Mean Green Cleaning Machine

Well we're in week 8 and I find myself becoming more stressed about school and work everyday. One way that I am able to reduce my stress is to clean my house. So this week I went to Wild Oats and bought non toxic cleaners and did a lot of cleaning.

Although I love the smell of bleach the reality of the toxins that harm the body when a product is used is a scary thought. I bought Seventh Generation bathroom cleaner and liquid dish soap at Wild Oats and was impressed of the cleaners. The bathroom cleaner smelt fresh and my eyes and lungs didn't burn from being in the bathroom and breathing in all the chemicals. To find these nontoxic cleaners look in your local grocery store.

According to Wild Oats, "Americans generate 1.6 million tons of waste each year from common household products that contain potentially hazardous ingredients. And, of the 85,000 chemicals used in household cleaners today, nearly 90% haven’t been tested for safety."

Somethings that a consumer can look for when finding environmental and health friendly cleaners are nontoxic, biodegradable and/or chlorine-free. Instead of using bleach, oxygenated products are a good alternatives. According to Natural Choices, they are safer than chlorine bleach however they don't work as quickly they are still effective.

According to Simple Pure Clean, "Chlorinated materials can form orgono-chloride compounds, which in turn are stored in the fat cells and can enter mother's milk."

There are also cleaning products that you can make at home. Care2 provides recipes for cleaning such as creamy soft scrubber, oven cleaner and furniture polish to just name a few.
Some of the supplies needed for these cleaners are:

• baking soda
• washing soda
• white distilled vinegar
• liquid soap or detergent

Although I haven't made any cleaning products at home they seem very interesting and I will have to do that soon!

Well come back next week to see what I try out!

Lets Climb a Tree

Well this week has been a week of a few different experiments. I've gone on the raw diet and I am also using 100 percent recycled toilet paper and paper towels. I am not going to talk about my raw diet till next week so say tuned till next week about that! For now it's toilet paper and paper towels. When I decided to try the paper towels and toilet paper I didn't realize the huge benefits of using recycled products instead of virgin paper products.


According to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC),"If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees." This is only one roll of recycled toilet paper. Imagine how many trees we could save if every household switched to recycled toilet paper.

Here are more statistics according to NRDC if every Household in the United States used just one product of:

Facial Tissue (175 sheets) : 163,000 trees
Napkins (250 count): 1 million trees
Paper Towels (70 sheets): 544,000 trees

Not only does using recycled products save trees, it also helps eliminate unnecessary chemicals. According to NRDC, "Paper products are bleached to make them whiter and brighter, but chlorine used in many bleaching processes contributes to the formation of harmful chemicals that wind up in our air and water and are highly toxic to people and fish." However, there are chlorine-free processes. Companies can then label the packaging with either chlorine-free (TCF) or processed cholorine-free (PCF). Some brands don't bleach their paper towels and leave them brown.

A few brands selling these products are Earth First, Seventh Generation, 365 Everyday Value, Green Forest and Marcal.

Look in your local grocery stores to see if they carry these products. When I bought the Earth First recycled paper towels, I wasn't worried how the paper towels were going to feel since I only use them to clean. I didn't notice that I was using the recycled ones until I went into my pantry for another roll and saw that they were open and thats what I was using. However, before I used the toilet paper I was a little skeptical on how it was going to feel. Although its not as soft as some (a quality of virgin paper), I couldn't tell that it was recycled. This is a good feeling to be able to save a few trees in such a simple way.