Tree Hugging Family » Eco-cleaning

Green Product Review: Creamy Lemon Cleanser

Jennifer — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:14:52 +0000

Product: Creamy Cleanser from Earth Friendly Products

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).

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Reader Question: how long to keep homemade green cleaners?

Jennifer — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:08:07 +0000

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

Green Product Review: Parsley Plus Surface Cleaner

Jennifer — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:54:04 +0000

I recently got a bunch of Earth Friendly Products and have been reviewing them around my various blogs. See:

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.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Green Cleaning Checklist

Jennifer — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:00:42 +0000

In our last reader question post we looked at How To Safely Toss Toxic Cleaners. It’s a good topic for the season since so many of us are thinking about green spring cleaning, which made me think, hey, it might be time for a green cleaning round-up.

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:

RETHINK your cleaners:

Make some homemade green cleaners:

Disposal, reuse, and recycling extras:

THE TOTALLY INSANE MR YUK VIDEO (really).

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

How to choose green cleaners – store bought green cleaners

Jennifer — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:05:01 +0000

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

Nice scents

Laundry

Dishes

Which cleaners do you buy vs. make?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies

Jennifer — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:13:01 +0000

This week our green audit is cleaning supplies. We’ve already discussed the dangers of traditional, commercial cleaning supplies, so now we’re moving on to solutions. I will be going over some options available for purchase this week, but first we’re going to look at homemade cleaners.
Benefits of homemade cleaners:

Less packaging waste. You’re not buying new bottles over and over.
Less expensive. I actually started making homemade products before I was really all the way green – why? To save money.
Less harmful (often not harmful at all) to humans, animals, and the earth.
Less noxious home smell. Homemade natural cleaners always smell better than store bought. Well, except vinegar – but I have major vinegar issues. There are ways to mask the smell of vinegar though – not completely, but somewhat. Lavender essential oil and lemon juice both work some to hide the icky vinegar smell.

Here we go. Homemade cleaners, from basic recipes to a few that are more advanced…

1. Clogged sink and bathtub drains: prevent clogs altogether with the amazing drain trap. I’m shocked at how many people don’t use a drain trap. I got one at Home Depot for under two dollars – five years ago. If you have a sluggish drain, pour a cup of white vinegar plus one cup baking soda into the drain. Let that sit for a few minutes (it will bubble). Flush with a teapot full of boiling water. If you really have issues, use a snake or plunger. Drain cleaner is honestly something you should never have in your home – it’s hands down one of the more dangerous cleaning items.

2. Air freshening options: Light a natural candle, burn organic incense, boil orange peels and spices on your stove top, diffuse essential oils, open your windows, buy some air cleaning plants, use cedar blocks sprinkled with lavender in your closets, or make potpourri. Learn more:

3. Soap scum removal: Apply baking soda (it is non abrasive). Scrub with a damp cloth or sponge. I have an older bristle brush I use for icky scum – like when I go to long without cleaning (bad me). You can use Borax or vinegar too; but Borax can scratch. Vinegar can be applied directly, left to sit, and scrubbed down.

4. Small carpet stain: Two words – club soda!

5. Bigger tougher carpet stains: Sprinkle Fuller’s earth or cornstarch onto the spot. Allow it to sit for about 20-30 minutes. Scrub with one cup vinegar mixed with three cups water. If it really won’t come out try a natural soap based carpet cleaner.

6. Carpet deodorizer: Sprinkle baking soda around the room – my son thinks this is the most fun ever. Add some dried crushed lavender or basil. Wait about 1/2 hour. Vacuum.

7. Oven cleaning prevention: Don’t let spills sit. That’s the best cleaning procedure hand’s down. Clean the oven sooner rather than later. Line your oven bottom with foil to catch spills.

8. “Oh no, I didn’t follow the oven cleaning prevention tip above!”: Ok, if you have a hot spill, sprinkle it with salt. Mix some baking soda – I just toss maybe two tablespoons with into a cup, with some water to make a thin paste. Use an old toothbrush or bristle brush to scrub it down.

