Cleaning your house with natural products doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Most ingredients to make powerful, safe, effective cleaners can be found in the cabinets of most peoples homes. Here is a list of common household products and their uses.

Baking Soda – This can be sprinkled directly onto sinks and tubs before giving them a good scrub. Baking soda can also be used to deodorize sinks and garbage disposals. Pour ½ cup down the drain, trickle a bit of hot water to moisten, and let sit 2 hours, then flush with hot water. I like to put a lemon rind into the garbage disposal after this treatment. Turn on the disposal and it will smell lemony fresh!

Baking soda can also be added to laundry to deodorize and soften clothes. Add ¼ cup to wash cycle.

White Vinegar – Mix 1 part vinegar to 1 part water. in a spray bottle. Add 5 – 10 drops of your favorite essential oils and give it a shake – I personally like clove and lavender as these have powerful disinfecting properties. This concoction can be used to wipe down tables and counter tops, desks and doorknobs. Not to worry about the smell, it will evaporate and dissipate in a few minutes.

White Vinegar is a powerful disinfectant. It can also be poured directly onto mold or mildew in the shower. This will kill the spores.

Rubbing Alcohol –Mix 1 cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water, and tablespoon vinegar in a spray bottle to make an excellent glass cleaner. Also cleans chrome fixtures.

Vegetable oil and lemon juice – Mix 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts water into a bowl or spray bottle. Apply to wood furniture and polish off.

If none of these do the trick for you, don’t forget that we carry a full line of Naturally Safer cleaning products.  Go check them out!

Like most people who use cosmetics mostly everyday, I was in the dark about the toxic ingredients of commercial products until I stumbled upon a book in the Lifekind library. Drop Dead Gorgeous by Kim Erickson is an eye-opening book about protecting yourself from the hidden dangers of cosmetics.

Synthetic materials such as suspected carcinogens, hormone-disturbing parabens and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives linger in those lotions and soaps that leave your skin feeling dreamy and moisturized. In our beloved face powders and favorite blushes you are exposed to substances such as Aluminum Powder which is linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. So why does the public consumer not know about this??

Unfortunately these types of issues are no concern to the manufacturers and they skirt around the issue when it becomes public knowledge. But there are still ways of obtaining the knowledge. Kim Erickson’s book is a wealth of information with excellent references and even all natural recipes for your own lotions and beauty products. Here is a sample of one that you can try at home!

Chocolate-Mint Body Smoother
(Emollient-rich cocoa butter has a delicious chocolate scent)
2 ounces cocoa butter
¼ cup apricot kernel oil
1 teaspoon beeswax, grated
1 teaspoon liquid vitamin E
3 drops peppermint essential oil
Combine the cocoa butter, apricot oil, and beeswax in a small saucepan. Heat on low until the cocoa butter and beeswax have completely melted. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add the vitamin E and peppermint essential oil, stirring well to blend. Pour into clean container and allow to cool completely before capping.

So before you buy your next lotion from the local drug store remember Drop Dead Gorgeous by Kim Erickson. Maybe if enough people know and realize the dangers of everyday products we can start a change towards a cleaner, healthier living that is chemical free.

Everyday organic item pricing is almost always higher than non-organic. With the increase of popularity in the organic industry, however, companies are coming out with low-cost options. This is even creeping its way into the fashion world.

Clothes are not only necessary, they’re what separate and individualize us, whether we realize it or not. For me, what I wear is a chance to express myself. Moods, seasons, personality, and priorities are all reflected in our choice of dress and represent us in the minds of others. A person is more likely to remember someone’s clothes than the color of their eyes.

If we put that much thought into our image, why aren’t we putting even more into what our clothes are made of?

As the public learns more about the benefits of living organically and demand increases, companies are coming out with organic clothing lines for a lower budget. But price isn’t all that matters! When looking into where products are sourced from, I found it troubling that even if the tag says “organic,” it might still come from a sweatshop, have been imported, or have been fumigated. (Yikes!)

