Cleaning House

I've been on a go-green kick of late. I used to be such an tree-hugger type. I even briefly majored in conservation biology in college (until i realized i might not actually be employable with that degree...). Anyway. Definitely since I've had children I've felt a need to make some changes in my life. Which i'm slowly trying to do. Even just changing our light bulbs to the more efficient CFLs makes me feel better. I buy organics when i can and for the things we eat a lot of (i.e. certain fruits and veggies, chicken, dairy). I try to remember to bring my reusable tote bags for groceries (although when i forget and get plastic bags it's just fine since we still have poop-a-plenty in our house and those little bags come in handy!). I like the idea of decreasing my and my family's consumerism (buy less, make-do attitude) but I'm not really there yet. So i'm trying to do what works for me right now.

Lately, cleaning my house has been an issue for me. I don't like doing it. Right. I know. We all wish we could just hire someone to take the dirt away. But that's not really what the problem is. I finally realized i hate it because it's totally inconvenient. I don't want the kids around with all the chemicals. I don't want to have to change my clothes because i risk getting bleach from the toilet bowl cleaner on whatever i'm wearing. The smell of the stainless steel cleaner makes my nose stuffy and my eyes water. Thus, the search for a greener way of doing things.

I was not interested in the many ready-made green cleaners out there. I'm glad they're there and people have those choices. I tried a couple things by Method--paid a lot for them and wasn't super-psyched by the results. I found my solution in the book Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan. It's a little bit old (1997) so it doesn't have some options i'd like to see (like stainless steel cleaner or rinse aid) but for the most part it's fantastic. Most of the ingredients for the cleaners were already in my pantry (i.e. baking soda, vinegar, olive oil). I did have a hard time finding spray bottles and one of the soaps i wanted but all in all it has been really simple assembling what i need (if i lived in a place with better shopping options it would have been a breeze).

So i spent maybe 30 minutes tonight making some cleaners. I made five different ones in all (an all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, a disinfectant, leather polish and furniture polish). I have to say i am totally pleased with them. My favorite is the disinfectant--it has tea tree oil in it and just smells so good that i want to go clean everything. Bode went around with me tonight cleaning all the toilets! (He just loves using spray bottles). The leather polish worked great on my couches. I used the furniture polish on my kitchen cabinets. The jury is still out on the all-purpose as i don't like that it leaves a slight soapy residue, but maybe if i dilute it a bit more? As soon as i can find some more squirt bottles, i plan to make a toilet bowl cleaner and a tub/tile scrub.

Fascinating, eh? Well, I'm pretty excited about it! I'm happy to have fewer toxins floating around my house and be able to involve my kids more in the cleaning (while they still actually want to help!). Now maybe my house will be somewhat clean! I can only hope...