Each year as spring asserts itself and the flowers start blooming and the sun comes out more often, I begin to notice that the house needs a serious spring cleaning. Here are some tips to get the most out of your spring cleaning with a natural approach.

Cleaning Surfaces
I use 4 natural alternatives for cleaning the surfaces around my home. The great thing about them is that they are all non-toxic, and can be used around pets and children without concern. For windows and mirrors, I prefer to use White Vinegar undiluted, as well as using it diluted 1 to 5 with water for hardwood floors and surface cleaning. For stubborn spots in the kitchen and bathroom, I like to use baking soda mixed with enough water to make a thin paste, adding lemon juice to stains on counters which I let sit for 5 minutes before I clean the area.

Odor Control
Baking soda can also be used as an odor controller on carpets and upholstery; just pour a thin layer over carpets and let stand for 20 minutes, and then vacuum it up. For natural air fragrances, try simmering a saucepan with 2 cups of water and 5-6 drops of essential oils in a fragrance that you like. Essential oils can also be added to your water and vinegar solution in very small amounts for a natural fragrance boost; some essential oils such as eucalyptus can be added to your solution as a natural bacterial inhibitor as well. This solution can be stored in a spray bottle for every day cleaning.

Springtime Bedroom Cleanup
Get that bedroom healthy and clean. You can wash your wool overlay and your wool knop filled pillows separately in a washer using a natural, environmentally friendly laundry detergent. Dry your pillows 2 at a time in your dryer on medium, and they will fluff right up again. Dry your overlays individually until completely dry without fabric softener, which has numerous chemical components such as formaldehyde. If your dog or cat has been sleeping on your wooly, or has one of their own, you can boost the cleaning power and odor removal of your detergent by soaking your woolies in a vinegar solution before you wash them. Spring clean your wool filled duvet by removing it from your duvet cover, and shake the duvet vigorously to remove dust. Follow up with a spot clean with a clean cloth moistened with your vinegar solution, and then lay it out in the sun for a few hours - sunlight is an excellent natural cleaner, and will freshen your duvet naturally.

Polish Your Silver
I like to use the method for cleaning silver that Jessica Reiss of ecocessories fame recommends. It works very well, and I don't need to use any toxic chemicals. It's also lots faster than taking the silver polish to every piece of silver I have.

The people have voted, and now Wool Mattress Overlays are on sale for the first time EVER! These incredible, machine washable, wool overlays will improve the comfort and health of your sleep environment. If you have never experienced the glory of a wool overlay, now is the time to discover how incredibly comfortable your sleep can be. This sale is on for 1 week only, so take advantage of it now, as wool overlays are generally not an item that we put on sale, so this could be a one time thing!

Congratulations go out to the winner of the contest, Ellen Rittenhouse, who has won a regular weight wool duvet!

We are running a contest this week so you can pick the product that you would like to see on sale the most by posting a comment on our site. One person will win the duvet, pillow, or overlay that they voted for! The product with the most votes will be on sale this weekend, from Saturday March 20, 2010 to Friday March 26, 2010 - so what are you waiting for? Get voting, and get your friends voting too! http://disq.us/dk9bu

Wool. We use wool in most of our bedding products, because we think it is simply the best material available for sleeping. Down feels nice when you first tuck yourself in, and it will keep you toasty, sometime too toasty. Down needs to be encased in a non-breathable cover, so it cannot readily absorb moisture, which means once you start sweating you can go from hot to cold and damp very quickly.

At SleepySheep, we use two main materials inside of our pillows and mattresses: wool and natural latex gold. Today I would like to tell you a little bit more about Natural Latex Gold, and why we choose to use it in our mattresses and pillows.

Natural Latex Gold is a product that has been made for over 50 years, and is made from 100% natural rubber extracted from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree, a renewable resource grown in Malaysia. The rubber tree plantations are very carefully maintained, and are extremely renewable. As the demand for Natural Latex Gold increases, the Rubber tree forests are preserved, along with other plants and animals indigenous to the region.

The extraction process is very environmentally friendly as well, and is very similar to how maple syrup (yum!) is harvested in Canada! Cuts are made in the trees and sap is collected in small cups, and then poured into larger containers. The natural rubber sap is then cooked until it is at the correct temperature to be whipped up to the correct density, and then poured into special molds.

The Natural Latex Gold is a one-of-a-kind product - the consistency and sponge like quality is incomparable, and the latex is extremely durable.

Latex Gold is completely biodegradable, hygienic, hypoallergenic, dust-free, contaminant free, and totally non-toxic, and that is why we choose to make pillows and mattresses with Natural Latex Gold. Natural Latex Gold has been orthopaedically designed to cater for optimal posture and lumbar support, and so we choose to use it along with our fabulous New Zealand wool in our mattresses and pillows.

Fun with our babies