You can read about the Household Product Labeling Acts that, if passed, would require manufacturers of cleaning products to list ALL ingredients on the label. With or without this act, you should never purchase a “green” cleaner that doesn’t list its ingredients on the product label. If you do, you’re likely buying greenwash, not a truly eco product.

I think it’s great Method is calling attention to this problem. Though I sometimes make my own cleaners, I also use Method products, like their dilutable cleaner. Since Method doesn’t test on animals, I prefer them over products like Green Works by Clorox.

Whatever cleaner you choose, be sure to consider all the dangers of some home cleaning products.

Did you like “Shiny Suds“?

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Uses: Replacement for toxic scouring powders. Effective at deep cleaning and polishing stainless steel, porcelain, hard surface counters, corian counter tops, and other bath and kitchen surfaces.

Ingredients: Purified water, Lemon oil, xanthan gum, crystalline silica, 100% natural anionic coconut kernel oil-based surfactant.

Cost: $4.09 for 17oz. Also available in bulk.

Eco facts:

• All Earth Friendly Products are non-toxic and plant-based.
• This cleaner is free of phosphates, chlorine, petroleum chemicals and an amazing amount of other harmful ingredients.
• 100% biodegradable cleaner.
• All parts of the container are easily recycled; even the cap! HUGE plus.
• Septic and greywater safe.
• Never tested on animals.
• The company donates to and participates in a number of eco-minded local and global organizations.
• Company posts all their MSDS product sheets online. BIG bonus points!

WHAT I THINK:

So far I’ve tried out about four or five products from this company and this one is my least favorite. That said, let’s start with cons.

SO HARD TO RINSE! This is my number one complaint. You apply this cleanser as directed (squeeze a quarter sized amount of cleaner onto damp cloth, wipe on surface to be cleaned, rinse and let dry). It all goes as planned up to the rinse stage. It took me forever to get this rinsed off surfaces, my tub, the sink; really everywhere I used it. It wasted a lot of my time when I tried to use it on large areas.

Didn’t work great. Honestly, I feel that plain old baking soda scrubbed away more dirt, plus scrubs faster and rinses cleaner than this cleanser.

In pro news – I LOVE how this smells. OMG it smells like you’re growing a fresh lemon tree in your bathroom or kitchen after using it, and not a fake weird lemon, but REAL lemons. Awesome scent. Also, while I felt that it was hard to rinse and didn’t clean large areas well, it did get some small specific areas nice and clean – like the grooves in the sink drain and the areas around the faucets. I squeezed some onto an old toothbrush, and it worked nicely.

Of course the eco-perks are excellent. If you’re resigned to a commercial scrubbing cleaner, this one is so much healthier than one of the more toxic traditional store bought scouring powders.

Happy Tree Score:

3 out of 5 happy little trees. The fact that this company rocks overall, and has many other worthwhile products scored this item a three. However, I would suggest plain old baking soda over this cleanser. Who should use this? People who only want to use a ‘real’ not homemade scouring cleaner. This one rinses no worse than some toxic conventional scouring cleaners I’ve seen, but is made without those icky ingredients. Also, I’d personally use this on my sink. Even though it’s hard to rinse, it pays off when my kitchen smells like lemons. I would never EVER use this on a large surface.

Now, in case you’re wondering about other products from Earth Friendly Products, I’ve reviewed many, and liked all of them so far besides this lemon cleanser. Read my other reviews below (the Parsley Cleaner is amazing! BTW).

• Parsley Plus Surface Cleaner
• Orange Plus Surface Cleaner from Earth Friendly Products
• Organic Lavender Window Cleaner

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• You always use paper towels.
• You never use paper towels.
• You use both cloth and paper towels.

Besides 100% recycled content paper towels, (not perfect but way better than traditional paper towels) there’s no middle ground, as in nothing that people feel is the same as paper, yet more sustainable.

One answer may be SKOY.

SKOY is an absorbent, biodegradable and natural multi-use cloth that’s a little more paper-like than cloth. SKOY is made of a natural cotton and wood-based cellulose pulp that’s chlorine free and 100% biodegradable in five weeks. Colored SKOY cloths are made with water-based inks.

The difference between paper towels and SKOY is that you can use them again if you choose. According to SKOY, one SKOY cloth is equivalent to using 15 rolls of paper towels in an average home.

