Hi All!
It is an amazing late-spring day and the lilacs are in full bloom outside my window. Whenever a gentle breeze blows through our yard, I am filled with a breath of fresh lilac. :) It is wonderful. The hummingbirds are back, and very abundant in our neighborhood. I just made a batch of nectar, and it is cooling on the stove. I can hardly wait to fill my feeder and invite them closer...
Hummingbird Love
If you would like to feed hummingbirds, be sure to make your own nectar, as the commercial nectars (pretty much any that are artificially colored red are bad news for the hummingbirds). I bought a small, inexpensive starter feeder last year at Wild Birds Unlimited on Union near Filmore/Circle from a dear soul named Katie who works there and is extremely knowledgable and sweet. I was concerned about feeding the hummingbirds sugar, but she assured me that other than the natural nectar that hummingbirds get from flowers, home-made nectar is the next best thing because the hummingbirds burn lots of energy and need all the nectar they can get. Most of their diet consists of insects, but they consume nectar so they will have the energy to fly around to catch the insects! Katie has become a friend (We also ran into her at Whole Foods), and she seems to be able to answer any question you could have about birds and feeding them. If you want to get a good feeder, and experience good old fashioned customer service, go see her-- she's awesome, and loves birds just about as much as me!!! (If you can imagine such a thing)
To Make Hummingbird Nectar:
One part table sugar to Four parts water
I tried to be really nice and earth friendly and gourmet for the hummingbirds and feed them organic cane sugar, but don't try this, because they really just want that cheap white crap. Lol.
So, I usually put 4 cups water in a pot, and bring it to a boil (this disinfects too) and then take off the heat and stir in 1 cup sugar until dissolved. Then I leave it to cool for a while. When it is cool, fill your feeder, (mine is small, so I pour the rest into an airtight container, date it, then refriderate it.
Be sure to dump, rinse and refill your feeder every 2-3 days or more in hot weather. And the leftover nectar will probably last about a week-2 weeks.
Ok. So let's get down to business.
Lots of people are finally going "green" with their cleaning, and that is a wonderful thing. It is an act of consciousness and caring for the earth, and for the health of ourselves and our families. I'm not really fond of the term "green" because I think, unfortunately a lot of people associate it with a trend, and may cringe when they hear it. I tend to question the production of all those plastic-based "green" grocery bags that are supposed to replace the use of plastic bags and what their production process might be doing to the environment--and there are countless other things that are being produced in the name of the "green" movement that are questionable, however, I am very grateful that there is the intent to make changes and the intent to care for the environment, along with the consciousness and awareness that is being spread by such things. Perhaps many people never thought of the effect of all those billions of plastic bags, and now, because they saw a rack of reusable ones, are at the very least becoming aware of the importance of caring for the earth. Who knows.
But I imagine that there are a lot of people who would like to clean there homes in a healthier and kinder way, but don't know where to start, where to buy the products, whether they will work or not, or may think that cleaning green has to cost them more, and so they haven't made the change.
Well, I wouldn't call my self an expert by any means, but I have been cleaning my home using a wide variety of green cleaning products for about 6 years now and I also clean several homes part-time using green products, so I've gained some knowledge in this area and would love to share with you my opinions on some products and methods.
Earth and Family-Friendly Cleaning
I recall the days before I knew about green cleaning, when I'd have my head down in a toilet bowl full of bleach, or I would reach to squeeze the ammonia out of a mop. Yuck. I'd be coughing, all the while wondering why I had to use chemicals to clean, simply not knowing of another way.
The beauty of being right smack in the middle of a movement like this, is that good 'ol consumerism kicks in and suddenly there are a plethera of products on the market readily available. Its done wonders for my vegan diet. It is no longer difficult as it may have been 30 years ago for vegans to find good food and alternatives--thus making the vegan diet and all of the benefits of it more appealing and more widely accessible. I'm grateful for that. And, there are not only many types of cleaning products available these days, but--you have many brands to choose from also. So I am going to pick a handful of the products I've tried and give you a little review on them. (there are so many I won't be covering them all in one blog post)
However, before I do that, I think everyone should know a little secret:
You really don't need all those fancy cleaners to clean your home thouroughly and in an earth-friendly way. This busts a major myth that green cleaners are expensive and therefore not accessible. In the old'n days people cleaned green without the green movement. Until they got afraid...VERY AFRAID of the BIG BAD... ok I'll get into that in a minute. The nice thing is you have a choice. You can clean your home thouroughly on any budget and in small-town Podonk or whatever that place is called, and you also have the option of many often nice smelling, convenient cleaners that are widely available in most places. (and really not that much more expensive, if at all than the familar chemicals.)
