Green Cleaning Au Naturale

Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter 247 (at least it feels that way to some...sorry, Lyd!) Everyone knows that summer is the time of sequels. And why should it be any different at Green Is the New Pink? So, today, we're presenting our own sequel.

This is definitely a post you'll want to forward, bookmark, print and hang on the fridge, because today, we're offering tips on ALL-NATURAL, HOMEMADE ways to clean everything from stains, drains and furniture. Nothing to purchase, all the ingedients you have in your own house.

Sandra's Green Summer Cleaning Tips: Part Deux

If you’re interested in going back to basics and removing toxic and harmful ingredients from your home once and for good take a look at the recipes below and get to scrubbing. You’ll be surprised to find that you probably have most of these ingredients/items in your home so in addition to saving the Earth you'll be saving up for that new YSL bag as well (or Nintendo Wii). Also, I've stopped buying paper towels and instead have been using sponges and old towels instead.

PS: For those of you with the pitter patter of little feet around your pad, human or canine, using a these all natural cleansers are more important than ever to assure that your loved ones are safe and not ingesting toxic ingredients when they play with toys that have been laying around, lick their paws, suck their toes…you get the point.

So get out a spray bottle, a measuring cup, a sponge and get ready to clean!

All Purpose Cleaner (409)

• Mix equal parts salt with vinegar.Use a moisten spong to scrub solution on effected areas. Be careful using this on items that may scratch easily. OR...
• Mix 4 tablespoons baking soda with 1-quart warm water in a spray bottle. Spritz directly on dirty surface and wipe with a sponge.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

• Mix 4 tablespoons baking soda with vinegar. Pur into toilet bowl and let sit. Scrub with toilet bowl brush. OR...
• Sprinkle baking soda inside the bowl as you would any scouring powder. Add a couple drops of soap in also. Scrub with a toilet bowl brush and finish outside surfaces with a rag sprinkled with baking soda.
  

Tub & Tile Cleaner

• Mix a 50-50 solution of water and vinegar in a spray water bottle. Spray directly onto tub or tile. Wipe off with sponge. OR...
• Rub baking soda on surface directly with a damp sponge. Rinse with water.

Drain cleaner

• Mix 1 cup of salt with one cup of baking soda and ½ cup vinegar. Pour down the drain. Then pour down a teakettle full of boiling water. OR...
• Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain first, then 1/2-cup vinegar. Let fizz for a few minutes. Then pour down a teakettle full of boiling water.

Window & Glass Cleaner (Sorry, Windex....)

• Fill spray bottle Water with 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Spray directly onto surface. Wipe with newspaper. OR...
• Put 1/4 cup of white vinegar into a spray bottle and fill to the top with water. Spray directly onto surface. Wipe with newspaper.

Blood Stain Remover

• Make a paste with cornstarch & water. Place on stain. Scrub.

Brass Polish

• Mix lemon juice with baking soda and dip a rag into the solution. Gently rub brass with moistened rag. OR...
• Mix salt with vinegar. Dip rag into solution. Gently rub brass with moistened rag.Or

Furniture Polish

• Mix ½ cup lemon juice with 1 cup olive oil. Dampen rag with solution and polish.

Copper polish

• Mix 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt and apply to the surface with a rag. Rinse thoroughly afterwards to avoid corrosion.

Silver polish

• Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda to an aluminum-foil-lined pan of boiling water. Dip silver in solution. Rub clean.

Iron cleaner

• To clean the plate of a clothing iron, sprinkle salt on plain paper and run a hot, dry iron over it.

Wood Floor Cleaner

• Mix oil and vinegar in equal parts. Dampen rag with solution and apply to wood.

Linoleum floor cleaner

• Add 1/2 cup vinegar to a bucket (pail) of warm water. (Don't worry, the vinegar odor will go away shortly after the floor dries!)

Oven Cleaner

• Mix 1 cup of baking soda with enough water to make a paste. Apply to oven surfaces and let stand a little while. Use a scouring pad to scrub.

