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Homemade Products

Homemade Mold Wipes 2.0: New Formula, MORE Uses

by Catherine 3:55 am

These New and Improved Homemade Mold Wipes Make Cleaning Your Things, Your Body, AND Your Food for Molds, Bacteria, and Viruses Safer, Easier, and Much More Portable!

I don’t know how long you have been reading this blog, but it is actually almost 3 years old! It is hard to believe that mold can provide such a rich array of subject matter to write about.

When I first started this blog, I wrote almost exclusively about easy, doable mold maintenance (cleaning for mold) and my approach to mold avoidance that includes both body and environmental protocols. I often included homemade recipes and DIY tools and techniques that were self-tested and only proven effective in our home. Along-the-way, those recipes and inventions became foundational pieces of our daily mold maintenance and recovery. This was mostly due to the fact that no one out there was making the products we so desperately desired and NEEDED to help us to get better.

Fast forward to today. As the blog has grown and evolved to become more of a wellness space for environmental and mold illness, I have moved away from my DIY and Homemade Product roots a bit, so that I can focus more on what YOU, the readers, ask me to write about—total body approaches to healing from mold, and practical, safe approaches to testing and remediating your homes and living spaces. And, even though, I absolutely LOVE where we are now, I don’t want you to miss out on some of the goodies from the past.

Today, I want to introduce or re-acquaint (whichever that may be) you with my DIY Mold Wipes, but made BETTER. Better, because in true Catherine-type-A-personality fashion, I couldn’t just make the mold wipes, use them over and over, and let “good enough” alone. I had to keep testing them for success and enhancing and improving them. Truth be told, I have actually been tweaking and refining the formula since the day I first created it. As a result, I now have a new, improved formula that I am going to share with you today: I call these my Mold Wipes 2.0.

For those of you keeping up, but who don’t like clicking around to previous articles for the full story, I will briefly revisit the main reasons why I wanted to create a “mold wipe” in the first place. After you read through my list, you will see why I think that mold wipes are a needed and helpful product, not just for me and my family (mold-sensitive people), but, for EVERYONE.

3:55 am 6 comments

Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention Products

A Natural Antifungal That Does it All: CitriDrops Dietary Supplement

by Catherine 3:36 am

If I were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one product with me to maintain my health, I would take CitriDrops Dietary Supplement.

That is a loaded statement, I know. But, I’ve actually thought about this quite a bit and have my argument and reasons all lined up for you. In order to properly illustrate my point, I will also share a few “throwback” links to previous posts on some of the many ways that I use it in my life and home. You will soon see that while it is labeled a “dietary supplement,” it can actually be used as much, much more.

This feature comes at a particularly opportune time, because MicroBalance Health Products is currently offering customers a buy 2, get one free deal on CitriDrops Dietary Supplement.

So, what exactly is CitriDrops Dietary Supplement?

3:36 am 2 comments

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention

Dusting Tips for a Mold-Safe and Healthier Home

by Catherine 5:43 am

Dust is my nemesis. Dusting is the one household chore that I never ever feel like I can get on top of. I almost feel like as I am dusting, I am just watching new dust build up all over again. Does this happen to you?

(Note: Studies show that the average six-room home in the United States collects 40 pounds of dust each year.)

Well, don’t give up on your dusting just yet. It is incredibly necessary and an incredibly powerful tool in your arsenal of preventing mold build-up and improving air quality in your home. As a matter of fact, regularly dusting and keeping dust levels low in your home can yield noticeable improvement in allergies, nighttime sleep, and overall health for everyone in your family, regardless of mold.

Now, a few facts on dust as it relates to mold:

Dust is not dirt, so no need to feel embarrassed that you have it or that it an indication of poor housekeeping. House dust is a normal occurrence as fibers found in pillows, drapes, clothes, linens, and other furnishings at home, work, school, or even in your car, breakdown and disperse.