9. Everyday toilet cleaning: Sprinkle some baking soda and lemon juice into your toilet and walk away. Eventually you’ll want to return and scrub it with a toilet brush.

10. Bachelor pad toilet cleaning: No offense guys – I’ve seen my fair share of bachelor pads though. Spray vinegar around the bowl, sprinkle with baking soda, scrub.

11. Metal rust: Mix 2 tablespoons salt with 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Apply and rub well.

12. Musty stuff: Say you have an old suitcase or truck that’s all musty, but you’d like to use it. Fill it with recycled crumpled newspaper let it sit for a week. The paper will absorb the smell (mostly) then, fill a mister bottle with water, add a few drops of tea tree oil, lightly spray the case and leave it open to dry.

13. Burnt food or fishy kitchen smells: Set aside a thrift store pie plate for times like these. Sprinkle the pan with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of orange essential oil – place in the warm oven, and let it sit as the oven cools.

14. Disinfectant all purpose cleaner: Mix a few drops of natural soap, 2 cups water, and 15 drops each of tea tree and lavender essential oil (you can use just the one oil- but 30 drops, I just like the mix). You can spray this on all surfaces, like cutting boards, counters, toilets, walls, (except it will streak glass). This stuff disinfects but is so safe you can actually spray it on your baby – you can’t say that about most commercial household cleaners.

15. Mold removal: Try not to let mold invade your home. You can prevent it – believe me I lived on the cold, foggy, always wet beach in Humboldt, you CAN prevent mold. Clean often with the disinfectant above and scrub down places that might develop mold with Borax once in a while. Borax will prevent mold and disinfect.

16. Basic furniture polish: Mix 1/4 cup vinegar with 3/4 cup olive oil OR mix 1/4 cup lemon juice with 1/2 cup olive oil. Wipe down furniture with a soft cloth and the solution.

17. Herbal disinfectant: Choose one fresh herb – lavender, eucalyptus, juniper, sage, thyme, or rosemary. Simmer the leaves and stems for 30 minutes. You can use any amount of water, but the less you use the stronger the solution and disinfectant properties. Strain, pour liquid into bottle, and use on any surface but glass. If you add a dash of natural soap or biodegradable dish detergent it will cut grease.

18. Homemade herbal scouring pad: Horsetail stems are just like a scouring pad for pots and pans and won’t scratch. Simply rub a handful of dried (leafless) stems on the pots and pans. It will leave a bit of a green color – but that washes right off in water. Since you’re washing dishes anyhow it won’t be an issue.

19. Wood floor wax: Mix equal parts olive oil and vinegar. Apply a very thin coat and rub -you can simply stand on an old towel and sort of surf around the floor.

20. Window / glass cleaner: Mix 1/2 cup vinegar with one gallon water – spray and wipe.

21. Glass cleaner that does not smell like gross old vinegar: Use straight up lemon juice or club soda. If you use club soda than newspaper is the best scrubber to use. If you use lemon juice than use an old less linty cloth.

22. Sink cleaner: Scrub with baking soda and water.

23: Microwave cleaning: Place a bowl of straight vinegar or a bowl of water with 15 drops tea tree oil in the microwave. heat for about 2 minutes. Microwave will steam itself and be easy to wipe out with a wet cloth. I don’t have a microwave, but I did this at my friend’s house and it worked.

24. Silver polish: Rub silver with plain old toothpaste and rinse with water.

25. All over home cleaning: Never underestimate good old hot water and some scrubbing. If you really want to get fancy add a few drops of natural soap, but honestly hot water will clean just about anything. Alone it won’t completely disinfect, but it does kill many germs and removes dust. Hot water is especially useful for basic floor mopping.

Whew, that should at least get you going.

What natural cleaning products do you make at home?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family