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

Hey there folks. Today I’ve got a green home product review for you.

Product: CVS/pharmacy Earth Essentials Aromatic Room Mists available exclusively at CVS/pharmacy. These aromatic room mists come in four scents. I reviewed the following three…

Lavender + Citrus
Sweet Rain
Apple + Cinnamon

Also available in Fresh Eucalyptus which I didn’t try, but it’s just as well, since I’m not the biggest fan of eucalyptus.
Price: Around $4 for a 7-oz can which is an excellent price point for an eco-minded air freshener.
Eco facts:

No animal testing.
Uses natural essential oils.
No propellants.
Non aerosol.
Recyclable container.

Ingredients listed: Purified Water, Surfactant, Fragrance, Glyceryl Caprylate.
The ingredients are tricky. Glyceryl Caprylate …read more

This is one easy to make a homemade air freshener if you happen to have a wood-stove. You can use an oven to make it, but that’s not the best use of energy. Benefits – great scent and no toxic chemicals like commercial air fresheners.This is a nice one for crisps autumn days (which yes, are coming soon).

This is a super easy recipe too:

Core a large Roma Apple – not all the way through the bottom though; leave a layer of skin intact.
Peel a ring of skin away from the apple around the hole at the top of the apple.
Place …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