The difference between SKOY and cloth is that the SKOY is more absorbent – SKOY has an absorption factor of 15x its own weight and feels more like a good quality paper towel plus dries fast so it’s less likely to breed bacteria than say, a sponge. Also, SKOY likely takes less energy and resources to make than cotton rags for cleaning.

If you’re not into exclusive cloth or paper towels, SKOY could be one of your best bets.

Visit SKOY to learn more.

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Folks have a lot of questions about green cleaners. Most recently on the post, 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies, Tosha asked, “Does anyone know how long you can keep these products once you mix them?” Then Caroline followed up with, “I too am interested in knowing if you can mix a batch up and save it? Or do you have to mix and use immediately? No one has answered Tosha on this…and I would like to know too!”

The issue here is that there are 25 cleaners posted in that post – so as you might guess, each can have a varied shelf life. Since no one asked about specific cleaners, here’s a quick life-span primer on some of the cleaners (I’m guessing which ones people are interested in)…

Cleaner # 14 – Disinfectant all purpose cleaner: You can keep this mix of essential oil, water, and soap, until it’s all used up. To be honest, I actually just keep adding new stuff to the same bottle I’ve had around forever. No items in this mix will go bad. If you didn’t EVER use your mix, I’m guessing the essential oil component would eventually degrade or smell different, but I use mine daily, so I’ve never seen it happen.

Cleaner # 16 – Basic furniture polish: Mix fresh each time you use it. If you’ve got a little left over, and for sure will use it within a month, go ahead and keep it, but the olive oil won’t keep for longer.

Cleaner # 17 – Herbal disinfectant: The longest I’ve ever had this mix around is for a few months. By then I’ve used it mostly up and mix up a fresh batch. I don’t think anything bad will happen if you have it around longer, but the herbs may loose their herbal qualities.

Cleaner # 20 – Window / glass cleaner: This mix of vinegar and water will keep forever. At least in my experience. If a vinegar expert stops by, who knows, we may hear differently, but until then, I’m going with keep it until you use it up.

I hope this answers Tosha, Caroline, and anyone else wondering about these homemade mixes.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

• Organic Lavender Window Cleaner
• Orange Plus Surface Cleaner

I wanted to review the Parsley Plus Surface Cleaner here though, because I know I’ve got a bunch of readers into gardening and herbs so I thought readers here might specifically adore this cleaner.

Product: Parsley Plus All-Purpose Surface Cleaner from Earth Friendly Products

Uses: Use to clean kitchen, bath, and other countertops, plus other hard surface areas.

Ingredients: Purified water, parsley essence, 100% natural anionic coconut kernel oil based surfactant.

Cost: $4.75 for 17oz. Also available in other sizes including bulk.

Eco facts:

• All Earth Friendly Products are non-toxic and plant-based.
• This cleaner is free of phosphates, chlorine, petroleum chemicals and an amazing amount of other harmful ingredients.
• 100% biodegradable cleaner.
• All parts of the container are easily recycled; even the cap! HUGE plus.
• Septic and greywater safe.
• Never tested on animals.
• The company donates to and participates in a number of eco-minded local and global organizations.
• Company posts all their MSDS product sheets online. BIG bonus points!

WHAT I THINK:

So far I’ve tried out about four or five products from this company and this one is maybe my favorite. First of all it smells AMAZING. I love, love, love the scent. You might think, “Parsley scented – weird!” but it’s oddly fresh, clean, and leaves this great lingering scent on everything. Not overpowering at all.

I sprayed it on all sorts of surfaces and walls and it works and works fast. I sprayed it on grease on the stove top, some weird grunge on the sink, wooden tables, coffee splatters, and more and each time it took just one spray plus one swipe with a cloth and the whatever came right off.

I looked for cons, but didn’t see any. I suppose I should mention that this is not a disinfectant, which could be a con for some folks. Not for me since I use hot water and soap to disinfect.

Happy Tree Score:

Five out of five happy little trees! This is one of my most favorite store-bought eco cleaners I’ve tried. I highly recommend this cleaner.

Learn more: Parsley Plus All-Purpose Surface Cleaner

Stay tuned because I’ll also be reviewing some dishwasher gel from this company later on.

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Make sure your washer and dryer are Energy Star rated for maximum energy and water efficiency.

Grab a cord, some clothes pins, and hang that laundry to dry. I actually hang my clothing year round. If it’s too cold outside, you can hang your clothing directly on hangers, and hang them on the shower rod to dry. This also saves time – right from the washer to closet.