Ok yes, I'm going off on another tangent, but here is my thing about everything "natural, organic or earth-friendly" being so "expensive." I get questioned a lot about this one, and I'm glad people are asking. So many people want to make a change in their life, for their health, for the planet, for animals, for so many reasons, and they tell me they want to change but it is so expensive.
Here's my take on it:
Voting With Our Dollars
Yes, sometimes, and often, but not always, these things are a little more expensive. Usually it is somewhere from 10 cents to 3 dollars more depending on what it is.
For me, it is very important to choose my lifestyle in accordance with what I care about deeply . My choices regarding buying my food organic whenever possible, for example, is deeply rooted in my heart and soul, and comes from my deep love for birds, nature, and living in harmony with it however I can. It is one thing I feel I can do to express love and gratitude for all the gifts I have received in nature.
Same goes for other choices I make such as what I eat, and clean with. And no, of course I do not and can not always align with that perfectly. That would be obsessive and out of balance for me. And I want to remain integrated in the world I live in and yet focused above all, on Love whenever I can. But I have learned that those producing products want to please the consumer. They want to sell something that we will buy. If we buy it, they will keep on selling more of it. So I have learned that I am voting with my dollars. I think of a few cents to a few dollars more for a product that was made with more consciouness and love to be my personal monetary donation to the things I care most about. And the more people that buy things in accordance to what they care about, the more of those things will be available, and the prices become more and more comparable and reasonable.
That said, you really don't need to buy a whole bunch of fancy things to clean your home. I've gone the simple route many times when choosing to spend less, or just as a way of making life more simple. Here are some ideas:
Plain and Simple Home Cleaning
Vinegar. Plain and simple. You can dilute vinegar in water in a spray bottle and you have an instant all-purpose cleaner. It is great for adding to water to clean wood and other floors, and vinegar and lemon juice can be used on mildew in bathrooms. You can spray it in your sinks to disinfect as well. Vinegar and water make a great non-streaking glass cleaner too! Whoda known we didn't need all those other cleaners!
Baking Soda. You can use it in place of other powder cleansers. I have when I've run out of my favorite: Bon Ami
Bon Ami. Even though this is an actual pre-prepared cleaning product, it is very inexpensive (I get mine at Whole Foods for like $1.29. I use this instead of other powder cleansers that are full of chlorine bleach, dyes, and perfumes that smell like crap. I use Bon Ami on my kitchen and bathroom sinks, tub, and anywhere that needs a little extra scrubbing. I also pour a little in the toilet in place of unnecessary specific toilet bowl cleaners. More about Bon Ami later.
Boiling water. Another way to disinfect, and rinse out the drains.
Reusing washcloths and washable dusters/dustcloths. You will save a lot over time if you just keep the same cloths and dusters and wash them rather than using a lot of paper towels or buying expensive disposable dusters and wipes.
Mop, bucket, broom, vaccum if applicable.
You can clean really well with just those items, if needed. I've done it, and I've also gone the other way too.
I LOVE Aromatherapy. This is a recent discovery. I didn't used to understand what it was. I saw all these books and a trend talking about it, and as woo woo as I am, I still wondered why we needed whole books on the subject. It seemed so simple. Stuff smells good, you smell it, then you feel good. I didn't understand how it could really be a therapy. Yeah, you smell the good smelling stuff, then you feel good for a little while. Therapy? Meanwhile, I was constantly using aromatherapy as a "therapy" without realizing that the reason why it is so great is because it is such an enjoyable thing to smell stuff. I understand if you still don't understand aromatherapy, because I'm not sure if I understand it, but all I know is that I HAVE DISCOVERED BALM.
Ok new story.
I'll get back to the reason I brought up aromatherapy in the middle of my green product review later.