Such issues are increasingly becoming public knowledge. In response, popular brands are unveiling organic lines. Some, like H&M, REI, and Jonano, are meeting the demand for organic choices while keeping prices reasonable. Levi Strauss offers choices that include organic cotton and recycled zippers and buttons, as well as natural indigo dyes. Products from popular t-shirt company American Apparel are made in the U.S. and are sweatshop-free. They’re a great place to find inexpensive basics like leggings, t-shirts, and hoodies. Their cotton products are made with 20% organic fiber, and they’re hoping to bump that up to 80% in the near future. They also recycle over a million pounds of scrap fabric per year and have solar panels on the roof of their LA headquarters. Talk about moving toward greener living!

So next time you’re picking out a new pair of jeans or strolling around the mall thinking about buying that lovely blouse, remember that there are choices in mainstream fashion. Don’t compromise your way of living just because the majority of the retail world does. You can focus on honoring the companies out there who are thinking organically, just like you!

Rubber trees actually grow on large plantations, mostly in warm, tropical climates in countries like Malaysia and South Africa. Natural rubber is a sap, and is tapped from the tree much like maple syrup. It’s very sustainable; one tree can be tapped for 40 years without harming the growth of the tree. As a person who always casts her vote for sustainability, I am obviously all for this type of production, and loving the fact that natural rubber is rising rapidly in demand. As a person who works in an industry dependent on natural rubber, I am not so thrilled to find that demand is rising faster than production. This combination always seems to end in price increases.

With more demand from other industries looking for a natural alternative to synthetic rubber in their products, natural rubber is the “it-girl” of the latex industry. Factor in rising demand from rapidly developing countries such as China, and natural rubber is becoming more and more sought after. Unfortunately, unlike synthetic substances, we have to wait years for a rubber tree to mature before it is able to produce sap that can be used to make products.

And so this story ends with higher mattress prices. The cost of natural rubber went up 20% in just the past year, and unfortunately we can’t absorb that much of a price increase and still stay in business, although we wish we could. However, when put into perspective, a Lifekind mattress will last at least 20 years…which is 7,305 nights (including leap years)…which is 58,440 hours of restful, organic sleep. That’s a lot of sleep for your buck.

I don’t know why I didn’t come to this conclusion sooner, but after reading extensively about the issues, I am now a reformed “locavore.” Local foods and other products are better for me, better for the planet, and better for my community.

I trust American organic industry, and I want to support it. I consider my dollar to be like a vote; the businesses and products people are willing to pay for will stay around, while those they don’t support will disappear. I personally want the organic farmers and producers in my community to stay, so I’m going to vote for them by buying and using their products.

There are so many reasons to buy American-sourced products: decreased fuel consumption, a stronger economy, more support for local farmers, better personal health, a better knowledge of where and how your products were made, greater biodiversity…the list goes on. So why not?

Apparently I’m not the only person asking myself this question, as I recently read that the local farming industry in the United States has increased by 20% in the past 6 years. That, to me, is amazing news. So here’s to spending money conscientiously and shopping locally!

Because I love my dog, my world was rocked when I took him to the vet for what looked very much like a tumor. It turned out to be an allergic reaction to a vaccine, but it caused me to spend a good amount of time researching cancer in dogs. Rocky is a Boxer, and as I found out, Boxers are particularly susceptible to cancer and stomach diseases. Since I would prefer he didn’t get either of these unpleasant conditions, I need to be very careful about the products I give him.

It turns out that cancer is rapidly increasing in dogs, and is now responsible for 46% of disease-related deaths. Prevention seems pretty straightforward; good, wholesome food and natural products…much like for people.

Lifekind has wonderful pet beds that are made from the same organic materials that our “people” mattresses and bedding are made from. I hadn’t realized how important this is until I came home one day to a yard full of a substance I later titled “radioactive fluff.” Honestly, that’s the best way to describe the mystery material that had been inside the pet bed Rocky had decided that day was a chew toy. It was blue, had the consistency of fiberglass, and I’m pretty sure it could glow in the dark. Whatever the stuff was, it wasn’t healthy, and it put me in the market for an organic pet bed.

