Notes From The Nest: Green Edition
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A blogumn by Debra Barlow
Growing up, my mother was obsessed with cleanliness. Not in a germophobic sort of way. She just wanted her house to sparkle like a Mr. Clean ad. And it did.
I distinctly remember her cleaning the house every single day, only taking a break on weekends. And I also remember the way our house smelled after those cleaning sessions: a mix of Lysol, Lemon Pledge and Windex. So to me, lemon scented ammonia is the smell of clean.
But I am not my mother and I don’t clean every day. If I clean once a week I consider it a triumph. With a full time job and a busy personal life, I don’t always find a free Saturday afternoon to scrub floors. But when I do, I like the smell of Clorox cleaner lingering in the house. It makes me feel accomplished. At least it used to.
Now, with two cats prone to allergies and the hope of children on the horizon, I’ve found myself turning away from that ‘clean’ smell and searching for something to help break me of my chemical dependency.
Enter all the new green cleaning products that are flooding the market. They’ve probably always been there, but now my eyes have been opened and I see them. At Trader Joe’s. At Target. At the grocery store. In the coming months, I will be experimenting with different products and I’ll let you know all about the good, the bad and the really, really foul.
Before I go into today’s product review, let me just explain to you the love affair I’ve had with Clorox toilet cleaner. Seriously, it’s always been one of my favorite cleaning products. You already know I love the smell, but it’s the bleach that really sells it. It gets all the stains off, it kills all the mold and mildew, it just does it all.
In looking for a greener way to do all those things, I was a little skeptical. One day at Target I wandered into the green product aisle (does your Target have one? It makes all this trial and error so much easier!) and found Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Toilet Cleaner. My toilet is never that dirty, but this does the job very well. At five dollars a bottle it’s a little pricier than it’s chemical counterpart, but still affordable. Plus, I find I use a lot less of it. And the smell? It’s lovely! They bill themselves as ‘aromatherapeutic’ and I’ve been using the lavender – it fills the bathroom with this wonderful scent that smells, well, clean. And, best of all, I don’t feel guilty flushing it down the toilet. I will probably still experiment with other green products to do the same job, but I must say, this one really won me over.
Have any of you tried Mrs. Meyers products? Any other green products you just love? Leave it in the comments!
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well, let the Green products fly… House Peters Jr. (The original Mr. Clean) died last weekend at the age of 92.
well, let the Green products fly… House Peters Jr. (The original Mr. Clean) died last weekend at the age of 92.
I’ve been using green products for some time as chemical ones make me asphyxiate! Mrs. Meyers RULES! I use the dryer sheets, the lemon verbena fragance is awesome! I love it for kitchen soap too. The basil scent is soooooo yummy for dish deterg. The lavendar shower cleaner works great. Method has a fabulous eucalyptus bath cleaner & a minty window wash. If you want non-frangrancey, BioKleen is a wonderful line. I am surprised by these products overall, but me & my schnoz are happier for it. With some items, like the BioKleen soy toilet bowl cleaner, you need a little extra elbow grease. Good times.
Happy cleaning!
(PS – The peppermint Meyers are out for the holidays already!!!!)
I’ve been using green products for some time as chemical ones make me asphyxiate! Mrs. Meyers RULES! I use the dryer sheets, the lemon verbena fragance is awesome! I love it for kitchen soap too. The basil scent is soooooo yummy for dish deterg. The lavendar shower cleaner works great. Method has a fabulous eucalyptus bath cleaner & a minty window wash. If you want non-frangrancey, BioKleen is a wonderful line. I am surprised by these products overall, but me & my schnoz are happier for it. With some items, like the BioKleen soy toilet bowl cleaner, you need a little extra elbow grease. Good times.
Happy cleaning!
(PS – The peppermint Meyers are out for the holidays already!!!!)
Watch “How clean is your house?” on BBC America! The ladies on it are hilarious and though they do use small amounts of bleach occasionally, everything else is simple soap, lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda and water! Its amazing! AND CHEAP.
I’ve been using their tips every week and I’ve saved SO much money just using natural things.