Clothing Stain Remover

• Soak fabrics in water mixed with any of the following ingredients: borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, washing soda, or white vinegar.
  

Cutting Board and Chopping Blocks (you don't want to chemicals on the board and then in your food...)

• To sanitize, rub a cut lemon on them.
• To remove stains, rub in the juice from 1 lemon and let it stand 20 minutes. Rinse

So there you have it...cleaning "au naturale" no longer means scurrying through your house with a broom while naked....and besidesbeing better for the environment, these cleaning methods are better for your health, so go ahead and share with family and friends today....

Are Your Cleaning Supplies Making Your House Toxic?

Welcome to Part 1 of our 2-part Green Summer Cleaning Series by our guest author Sandra Sanchez! Here goes....

I was thinking about myself the other day (surprise, surprise) and I realized that while I have been making a tremendous effort to help mother nature and our environment (thanks, Green Is The New Pink) I haven’t been thinking about how some of my habits affect my immediate environment – and by that I mean my really cute apartment.

As a self-proclaimed neat freak, I use my fair share of cleaning products and am always buying the latest and greatest in scrub-free-soap-scum-remover or whatever the product du jour may be. However, I always got a headache after my cleaning sprees and I had to open all my apartment windows to eliminate the toxic fumes left behind. This revelation has prompted me to search for a better way to clean. Turns out every spritz of my window cleaner is causing harm to myself, my pets and our Earth!

Did You Know?

Most mainstream cleaning products contain chlorine, dyes, and perfume, which pollute during the manufacturing process and during and after use. Just think, that bleach that runs down your drain has to go somewhere, right? Also a lot of mainstream cleaners are major causes of the depletion of non-renewable resources such as petroleum.

Let’s look at some of the facts:

-If every US household replaced just one 32 oz. bottle of shower cleaner containing chlorine bleach, with hydrogen-peroxide based shower cleaner, we could prevent 1 million lbs. of chlorine from entering our environment. SeventhGeneration.com

-If every home in the US replaced just one 25 oz. of petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with plant-based product we could save 81,000 barrels of oil – enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year. SeventhGeneration.com

-If every household in the US replaced just one box of 48 oz. petroleum-based powder laundry detergent with vegetable based product, we could save 96,000 barrels of oil – enough to heat and cool 5,500 U.S. homes for a year. SeventhGeneration.com

-17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30% of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment. treehuger.com

-100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates. treehugger.com

Eco friendly Cleaning Supplies:

But where do you find these chlorine-free, non-petroleum-based cleaners. Actually, just about everywhere. They're available online and at Whole Foods, Target and Restoration Hardware(just to name a few.)

www.seventhgen.com/

www.ecover.com/

www.bonami.com/

www.mrsmeyers.com/

www.vermontsoap.com/

www.fruits-passion.com/

www.bee.net.nz/ (my favorite packaging!)

I just want to hire someone else to clean my house...

And for those of you that are ultra-busy (or ultra-lazy, shhhh I won’t tell) green housekeeping is the newest trend in saving the earth. These companies pride themselves in using all-natural, nontoxic cleaning supplies, and you can find one in your area by checking your local listings.

Los Angeles – www.greencleanla.com

New York City – www.zenhomecleaning.com, www.greencleannyc.com,

San Francisco – www.greenwaymaid.com

Washington, DC - www.greencleanusa.org

Nationwide - www.greencleancertified.com

So whether you do it yourself or not, the bottom line is that green cleaning products are better for you and the earth....Check out next week's post where Sandra tells us some all-natural cleaning methods using ingredients in your own house....

Oprah Power, Green Style

We here at Green is the New Pink love Oprah! (Shocker, we know...)

Even if you think it's annoying the way she consistently stretches her guests names out ("Please welcome my friend, John Travooooooool-ta!"), you've got to admit, it's amazing how she worked her way up in life from nothing and is now one of the most significant and influential women in the world. When she says to read Steinbeck, people read it. When she told us to eat the red Velvet cake from Doughboys in Los Angeles, we did it gladly. And last week, she did a special "green" episode, telling us all to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, so we guess we have to listen! Come on, if Oprah's doing it....how can you not?