In the summer, do your laundry in the early morning or later in the evening. This will cut energy costs because your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard to keep things cool.

Wash full loads only to conserve water and energy.

Wash everything on cold. It’ll work, even if you’re washing diapers. Yup, it will.

Use eco-friendly laundry detergent and skip dryer sheets (mainly these are a waste). If you like fresh laundry out of the dryer, sprinkle a few drops of organic essential oil onto a washcloth, and place it in the dryer.

Skip the fabric softener and add one-half cup of baking soda to your rinse cycle OR choose an eco-friendly fabric softener.

ALWAYS skip traditional bleach.

If you send items out make sure you look for a more earth-friendly dry cleaner.

What else can you think of?

[image via stock.xchng]

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On the post, How to choose green cleaners – store bought green cleaners, Caroline says…

“Thank you for taking the time to talk about greener cleaners! Our son who is four has had sever allergies and eczema since he was a baby and EVERYTHING seems to aggravate his little body and skin. We have really tried to eliminate as much of the chemical stuff as possible…especially carpet cleaners! (We just use hot water now). I am glad you are creating this awareness. I can’t use anything with nuts for laundry…any thoughts on what I could use or make? Thanks! “

So, Caroline is looking for homemade laundry soap. I’ve made some before, but I usually use Biokleen All Temperature Laundry Soap.

I had one reader comment on another post, 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies, about her homemade laundry soap, so I asked her if she could email me her recipe. Jammie emailed me back with this info below about a laundry soap and fabric softener recipe she found online and says works really well:

Laundry Detergent Ingredients…

• 1 cup washing soda
• 1/2 cup borax (I used 20 Mule Team)
• 1 bar soap (I used 2 because I like a strong scent and the smell outcome smells like the soap you use) for the first batch I used Dial-White Tea.
• Approximately 3 gallons water
• 5 gallon bucket with lid
• Cheese grater

And how to make it…

1. First thing, put about four cups of water into the pan and put it on the stove on high until it’s at boiling, then lower the heat until it’s simmering.
2. While it’s heating up, take a bar of soap and grate it up into little bits.
3. When the water is boiling, start throwing in the soap a little at a time. Stir it until it’s dissolved. The water will have a soupy soap look with suds and will be the color of the bar of soap you used, so color will vary.
4. Next, get out your bucket and add three gallons of warm tap water to it.
5. To this bucket add a cup of the washing soda, 1/2 cup of borax, and the soap solution you made and stir until it’s all suddy. This will look like a bucket of soapy water.
6. At this point, let the soap sit for 24 hours, with a lid on it.
7. When you take off the lid, you’ll find any number of things, depending on the type of soap you used and the water you used. It might be firm, like Jello; it might be very watery; it might even be like liquid laundry detergent. Just stir it up a bit and it’s ready to be used. Don’t worry about the texture – it’s completely fine. Just use a measuring cup and use one cup of the detergent per load of laundry. If it’s got “globs” in it, get a mix of the water and of the globs – it’ll break up very quickly in the washing machine and wash your clothes well.
8. This recipe is for 1 batch. The 312 loads comes because you still have the borax, and washing soda left to make the rest of the batches. Also I bought the soap that comes in the bundled 12 pack, so I have those left over also. All the ingredients should make 6 batches. Each batch makes enough for 52 full loads at 1 cup a load.

As for the fabric softener…

• 6 cups of water
• 3 cups of vinegar
• 2 cups of any hair conditioner

Mix the ingredients above in a gallon container and stir. Do not shake, this will cause foaming. Pour a small amount into the rinse cycle.

I haven’t tried these specific recipes, although I have tried similar ones that I like, and Jammie says both work well. Additionally I know that some of our readers get cranky when I even utter the words borax, plus soap can irritate some skin types, so I’m thinking I’ll gather up a couple more recipes that don’t use borax and post them later. But for now, thanks to Jammie for this suggestion!

Let me know if you give it a try – OR feel free to post your own homemade laundry soap recipe in the comments.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Following are some of the most useful green cleaning posts archived here at Tree Hugging Family; along with some seriously strange Mr. Yuk video fun. This list of past posts should help you get your green cleaning plans organized for spring and beyond…

Easy green cleaning tips:

• How to choose green cleaners – store bought green cleaners
• Hot Water for Cleaning – Yeah It Works
• Are Sponges A Great Green Choice?
• Breathe In Some Green Air

RETHINK your cleaners:

• Are We So Clean That We’re Breeding Super Germs?
• Guess How Many People Think Cleaners Are Safe?
• Household Cleaning Products Linked To Childhood Asthma
• The Dangers of Home Cleaning Supplies
• How many cleaning supplies are under your sink that your child could safely drink?

