Clean Green

When I was a little girl, we had a kitchen towel that hung from our oven door handle. It had a cat embroidered on it that was outfitted in a head bandana and an apron and in her hand was a broom. Underneath were the carefully embroidered words, “I love to clean!” My mother told me that my grandmother had made it for her. It was ironic, because with five children, the last thing my mother loved to do was clean.

Actually I love to clean. At a very young age I developed a total aversion to cooking but would beg my parents to let me clean the kitchen. I would stand on a footstool and wash dishes. My partner laughs about that now since I do not really enjoy doing dishes anymore, but I still love other cleaning. There are few things more completely satisfying than a perfectly clean abode.

Yet when you look closely at the label of your cleaning products, the last thing you feel is clean. Check the back of your cleaning products at home and you will multiple warnings, such as CAUTION , EYE IRRITANT, and KEEP OUT OF REACH FROM CHILDREN. Not only are most of these products environmentally unfriendly, but also they are also toxic.

Fortunately there has been an influx of great products on the market in the last few years by companies such as Seventh Generation (now available at Target) and Ecover. Seventh Generation states that “if every household replaced just one bottle of petroleum-based all-purpose cleaner with a renewable resource based product, we could save 7,100 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 400 US homes for a year!” These products are non-toxic, biodegradable, vegetable-based, and contain no phosphorous, dyes, or artificial fragrances.

Unfortunately, these products are not cheap (although the price is comparable to most other cleaners). So I am including so more specific information about common household cleaners and including DIY cleaning products as alternatives to eco-friendly products in stores (adapted from Red Scare #3, 2001).



Ammonia / all-purpose cleaners
Products like Mr. Clean are very harmful to skin, eyes, and lungs and can exacerbate asthma.
Make it yourself by using liquid soap. Mix 1 tsp. liquid soap into 1 qt warm water. Add some lemon juice or vinegar to cut the grease. This solution will be great for almost all your household cleaning needs.

Glass cleaners
Cleaners like Windex contain irritating fumes that are a major eye irritant.
Make it yourself by using 50/50 water & vinegar. Put in a recycled spray bottle and wipe off with newspaper (doesn’t leave annoying rag or paper towel ‘fuzz’ on glass). Note: Regular glass cleaners leave a residue on the glass, so you may notice some streaking the first time you use the 50/50 cleaner. This should disappear after the 2nd cleaning.

Furniture & floor polish
Polishes like Mop & Glo contain carcinogenic phenols (yikes!) and highly toxic nitrobenzene. Exposure during use & residual fumes are both dangerous.
Make it yourself by using vegetable or olive oil. Apply oil sparingly with a soft rag. Add some lemon juice or other aromatic oils from a heath food store and you’ll get the nice smell. You can use almost any oil to polish and condition wood, including olive or vegetable oil. Polish when dry with a chamois cloth.

Rug, carpet & upholstery cleaner
These products usually contain dangerous solvents that can do both short- and long- term damage to the central nervous system.
Make it yourself by using baking soda. To deodorize your carpet, use a large box and sprinkle liberally on your carpet, wait 15 minutes, and then vacuum it up. A great spot remover is a solution of ¼ cup borax dissolved in 2 cups cold water, undiluted vinegar or lemon juice.

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Here is a favorite recipe of some sew green girls:

Use Less Stuff All-Purpose Cleaner
Source: "Better Basics for the Home"
by Anne Berthold-Bond (Three Rivers Press, 1999)

• 1 tsp baking soda (or Epsom salts)
• 2 tsp borax
• 1/2 tsp liquid soap
• 2 cups hot water
• several drops antiseptic essential oil (lavender is a favorite, others include sweet orange, lemongrass, rose, clove, eucalyptus, cinnamon, rosemary, birch, lavender or tea tree -- all are natural antiseptic oils).

Combine the baking soda, borax, soap and essential oil in a spray bottle. Pour in the hot water, mixing well to dissolve the minerals, screw on the lid tightly and shake well. Label the bottle clearly, and as with all cleaning products (even the ones you make yourself), keep out of reach of children.

Note: Borax is available in the laundry aisle of most supermarkets. For liquid soap, use something mild like Castille soap, Ivory or Ecover. If you use a concentrated product like Sal Suds, use less than called for in the recipe.
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I often use a swiffer to clean up annoying cat hair, but I hate throwing those covers away. Now there is a creative alternative to disposable dry cloths. Try knitting a reusable knitted swiffer cover. It's so clever and it really works!

We aren’t the only ones concerned with household cleaners --- Find out how to green your school cleaning regime here. There is also a campaign to get Disney to go green! Check out the campaign website here.

Now you can start cleaning green!