Find Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • RSS Feed
 

Nothing drives me crazier than my house smelling. And with 2 kids, a husband and 3 dogs it happens. Household odors make it seem like the house is dirty…and every time we are having company over I make everyone in my family go outside then come back in to make sure it smells ok before company arrives. Then I make them do it again just to be sure. It just one of my many pet peeves, I can’t help it.

So how can you control odors in your home and have a healthier and cleaner environment? Try Filtrete Odor Reduction Filters!

You can also try some of these tips from healthy living expert Lisa Beres
Healthy living expert, Building Biologist and author Lisa Beres shares simple solutions to
naturally create and maintain a fresh home:
Source: Kitchen refrigerator
Solution: Forgotten leftovers can cause a foul odor in your fridge. Clean the fridge
drawers and shelves by adding a few drops of natural dish soap to a bowl of baking soda
and stir until it creates a thick paste. This will remove odors as well as stains left behind
from food. Also store an open box of baking soda inside the fridge to help eliminate
odors before they start, and replace it with a fresh box at least every three months.

Source: Pests and repellants
Solution: Pesky ants and other insects can make their way into your kitchen pantry when
they’re on a mission to find food, but dousing them and your kitchen’s surfaces in toxic
repellent isn’t a healthy solution for the home or the family. Instead, set a line of coffee
grinds, lemon juice, cinnamon or cayenne pepper around doors and windows to create an
effective barrier they won’t cross.

Source: Cooking
Solution: Prevent unappealing cooking odors, such as fish, from spreading and lingering
throughout the entire home by upgrading to the Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter. It traps
odors and gases from the air passing through the filter and helps keep the home fresh for
families and houseguests. Synthetic air fresheners, candles and incense only provide
temporary relief from odors by masking them in one particular room but will do nothing
to remove the odors from the entire home.

Source: Damp towels
Solution: Wet towels from a shower, a trip to the gym or a day at the pool can be a
breeding ground for mildew to develop if they sit too long without drying. To rid towels
of the mildew smell, first wash them once in hot water with a cup or two of white vinegar.
Then wash them again with a natural or eco-friendly laundry detergent. Finally, dry the
towels in the dryer on high heat. To avoid mildew and associated smells in the future,
hang towels up right away to ensure they dry thoroughly.

Source: Pet odors
Solution: Furry companions are considered family members to many — 72 percent of
American households today own either a dog or a cat1. Reduce the unpleasant smell of
pet dander by bathing and grooming your pet weekly and establishing pet-free zones in
the home, such as the bedroom.
1 The Humane Society of the United States:

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html

Source: Candles and air fresheners
Solution: Instead of trying to mask the odors with store-bought air fresheners, create
your own air freshener by combining 10 drops of an essential oil — such as lavender or
eucalyptus — with two cups of water. Many air fresheners may sway you with the scents
of fresh cut grass, warm vanilla or tropical fruits, but they can contain synthetic
chemicals, such as formaldehyde, which can irritate eyes, skin and throats2.

All great tips, my favorite being for towels. We are constantly washing towels it seems like and inevitably there is always a wet one that gets forgotten under a pile of laundry. Drives me nuts!!! And then my whole house smells like mildew. Yuck! Luckily the Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter is effective at removing household odors and can handle all my family throws at it. Does anyone in your family suffer from allergies? How do you manage them? The Filtrete Odor Reduction filter also helps reduce airborne allergens from the air passing through the filter, such as household dust, pollen, dust mite debris and mold spores. Making your home not only smell better but a cleaner and healthier place to live. I also love the fact that our local grocery store carries them and I don’t have to drive to another town and one of the big box stores to find them. Here is how they work:

The Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter features carbon web technology that combines tiny pores of activated
carbon with electrostatically charged fibers to help trap odors and gases from the air passing through the
filter. It is the most effective3 odor-reduction filter at removing odors in the home, such as those from
cooking, tobacco smoke, pets, mildew and cleaning chemicals.
The Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter also help maintain airflow in heating and cooling systems, which may
help prevent stress on the system and reduce the amount of energy needed to reach desired indoor air
temperatures. Other electrostatically charged filters with similar ratings are tightly woven and may restrict
airflow in the heating and cooling system. This may cause the system to work harder and run longer.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends changing the filter every three months4.
An easy way to remember to change your filter is to do so at the start of ever season.
Product Benefits:
• 65 times more effective than other carbon filters at removing odors, such as those from cooking,
tobacco smoke, pets, mildew and cleaning chemicals.
• Starts to remove even the strongest odors in minutes, after the furnace fan is turned on
• Captures large airborne allergens such as household dust, pollen, mold spores and dust mite debris
• Captures microscopic particles such as smoke, pet dander and smog
• Last up to three months for odor removal and particle capture for air passing through the filter
Suggested Retail Price: $15.99

 

You can learn more about the Filtrete Odor Reduction filter and all of the other great products from Filtrete by following them on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/Filtrete, at their website: www.Filtrete.com and on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Filtrete

When you visit their website make sure that you sign up for the Filtrete eNewsletter to get coupons, tips and filter change reminders.

