Earth Day Spring Cleaning
Happy Earth Day, friends! (And Happy Birthday to my brother Salem, too!!) I just finished up the deepest cleaning my kitchen has had since we moved in to this house 4 years ago. I wore my Method "Cleans Like A Mother" t-shirt to psyche me up for the big job. And it was a big job. I even recruited Irene to come help me. We're talking deep, deep cleaning here. As in under-the-fridge cleaning. As in scrubbing the screen door cleaning.
The idea is to have the harder tasks done before move day, so that as the Mayflower truck drives away next Wednesday, there will only be wiping down walls and sweeping floors left to do. Wish me a wish that all will go as planned.
Of course, all the cleaning products had me thinking Earth Day as well — and my attempts to go non-toxic in our home. I was feeling great about my Mrs. Meyers and Method and Watkins products (I love the Watkins packaging with all my heart). And not so great about my fume-y oven cleaner.
Baby steps, ladies. Baby steps.
What are your favorite eco-friendly cleaning products?
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Wednesday, April 22, 2009
17 Comments:
Vinegar. Does wonders on hard water (that water tray under your in-the-fridge water dispenser?), and shower doors that someone forgets to squeegee.
I love white vinegar and baking soda for homemade products and adore the Caldrea brand. But, those Watkins products look so lovely I think I need a few!
I bought the Watkins toilet bowl cleaner a month ago (the sole reason I bought it was because of the packaging) but have been really pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness! Who knew one could love a toilet bowl cleaner? I also love Caldrea products, our home scent is the lavender pine!
I hate cleaning the oven and being pregnant I decided against the smelley oven cleaners. You know what worked much better? Heating the oven on low and using steel wool with some dishwashing soap. It worked just as well and smelled like Method Lavender dishwashing soap. No one had to vacate the house for the day either to avoid the toxic fumes.
I swear by watkins!
Seriously love their dish soap & hand soap. I can't wait to try their other products.
I *heart* method.
smells so good!
baking soda, vinegar, method wood cleaner
I love SAPADILLA (Grapefruit & Bergamot). You only need a little and the smell is heavenly :) Another classic, Method!!
I love the Melaleuca products, Tough & Tender (all purpose cleaner), Tub & Tile (amazing at removing hard water/water spots/soap scum with minimal effort), Diamond Brite (automatic dishwashing detergent), as well as their laundry supplies are wonderful. (if you want to know where to find them contact me through my blog, or at hilaryglad at hotmail dot com)
I love to use a cap of rubbing alchol in 1/2 to 1 gallon of warm/hot water, and non terry cloth towels for cleaning windows. It leaves a streak free shine, and is great at washing off the winter grime on the outside of windows as well.
My 3 y.o. son loves to help me clean so my favorite mainstay is vinegar, baking soda and a variety of essential oils to help cut the vinegar smell, i.e. lavendar oil, tea tree, orange. Also love all Ecover cleaning products.
I am a huge fan of Seventh Generation Lavender & Eucalyptus! So fresh and lovely! Try it!
I could not live without my Mrs.Meyers! This entire line works better than any conventional toxic cleaners! Ecover Automatic dishwasher tablets & their Cream Scrub kicks butt. I always wash my veggies w/ Veggie Wash. Its amazing to see what comes off of even your organic produce with this spray! I love Cleanut for clothes & Laundry Door's Lavendar Dryer Satchets. They scent your clothes naturally! We love green products @ our house.
Vinegar and Water are wonderful and simple- And it safely allows for small helpers (like my 5 year old who wanted to help me clean windows last week and I felt so good about no chemicals).
that's awesome. the "green" brand we use is by one of the conglomerate chemical brands which makes me question who clean and green they really are. i have a friend who supplies shaklee products which only require a drop mixed with water to equal a regular cleaner. kept meaning to blog about it for earth week, so i'm glad you did!
My spring cleaning this year took on a motif that was a lot gentler due to the fact that we have a newborn in the house. We used babyganics cleaning products. they were just as effective as the common house cleaning solutions but it saves our baby from irritations.
I find babyganics to be effective. if it's safe for babies (as we all know, babies have very sensitive skin)how much more for us adults? Here's the link to their blog, hope it helps: http://blog.babyganics.com
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