Balm
I got some lavender and chamomile balm stuff for Christmas and started putting it on my face and lips and cuticles and feet and loved the smell. It made me feel calm just to take a moment to put it on and breathe in deeply. (Maybe having nothing to do with the balm, but it did make my skin nice) Then I found Badger Balm. Little tins with cute little Badgers doing different things, and a whole line of balms for different purposes, and I fell in love with using balm. I've known several people who religiously put on chapstick or carmex or something before bed at night. Now I understand. I definitely put balm on every night on my wrists and feet and temples and under my nose, and mainly so I can take that moment to breathe in the wonderful essential oils and feel the peace of caring for myself in that way. Now I have the Badger Sleep Balm, and the Badger Yoga and Meditation Balm, and I love the ritual of balm. And I want to have all the balms for all the different reasons you could need balm. It is comforting. So eventually I realized that the reason I love balm so much is mainly because I am experiencing: Aromatherapy. Ha. Sooner or later we gain understanding for the things we don't understand.
Back to the review. Now that I know I love aromatherapy (whah??), I use a lot of essential oils when I clean my house, not only so it will smell nice after I clean, but because it makes a mini spa-like experience for me while I am cleaning. No joke. It is so nice to mop a floor with orange or lemon essential oil and vinegar and water and enjoy the freshness, or to put a few drops of lavender in the dishwasher while it is rinsing so the steam scents your kitchen. It also makes the vinegar more pleasant to work with.
So you can add a few drops to your bucket. Just choose an oil such as lavender, tea tree, lemon, orange, or eucalyptus, and breathe in deeply! That's not something you would want to do with chemical cleaners. And, you should know that pure essential oils are antimicrobial too. You can buy essential oils at your local natural foods stores or online, but make sure they are 100% pure and natural, and do not contain synthetic fragrances. Lemon is usually the least expensive. I buy a big bottle of lavender and use it for baths, hair treatments, cleaning, to put on canker sores or other ailments, and it makes a great deoderant too when dilluted! Follow all instructions and precautions on the side of the bottle because they are strong!
If you want to buy convenient earth-friendly cleaners, chances are you are hoping they will do the job, and do it well. I have found that using a combination of the above mentioned basic cleaners along with some good premade products works best for me. Here are some that I've tried, and what I have to say about them.
Bon Ami. Its a dye, fragrance-free, chlorine free, scratch free powder cleanser. It works great. For me its a step up from baking soda, (although that will work) because it just seems to rinse easier. Its cheap, and makes my sinks shine. You really can clean your toilet bowl with just a little Bon Ami and some elbow grease. (add essential oils too for you!)
Mrs. Meyers Clean Day All -Purpose Cleaner. This smells really nice and works well. Doesn't burn my nose and comes in lots of wonderful, off-beat, fun scents like basil, lavender, and lemon verbena. I kind of think of it as one of the high-end natural cleaners, but it does come in large bulk-ish containers so you can refill your bottles. And its really cute. This does sometimes matter. :)
Method (two products I want to review) Method cleaners are available really widely now. I've seen them at Target and Safeway, and also at natural foods stores.
Method Wood for Good Wood Surface Cleaner. First things first. I've noticed something about Method cleaners. They all smell really good. They come in once again lots of off-beat smells that are just plain pleasant to clean with. I look forward to cleaning my coffee table with this. Its one of the most fun parts of cleaning. I think this mainly has to do with the smell. This is a good wood surface cleaner. It cleans grime off like an all-purpose cleaner would, while protecting the wood (its not as liquidy so it won't soak in) It will leave a bit of a film on a really glossy wood surface if you use too much, however I don't find this to be an issue. You just don't need very much, and then if you be sure to polish it all off, no film is left behind. One thing I like is that it is not greasy. It won't leave an oily residue behind. And amazingly, I found its cheaper than most commercial wood cleaners.
Method Glass +Surface natural glass cleaner. This smells like mint! I love it! Smells SO much better than the well-known window cleaner. Doesn't make me choke. It actually smells like that Binaca stuff that people used a lot in the 90s to freshen their breath. And it works beautifully! I know that not all glass cleaners are equal, and many do leave streaks but this one absolutely does not. And I'm picky about streaks. It says on it that it has "Ammonia-free plant based Powergreen Technology" Fancy. It works, and all the method cleaners look nice too. Never thought I would have cared, but its acutally fun to tote around cute cleaners in my tote. Visual pleasantry adds to the beauty of life. Even in cleaners apparently.
