Reader Question: how long to keep homemade green cleaners?
May 26, 2009 by Jennifer
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
How to choose green cleaners – store bought green cleaners
February 10, 2009 by Jennifer
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
25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies
March 5, 2008 by Jennifer
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