I just bought the new vinegar Windex b/c they clean windows on the show with white vinegar and newspaper (makes them super shiny)…i wanted to see what the bottled version was like and ITS GREAT. NO smell. eco-friendly. and I swear its better than the blue one!
Watch “How clean is your house?” on BBC America! The ladies on it are hilarious and though they do use small amounts of bleach occasionally, everything else is simple soap, lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda and water! Its amazing! AND CHEAP.
I’ve been using their tips every week and I’ve saved SO much money just using natural things.
I just bought the new vinegar Windex b/c they clean windows on the show with white vinegar and newspaper (makes them super shiny)…i wanted to see what the bottled version was like and ITS GREAT. NO smell. eco-friendly. and I swear its better than the blue one!
As you know, I’m not big on cleaning up things (except the streets when I’m walking my dirty cop beats), but CH swears by planet detergeant for washing clothes, because it does a good cleaning job and it doesn’t harm our garden, since we water it with the water from our washing machine — you’d have to ask CH how he set up that system, though.
I just cut the outflow pipe on the washer and re-piped it to run into the back yard. In the back yard it goes into a holding tank then into a slow flow hose buried under the shrubs. It took me a afternoon to do.
I just cut the outflow pipe on the washer and re-piped it to run into the back yard. In the back yard it goes into a holding tank then into a slow flow hose buried under the shrubs. It took me a afternoon to do.
I don’t have a washer….but that’s freaking brilliant.
NC has major water restrictions so my step dad built a similar system for the gutters. My mom’s garden is the only one alive! I’m going to have to tell them about the washer idea, though…even more water saved!
I don’t have a washer….but that’s freaking brilliant.
NC has major water restrictions so my step dad built a similar system for the gutters. My mom’s garden is the only one alive! I’m going to have to tell them about the washer idea, though…even more water saved!
If you do it you can’t use bleach and you half to use biodegradable laundry soap.
If you do it you can’t use bleach and you half to use biodegradable laundry soap.
Oh man, I just read this scary blogpost over at EcoRenovator.org about how we don’t even know if our green products are really chemical-free and green, b/c there’s no USDA for green clean products.
I love embracing mother earth, but one thing I dislike about the movement is that I’m always so very confused about what it really green and what isn’t. It feels like the rules keep on changing.
Anyway, read the EcoRenovator blog here: http://ecorenovator.org/inhabitats-green-cleaning-101/
Great post! Pretty sure we don’t get these brands here in Australia though which is a shame, as I’m going through the same process of trying to find green alternatives to cleaning products (ones which actually work). One book I have found quite helpful is the Spotless book by Shannon Lush & Jennifer Fleming. I just got it from the library, and it has given me quite a few good tips. Most cleaning, it seems, can be achieved with bicarb soda, vinegar and water, but they also had lots of other great tips, such as using cold tea to spray over your bed mattress to kill dust mites, and also vacuuming up a used tea bag to stop dust mites breeding in your dust bag of the vacuum cleaner. Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye on here now to see what else you discover!
Cheers, Bec
Great post! Pretty sure we don’t get these brands here in Australia though which is a shame, as I’m going through the same process of trying to find green alternatives to cleaning products (ones which actually work). One book I have found quite helpful is the Spotless book by Shannon Lush & Jennifer Fleming. I just got it from the library, and it has given me quite a few good tips. Most cleaning, it seems, can be achieved with bicarb soda, vinegar and water, but they also had lots of other great tips, such as using cold tea to spray over your bed mattress to kill dust mites, and also vacuuming up a used tea bag to stop dust mites breeding in your dust bag of the vacuum cleaner. Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye on here now to see what else you discover!
Cheers, Bec
I just bought some planet detergent — glad to hear it works (I haven’t tried it yet). I love the idea and the economic benefits of cleaning with vinegar and baking soda, but…I’m really, really lazy and the house would turn into a cesspool if it waited for me to mix a cleaning solution. But I do like the idea that you can use cupboard staples to clean your home!
I just bought some planet detergent — glad to hear it works (I haven’t tried it yet). I love the idea and the economic benefits of cleaning with vinegar and baking soda, but…I’m really, really lazy and the house would turn into a cesspool if it waited for me to mix a cleaning solution. But I do like the idea that you can use cupboard staples to clean your home!