Seventh Generation Disinfecting Multi-Surface Cleaner. First of all, I love this brand. I have never been disappointed in anything I've bought from them. They joined with Clean Well, who make plant-based antibacterial hand sanitizer and created a product that is pleasing both to germaphobes and earth loving-germaphobes alike. Lol. I was really excited to see this product hit the market, because when I have in the past talked with people about cleaning green, they would ask me how I disinfect things, and I would always answer with boiling water or vinegar. And although I think those things do the trick just fine, not everyone is convinced. Well now I tell them if those things don't convince them, there is this product, which on the bottle states "Kills 99.9 percent of Germs Botanically". It smells wonderful-like fresh herbs. The active ingredient that kills the germs is thymol which comes from the Thyme plant. I love using it, and consider it a treat when I have it on hand. I am a part-time germaphobe. I'm not freaked out by toilet germs, and so I'm ok with just scrubbing the toilet as normal, but I love to use this stuff if I can on the toilet. I like the thought of a germ-free toilet, but I'm not paranoid about it. So I guess the toilet doesn't own me, but if I have a choice, I like to use this stuff to disinfect it. Mostly I'm a germaphobe when someone is sick. Then I will disinfect everything and wash my hands a lot. I'm not gonna lie. Its just my opinion, but I think a lot of fear has been created around the topic of germs in the name of profits. I'm not gonna go into all the controversial details here, but I think there was a time when people were less afraid of the BIG BAD GERMS. Did you know that as we have been killing a lot of these germs as we have become an antibacterial society, that the little guys have often just been mutating to become even nastier? As far as I'm concerned what you resist persists. So I will certainly disinfect something, but not obsessively. Balance, people! :) So anyways to finish my review, This Seventh Generation Disinfectant Spray stuff works great, but it will make you cough if you breathe it in right after spraying it. It is really strong. Leathal plants. Sick 'em on your germs. No pun intended. So this is the perfect cleaner for you if disinfecting is really important to you and you like it to say that 99.9% thing.
Safeway's Bright Green All Purpose Dilutable Cleaner. This works great. All you need is a tiny tiny amount diluted with water in a big spray bottle to clean everything you can imagine. Great for shower walls, a little in your bucket for mopping, countertops, etc. Its a good all-purpose cleaner. Its a little intense smelling if you ask me. I wonder a little about Bright Green's fragrances, although they say "essential oil" in the ingredients. I don't like their lavender. Does not smell like essential oil to me. But this cleaner does the job and smells alright.
You can buy most of these products at your local natural foods store. Target and Safeway also carry some brands like Method, Seventh Generation, and of course Safeway has the line of Bright Green products. I recommend getting a duster or dust cloth that can be washed with your laundry and used again and again. I have a Casabella duster that I love for my home and a few micro fiber dust cloths that I use in my clients homes. Even better, you can find re-usable and washable cleaning items on Etsy that are handmade. And a good 'ol stack of washcloths or old towels cut into pieces make great re-usable cleaning cloths. Old t-shirts are good for glass surfaces.
Last but not least, a wonderful way to freshen your home when you are cleaning is to swing open those windows. Fresh oxygen makes your home more enjoyable to live in, and is great for you while you are inside cleaning!
I hope this is helpful to someone who is curious. Bless you, and Happy, Healthy, Cleaning!!
My Spring Cleaning Commitment for the Week:
Last week I committed to cleaning out my bathroom cabinets, and I did! It is so much more functional now.
This week, I commit to 2 things: organizing and cleaning out my "pantry" cabinet, and organizing my little "drawer" (its actually one of 3 storage bins we have under the coffee table) and we each have one of our own and then we share one. Its how we keep the clutter under control. Mine is super full and needs to be gone through. This week!
What is your commitment for this week? Do you know of any green cleaning products you love and that work really well for you? Leave a comment!
As always, Happy Week, and much Love!
Abbey
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