5 Things to Do if You Hate Cleaning

1. Buy a microwave splatter cover and actually use it every time you place something in the microwave. Would you rather spend 30 seconds hand washing (or zero-time machine washing) a little cover every so often or at least 3 minutes prying off cheese, tomato sauce, and other gross stuff that's been baked into, or exploded onto, the walls of your microwave?
2. Stop wearing your shoes in your apartment and leave dirt (and the city pavement's melange of chemicals and excrement) at the door.
3. Keep your cutesy pie collectables in a curio. More things out mean more surfaces to dust. If you display things in a cabinet the items remain dust free and all you have to do is clean the glass occasionally. (Vertical surfaces collect less dust than horizontal surfaces.) You'll also lessen the chances of having to clean up a mess resulting from someone accidentally knocking over a glass or ceramic item.
4. Keep your honey, agave, or other syrup jar in a little bowl or on a little plate. This will spare you from having to clean up the sticky mess from various spots on your table, which is way more annoying than cleaning a dish in my opinion.
5. Hire me to clean for you! 

Please comment with any other tricks you use to avoid having to do more cleaning than necessary.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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Governors Island opens!

Governors Island opened for the 2011 summer season yesterday. The peaceful island, which is accessible via a brief free ferry ride,  is my favorite summer getaway for those times when I want to get out of Brooklyn but not necessarily separate myself from the beautiful people of Brooklyn.

Image from NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/arts/17governors.html)

If you haven't been to Governors Island, you must go to this magnificent place! It's clean. It's green. It's full of art. It's refreshingly void of corporations trying to pull money out of your wallet. Instead there's simply an awesome little shop of handmade crafts from local artists (Etsy's Better Than Jam) and a place that rents bikes (tip: you can ride free on Fridays for one hour). There are loads of picnic tables and hammocks that offer a view of the Statue of Liberty and our gorgeous waterfront. There's even a three-acre organic fruit and vegetable farm run by the Red Hook-based non-profit Added Value. The Jazz Age Lawn Party and Vendy Awards are two Governors Island-based events that draw large crowds, but check out their calendar for a full line up of family-friendly events happening on the island this summer. I've also put a few events I hope to make it to on the green city events calendar here on my website.

Bonus cuteness: This cat castaway knows where it's at! 

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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Join my email list and clear your inbox!

Visit my website and sign up for my e-newsletter! Discover green deals and ideas that will help you have fun while you get stuff done at home.

On a semi-related, although possibly conflicting, note, here's a link to a blog post from the fantastic blog Zen Habits: Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox

I recently cleared out over 30K emails from my personal Gmail inbox. (Most of them were unopened!) Even though Gmail offers infinite storage, it still felt good to do away with 5 years worth of emails I either didn't care about or it was too late to care about anyhow. Now when I open my inbox I am greeted with personal messages I am glad to read and notices from organizations I care about. I also have the space to quickly identify and "unsubscribe" to a newsletter or listserv that no longer interests me or that I just signed up for to get a freebie. In the past, I kept mass messages I didn't want to read or didn't have time to read because I felt obligated to read them. These days, I just remind myself that it's probably not the last time I'll hear from that organization. Our ships will cross again. For now, I'm deleting this message so that I can spend more precious moments with the good things in life, like a pint of Steve's Coconut Ice Cream.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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Shred Fest is Today!

Get the supersecret draft of your plans to take over the world shredded today for FREE in NYC! The Department of Consumer Affairs is hosting the 4th annual Shred Fest at various locations across the five boroughs today May 22nd from 10am-4pm. (More info.)

Click here for more info on how long to keep documents.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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Book green apt cleaning appointments from your computer!

Now you can book a green apartment cleaning or organizing session directly through a button on the sidebar of my website (or at http://olivialane.clickbook.net)! No more fussing around looking for a time that fits both our schedules. No more playing phone (or email) tag. You can look at my availability and pencil yourself into a slot.

Update: Cleaning services no longer offered.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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Gatsby the Cat needs a home

My client's very huge and very loveable cat needs a home. Bonus: He's dog-friendly!

Dear Humans,

My very sweet and snuggly and enormous and awesome cat, Gatsby, is looking for a home. He's beautiful and playful, he loves humans, dogs, and eating, and he is very, very good at cuddling. He can be a little ornery if he's left alone too much and/or gets too bored, but generally, he's a gentleman. He is looking for a home with a human or humans who will give him lots of love and snuggles. He loves dogs, and he may love cats, too, but I've never seen him with another cat. He's very tolerant of getting his nails clipped and he loves to be brushed. A photo is attached, and you can email me for more information.

Thanks!
Alex
Brooklyn, NY
 (Send me a text, email, or leave a comment here on my blog if you are interested and want Alex's contact info.)

Update 5/27/11: Gatsby found a new home! Hurray! 

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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I'll be presenting at a health fair uptown today!

I'll be leading a green cleaning workshop at Grassroots Artists MovEment (G.A.ME) Health And Wellness Fair today, Saturday May 14, 2 to 3pm at Children's Aid Society Frederick Douglass Center, 885 Columbus Avenue at 104th street. There's lots of other stuff happening at the fair today. Sorry about the late notice, but if you're around please come!

More info and RSVP on Facebook.

 

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

 

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