Natural Cleaning Supplies

I read an article a while back that said stay at home moms have shorter life expectancys than moms who work outside the home b/c of long periods of being exposed to all the toxic chemicals from their household cleaners! Then I read an article by Kelly Preston (John Travolta's wife) on their son and kawasaki disease -- that was enough to have me make the switch and make a choice to become educated on what I use in my home! You can learn a lot from this site:

http://www.checnet.org/healthehouse/virtualhouse/index.asp

I order my laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent from here:

http://www.greenhome.com/

We use the Charlies Soap for our laundry and I have been VERY impressed with it!! You use very little and it leaves no residue on your clothes. I realized, after using Charlies soap for a while, that I never actually knew what clean clothes smelled like, only what clothes full of perfumes smelled like.

Overall Charlies soap is a better value than the seventh generation laundry detergent. You pay more for seventh generation and get less.

I do use the mold & mildew and tub & tile products on their site as well (they're vegetable based), but overall I mostly use vinegar for everything. It is inexpensive, non toxic, and is a natural disinfectant.

I don't use Meleca products b/c we have 2 cats and tea tree oil is toxic to cats.

We use Seventh Generation dish soap as well. It doesn't work as good as dawn, but a little extra elbow grease solves that problem.

Vinegar can also be used in your steam cleaner (most models) to clean your carpets with, it disinfects them, fluffs up the fibers, and is so much safer than carpet cleaners.

And here is a site w/ 131 uses for vinegar!

http://tinyurl.com/2zo3hy

Good luck to you!!

--S.

3 moms found this helpful

old fashioned vinegar works wonderfully at de-greasing and de-soap scumming. With any natural cleaners more elbow grease will be needed but it is well worth the trade. Here's one of my fav websites for different cleaners...

http://mlmgorilla.com/naturalcleaningrecipe/

Good Luck!!

2 moms found this helpful

Not sure if you ever have watched How Clean is your House on BBC America, but they tend to use White Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Baking Soda and Borax. All are natural and from experience and a handy nylon scrubber, they work fantastic. That's all I use. Like Kim says, "Cheap and Cheerful"!!!! You can also use essential oils like Lavendar and tea tree oil that are natural disinfectants and make your own cleaners. Their website has some fantastic recipes, and if you google cleaning with vinegar, or cleaning with baking soda it will come up with several websites with recipes for cleaners.

2 moms found this helpful

You can do it at home much cheaper and I find that it takes just as long to clean but leaves it much, much cleaner. I use vinegar to clean my mirrors, and I've made the recipe for my own cleaner off the website www.centru.com. There's a cleaning section. I also clean my floors with Ivory soap and vinegar. My house smells great and looks better than before.

1 mom found this helpful

I to have been worried about the ingredients in cleaning products. After doing some research I have found a website that gives you recipes for cleaning products you can make with everyday house hold items.

The website is www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8088/clngrn.html

1 mom found this helpful

I use the Method line of cleaners and I get them from Target.

Melaleuca products are good, but I don't need to hit my family budget with an un-needed $60-80 each month just to hit their point requirement. I like 7th Generation for some purposes (dishwasher, general cleaner), but for a super degreaser, I just use Simple Green. Mrs. Meyers is also good, but the fragrances can be too much if you're sensitive. Costco has a really good laundry detergent that is all that the Mela detergent is. I forget the name -Wintree?? maybe. It is in a giant liquid bottle, and is very obviously eco-friendly by the labeling.

Good for you for researching & making the change!

D.

I like the Method brand cleaning supplies. I think they are sold at Target, but I have been able to find them at some Dollar stores. I'm with you on the harsh chemicals. I had a friend whose doctorate project was studying the effects of household cleaners on soil and rain water, which I kinda laughed at until I went over to her apt and saw her cleaning with a face mask on and diluting the products by applying directly to a cloth (no spraying). She was comfortable with using some of the cleaning products, but would never spray them directly in the air. Scary.

I started using the Mrs. Meyers line from Sprouts and I love it. They make an all purpose cleaner that you can dilute down so it lasts a long time and it smells so good. We really love it. I started making the change to more biodegradable and toxin free stuff over the last six months and so far the Mrs. Meyers cleaners and the Eco-something dishwashing detergent are awesome. I tried to use a dishwasher detergent that was biodegradable but it was awful. I went back to Cascade Complete. I did find that Arm and Hammer makes a plant based laundry detergent and I have been really happy with that. I have also started using the Seventh Generation baby wipes on my 2.5 yr. olds (one of them has really sensitive skin) and have been really happy with those. Anyway, Sprouts is where I go to stock up - I feel like my house has become more kid safe (or just people safe!). It was starting to worry me a little bit, too. Good luck!

Sprouts and Whole Foods carry a number of different products for you to choose from. I would suggest going there first and looking at them and trying a few. If you don't like them, hold on to your receipt and you can return it rather than having to ship something, sign a contract or anything like that.

I think you have gotten great recommendations, so far. What you use depends on what you are willing to pay. For cleaning, I like Melaleuca's Solumel, their Tub-n-Tile cleaner, and their Tough-n-Tender. I signed up for membership twice, but got fed up with their points requirement, their charges for sales tax, and their outrageous shipping charges. I quickly found many of the same types of products at Lowes, Home Depot, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Target. Another good place to check for all natural products is at Wells Brothers in Plano, near Sams on Hwy. 5. TKO Orange oil is awesome, but it's not for everything as you would think. Tried it in my wash, and clothes came out with oily spots. It is great, though for mildew, cleaning ovens, and if you wash your baseboards with it, you will see very little creepy crawlers. I also sprayed the mixture on the green algae around my porch, foundation etc. that had resulted from all the rain. It dissolved it right quickly. Another product that I like is Simple Green, professional formula found at Home Depot. It does great for dysinfecting floors, sinks, tubs, and toilets. As far as finding something natural that cleans all the spots out of my clothes without fading the colors, I have been out of luck. Am curious, though, to try some of the suggestions made by other moms. Good luck. Look forward to hear out things turn out.

I use vinegar and baking soda for most of my scrubbing cleaning, for tubs and stainless steel kitchen sink. I also keep a spray bottle mixed with vinegar for counter tops, spills, etc. I use the 7th generation toilet bowl cleaner and dish soap. I don't like their auto dish soap and use another brand I found at Sprouts CitraDish. If keep a bottle tea tree oil around when I need the antifungal properties of melaleuca.

I use water and vinegar and baking soda and that works great but I also like the Seventh Generation products and BioKleen :)

i also use white vinegar & baking soda. i add tea tree oil to my vinegar for the disenfectant. also you can add essential oils to it for the smell, & orange essential oil is wonderful for grimy spots, although i usually just sprinkle baking soda around the tub & toilet (i put it into a shaker like you would use for parmesean cheese) then i spray my vinegar, tea tree oil mix on it & it foams which always does the trick for me.