green cleaning supplies

Green Audit Your Bathroom

jchait — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:34:44 -0400

This week we've been taking a look a green audits for the home and garden. So far we've seen:

Today we're going to take a closer look at how to green up your bathroom. The bathroom is a great room to green audit because you use it daily, many times daily in fact, so it's a room where small changes can create big differences.

Look at your water habits: Do you take 30 minute showers? You really shouldn't; that's pretty wasteful of water. If you find you’re having trouble taking shorter showers you might want to try a timer. Place a basic kitchen timer on your counter, and set it for ten minutes - how fast can you wash.

Do you take baths?: Baths can take up more than twice the water of a typical shower. Saving water will save you both energy and water.

Check for leaky toilets: Remove the lid of your toilet tank, add some bright food coloring. Wait about 20 minutes, go back and check around the base of your toilet. If you see colored liquid you have a leak. Some leaks are easy to fix with a basic hardware store kit, and other leaks require a plumber; check at your hardware store to see which option you'll need.

Look at bathroom packaging and supplies: Are you buying organic, animal testing free, natural products in recyclable containers? Recyclable toothbrushes and razors? Do you buy too many bathroom items? Trust me you don't need eight face creams, that's just a waste of packaging.

Do you re-use your towel?: You don't need to rewash your towel every time. That's an energy and water waste.

Check your shower head: You should have a low-flow shower head installed. You'll still have a nice shower but save lots of water.

To learn more read:

[Image recycled toothbrush via Recycline]

Green Audit Your Pantry

jchait — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:42:21 -0400

This week we're looking at how to green audit your home. Yesterday we looked at how to green audit your home cleaning supplies. Today we're moving on to your kitchen pantry.

The kitchen pantry is usually not a big old toxic mess of a place, but it is a place where people tend to have some major over packaging issues.

Take a look at your kitchen shelves, walk-in pantry, fridge, and anywhere else you store food items. Yeah, I use pantry in a broad way - any food items should be audited. Look first for over packaging. For example, cereal in a plastic bag, in a box is double packaging. Pasta that's sitting in a flat container and that also been shrink wrapped is too much packaging. Go through everything, and as you sort, make a list of everything that you think is too over packaged.

Also look for food items packaged in non-recyclable packaging and non reused packaging. You can check for the little recycle symbol, or check the inside of boxes. It's not a completely hard rule, but for the most part, white interior cardboard means non-recycled. Darker cardboard has usually been recycled and reused.

Look at juice bottles, cheese slices that are individually wrapped, and fruit you buy in plastic. Try to think of alternatives. You can buy bulk foods (reuse containers and bags), you can buy fresh berries and freeze them instead of buying frozen in bags, you can have turkey sliced at the meat counter and wrapped in paper vs. buying turkey in plastic wrap and a container.

To learn more read:

Your Kitchen Food Pantry

Bulk Food Storage: Flour and Other Dry Basics

Green Audit Your Cleaning Supplies

jchait — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:24:00 -0400

Cleaning supplies are a good place to start if you want to green audit your house. Cleaning supplies are easy to sort, and an important thing to audit because many cleaners are chock full of harmful chemicals.

Green auditing your cleaning supplies is a three step process:

1) Sort cleaning supplies.

2) Get rid of toxic cleaners.

3) Find good alternative green cleaning supplies.

First of all you need to go room to room, locating all cleaners. Usually, we keep cleaning supplies in the kitchen, under sinks, in the laundry room, in the garage, and in the bathroom. Don't forget weird little cleaning supplies like air fresheners you keep in bedrooms.

Here's a break down of how green your cleaners should be. As you sort you should read labels and look for known poisons and toxic chemicals.

Laundry area and kitchen soaps - you want to make sure laundry detergents and dishwashing detergents are bleach and phosphate free. You also want to make sure they contain natural surfactants; traditional surfactants are made from petroleum. Look for detergents that are biodegradable - although note that this is a pretty flexible term, with no certification. It's best to look for the phosphate / bleach free info first.

Basic household cleaners - avoid ammonia, bleach, lye, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, phenol, and other nasty sounding ingredients. Honestly, I'm sort of the mindset that if you can't pronounce it, or you don't recognize it, it's likely no good. That's just a general observation though.

Packaging - Just because it's green, doesn't mean they packaged it well. There are packaging differences among say, the greener detergents. Choose packaging that's recyclable, reusable, and not double wrapped.

Safely discard any toxic chemicals (talk to your local recycling center to learn more). Then create your own homemade and safe alternative cleaning supplies. To learn more about safe cleaners read:

Tomorrow we'll move on to another green room audit.

Best Cleaning Product That You Cannot Live Without!

wrldadventurer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:36:15 -0400

My family passed down some wonderful ways to be green when cleaning. I cannot live without having several bottles vinager in my pantry now! I have used it in laundry that had an unusual smell from the store and it neutralized it. It will also neutralize any smell in a room without smelling it up with more smells (deordorizing sprays) that can harm your household as well as the environment. I have used it to clean walls and floors and it is THE BEST kind of non-streak window cleaner out there! Your home will end up smelling fresh and clean while you have the comfort of knowing that you did not contribute to the chemicals in the municipal system and our water supply. I have even used it for unclogging a drain...just mix with a little bit of baking soda and it will foam its way through your pipe unclogging it in the process. Keep up the positive 'green' contributions!