I was a bit of an early adopter on environmentally friendly cleaning products, since most commercial ones make the skin on my hands really irritated, or the overpowering scent makes my throat feel funny. I also find it odd that we somehow have collectively accepted the idea that wiping a surface down with poisonous and harmful chemicals is somehow 'clean'.
I use straight up baking soda for anything I feel needs a good scouring-
such as the tub, bathroom and kitchen sink, etc. And if I feel like I
really need to disinfect a surface, I wipe it down with a rubbing
alcohol (isropyl alcohol).
But earth-friendly sometimes needs to be really easy, right? Enter
Method, probably the most consumer-friendly eco cleaning product company. They make every kind of cleaning product you can think of both for your home, and for your body. They even have a wonderful line of baby care products- all all non-toxic, naturally derived biodegradable ingredients and an earth-friendly outlook.
Method products are available in: Canada, United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. And they come in many great fragrances- not too strong at all.
I only buy biodegradable laundry detergent, although I'm not faithful to a particular brand. It's great for sensitive skin. Method makes a great one, but I find that my grocery store carries a bunch of them, so I buy whatever is biodegradable and on sale. I don't use dryer sheets (they have formaldehyde in them!), so to eliminate static (and use less electricity) I don't run my dryer more than 20 minutes at a time. I find clothes only get static-y if they become bone-dry in there, so running it for shorter times eliminates that. Or, if I don't need the shrinking and de-wrinkling powers of the dryer, I hang clothes on a dry rack to dry au natural.
We're all friends, right? Of course we are. So hopefully it's not TMI to tell you about the line of feminine hygiene products I use:
I love
Natracare. They don't behave any differently from the plastic products that most of us use. Think about this- every feminine hygiene product you have ever used in your entire life (including the wrapper/backing) is still sitting in a landfill somewhere. Whatever your preferences are, they have the product for you- and it's all organic, biodegradable, and awesome. I've used their products for years and never had any problems. And they are available everywhere.
Check out this country list!
And even though this isn't really about keeping clean, we're all interested in knitting, crocheting, or spinning fibre, right? How about trying your hand at dying with vegetable base dyes?
Re-Nest has a great article on this.
