Eco-Cleaning Made Easy

Have you thought about switching over your traditional cleaning products but find it overwhelming thinking about cost and confused by the number of ‘eco cleaning products’ on the market? If you are still using Windex spray and traditional chemical cleaning agents for your bathroom, kitchen, floors, etc., put them away in a big box, high up where little hands can’t reach them and replace with very few products. The total cost can be under $20…in addition to pantry items that help like baking soda, olive oil, and vinegar. You will notice immediate improvements with your health from removing products that off-gas with ‘cleaning’ chemicals and fragrances.

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Pure Castile Soap

I can’t say it enough how much I love this brand. They’ve been around forever, USDA certified organic, making fair trade and wonderful organic products for 60 years.  I’ve used their classic liquid soap for a few years now – my favorite is the Peppermint Liquid Soap because the scent is like you’ve cleaned with candy canes. <smile> There are so many uses for Dr. Bronner’s soaps but it’s been a life saver for me with replacing all of my store bought traditional cleaning supplies. I use it in the bathroom, kitchen, floors (even hard wood), and to dust with (diluted in water). The price tag for this product is on the higher end in the greener stores but if you’re eliminating all other products…it’s so worth it.

The combination of ingredients from Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap are organic extra virgin coconut, organic olive, jojoba and hemp oils, with pure essential oils. Doesn’t that sound lovely to inhale and ingest while you’re cleaning rather than toxic fumes? The essential oils added to the liquid soaps are for those that still enjoy scent associated with cleaning – without the headaches that a chemical fragrance will give. You will also notice that their isn’t the action of foaming or bubbles because it doesn’t contain synthetic foaming agents. From an environmental standpoint, Dr. Bronner’s is fantastic because they are completely biodegradable and vegetable-based. So not only will you enjoy better health for your family, but the environment will also be improved from you making this switch.

Microfiber Cloths

Norwex isn’t the only company that sells microfiber cloths, but with the number of Nowex representatives in most communities, it’s easy to find someone selling these products. I was introduced to Norwex over 2 years ago by my friend Michelle and I was the mom at the meeting asking “But HOW does it clean?”  I didn’t get it. The idea that a microfiber cloth + water will clean your house is hard to wrap your mind around at first. But once you try the cloths – there’s not going back. The silver agent in the cloths traps the bacteria and dirt and these cloths will last literally years. I clean my walls, kitchen, bathroom, countertops with a dab of Dr. Bronner’s and my microfiber cloth. For my windows I use water and the microfiber window cloth (Norwex brand too).  I can’t imagine using Windex to clean glass or my windows – the thought literally makes me sick.

Norwex and Nanoparticles

I have written about Norwex products a few times, but recently did some investigation about Norwex and their rumoured link to nanoparticles after being asked by a friend about the products. I always want to write in full disclosure when recommending a company or product. I could not find anything linking Norwex to Nanoparticles. I saw a few articles from respected sites questioning if the two are related because of the antibacterial properties within the cloths. Here is the article from the Treehugger forum and an interview with Adria Vasil author of Ecoholic. Norwex has publicly stated that their products use micro-silver technology rather than nano-silver and that cloths do not leach silver while being used.

I also agree with the mind-set that while the technology is still widely untested (the world of nano-particles and micro) – I appreciate the fact I’ve been using a reusable product that has saved me money and my health with eliminating traditional cleaning products containing chemicals.

Baking Soda

I can’t believe how much baking soda I use on a daily basis. In additional to freshening up my laundry with a sprinkle, I use on tough-to-clean stains, sprinkle on my carpet before vacuuming, make paste to clean my oven, and over the last few month…I’ve been using it to wash my hair. Baking soda is such an effective odor removing product – it’s a great arsenal with household cleaning products.

Vinegar

Vinegar is great for everyday cleaning. Household cleaning recipes that contain vinegar have been around forever and the list of vinegar solutions continues to grow every year. My favorite uses for white vinegar is to kill weeds along my driveway (fill up a spray bottle and let the kids have fun), fixing CDs or DVDs when they’ve started to skip (wet a rag with vinegar and wipe the CD and dry), along with baking soda to unclog drains, and a natural fabric softener.

Olive Oil

The only way to clean stainless steel, pour olive oil on a paper towel or rag and wipe along the grain of your stainless steel appliances. This is the most effective way I’ve found to clean stainless steel. It’s not cheap, since olive oil is rather expensive, but the results are fabulous and you are polishing without chemicals.