Just as plants produce seeds for reproduction, molds produce tiny spores. These spores are less than 4 microns in size – so small that as many as 250,000 spores can fit on the head of a pin. Mold spores attach to airborne dust particles. Then they can be transported just about anywhere and land just about on anything. That is why mold, once airborne, is so hard to get rid of, and also why mold spores are so easily inhaled by those who inhabit the spaces where they exist.

Many times, you have mold in your home and you mistake it for dust. Gravity will always pull dust to the top of a horizontal surface. If you ever find “dust” on the bottom of a surface, such as a shelf, you are looking at mold. This is a very common place to find mold in homes. Grab a flashlight; shine it on the bottom of a shelf. See anything? If there seems to be a blanket of “dust” on the underside of horizontal surfaces, it is time to get some Diagnostic Mold Test Plates to see what you have going on there.

5:43 am 1 comment

Healthy Home Homemade Products Interviews Products

Allergy Relief with MicroBalance Health Products on Know The Cause

by Catherine 10:40 pm

What happens when products and health solutions are created by a renowned doctor simply because he cannot find the products and solutions that his patients desperately need already on the existing market? I’ll go ahead and tell you—mold allergy relief, that’s what happens.

MicroBalance Health Products was born a little over 8 years ago with the patients of Dr. Donald Dennis specifically in mind. One, in particular, struck a chord with Dr. Dennis, because the patient was constantly plagued by sinus infections and general illness no matter what treatment they tried. When the patient finally left his regular indoor environments to vacation at the beach, he miraculously got well. This was Dr. Dennis’s eureka moment: The source of the illness was environmental—mold, and, a mold-free environment, like the beach was the answer for not just this patient, but many other chronic sinusitis patients. Then, Dr. Dennis created a few core products in 2008 that were only available for his patients through the compounding pharmacy in his building. Later, MicroBalance was born to make those products and more available to everyone. Today, the company has grown to offer 9 very targeted and diverse products to their customers. Each product combats mold at the source, whether in the body or in the indoor environment.

10:40 pm 0 comment

Homemade Products Mold Prevention Uncategorized

Antifungal Rosemary Coffee

by Catherine 9:55 pm

I love podcasts. I love being able to absorb personal stories, health and society information, or to get lost in a true crime series while on the go. One of my favorite podcasts is the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast. Ben is a celebrity trainer turned bio-hacker, who delves into nutrition, supplementation and “behavioral hacks” in order to achieve optimal human performance. His podcast speaks to elite athletes and mere mortals alike. His goal is to optimize health for the long run. On his podcast, he often interviews first-class athletes, doctors, and scientists on the cutting edge of their professions, who are really passionate about health, performance, and longevity. It is a really motivating and empowering podcast. So, while you may not necessarily be training for optimal performance, I think it is important to pay attention to the benefits of the these “hacks,” because they can help us get or remain healthy for our own performance challenges and longevity.

This week, I listened to Ben Greenfield’s interview with Dean Karnazes.

Dean Karnazes is arguably superhuman. He has run and raced hundreds of thousands of miles across the U.S. and abroad. His accomplishments include running multiple ultramarathons, 350 miles in a little over 80 hours without sleep, 50 consecutive marathons in all 50 states and much, much more. The most interesting thing about Dean, in my opinion, is his lack of burnout, even after all of those miles and all of those races. He just keeps going with unequaled passion and drive. It is remarkable.

9:55 pm 4 comments

Homemade Products Products

Homemade Antifungal Coconut Oil Cream

by Catherine 2:35 pm

One of the things my husband really struggled with when his body was depleted and compromised from our mold exposure was Candida. If you are not familiar with the intricacies of Candida, I’ll give you a brief, not entirely medical rundown that is based upon both what the doctors told us and my experience with it:

Candida is a systemic yeast or fungal overgrowth inside the body. It starts in the gut when yeast begins to grow and overtakes the “good” gut bacteria that fights illness and disease and aids in nutrient absorption and digestion. The only way to really conquer or get rid of Candida is to starve it out of existence and to take antifungal supplements or medications. Since yeast thrives on any and all sugar, a diet that eliminates sugars, starches and many fungi-rich foods is usually prescribed. A potent probiotic is also part of the usual regimen. If all steps are followed to the letter, the Candida will eventually die off and the healthy gut bacteria will resume their role as the major players. The “die-off” effect can be quite intense and debilitating, though. Many times, people experiencing Candida “die-off” feel like they are coming down with something or have the flu. It is not pleasant, because the yeast has taken hold of your body and doesn’t want to leave.

