Sarah, didn't mean to sound hasty, but I was about to turn off the puter, when I noticed your thread. I was using a dishsoap with Citrus. One of the ingredients is true citrus, so they say. LOL. Used it for years, now it's like the brand is extinct. Can't find it anywhere. Ajax has a citrus scented dishsoap which is what I now add to the mixture. Acually any dish soap will work, just steer clear of Dawn. You poor thing..all those bugs!! What the heck happened? Sarah, it's strange, beneficial insects are dying/dead while the bad guys are flying around..that doesn't make sense? Why in the world do people use so many chemicals??? By doing so, they're killing off the good guys. Not to mention, spraying something that most likely causes cancer. I feel bad for people who don't use chemicals, yet because of their neighbors, have to breath in that crap. Sarah, the mix I use will kill mites and scale, but it won't touch whitefly..Before your plants are totally infested, purchase Yellow Sticky Traps..they work fantastic, and no chemicals. They're sold on Ebay and a place called Gardens Alive. Cost is more reasonable on Ebay. In Ebay's search window type in yellow sticky traps. Traps come with a little, metal holder. Traps are attached to these holders. Stick holder in soil. You'd be amazed how many whitefly they capture. About 3 or 4 yrs ago, I had the same problem..Whitefly. I found the source, a hardy Hydragea..95% of my plants were whitefly infested. Some plants worse than others, especially Hibiscus, citrus and gardenias. I bought the traps, placed one trap among a group of plants. Each trap captured hundreds of whitefly days later. That was it, they died. So, if you have whitefly, and want to use natural, non-chemical 'help,' buy the traps, ASAP. Keep us posted, Sarah and Good luck, Toni

I use the Mr. Mister mop with BONA and microfiber cloths from Solutions. I have wood floors in every room except the bath and laundry. The mop is handy because I can put the BONA inside, but the head tends to flop around and you have to refold/change the cloth every so often. I find it easier to just get on my hands and knees unless I'm doing more than a couple of rooms at a time. I have never used it dry. I don't baby my floors, but those Solutions cloths are very *grabby*. I'd be afraid little rocks would get caught in the cloth and add more scratches to the floor. Before mopping, I use a regular old-fashioned dust mop to push everything out the front or back door. No kiddies here so I don't have to mop very often. I sweep or vacuum every few days and spot clean as necessary. I believe BONA is short for BONAKEMI. I purchase the big jug of floor cleaner from the Bona website. I also use it to clean wood furniture and cabinets - I haven't bought Pledge or Murphy or Endust or anything like that in ages. I could be paying way too much for the BONA. I've never comparison shopped it.

I have an old popper and can't even tell you the name of it offhand. It looks like a small hotplate with an aluminum bowl fastened to it and a heavy glass lid. I've seen some with aluminum lids but I like the glass to see what's going on. A little oil, some popcorn and it's done rather quickly. But in the later years with health issues and stuff I've gone to the microwave and yes the packages. I like Pop Weavers. Best tasting and cheaper to boot. I do miss the old popper so I'll probably get it out one of these days. I also like a bag of Old Dutch White Cheddar popcorn. But can't handle a whole bag. My sister has (or had) a Stir-Crazy and it worked about as well as my popper. You flip it over and use the lid for a serving bowl. As I recall you can add butter to the top and it'd melt it. Never liked air-popped. Salt won't stick to it.

As many have said, food grade mineral oil. I have several rock maple cutting boards. I never soak them or do more than damp cloth wipe them. I seldom oil them. I have a very large sugar maple board that I use as a pastry board. I never oil it. I bench scrape it and damp wipe it. I mostly use my wooden cutting boards for prepping, chopping, slicing vegetables. I wipe it with a damp cloth and never allow freshly washed vegetables to soak it. Drain the veggies first, or wash after prepping. There is a property to wood (that's not gummed up with a lot of oil or wax) to dry out and inhibit bacteria. I used poly - plastic chopping boards for meat, chicken or fish. Then I wash well, especially after putting notoriously bacteria-laden chicken on them. HOT WATER, some bleach, scrub, rinse or dishwasher. If you do use oil, only a light coat. Remove excess. Also, despite any marketing hype, understand that you will not be "feeding" the wood. The wood is not alive. Not gonna be hungry or feed on anything. I love the sound of a knife or utensil on wood. Oh, and with a lot of knife work, you don't have to slice through and go into the wood. Slicing bread? Just go easy at the bottom of the slice, lift the bread up just a bit. Have fun.