Related Articles:

Home Made & Eco Friendly Cleaning Solutions

Self Cleaning Oven – Toxic for Humans or Only Birds?

Home-Made & Natural Home Air Fresheners

No Poo Anyone?

Tips to Improve Carpet Health

The Gift Of Chirp, ChickaDEE, & Owl Magazines

Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents – want a great reusable gift idea for the little person in your life?  This gift arrives in the mail to the lucky recipient every month and we know kids love to recieve their own mail! Remember Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl children’s magazine subscriptions? I still remember the excitement when my chickaDEE magazine would arrive.  I’ve purchased the Chirp magazine for my boys and the memories of this great little magazine came back.  The wonderful age appropriate jokes, games, and facts are very well written and really holds kids attention. My boys are now at the chickaDEE age and this magazine will be on their wish list for sure.  For the $30 price point, you can’t beat the fun, educational bundle of an ‘Owl Kids’ subscription.  Here’s what this month’s issues look like for Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl from the Owl Kids site:

Chirp Magazine (Ages 3 to 6) This month’s Chirp is all about weather! Find out what makes thunder and lightning in Look &amp; Learn, and keep track of the weather with Chirp’s handy pullout calendar. Rain or shine, you’ll have fun with this issue of Chirp! 

chickaDEE (Ages 6 to 9)  Burst into school with a great guide on how to make recess fun. Check out the 16 pages of cool puzzles and games to play! Meet Mish, Mash and Mush on the Mish Mash joke page. Also, learn how to pack a healthy lunch.

Enter to win this month’s contest at Mommy Footprint. The prize is a wonderful 3-tier stainless steel carrier – perfect for back-to-school or packing a lunch for work.  Read this article for contest details: Laptop Lunchbox Contest Ends. 3-Tier Carrier Contest Begins!

Clay Boy – Book Favorite For Children

Want an awesome story that transitions your toddler our of reading the very basic ‘see spot run’ type books?  I always assumed our preschool favorite Clay Boy, by Mirra Ginsburg, was only for ages 3-5, but I’m delighted to write that my 2 year old twins LOVE it.  They suffer from the inability to sit still for 5 minutes (like their mother), but they will sit happily to read this tale.  It is the perfect book to capture this age’s attention because there is aways something exciting happening and lot of action to keep your little one focused.  It has the same exciting build up like Three Billy Goat’s Gruff and uses word repetition so within a few times of first reading the book, your little one is chanting “More, I Want More!”

This book comes highly recommended from the preschool where my kids attend.  The story is the retelling of a Russian Folktale and it’s main characters are: Grandma, Grandpa, Clay Boy, and a golden goat.  Grandma and Grandpa make a boy out of clay to keep them company, but they aren’t prepared for Clay Boy’s appetite and soon he eats all the food in the house.  He continues to eat the village and all the people and animals in it.  Are you a little horrified? I was too the first time I read it, but the children LOVE it.  It has a very happy ending with the clever golden goat’s saving village and people.

I found this book on the Canadian Amazon site. That’s good news for Canadians….great prices too!

For US residents, the American Amazon site also carries this book. Here is the link for you to save shipping costs.

Balance Out Your Books With Eco-Libris

Want an easy way to educate your kids about the environment and ways to help replenish a precious resource …our trees?  Check out Eco-Libris. They are a wonderful green business that works with book readers, publishers, authors, bookstores and others in the book industry to balance out the paper used for books by planting trees. More than 20 million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the US alone. Eco-Libris aims to raise awareness to the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people and businesses with an affordable and easy way to do something about it: plant one tree for every book they read, sell or publish. Customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One tree planted for this book” and can later display these stickers on their books’ sleeves.  

Wouldn’t that be the perfect finishing touch on a book given as a gift or goodie bag item from a kid’s green birthday party? That is going the extra step to support reading and balancing out your love for books by having a tree planted to reverse the destruction caused to have it produced. (more…)

“Oh The Places You’ll Go” Dr. Seuss Teaching Life Lessons

Many children have fallen asleep listening to their parents reading the enlightened stories of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.  Dr. Seuss graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925 and then went on to Oxford University where he received a doctorate in literature. He wrote his first book in 1936 entitled, “And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” He was turned down by 43 publishers before a friend of his agreed to publish it for him. As you may expect, it turned out to be a best seller.

The magic of Dr. Seuss is that his stories, along with being great fun, also carry with them powerful and relevant messages and lessons for children and adults alike. This is true for most of his books, but it is especially for the last book he ever wrote, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (Classic Seuss)” published in 1990. (more…)