Other indicators of Candida overgrowth occur on the outside of the body. Some people develop skin rashes, white patches on their skin, vaginal yeast infections, a white film on the back of their tongues, and even ongoing cases of athlete’s foot or fingernail and toenail fungus. In other words, it’s not a pretty thing to have happen to you. When you’ve been exposed to mold spores in a toxic environment, like we were for a prolonged amount of time, your body becomes extremely susceptible to Candida. It’s like the mold just wants to take over your body, both inside and out. It is insidious.

My poor husband had both the gut issues of Candida and the skin issues—white patches all over his chest and back. Well, we got out of the home, eradicated the mold, cleaned up his diet and got him on a circuit of rotating antifungal supplements, but he couldn’t seem to get rid of the white patches on his skin. We went to countless dermatologists, tried 100s of natural and over-the-counter antifungal creams, but nothing seemed to work long term, or irritated his skin to the point that it wasn’t worth using. That was when I decided to start doing some experiments of my own to try to invent an all-natural antifungal cream that would work for him and give him some relief.

2:35 pm 2 comments

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention Products

Eliminate Odors, Bacteria, and Fungus From Your Feet and Shoes: Part II and A Giveaway!!!!

by Catherine 10:41 pm

(Note: This post is Part II of a 2-part series on cleaning your feet and shoes for mold and bacteria. Today’s post features a Homemade Athletic Shoe-Cleaning Wash. To read Part I about making your own antibacterial and antifungal foot wash, click HERE. Read to the bottom of the post to find out how to enter the GIVEAWAY for 2 travel-size bottles of EC3 Laundry Additive.)

Today, I’m back with Part II of cleaning your stinky feet and shoes for mold and bacteria. This time, my post is all about shoes. Your shoes are constantly moist–either from sweat or from getting wet outside–and are constantly getting dirty and being exposed to bacteria, fungus and other microbes as well, just from normal wear and tear. And, as you probably know by now, moisture and dirt are a terrible combination when it comes to mold. The two create the perfect storm. Thus, knowing how to properly clean your shoes to address mold, especially your athletic shoes that your feet frequently sweat in, is imperative. Not only will using the right cleaning and antifungal ingredients on your shoes remove the current dirt, mold and bacteria, but it will also prevent additional contamination from being tracked into your home. (The minute dirty shoes touch your carpets, rugs or floors, everything that is currently on them, microbes, mold and all, is now right at home inside your house.)

Just as in my previous post where I gave you my special recipe for cleaning your feet, today, I will share my recipe and techniques for cleaning your athletic shoes. Many people I have already shared this recipe with claim that using this shoe wash got their athletic shoes sparkling clean, eradicated any unpleasant odors from them, and helped to prevent the spread and recurrence of athlete’s foot. I guess because this wash contends with the mold directly, it kills any fungus that would otherwise continue to fester inside the shoes and spread back to your feet again. Great! Another plus! Who wants athlete’s foot?!!!

10:41 pm 2 comments

Healthy Home Homemade Products Products

DIY Antifungal Foot Wash

by Catherine 3:56 pm

(Note: This post will be a 2 part series. Today’s post features a DIY Foot Wash.)

Recently, I went on a trip with my Mom and my kids. We had a blast road-tripping and cramming into hotel rooms along our journey. It made me feel like a kid again—good for the soul. Each day, we would plan a location-based, touristy thing to do. In the mornings, we would head out with our snacks packed, our water bottles filled, and our athletic shoes strapped on. Then, we would walk the day away, enjoying the sights and our adventures. One thing that I did not prepare for or even think about, though, was how stinky our much-used and loved athletic shoes would get. You see, not only were we traipsing all over God’s green earth, but we were also getting quite sweaty while doing so. So, as science would have it, we would sweat, our feet would sweat, the insides of our shoes would get moist, and we would wear them again the next day, before they ever got fully dried out. Then, we would wake-up, put our athletic shoes back on, sweat again…You see where this is going, right? It took us straight to stinky-shoe town. P.U.!

