please share them below.
I love treasure hunting at the thrift store! Here’s a pillowcase I whipped up using a kid’s tshirt I found for about $2.
After using the pillow as a guide and pinning the fabric into shape, I cut horizontally across the top of the shirt to remove the neckband and part of the sleeves. Then I cut vertically on each side to square off the rest of the sleeves (they had a camouflage pattern – you can see the remains on the top corners of the pillow). I sewed the edges shut, leaving the bottom of the shirt open, and voila. My couch feels so much more badass.
Infographic via 
You don’t need to live here to embrace sustainability.