I think I owe it to my dog to take the best care of him that I can. He trusts me, after all, to not knowingly have him eating chemicals and sleeping on radioactive fluff beds. It’s hard sifting through all the marketing claims and mystery ingredients put into modern pet food, toys, etc., but I think it’s worth it because, not to sound repetitive, I love my dog.

History shows that the phrase “sleep tight” has always been used in the English-speaking world, and is associated with the rhyme “good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” The “sleep tight” part may refer back to when mattress foundations were made from ropes, which needed to be pulled tight to provide a well-sprung bed. The ropes were spread across the bed frame in a criss-cross pattern to form a sleeping platform. They would sag with time and weight, and had to be tightened periodically, hence the phrase “sleep tight.” This brings to mind why it’s important to know what type of foundation your mattress is on.

Most of us have had common commercial mattresses at one time or another. We may have told by a salesperson, “This price includes the set,” which we assume means we’re getting a box-spring foundation. I’m here to tell you that that’s not always the case. I speak to customers all day long who assume that the foundation they have now is a box spring, when actually it contains no springs at all – just thin wood. I call this a “faux” or “impostor” box spring.

Innerspring mattresses are designed specifically to be supported by a box-spring foundation. With a “faux” foundation, the innerspring mattress will lack proper support, which in turn will not provide the sleeper with the proper support. It becomes a vicious cycle. Some people try placing plywood between the mattress and the foundation, hoping it will do the trick. When it doesn’t work and the mattress becomes increasingly uncomfortable from lack of support, a chemically-laden memory-foam pillow top may be added. It goes on and on as the mattress dips and sags in an unusually short period of time. It’s only when the entire situation becomes unbearable that we’re forced to pay attention and purchase a new mattress. Sadly, if the underlying problem hasn’t been recognized the first time, the pattern is often repeated.

On a more positive note, we’ve come a long way in terms of technology from using a rope foundation that needs to be tightened to prevent sagging. We now offer platform-slat bed frames, which require no maintenance and allow natural rubber mattresses to have the air circulation they need without using a foundation. Yet when it comes to traditional innerspring, steel-coil mattresses, my biggest concern is that the general mattress buyer is often still unaware of the need such mattresses have for a steel-coil box-spring foundation to support them. Think of the two pieces as a team, working together to provide the perfect, comfortable support.

So when you find it’s time to replace that not-so-old, sagging mattress set, remember to look inside the potentially empty “box spring” that came with your mattress to see what’s inside.

I hope you always will “sleep tight”!

Ok, I made that term up. Greenwashing, however, a similar concept that’s frighteningly popular in the mattress world, is very real.

As a Product Specialist, part of my job is to research and be informed about our competition so I can better assist customers who have questions about those companies and how they compare with Lifekind. I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is no one else who does what Lifekind does. There are imitators and companies that come close, along with those who blatantly lie to make themselves look like they come close, but I wouldn’t want to trust “close imitation” or “blatant lies” with my sleep.

As a consumer, it can be daunting to sift through the marketing baloney and find the real thing. There are “organic” mattress companies who post logos of trusted certifiers on their website because one of the many ingredients they use might pass that standard, even though the final product does not. Others display logos of “certifiers” that in fact do no such thing, but are merely membership organizations. (I’ve seen, for instance, companies claiming to be “National Geographic Certified,” even though National Geographic is merely the parent company for The Green Guide, a consumer organization that doesn’t certify materials, finished products, or anything else.)

I’m personally vexed by companies that make what I like to call “natural-lite” products, such as the “20% natural-core” mattress I saw advertised the other day. While it’s commendable that someone is making a product with 20% natural ingredients, what exactly is the other 80% made of?

Be cautious and ask questions. I have seen companies use a GOTS logo to infer that their manufacturing plants and products are GOTS certified, when in fact just one raw material component is able to boast GOTS certification. GOTS certification for a facility is not obtained easily; they are very, very strict about their standards, and they conduct random inspections, so there is virtually no room for error. We conduct business in accordance with their standards because we want to be able to show that we make the purest mattress, not that it’s just our opinion that we make the purest mattress.