When we packed up to go home, I bagged all of the stinky shoes up in a plastic bag to save our nostrils in the car, and I brought them home to perform some sort of reconnaissance mission to hopefully eliminate the smell. Going into this endeavor, I knew that in order to make the shoes smell better, I would have to face the problem in two steps:

1) I needed to create something to clean our feet with that could tackle the bacteria and fungi that were making them smell bad;

2) I needed to find a way to get our shoes clean of the dirt on the outside, and their insides clean of the bacteria and mold.

(Note: Today’s post will focus on cleaning your feet. I will put up the post about cleaning your shoes soon afterwards.)

Now, before I go into how I cleaned our shoes and feet—and YES, it worked, because all our feet have never smelled better, and all three pairs of our shoes are now odorless and clean—I want to talk about why feet and shoes can smell so bad in the first place.

3:56 pm 0 comment

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention

Homemade Mold/Mildew Stain Removal Gel

by Catherine 3:37 am

Because I am often in mad scientist mode now that I have started this blog, writing and experimenting with products and techniques to find which things clean for mold best, I sometimes end up making products that once I have them, I don’t know how in the world I didn’t think of “inventing” them sooner. This cleaning gel is one of those inventions.

Before I begin telling you how to make it and what I use it for, I want to make sure that you know something about me. I take reader comments, input and suggestions very seriously. If a reader finds something I post helpful or informative, disagrees with something, or wants me to post more about a certain topic or cleaning technique, I want to hear about it. So, this post is the result of a recurring reader question concerning the EC3 Mold Solution Spra y and hard to remove mold/mildew stains on grout or tile. People love how the EC3 Mold Solution Spray wipes out the existent mold and eliminates the mycotoxins created by some of the more dangerous molds on contact, but they don’t love the way that the product leaves visible mold and mildew stains behind. In other words, you have to physically scrub the stains out, because the product does not bleach or lift the actual mold stains without a little added elbow grease. I addressed that once before in my post, How to Remove Stubborn Mold and Mildew Stains from Grout, but many people wanted to know if there was more of a “one stop shop,” or one product that could do it all without so many steps, and hard work that they could use. I am one for simplicity myself, so I went about trying to concoct a product that would “do it all,” so to speak.

3:37 am 2 comments

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention

How to Clean Your Yoga and Workout Mats for Mold and Bacteria

by Catherine 5:53 am

This post has been a long time coming. In other words, I’ve been neglecting doing this, finally got to it, and then wanted to share my experience and methods with you guys as soon as I could. And, since the New Year is upon us, causing many of us to reassess and to try to adopt new healthier habits, I thought this post would be very appropriate.

The activity in question–cleaning my yoga and workout mats for mold, of course. Not a chore that is very fun, but one that is extremely necessary, especially when you are highly allergic to any type of fungus, like I am. Or, when the telltale “mat stink,” coming from the combination of sweat (moisture and bacteria/fungus on your skin) and mold (the musty smell), becomes downright disruptive to your yoga practice.

Before I begin with my method, I want to share a few tidbits with you about lovely yoga and workout mats and why it is not only a good idea, but extremely necessary to do, both frequently and properly. According to a medical and microbiology professor at Rutgers School of Medicine, when tested for cleanliness, yoga mats have proven to be filthier, in terms of harboring bacteria and fungi than either airline seats or cell phones—two of the highest items on the contamination list. The reason being, yoga mats get more skin-to-skin contact than either of the other two items. Also, during exercise, more skin on your body is usually exposed; therefore, more skin is in contact with the mat. Human skin can foster many different organisms, among those are up to 14 different types of fungi. Combine that with sweat, an absorbent and porous surface, (aka the mat) and you have a recipe for bacterial and fungal disaster!

5:53 am 8 comments