by Vianne on July 1, 2011
An Ice Pack Alternative
Cold pack safety. It’s summer. More activity. More injuries. There is new info from athletes on how long to ice an injury. It used to be ten minutes max on toes, 20 min on, at least 20 minutes off. Ice should always be wrapped in something like towels, t-shirts or sweatshirts. That used to be the standard advice for an injury like a sprain. Ice shouldn’t touch the skin directly. That’s still true if using an ice pack or plain ice. But - there’s an exception to that . It’s the ice massage. Put some ice in a Styrofoam or Dixie cup. Tear off the bottom and massage directly on the skin in a circular motion for 5 minutes. Or freeze water in an intact cup and tear off the top inch or so of the cup. You don’t have to wear a bright ANSI safety yellow vest or something with reflective inks to practice safety measures.
by Vianne on June 30, 2011
Color catcher safety. I’ve got a confession to make. I like doing laundry. I don’t enjoy putting it away. But I like to get stains out of things, and don’t mine hanging things up to dry. Wherever I live, I experiment to see the least amount of laundry detergent I can use and still get the clothes clean. My favorite laundry product is Shout’s Color Catcher. This traps the dyes on the color catcher sheet. I have given these as part of a housewarming gift, at bridal showers, and going off to college gifts. These are great for shirts with different bright colored stripes. T-shirts, sweatshirts, vests – anything I’m washing for the first time, I use a color catcher sheet. I basically wash everything in cold water. For environmental and monetary reasons. So take a load off and clean some clothes.
Shout Color Catcher
