You have a nagging feeling that while Tide may run touchy-feely commercials, the stuff’s not so kind to the world outside TV-land. Or maybe you switched to organic clothes a while back, but didn’t switch your detergent to match.
Well, it may be a while before eco-friendly cleaning products will be running TV ads. So — a lil roundup of stuff I use around the bathroom and laundry room:
For your laundry: Try Seventh Generation’s natural laundry detergent (left). If you have a Trader Joe’s close to you, their store brand liquid laundry detergent works great too — and is cheaper than Seventh Generation’s.
To brighten your whites, I recommend Oxo Brite from Earth Friendly Products (right). [Update, 6/5/06: Oxo Brite even takes out wine stains :)]
BTW — I never use fabric softener — the sheet or the liquid type. With just the natural detergents, my clothes are soft and fresh-smelling enough that I don’t see the need for that stuff.
For your carpet: I use Seventh Generation Carpet Cleaner (left), which magically removes pretty much all red wine stains from carpets — Yes, that’s what I use this product for 99% of the time. As with all stain removers, try to hit the spot while the stain’s still fresh for best results.
For your bathroom: Instead of conventional air freshener, try Air Therapy (right) from Mia Rose. It’s a non-aerosol, CFC-free, biodegreable spray of pure essential oils in a recyclable aluminum container, available at Trader Joe’s and many drug stores.
[Update, 5/25/06: Seventh Generation makes a great toilet bowl cleaner, according to morganlf, while Severine recommends Caldrea, especially its bathroom powder scrub.]
Try Seventh Generation’s chlorine-bleach free toilet paper made from post-consumer paper, recommended by GreenGOP. I’ve also been happy with Natural Value’s TP.
For the kitchen: morganlf says Seventh Generation makes a great dish soap :)
My current apt. doesn’t have a dishwasher, so I haven’t been able to sample more products for this. However, whatever you do, do NOT get Trader Joe’s dishwasher powder. That stuff streaks like crazy.
For general surfaces: Severin recommends Sweet Pea Surface Cleanser or Powdered Scrub, both from Caldrea. If you’re in the LA area, Caldrea proucts are avaliable at Sur La Table (301 Wilshire Blvd. for those in Santa Monica).
Got other eco-cleaning testimonials? Post them in the comments, and I’ll update this post with the info.
And BTW — Seventh Generation has a blog. Even Walmart’s been wooing the company –
Ah, the cleaning stuff… Love the smells of natural products!
So my favorites are Caldrea (www.caldrea.com), they have a line for baby use that smells just fantastic, in particular the surface wipes called “sweet pea”… hmmmm, I want to buy the whole line of sweet pea!!!!!
Their bathroom powder scrub is also quite yummy (the citrus one)!
Then there is also method (method.com and can be bought at target also but I don’t know if they carry the whole line). I use their dishwasher cube thingies, they work great for my stupid dishwasher. Oh, and they have biodegradable wipes also that smell very good! But I still prefer my sweet pea!
Thanks for the tips in that post!!!!
;-}
Comment by Severine — May 21, 2006 @ 1:00 pm
Better yet, make your own air-freshener out of essential oils and water to cut down dramatically on packaging resources.
Comment by Jasmin — May 22, 2006 @ 7:26 am
I’ve been using the 7th Generation paper products for years. Not exactly snuggly soft, but we all need to make sacrifices…
Comment by GreenGOP — May 22, 2006 @ 6:22 pm
7th Generation makes great toilet bowl cleaner and dish soap. Love their products!
Comment by morganlf — May 22, 2006 @ 6:45 pm
My partner and I have been trying to “grren” our cleaning. Recently we got ourselves a Parmesean cheese shaker and put baking soda with a few drops of essential oil in it (we like the grapefruit). I can’t believe how well it cleans - better than Softscub - and it smells great. We also discovered some oilve oil mixed with white vinegar makes an excellent cleaner for wood.
Comment by Todd — May 23, 2006 @ 1:00 pm
Thanks everyone :) I’m not ready to mix my own cleaning supplies yet, for the same reason I’m not ready to bake my own bread yet. But for now, I’ve added your eco-cleansing suggestions to the post :) Keep the recommendations coming!
Comment by Siel — May 24, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
One cleaning tip is to use a spin dryer to spin out the water. Conventional tumble dryers are responsible for about 5-10% of household energy costs. Spin dryers use less than 1/100th of the electricity per load. In addition, they remove more laundry detergent from the fabric and are much gentler on the clothes, so your clothes will last longer and look nicer. You can read more about spin dryers at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm
Comment by Corey K. Tournet — February 25, 2007 @ 9:15 am
hi! i love mrs. meyer’s cleaning products, too. they have several different scents. also, i have a dryer, but i use my drying rack from gaiam.com instead. we live in los angeles & get plenty of sun!
Comment by christina — February 28, 2007 @ 6:03 pm
You should look into Simple Green (http://consumer.simplegreen.com/index.php). As they say, they are, “All purpose household cleaning products that are non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally safer.” I’ve been using just the basic all purpose cleaner for years. Great for counter/table tops and anything else. We always used it to clean our guinea pig’s cage because it was non-toxic.
Comment by Jessica — April 25, 2007 @ 10:12 pm
Spin dryers sound cool, but I sorta feel like I could just line dry all the way instead of buying a spin dryer to dry my clothes most of the way and then STILL having to put them on the line to dry. We have nice weather here in SoCal, so I can just skip to the lin dry part –
Both Mrs. Meyer’s and Simple Green sound great. I think Mrs. Meyer is in many Whole Foods :) Usually, I try to find an eco-friendly cleaner that works that I can find at a nearby store, then I stick to it. Right now, I use a combo of Seventh Generation, Begley’s best, and Trader Joe’s stuff –
Comment by Siel — April 26, 2007 @ 11:09 pm