February
2008
Clean Green!
When I open up my cleaning cupboard, I witness a gathering of evil cleaning products that would give Al Gore a heart attack.
The furniture polish, the window cleaner, the bleach, the anti-bacterial kitchen spray, the bathtub foam, the toilet gel, the dishwasher capsules, the liquid dish soap, pet odor remover…. whoa. Is this stuff safe?
Crap. So what do I do? Get rid of it all? Start again? And if I get rid of it all, is there a safe way to dispose of it? If not, then heck. I’ll just keep using it and start fresh later.
The advice on this site, Cleaning 101, is just to use your cleaning product, since most of them are designed to be water soluable anyway. I like how that sounds.
You know what else I thought sounded cool? My friend Mimi told me that you can take your empty spray bottles and detergent bottles to Whole Foods to refill them with safer cleaning product. Brilliant!
Hmm how nerdy am I that I get excited about that???
Which brings me to my point.
I recently discovered this, the Green Omaha Coalition, (the existence of which indicates that there’s hope that Omaha can be on the top 50 list eventually!). One of the subcommittees, Green Neighborhood, is hosting an event on this Saturday, February 23, from 10 AM to 12 PM (noon! 2 hours! not 14).
The FREE event is called “February’s Green Living Workshop” and will be held at Word Made Flesh on 1013 Leavenworth St. This month’s topic: How to Detox and Green Your Cleaning. When in attendance, you can win green cleaning products and learn how to make your own.
Hey - even my frugal friends would be interested to know how to make their own cleaning products! Come on down! If you want to attend, RSVP to Daniel Lawse at livesimply93@gmail.com. Or let me know you wanna go so we can carpool.
Using homemade cleaners can not only be less harmful, but can also save you money. I suggest taking that spray bottle of conventional cleaner and rinsing it out once you finish using it. Then refill it with your homemade cleaning solution. Try using baking soda or vinegar for most household cleaning needs. Below are a couple of links to more detailed suggestions along this line of thought. However, if you would rather trust something from the store shelves and you’re willing to do a little searching, there are some products available that rely more on plant oils than synthetic cleaning agents.
http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.htm
http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/LUESA/Solid+Waste/Household+Hazardous+Waste/Non+Toxic+Cleaning+Solutions+Recipes.htm
Thanks for the links, Shawn!
Also, if you wanted to dispose of your old cleaners, you can go to UnderTheSink.org.