Mommy Goes Green

Spring cleaning is a great time to start incorporating healthier products and habits into your home’s environment. Instead of overwhelming yourself with all these tasks at one time, try completing one task per week. Each Wednesday, for the next 8 weeks, we’ll review one Green Spring Cleaning tasks for the week.  By May, your home will be cleaner and you can relax, breathing in fresher, cleaner air!

WEEK 1 - Green your cleaning products. 

Replace run of the mill ( laden with chemicals ) cleaning products with non toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning products. Seventh Generation is one of the easiest brands to find, they are sold at Target, natural food stores, many grocery stores and online. Bon Ami is a great replacement for Comet/Ajax and costs the same. You can find Bon Ami at natural food stores or online.

DIY – Old fashioned, do-it-yourself, cleaners are “sweeping into homes“,  especially in this economy as they tend to be less expensive.  Even Martha Stewart recommends DIY from all purpose cleaners to floor cleaners to carpet cleaners.  For glass cleaning, a spray bottle of vinegar and water will do the trick or a bit of olive oil and and a damp rag will polish your furniture. 

In a recent article from the San Francisco Bee, Mrs. Meyer ( of Mrs. Meyer’s household products ), says that tartar, lemon, salt, olive oil, ketchup and even bread have their place in your cleaning arsenal – I’m going to find out how to use them as they are always stocked in my cabinets.  Ashley Chapman, an Ask.Com Organizational Expert, suggests using flour sack towels in place of paper towels – we all know that I’m a paper towel addict so I plan to try that out, too. 

We use a combination of purchased and homemade products and continue to use more homemade solutions as I have time to test them out.  You can expect more cleaning articles and newsletters as I discover more ways to use items in our pantries to clean our house.  Use whatever combination of purchased and homemade that works best for you! 

If you want to jump ahead to week 2, check out the entire MGG Guide to Green Spring Cleaning.  You can also print a copy to keep it on hand for each week’s task.

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