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

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

In my last post; Are We So Clean That We’re Breeding Super Germs? I noted that next I’d cover why I think the whole Palmolive eco+ Gel Dishwasher Detergent issue is bunk. Peggy wrote about how Palmolive is greenwashing – I agree. Not everyone agreed though.
From the comments:
“Just thought you might like to know that regular Palmolive dish washing detergent also contains chlorine bleach. (I am looking at both labels right now) So at least with the “Eco” you are without the phosphates.From what I hear, 7th Gen does a horrible job at cleaning. Not sure about other …read more

Last week was National Poison Prevention Week and the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) did a little survey in order to look at safety.
Results of people who said cleaners are safe:

Very safe (27%)
Safe (58%)
Not very safe (10%)
Not at all safe (3%)

As far as traditional cleaners go, I really can’t agree that they’re safe. Frankly I’m shocked that so many people (over 80%) think that they are.
SDA announced it as something good – “More than eight out of ten Americans recognize that the cleaning products they buy are safe when used as directed.” It seems like …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