Make some homemade green cleaners:

• Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener
• 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Disposal, reuse, and recycling extras:

• How to reuse toilet paper tubes – handy reuse tips for kids, criminals, and more
• Where Can I Recycle My…
• Make Recycling Easy for Kids
• How to Recycle Prescription Bottles
• Smart Paint Disposal
• Aerosol Product Recycling

THE TOTALLY INSANE MR YUK VIDEO (really).

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Today’s green question appeared on the post, 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies; a reader asked, “I have some old floor cleaners, wax, ect.. what’s the best way to get rid of it with out hurting the environment?”

First of all you’ll need to know which household cleaners are worth keeping, and which should be tossed. You can read the following post; How many cleaning supplies are under your sink that your child could safely drink? to sort out your chemicals.

Secondly, you don’t want to toss them in the sink. Cleaners can be just as toxic to the environment as paint or other hazardous materials so allowing them into the groundwater system is no good. You need to dispose of them correctly.

WHERE TO DISPOSE OF YOUR ICKY CLEANERS:

Apartment Therapy has a nice informative post up for people who live in large urban areas (i.e. NY, San Fran, etc) – Where to Rid of Your Toxic Household Cleaners but this won’t help if you live elsewhere.

Some other ideas…

• Earth 911 lets you search for recycling centers and household cleaners are included.
• Check with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Their household toxic waste disposal page lists tips for proper use and disposal of waste (like cleaners) and offers ideas about where to drop off these items in your community.
• Your local recycling center is a good place to start. Even if your general recycling center won’t accept old cleaners, they’ll be able to tell you who will.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Here at Tree Hugging Family, I mainly advocate making your own homemade green cleaners. Not only is it easy to make simple green cleaners, but very cost effective. That said, there will always be folks who want to buy, not make cleaners, so I figured we should take a look at which store bought cleaners are actually green.

The number one rule for choosing a green store bought cleaner is – read your labels. A pretty waterfall or little green leaf means nothing. Ignore fancy ‘green’ packaging and read your labels.

Terms you want to see on a cleaning bottle include:

• Ammonia free
• Chlorine free
• Plant based
• Biodegradable
• Certified organic
• Solvent free
• Phosphate free
• Chemical free
• Fragrance free
• Dye and artificial color free

Of course, one cleaner may note that it’s got certified organic ingredients or that it’s fragrance free, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. You need to read the whole label, not simply go by the first thing you see.

Terms you DO NOT want to see on a cleaning bottle include:

• “Poison” or “Danger.” Federal law mandates that these terms indicate the highest possible level of hazard.
• “Caution” or “Warning,” both mean a product carries a moderate hazard.
• “Wear gloves” – “Only use in a well ventilated area” and other likewise terms are big baddies. I’m sorry, but if you need to wear gloves or a face mask in order to handle a product, right there it’s a bad idea.

Next check for full ingredient disclosure: If a product says something like, “Natural ingredients” or has a super scanty ingredient list, I’d be leery. They could do better. Some products may be just fine, and list their healthy ingredients at their website, but they should include them on the package.

Lastly check the packaging:

• Is it excessive?
• Is it recyclable?
• Is it refillable? Some co-ops do offer refillable cleaning products.

Is it worth it?

All in all, this is a lot of work just to find a green cleaner. You could just make most of your own. If you need help making homemade green cleaners (or help choosing a green conventional cleaner) read the following:

Basic green cleaning

• 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies
• Hot Water for Cleaning – Yeah It Works
• Breathe In Some Green Air
• Homemade Organic Liquid Handsoap
• Are Sponges A Great Green Choice?

Nice scents

• Homemade Spicy Apple Air Freshener
• Natural Air Fresheners
• Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

Laundry

• Solar Stain Fighting
• Green Product Review: Biokleen All Temperature Laundry Liquid

Dishes

• Green Product Review: Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder
• Green Product Review: Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel
• Seventh Generation Dishwasher Powder Review

Which cleaners do you buy vs. make?

[image via stock.xchng]

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