Maintaining a clean house can have a calming effect on the overall energy of the home. We clean our home to eliminate bacteria, dirt, and dust. However, when we use traditional cleaning supplies our home has a chemical or harsh bleach smell instead of a fresh scent — we've started the process of switching out all our household cleaning products for less toxic, green household cleaners.
Top Row:
- Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day: All the cleaning supplies are made with natural essential oils and the bottles are biodegradable and phosphate-free.
- Attitude: Many of their products are vegan and free of harsh chemicals.
- Seventh Generation: Seventh Generation has a complete line of cleaning and household products. Also, they dedicate 10% of their profits to non-profit community, environmental, health, and responsible business organizations working for positive change.
- Method: Biodegradable ingredients such as soy, coconut and palm oils make up the Method cleaning supplies.
- Biokleen: Biokleen's mission is to provide super concentrated cleaning supplies with fewer fillers, which results in less waste and more value for the consumer.
Bottom Row:
- Vaska: The laundry products were created by a former fashion designer and use advanced botanical solutions from lavender to clean the clothes.
- Murchison-Hume: Murchison-Hume is a premium organic cleaning product that is even used in commercial settings.
What are your favorite green cleaning products?
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I definitely want to recommend Global Balance products. Their website leaves much to be desired but their line of cleaning products is AMAZING!
http://globalbalanceproducts.com/
I highly recommend them.
Ecover products are my personal favorite for cleaning and my regular laundry detergent. Basically anything sold at The Green Life, I'm good with!
I just tried Method's new line of laundry detergent and am in love with their "sweet water" scent. I'm hoping that it's a "naturally" and not "chemically" derived smell...
Like a lot of people, I'm trying to think of realistic ways to be more green and have come to realize one of the first steps is to look at the packaging, not just the product inside. I'm favoring paper, glass, and metals whenever possible. Plastics are not easily recycled even when there are programs in place, and none of those tops and squirters are made of recyclable plastic.
Good point about recycled or recyclable packaging.... I just checked my Mrs. Myers bottles and they are a "2" which means:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11653.cfm
Number 2 Plastics -- HDPE (high density polyethylene)
* Found In: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach, detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; butter and yogurt tubs; cereal box liners
* Recycling: Pick up through most curbside recycling programs, although some only allow those containers with necks.
* Recycled Into: Laundry detergent bottles, oil bottles, pens, recycling containers, floor tile, drainage pipe, lumber, benches, doghouses, picnic tables, fencing
HDPE carries low risk of leaching and is readily recyclable into many goods.
i tried out the new Method laundry detergent (small ultra-concentrated bottle with a pump).. it seems like a good enough detergent..
however, when carrying everything back up to my apartment, the bottle leaked detergent all over my clean clothes.
LAME. and wouldn't a measuring cup lid use less plastic AND be cheaper to make.. and not leak all over everything?
I make most of my own. I make an all-purpose spray with diluted 7th Generation dish soap, and another one with diluted vinegar. If you make your own, it cuts down a lot on packaging and cost.
The one thing that does surprise me about Mrs Meyer's range of products is that they have no refill packs. It is dissapointing to see that from a "green" company (even if their bottles are bio-degradable).
Maybe it is time to venture into making my own cleaning supplies, there have been several posts on AT with links on how-to's.
Mrs. Meyer's offers refills on a number of their products - drugstore.com sells a fairly complete line of their products.
Palm oil is not green! Extracting palm oil damages the Rainforest where orangutans, sumatran tigers, asian elephants and sumatran rhinos live, making them all extremely endangered. Please avoid products with palm oil. That goes for food, as well. It is harmful to human health too.
After having eliminated most fragrances from my beauty products (i.e. natural no pthalates) and using greener cleaning supplies; I have found that Mrs. Meyer's products are overly fragranced. I find them to be so strong that I can not stand to use them - they make me sneeze and the smell lingers long after the counter or dishes are dry. This is frustrating after having spent so much for these little bottles.
I just tried the Method 50 load laundry detergent (unscented) and it seemed to work fine. However, as someone else stated, this is not a greener way to go as it is plastic. Unscented 7th Gen. in the box works just fine.
For counters, tubs and toilets we use a homemade spray of vinegar, water, tea tree and lavender oils or vodka, soap and water.
Best way to clean a grimy bath tub: Dump a cup or so of baking soda into dry tub. Squirt some dishsoap over the top of the pile of baking soda. Using a wet (not dripping, but more than damp) rag or microfiber cloth rub the mixture all over the tub, then the walls of the shower enclosure. Come back to the tub, rub again and like magic that nasty grey grime comes right off. Using a spray bottle, spray vinegar over the walls of shower enclosure and tub. Rinse with HOT water.
It even got rid of our 6 months of remodeling grime. In about 10 minutes with very little effort. Wipe on, wipe off.
I have no idea if it's "Green" or not, but Bar Keeper's Friend is my new go-to.
Mrs Meyes still has sodium laurel sulfate. Method uses artificial colors in a lot of their products.
I actually just noticed that Method products in plastic do not have a recycling number on the bottom, does anyone know if they are recyclable?
Mrs. Meyers when don't have time/materials to make my own (I love baking soda, white vinegar, and lemon juice or essential oils) and Ecover makes really good stuff. Nothing beats a brush and some effort, though.
I went through a conversion last year when I moved into my new house... (I actually left all my cleaning products for the new renters!). I bought Mrs. Meyers and have overall been very happy - I use the counter spray, shower spray and dishwashing soap and all purpose cleaner which I use for the floors also the dryer sheets are great. The window/glass cleaner... not good, I recently replaced it with Martha Stewart Clean Glass and Mirror Cleaner which is *much* better, but the bottle is too tall for my cabinet shelf! Another GREAT floor cleaner that is green is called Bona.. amazing.
www.mydesigndreams.com
So just how "toxic" are all the plain old regular, non trendy, household cleaning supplies?
Regarding the Method products recyclability--most are made of PET (Number 1) or HDPE (Number 2). They are two of the most commonly recycled plastics, and many cleaning product lines use them.
I like the question above about just how "toxic" regular cleaners are!
It really varies. It is easy to formulate a mild non toxic general purpose cleaner. But for removing calcium, lime, rust and soap scum it is hard to beat a phosphoric acid based product.
See these fairly dramatic before and after photos of what a phosphoric acid product properly formulated can do:http://www.edfredcorp.com/blog/?page_id=42
Phosphoric acid is a very fast acting, common prepared food ingredient for beverages. It is even fairly hard to find as a raw material in a non food grade form. Blend that with some quality surfactants (soaps) and you have one heck of a product.
It is biodegradable, but everything is! (Eventually)
I sometimes wonder about the value of a "green" product if it does not work and ends up on your shelf or in the trash unused?
There sure is a lot of green washing out there preying on our desire to do the right thing for our planet, pushing us to pay more for less performance. Duh.
Brands must synthetic fragrance free! It's not enough to say your natural because that can still mean they put synthetic fragrance in their cleaning products. Brands like Sun & Earth who have been in business since 1988 are a good choice. Click through to clean: www.SunAndEarth.com