Actually, getting toxic chemicals out of your child’s life entirely is going to take some doing. You’ve got car emissions, non-organic foods, plastic toys and more to contend with. You shouldn’t also have to worry about your home cleaning and bath and body care products. However, a smart green parent should worry – A LOT.

Although most parents in the U.S. consider home cleaners pretty safe, most are anything but safe. In fact more the American Association of Poison Control Centers notes that 1.25 million kids younger than six years of age are unintentionally poisoned in the home each year by …read more

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 …read more

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:

How to choose green cleaners – store bought …read more

Hey there Tree Hugging Families – hope that your first day of spring is looking bright. Mine is gray and cloudy (ah, Oregon) – but I like the rainy weather, so it’s all good for me.

Being that it’s the first day of spring, I’ve gathered up some eco-friendly ideas and links for you to help you celebrate in style.
First a few Tree Hugging Family classics…

Spring Nature Photos
60 Eco-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Spring
Candied Flowers

And some news from other fine places…

Green your spring cleaning from Co-op America.
Pop-up flower card – use recycled materials.
Eggshell plant pots.
Organic spring gardening.

Other ideas…

Get outside with a camera …read more

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 …read more

My pal Marye just posted an excellent read, Natural Disinfectants in the Kitchen. I don’t usually highlight single posts here, but Marye’s post covers an excellent topic. She notes that people, even people who are all fussy about using natural cleaners will pull out the harsh stuff when it comes to kitchen cleaning. She’s not wrong. I’ve seen folks do this too. Raw meat scares the heck out of people.
However, you don’t need harsher chemicals in the kitchen.  Marye offers some natural cleaners that I agree with, that will fight germs – even the ones hanging around due to raw …read more

You planned the food, you planned the table top, you sort of cleaned up, but YIKES, you forgot the smell of old sneakers coming from your kid’s room and the bathroom, well…
Here’s how to scent your home naturally and super fast for Thanksgiving. 
1. Whip up a quick batch of homemade scents:

Homemade Spicy Apple Air Freshener
Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

2. Toss some orange or lemon peels into your disposal, add a pinch of baking soda, run some water, and grind away.
3. Fill a spray bottle with plain old water (about two cups), add three drops of orange essential oil, (or …read more

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 …read more

We’re looking at home cleaning supplies this week. Actually this is such an in-depth topic that we could blog on nothing but toxic cleaning supplies all year, and never once run out of things to say.
That said, this week we’ll look at some major points related to the dangers of cleaning supplies, some earth and people friendly alternatives, and lots of links to extra info. There’s a lot to digest. Too much. For example, two years ago the University of California at Berkeley conducted research surrounding just one small area of cleaning supplies – the exposure to indoor airborne chemicals …read more

Or your pet for that matter? Or you?
If you said, “Very few” then this is the week to change this. Our green audit this week is household cleaners. How to keep safer, greener cleaners around while tossing the worst of the worst.
Now, this isn’t to say that I’m going to let my son Cedar guzzle biodegradable dish washing granules. Yeah, they’re greener for the environment, but not a real delightful beverage. What I’m saying, is that on average, the typical household has far more dangerous cleaners than necessary. This week we’re going to look at other options and some that …read more