5 cleaning must-dos to power through the season
Spring cleaning isn't just about a fresh start—it's about using the right tools to make everything sparkle again, fast. If you're serious about cutting through grime and getting your home and outdoor areas looking (and smelling) spring-y, keep reading for some major inspo.
Shop Vac: Your Indoor and Outdoor Cleaning Beast
Vacmaster
There are vacuums, and then there are shop vacs. These are true workhorses: unlike regular vacuums, they handle both wet and dry messes and offer powerful suction and a blower function. Whether you're clearing sawdust in the garage, ashes from the fire pit, or cobwebs from outdoor windowsills—or dealing with water after a spill or flood—a shop vac does it all. This one even comes with a detachable leaf blower—perfect for blasting debris from deck corners after a long winter. Spring cleaning just got a major upgrade. $119.99 on Amazon
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Enzyme-Based Deodorizer: Goodbye, Funk
Advanced Odor Remover
Garbage bins, litter boxes, gym gear, pet crates—some things just smell. EZ-Clean is a Canadian-made, enzyme-based deodorizer tackles even the worst odours by breaking down bacteria instead of just masking the stink. It's kid- and pet-safe, ultra-concentrated (12 billion bio-enzymes per litre, diluted up to 1:64), and incredibly effective. Wet the surface, spray it on, and let it sit—longer is better, especially in shaded areas. No scrubbing or rinsing needed—just let those good bacteria do the dirty work. $49.95 on Amazon
Clean or Replace Those Grimy Brushes
Whether it's a broom, a sink scrub brush, or a toilet bowl brush, these tools get very little attention aside from when we need them.
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OxiClean All-Purpose Stain Remover Powder
Then soak synthetic brushes in hot water with OxiClean for 30 minutes to lift grime and odours. Rinse well and dry. For toilet brush holders, clean the same way—unless they're metal, in which case disinfect instead. $11.98 on Amazon (was $12.99)
You may also like:
The Pink Stuff The Miracle Cream Cleaner – $7.97
Microfiber Cleaning Cloth – $12.99
Scrub Daddy Scrub Mommy Sponges – $16.52
The Clean People Fabric Softener Sheets – $24.99
Electric Spin Scrubber – $62.99
Attack That Grease and Grime
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Sticky, yellowing grease around the stove or cabinets is the worst—and trying to scrub it off by hand is a waste of time and shoulder strength. A proper degreaser will cut through the buildup with minimal effort.
ZEP Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser
Spray, let it sit for a minute, then wipe with a microfibre cloth or soft sponge, and rinse and buff dry. For tougher spots like exhaust covers, filters, or backsplashes, use a non-scratch scrub pad to finish the job. $11.01 on Amazon (was $15.99)
Blast Away Hard Water Buildup
Calcium, Lime, and Rust Remover
That crust on your faucet, the cloudy shower glass, and orange or brown stains in your toilet or tub? That's hard water buildup. Vinegar works, but if you want faster results, use a foam- or liquid-based cleaner like CLR. Spray it on, let it work, then rinse away. Everything will look—and flow—like new again. $31.48 on Amazon (was $35.34)
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You may also like:
LEVOIT Air Purifier – $86.99
Double Sliding Under Sink Organizers – $33.99
Vacuum Storage Bags – $42.99
Vitruvi Cloud Bedside Humidifier – $223.20
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes – $12.97
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15 hours ago
In a sea of brown lawns, why some natural gardeners are bringing messy back
As abnormally dry weather sweeps across much of the country (new window) this summer, you may have found yourself staring despondently at the brown, crispy patch of fried earth you once called your front lawn, felt your fingers twitch in the direction of the hose and wondered: Should I? Am I even allowed (new window) ? But environmental and horticultural experts, as well as proponents of the no-lawn movement (new window) , say the question is actually whether it's responsible to have a full grass lawn at all anymore (new window) . The David Suzuki Foundation has previously estimated (new window) there are about 6.2 million lawns across Canada, and calculated (new window) that anywhere from 8.2 to 22.7 per cent of several large Canadian municipalities are turf grass. In 2021, two-thirds of Canadian households reported they had a lawn, according to Statistics Canada (new window) . These lawns are biodiversity deserts, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (new window) , supporting very few insects and wildlife. They're also notorious for their water waste (new window) and contribute to water scarcity. Maintaining them often involves harmful pesticides and fertilizers, while frequent mowing emits greenhouse gases. And with many Canadian cities experiencing prolonged dry conditions, many lawns are looking ... parched. Enter the no-lawn, anti-lawn (new window) or re-wilding movement (new window) , a sustainable approach to landscaping and an attempt to shift our perspective on what yards can look like — and their purpose. This can include a naturalized yard (new window) , a habitat garden, using yards to grow food, or even just converting a section of your lawn to dedicate to native plant species and pollinators. There's a crazy amount of lawn out there, like tens of millions of acres in Canada and the United States, dedicated to growing just turf grass, said Brendon Samuels, a postdoctoral fellow with the Ecological Design Lab (new window) at Toronto Metropolitan University. Which is an imported, non-native group of species that has no real ecological value, that is very expensive to maintain and that doesn't look so nice when you're in the middle of a heat wave in the summer. WATCH | People are rethinking lawns: 'Lawns should be area rugs' Naturalized yards have a range of benefits, Samuels said, like helping preserve the monarch butterfly species by growing milkweed, or making one's area more resilient to climate change with more green coverage. Native plants help keep areas cooler and damper during heat waves, because they have deeper root systems that can access groundwater, he said. They also help increase the resilience of landscapes during floods, he added. 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Some videos on TikTok (new window) about growing native gardens have millions of views. We're bringing messy back, said Grant Minkhorst of Toronto, known as Gardening Grant on TikTok, in a video last month (new window) with 25,000 views where he shows off his thick vegetable beds, lunging perennial border and droopy prairie coneflowers. My measure of success is how much food did we produce? How many pollinators visited our gardens? That's about it, he added in the description. And on Reddit, there are some 283,000 members of the "no lawns" subreddit (new window) , an online community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns. There, people there share photos of yards filled entirely with pink coneflowers and sprawling yellow coreopsis; leafy plants that climb over fences and fields of purple bee balm. As nature intended, commented a Redditor on a video of someone's sprawling, buzzing yard. (new window) Enlarge image (new window) Samuels included his family, pictured here, while planting a rainwater garden at his home in London, Ont. Photo: Brendon Samuels The more we can stop being tidy, the more wildness we can bring into our gardens and landscapes, the better habitat we provide, said New York-based ecological horticulturist Rebecca McMackin in a 2023 Ted Talk video (new window) played more than 1.3 million times. Why not get rid of your lawn, or shrink it drastically? she said. Lawns should be area rugs, not wall-to-wall carpet. Have you ditched your grass for a naturalized lawn? Send us photos at ask@ The lawn as a status symbol Lawns are a cultural import from 17th- and 18th-century Europe, where they were symbols of wealth and status, said Samuels — back then, you needed significant resources and labour to be able to maintain one. People default to the lawn because it's very normative in our culture, Samuels said. What we're seeing increasingly is people starting to question those norms and look for alternatives. A man mows his lawn in this 1956 archive photo. Lawns are a cultural import from 17th- and 18th-century Europe, where they were symbols of wealth and status. / Three Lions That said, some people who have ditched the grass have faced hurdles. Lawn naturalization has been recognized as a constitutional right (new window) for decades in Canada, but bylaws haven't always caught up, and The Associated Press (new window) notes that many homeowners' associations still have rules about keeping yards manicured. Samuels himself came up against bylaw (new window) when he created his own naturalized backyard and rainwater garden in London, Ont. 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Canada News.Net
a day ago
- Canada News.Net
Canadian cities are unprepared for climate-driven migration - here's what they can do
This summer, wildfires have caused evacuations across Canada and recently forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some of the biggest impacts are being felt in the Prairies. In Manitoba, authorities recently issued evacuation orders for 15,000 people, mostly in the province's north. Many evacuees are brought to larger cities like Winnipeg, overwhelming hotels and emergency housing. In Canada, climate-driven migration is often imagined as a distant threat that affects others in the world. But these evacuations foreshadow a future where internal displacement becomes a regular feature of Canadian life - and where cities must rethink how they plan for disruption. Events like the 88,000-person evacuation from Fort McMurray, Alta. in 2016 and the destruction of Lytton, B.C. in 2021 show how fast rural populations can be displaced. Manitoba's evacuations are among largest in recent memory, and many evacuated communities are remote and poorly connected to infrastructure. For them, evacuation may soon become an annual reality. At the University of Hong Kong's District Development Unit research lab (DDU), we develop architectural and urban strategies for rapidly urbanising regions in the Global South, where settlements are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We've seen how post-disaster migration reshapes cities. These shifts are predictable in places where infrastructure and governance haven't kept pace with climate volatility. Across Canada, services and infrastructure are already under stress. Housing is increasingly unaffordable, including in rural areas. Many rural regions, especially those with large Indigenous populations, struggle to access basic services. Though these areas are home to 18 per cent of the population, they are served by only eight per cent of Canada's physicians. More than one quarter of rural school districts report closures or consolidations due to underfunding. These structural weaknesses form the backdrop to a slow-moving crisis - one that climate events are accelerating. Elsewhere in the world, disasters regularly drive rural-to-urban migration and permanent urban change. In countries like Nepal and the Philippines - where our lab works - these movements are often rapid, informal and far beyond the scope of traditional planning. In Kathmandu, the 2015 earthquake struck a city already marked by informal housing and fragile services. It accelerated a haphazard urban transformation characterized by uncontrolled sprawl, unsafe informal construction and overstretched infrastructure. In the Philippines, typhoon recovery is often driven by necessity, with residents rebuilding informally. This results in growing slums and increasing vulnerability to future disasters. These dynamics create new urban landscapes. In some cases, local governments are taking the lead, for example, by establishing local evacuation centres in the Philippines. Elsewhere, informal encampments, home extensions and land occupations take hold. These are responses that reflect not only survival, but governance: provisional infrastructures are built through necessity, negotiation and collective care. Canada is not exempt from these dynamics. When disaster strikes, evacuees often seek refuge in cities, where better public infrastructure offers some stability. As climate change fuels ever-larger wildfires, this trend will grow, with smaller urban centres absorbing more people fleeing climate-stressed regions. Yet policy remains far behind. There is no national framework for climate-induced displacement. Canada's immigration and housing policies have no category for internal climate migration. Disaster response remains reactive, coordinated mainly by municipalities and provinces through short-term tools like 211 or temporary shelters. Interjurisdictional planning is minimal. Municipal climate plans rarely anticipate population surges or extended pressure on housing. Displacement is still treated as an occasional event, not as an enduring part of Canadian urban life. Canada must begin to learn from places already living this future. In Taiwan, civic centres double as emergency shelters, equipped with backup power, water tanks and seismic isolation systems. In Japan, disaster-prevention parks embed solar lighting, cooking stations and toilets into public green spaces. And in Mongolia, our lab has developed incremental urban strategies for Ulaanbaatar's ger districts - clustering growth, infrastructure and housing to adapt to rapid, uncertain settlement patterns. These examples reflect a model of urbanism in which emergency response and long-term development are not separate, but part of a continuous, negotiated process. Canada's geography, governance and urban forms demand their own set of protocols and prototypes. While lessons from elsewhere can guide us, they cannot be copied wholesale. This means it is vital to develop a national framework for internal climate migration that integrates climate displacement into the National Housing Strategy. All orders of governments should focus of developing multi-use resilience infrastructure, such as community centres and schools equipped for emergency response, and advancing adaptive housing policies that can expand or contract with demand. Canada once helped shape global thinking on the transformation of urban areas. The 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver, catalyzed by the efforts of architects and planners, called for new models of settlement and development grounded in equity, participation and awareness of our planet's limits. Nearly 50 years later, that unfinished legacy has a new urgency. Today, climate displacement calls for a shift in how architects engage with the built environment - moving toward coordinated action with communities, policymakers and allied fields, and embracing models of practice that move beyond the traditional role of service provider - to actively initiate change. Architects must engage not only with buildings, but with the frameworks that govern land, infrastructure and migration itself. This means challenging the professional neutrality that too often aligns design with extractive systems, and instead welcoming practices capable of working across institutions, jurisdictions and communities. A national summit could mark the beginning of this shift by creating a forum to discuss climate migration and design the tools, policies and partnerships that will shape its outcomes. The question is not whether climate movement will occur, but whether we will be prepared to meet it with intention, care and foresight.
Edmonton Journal
2 days ago
- Edmonton Journal
Ottawa man begs PM to save his family from Taliban's revenge for his helping Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'My service not only brought danger to my family but has also ruined my entire family's life,' ex-advisor to the Canadian military in Afghanistan wrote to Carney Canadian soldiers listen as their interpreter is lectured about security issues by a local leader in an Afghanistan village, April 2006. Photo by Richard Foot/National Post/File An Ottawa man who served in Afghanistan helping the Canadian Armed Forces during its NATO mission is begging the prime minister and the immigration minister to help save his sister and nephew from the Taliban's imminent revenge. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by David Staples, Keith Gerein and others, Oilers news from Cult of Hockey, Ask EJ Anything features, the Noon News Roundup and Under the Dome newsletters. Unlimited online access to Edmonton Journal and 15 news sites with one account. Edmonton Journal ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by David Staples, Keith Gerein and others, Oilers news from Cult of Hockey, Ask EJ Anything features, the Noon News Roundup and Under the Dome newsletters. Unlimited online access to Edmonton Journal and 15 news sites with one account. Edmonton Journal ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors 'As a Canadian citizen and someone who served this country with pride and dignity, I now find myself feeling ashamed. My service not only brought danger to my family but has also ruined my entire family's life,' he wrote in letters to Mark Carney and Lena Diab last week. 'During my service, I saved many lives of soldiers in the line of duty. Now, when it comes to my family, I find myself facing a wall of silence. Is this not a slap in the face for my services to Canada?' his letters ask. Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again His family's unusual situation stems from his work as an advisor for Canada's soldiers in Afghanistan, where he was born. He immigrated to Canada in 2005, became a Canadian citizen, and was a university student in Ottawa when recruited by the Department of National Defence. In 2010, as a Language and Cultural Advisor (LCA), he left Ottawa to join Canada's soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, where he had top-secret clearance to help in the dangerous mission. Kandahar is the political base and stronghold of the Taliban, and when locals discovered his identity, his sister and her family still living in Afghanistan were targeted with threats and warnings, he said. 'In their eyes we were helping the infidels,' he said. His sister's husband, a police officer, was shot dead in 2013 and she was told 'this is the consequence you face.' After continued threats and fears for her children as they became adults, they fled Afghanistan in 2018, he said. They sought refugee status in Turkey. (The man's identity was protected by Canada's Federal Court in a recent proceeding about his case because of danger to his relatives for his work with the military. He asked that his name not be published for fear it would cause further harm to his family abroad.) Ever since his family left Afghanistan, he has worked to get them to safety in Canada, without success. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Canada announced a special immigration policy to help LCAs bring family here. It was limited to family still in Afghanistan around the time when Kabul fell to the Taliban, meaning his sister was ineligible because she left before that. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He fears it will soon be too late. His sister and one of her adult sons have now been ordered deported back to Afghanistan from Turkey where they sought asylum. National Post has seen a copy of her deportation order. The family believes they will be targeted and punished by the Taliban if they are returned. The Taliban remains listed as a terrorist group by the Canadian government. 'My sister who lost her husband because of my service to Canada is now likely going to lose her life because of my service, and this country will not do anything,' he said in an interview. He has been writing to officials in Ottawa for years trying to solve the problem. After seeing how imminent her deportation could be, he tried another plea to Carney and other government officials. 'How can you reconcile the sacrifices I made in service to Canada with the current neglect my family is experiencing?' he asked in his letter emailed Thursday, and read by the Post. 'Why are the lives of my family members, who are at risk due to my service, not being prioritized?' On Monday, he received a reply from the Prime Minister's Office. 'While I am sympathetic to the circumstances you describe, Prime Minister Carney is unable to personally intervene or provide you with direct assistance in this matter,' said the PMO's executive correspondence officer. 'While the Prime Minister appreciates the time you have taken to share your concerns, he will leave your comments to be considered by the Minister (of Immigration).' The former LCA said it is frustrating. He has asked Diab, the minister, and her predecessors for help and said he has made no progress. He immediately wrote back to the PMO: 'I kindly urge the Prime Minister to look into this situation, as it has reached a critical juncture, and it is essential that we act swiftly to prevent irreversible consequences. I appeal to the government to fulfill its moral and ethical responsibility in this case.' National Post sent requests last week for comment from Diab and from David McGuinty, minister of defence. Neither minister responded. A spokesman for the ministry of immigration said they declined to comment on this specific case, citing privacy legislation. 'Canada is concerned with the deportation of Afghan refugees and the situation they may face upon return to Afghanistan, and continues to engage with partners in the region,' the statement said. Canada has helped resettle 59,000 Afghans since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the ministry said, although intake for its special Afghan programs is now closed. Meanwhile, the former LCA said Canada is sending a terrible message to those who might be called on in the future to use their language skills and local knowledge to help Canada abroad, wherever the next global crisis unfolds. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