Many companies claim to support American industry, but outsource the production of anywhere from one to all of their raw materials to other countries. This not only takes away potential green American jobs, but also risks contamination of the raw materials by fumigation when they are imported to the U.S. Add this to the uncertainty about organic standards from country to country, and there is ample room for doubt in exactly how pure outsourced materials really are.

On a similar note, beware of companies that use words like “Organic” or “Natural” in their company names to make them seem purer than they actually are. Without certification to back up the name, it’s simply the name of a company, like Bob’s Mattress Factory.

The moral of this story is to look before you leap into that new bed. Ask the tough questions of companies who want your business. Ask where their raw materials come from, who certifies them, and what has been added. Ask about their manufacturing processes and who certifies the final product.

Ask as many questions as you can, because an educated consumer base is the best defense against greenwashing.

The reviews are in, and it’s official: Customers love our new Shasta mattress!

We created the Shasta so we could offer our customers a more affordable twin-size all-natural-rubber mattress made from the same certified materials we use in all our mattresses. It’s designed specifically for young children transitioning to their first adult-size mattress, and you’ll see it in our catalog offered in the twin size only.

The Shasta is filled with shredded 100%-natural rubber, utilizing remnants shaved from larger mattress cores and shredded into small pieces, helping us achieve our goal of making our Eco-Factory a waste-free facility. The shredded-rubber core is surrounded by our Naturally Safer wool, then hand-tufted with U.S.-grown certified organic cotton.

The Shasta has a feel that’s unlike anything we’ve ever made – soft yet supportive, springy and buoyant, comforting, classic, timeless.

You’ll love it too! 

My upbringing taught me to believe in a natural and organic lifestyle. I eat organically, use natural remedies, and always recycle. One area I never thought about until I started working at Lifekind, however, was my bedroom. I never knew the potential hazards of something so seemingly trustworthy as a mattress. I’ve learned so much at Lifekind, and have unearthed a new dimension in my strive for purity.

My goal is to have an organic mattress made without chemicals as soon as possible, but in the meantime I’ll work my way up through pillows and mattress toppers till the money tree can shake a branch free. This in turn has prompted me to start trying harder in the areas of my life I already consider to be organic, and where better to start then to re-create some of my parents’ dinnertime dishes from when I was growing up?

One of my father’s most notorious and loved dinner recipes is for Tofu Tacos. Not only is it a great option for vegetarians (a.k.a. my sister Ashley), but it’s also a much leaner choice than typical beef tacos. Hopefully sharing this recipe will show how easy it is to make a small change to a healthier lifestyle.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 packages of firm tofu (I like to use two for leftover taco salad)
1 small yellow onion
Salt and pepper
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Paprika
Grated Pepper jack and/or cheddar cheese
Sliced olives
Chopped tomatoes
Cilantro
Chopped lettuce (Romaine is best)
Avocado
Sour cream
Corn tortillas

Drain tofu and squeeze out excess moisture, then chop into roughly 1/4-inch squares. Coat a large non-stick skillet with olive oil and turn the heat to med-high; add tofu. Meanwhile, dice the onion and add it to the tofu. Once the tofu begins to brown, you can add the seasoning: a healthy dose of garlic powder and chili powder, then a lighter dusting of paprika. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn down the heat and continue cooking until the tofu is crispy on the outside.

While the tofu and onions are cooking, prep the rest of the fixings: Chop the lettuce, dice the tomatoes, pick the cilantro leaves, peel and slice the avocado, drain the olives, and grate the cheese. Fill a small skillet with about ½” of vegetable oil; turn to med-high heat until the oil is hot. Place corn tortillas one at a time in the oil for 10-15 seconds, then using tongs, fold in half into a taco shape. Cook on each side about 30 seconds, or until the shell turns golden brown, and place on a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

For extra “yum” factor, dust the tortilla shells with parmesan cheese while they’re still hot. Build your taco with all the fixings you prefer, and you’ll have Dad’s Tofu Tacos.

Enjoy!