 

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Filtrete and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

 

I recently cooked Gator Bites and never realized that the majority of my friends had never heard of them, much less had them…or that Gator was considered exotic meat. I grew up where it was the norm along with Turtle Stew, Crawfish, Shark, etc.

My Dad was in the Army and his dearest friend was a man named Clinton who hailed from the Florida coast. As a matter of fact he lives on an island known as Bird Island near Perry Florida and my Mom is there now visiting. Clinton and his late wife Charlotte were know as Uncle Clinton and Aunt Charlotte. My sisters and I grew up with their two children “Little” Clint and Sissy. Uncle Clinton ran a fishery. He fished daily along with shrimping, scalloping, and hunting using big and small lures like I had never seen before. I always loved looking in his “tackle” box at all the interesting things from places like Big Agnes Fly Creek Tent. And everything had a caught a different way.  Seafood was always plentiful…but we always had to help gather and prepare it. I could eat my weight in scallops. My Aunt Charlotte could cook them like no one else.  I have so many wonderful memories of summers on Bird Island. It is where I learned to swim by jumping off the dock into the  canal. I learned to drive an AirBoat through the marshes, how to treat Jellyfish stings, what a Horseshoe crab is and how to catch flounder which is still my favorite fish to this day. By the way, you catch a flounder with a spear…but you have to be quick and patient.

“Little” Clint was the hunter. He was always going out and bringing home something to cook for that night’s meal. Turkey, Deer or Alligator. You just never knew what would be on the table after a day full of activities but that is where I had my first taste of Gator. Over the years I have ordered it in restaurants but it was never the same. The raw meat looks a lot like chicken, the texture and taste are also very similar to chicken but it has a little bit of a seafood taste. It has very little fat content and if it is cooked right, it is fabulous!

Gator Bites

I have only ever had gator tail. I am not sure if you can eat other parts of the gator or not, I will have to ask Clint, who is not so little anymore. But Gator tail is what I was given by a friend of mine (Earl) who recently went Gator Hunting so that is what I cooked. I cut it into one inch cubes and soaked it in buttermilk overnight. I then mixed Cajun seasoning and flour, then breaded it. Then I fried it just like you would chicken.There are many other ways you can cook gator meat, this is just the one I decided upon and that was most familiar to me.

So, now you know how to cook Gator should anyone ever ask. And if you ever have to opportunity to try it, I suggest that you do. I think everyone should be an adventurous eater. You never really know what you are missing out on until you try it and you never know…you might just like it!

 

Well, my plan was to get home this evening and finish up a post about my dinner experience my first night in Toronto. But, I am beginning to wonder about the getting home part. I am sitting in the airport in Toronto because my flight got delayed…by over an hour. Now, I just heard it got delayed again.  Go Delta!

I know that things happen and that there is no absolute control over things…but seriously…it doesn’t take an engineering job to be nice about it. I guess the gal is frustrated having to deal with all of us Southerners trying to get back home to a glass of cold sweet tea but it wouldn’t hurt even a little to smile and be polite. It is her job after all.

And really, how much of an effort does it take to enter a code into an alarm system so that the alarm doesn’t go off? I mean after the 5th time of an alarm screaming at everyone, busting eardrums and scaring the bejeezus out of us all you would think you would get it right.

So anyway, it has been frustrating to deal with but it isn’t the end of the world. I will eventually make it home and I will get my sweet tea…and a Diet Mtn Dew which isn’t carried in Canada…you just might not get the post you are expecting this evening.

 


Guest post written by Susan Porter

Even in the summer I’m used to being chilly because I work in an office that stays frigid. That means I normally go to work in July dressing for October weather.

So when I get home I’ll blast my air conditioning too because I’m so used to it by now. But I really suffered a few weeks ago when my air unit at home broke. I didn’t want to wait around for quotes on a new unit so I called summer HVAC installation to learn about buying a new air conditioner.

I only had to go a few days without air conditioning, because mine broke down right before the weekend. But going back and forth from the meat locker at work and my cool car to my hot house at night definitely made it worse. I just can’t seem to fall asleep if I’m in the least bit hot.

The installers were really friendly and had my system up and running in what seemed like no time. Although I complain about staying so cold at work, I’m really used to it by now.

© 2013 The Post-It Place Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha