Green Cleaning
Here’s a few more things to add to our list of what we’re doing to make less of an impact on the environment:
- reusing plastic water bottles and/or refillable water bottles. Here’s one I want for Christmas - Biter Bottle
- bringing my own coffee cup to It’s A Grind - I save paper, and I get 10 cents off each cup!
- changing my toxic cleaning habits (see below)
To change these cleaning habits, I needed two main ingredients - vinegar and baking soda. I threw out all the harmful chemicals underneath my sinks and in my laundry cabinets, and now I primarily clean with vinegar and baking soda. Although usually not at the same time. (Remember the volcano you made in elementary school?) Other products I use - dish soap, water, washing soda (for the dishwasher & the laundry washer), and lemon scented oils so my house doesn’t smell like a pickle. Besides being cheaper than any other cleaners we used, the most short-term payoff is I don’t have to worry about my kids getting into and accidentally swallowing harmful chemicals!
I also just started using cleaning cloths by Method. (Another thing to add to my list -we hardly use paper towels anymore!) I love Method’s microfiber cloths. They’re not cheap, but they seriously clean quicker than I’m used to - I don’t have to scrub so hard anymore. I wish I was getting royalties from them to promote their products, but oh well. 
Oh, and while I’m on this Method kick, if you purchase $20 or more of Method products, you can get a reusable tote bag for free. Go to their website for more info. I did this just a few weeks ago and received my tote bag this week. It’s so cute AND you can fit lots of stuff in it, plus you can zip it up to a very small size.
Today I just heard about a new line of products called Lily’s Garden Herbals through my new friend Amy. She’s giving away some products from Lily’s, and she wrote a fabulous blog about natural cleaners that I completely agree with. You can also look through her site and find her recipes for cleaning and her post about Earth Day 2007.
3 comments November 9th, 2007