Green Living – Staying Cool In Summer

Categories: Green Tips

Air conditioning is a fantastic invention, but it can also be pretty wasteful. On the hottest days of summer it’s fine to turn it on, but we should avoid using it all the time. So how can you stay cool in summer without having to turn on the AC? Here are four tips:

Control the Sun
Controlling how much sunlight gets into your home makes a big difference in how hot your house is. Try to keep your windows and blinds tightly shut during the sunniest parts of the day. When evening comes around, open the blinds and windows to let the cooler air in.

Stay Hydrated
Drinking water makes a big difference in keeping your body cool. Keep a big pitcher of cold water in the fridge and try to drink a glass every hour or so.

Eat Cool Foods
Frozen foods are a great way to make yourself feel cool. Try freezing berries, grapes, watermelon chunks and other fruits for tasty, healthy, cooling snacks.

Be a Fan
If you don’t get a lot wind in your area, make your own! Fans are cheaper and less wasteful than AC. Break out a few fans and turn them on when you’re in a room – but don’t leave them on when you head out. Fans do produce a little bit of heat after all, and we don’t want that.

Hopefully these tips will help you out this summer. Thanks to the wikiHow team and Lifehacker.com for the great tips!

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Tips & Tricks – Savory Potato Salad

Categories: Oxi Fresh - Just for Fun

Potato salads are a regular dish at summer parties, but they can be a bit bland at times. So if you’ve been assigned to bring a side dish to the next BBQ, why not try this great, savory potato salad recipe.

Ingredients
6 potatoes
8 slices of bacon (diced)
2 hard boiled eggs (chopped)
2 dozen black olives (sliced)
3 green onions (sliced)
1 cup of yellow onion (chopped)
1 cup of cabbage (shredded)
2 cloves of garlic (diced)
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of dill
Ranch dressing
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Optional: 1 teaspoon of prepared horseradish

Directions
- Step 1 -
Peel and bake the potatoes for one hour at 350 ℉. Once done, take the potatoes out and let them cool – you can pop them in the fridge to speed this up. Once cool, cube the potatoes.

- Step 2 -
Take the diced, raw bacon and fry it until crisp. Don’t get rid of the grease!

- Step 3 -
Now take the cubed potatoes and fry them in the bacon grease until they’re golden. Once they’re fried, let them cool.

- Step 4 -
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Add enough ranch dressing to lightly coat the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

- Step 5 -
Once everything is mixed, let the dish sit in the fridge for at least one hour so that the flavors can better meld.

And there you have it, an incredibly tasty potato salad. Thanks to my uncle, Brady Bonsworth, for this recipe!

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The Spotlight – Ketchup!

Categories: Carpet Cleaning Tips, Green Carpet Cleaning

Bit of a confession to make – as a kid, I loved ketchup. I would smother my hotdogs, hamburgers and fries in it. I even used to put it on tacos and tuna sandwiches (gross, right?). As a joke, my parents once got me a shirt that said, “I put ketchup on my ketchup.”

And while I’ve been using ketchup less, it’s still an incredibly popular condiment. You’ll be seeing a lot of it at parties and BBQs all summer long – hopefully on plates and burgers. But we all know what’s going to happen. Someone will drop their plate and leave a bright red stain on your carpet.

So here’s what you’ll need to do:

Step 1
Take a spoon and carefully scoop up as much of the ketchup as possible. Be careful not to spread the ketchup any further when you’re doing this.

Step 2
Mix 1/4 teaspoon of a mild detergent with four cups of cold water. Wet a towel in the solution and wring it out until it’s damp.

Step 3
Use the towel to blot at the spot, working from the outside edge toward the center. Don’t scrub at the spot, just gently blot. Continue blotting until no more of the spot comes up.

Step 4
Using a spritzer, rinse the area with water and then throughly blot the area.

Step 5
Lay a dry towel over the spot. Lay a plastic bag over the towel and then place a heavy weight on top. Let it sit for about eight hours so it can soak up any remaining moisture.

Hopefully that will clear up your ketchup problem. If not, remember that Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning is always ready to help you out. Whether it’s a ketchup stain, high traffic lane or just ordinary dirt and oils, our green carpet cleaners can refresh and revitalize your carpets. To find out more, click here. Or you can schedule an appointment online!

Thanks to the wikiHow team’s great article for the tips!

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Green Living: Recycling Carpet

Categories: Green Tips, The Guide to Carpet

Diamonds may be forever, but garbage runs a close second. A can of soda takes about 80-200 years to decompose, a plastic soda bottle 450 years and a glass bottle can take a million years to decompose.

Carpet doesn’t have a great track record either. As carpets are mostly made of synthetic materials, they take an incredibly long time to biodegrade. What’s worse is that we throw out a lot of carpet – some estimate billions of pounds of it every year. Continue Reading post – Green Living: Recycling Carpet

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Tips & Tricks: Spring Salad

Categories: For Your Health, Oxi Fresh - Just for Fun

Looking for a sweet salad for early Summer? This recipe is perfect, combining crunchy cabbage, crisp apple, sweet poppyseed dressing and tasty pistachios. Continue Reading post – Tips & Tricks: Spring Salad

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The Spotlight: Orange Juice

Categories: Carpet Cleaning Tips

Last month we learned how to clean up coffee, and this month we’re looking at another breakfast beverage – orange juice. This sweet, tangy drink is healthy, refreshing and perfect with breakfast, but it can be an annoying spill to clean up. Whenever you drop a glass of OJ, here’s what you should do:

Continue Reading post – The Spotlight: Orange Juice

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