The resources and tips she suggested on her show last Friday are many of the tips we have talked about in the last 6 months, but we can all use a refresher. Remember the compact flourescent light bulbs you intentioned to buy...but didn't. Or the junk mail lists you want to get off of...but haven't yet? Our Tip this week is to CATCH UP on your resolutions! Oprah, being the wonderful mogul she is has compiled a ton of resources for you....see our highlights of her ideas below (or go to www.oprah.com for even more info).

WATCH… It's easy being Green Slide Show
Sweet, short and informative. It gives you of all the tips and stories from the show of which there were many little gems, including really easy tips like using less paper napkins per day and choosing not to get a reciept at the atm. Plus there are some nifty videos about recycled products....

READ… The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen
Things you can do to save the planet. Find more info here.

BUY… Re-usable water bottles and Canvas Shopping Bags
GrOcery Bags…Oprah wants you to start using canvas bags at the market so badly that she created her own from organic cotton on sale for $10.00. To try to buy one click here, but last we saw they were already sold out (told ya everyone listens to Oprah). You can also get great shopping bags at www.ecobags.com.

New Wave Enviro Products Water Bottle…The amount of plastic water bottles we all go through is astounding and a huge waste. Get a filter for you home and get the next-best-thing when you’re on the go. The New Wave Corn-resin bottle comes WITH A FILTER so you can fill it with tap water and it turns it into pure, clean drinking water before it touches your lips. It can be reused up to 90 times, and the bottle biodegrades in just 80 days ($8.99). For more info click here or call 800-592-8371.

SAVE... Energy, that is.
BITS Ltd. smart power strips…Even after turning off a computer, power continues to flow to peripherals like printers and scanners. This power strip ($32.99) stops the energy from being wasted. For more info, click here.

GE Energy Smart lightbulbs…GE Energy Smart bulbs use 70 to 75 percent less energy than incandescent lightbulbs and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. For example, by using a 26-watt compact fluorescent lightbulb—equivalent to a 100-watt incandescent lightbulb—users can save up to $59 on energy costs over the life of the bulb. Saving energy saves money and is better for the environment.

CLEAN…With Green Friendly Cleaning Supplies
This part of the episode was classic Op-dogg..there was a family on there who's son was greatly suffering from asthma. After they changed to non-toxic cleaning products, all his problems went away. Kind of makes you wonder what YOU'RE breathing in at your supposedly spic-and-span abode.

Method Home…Method offers some cleaners that are dye- and perfume-free, nontoxic, biodegradable, naturally derived and never tested on animals. For more info, click here.

Mrs. Meyers cleaning supplies…All of their cleaning supplies are made with natural essential oils, are biodegradable and phosphate-free. For more, click here.

Seventh Generation products…Seventh Generation is one of the leading brands of nontoxic household products. For more info, click here.

Shaklee…Find out how to get a discount on Shaklee's Healthy Home Pack. You can order the Healthy Home Pack starter kit by calling 800-225-0600.

LEARN...a few new eco-tricks

Engines Off…Lynn Romanek from Glencoe, Illinois, has organized parents at her childrens' school to turn off their cars instead of idling in the parking lot during carpool. Idling 10 minutes less per day can keep 550 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air every year. For more information, visit www.enginesoff.org.

Greendimes…A group that gets your name OFF junk mail lists and then plants a tree for you, too! Added perk: Matt Damon is on the board and if you missed it, he recorded a very cute message to Oprah about it. For more information or to sign up, visit www.greendimes.com.

Stop Global Warming Tour…Learn more about Sheryl Crow and Laurie David's tour and what you can do to find solutions for global warming. Visit www.stopglobalwarming.org for more information.

Then you can write Oprah and tell her what you did and how inspired you were! And mention us because we want to be her new best friends! Sorry, Gayle!