A few Sundays back, the newspaper seemed to spill an overwhelming number of cleaning-product coupons onto my living-room floor.
"It's like They know," my husband said. "They're on to you."
"They" are the companies selling household liquids and powders for a little spring cleaning. And the secret my husband thought they'd discovered? I had decided to purge my pine-fresh scents and 99.9 percent germ killers in favor of a few products our "great-grandparents used," as advised by green-parenting maverick MaGreen.
Here's a little secret the cleaning companies don't want to promote on daytime TV: This older, less-expensive version of cleaning often works better. Things like Swiffer mops don't make the job easier. They make it more irritating, because they don't work well and you spend a fortune to do a half-ass job on the kitchen floor.
So I decided to load up on the basics. Vinegar. Baking soda. Washing soda. Borax, which apparently cleans everything. Two bars of laundry soap.
It's one of those green choices that will actually save my one-income family some money -- unlike paying $374 to join a local CSA, a move suggested by several Gristmill readers.
That CSA bill comes out to only $14 a week, a very reasonable amount for organic vegetables, but is a huge chunk for us to pay in one lump sum. We were only able to do it thanks to a well-timed IRS refund check.
The cleaning products, on the other hand, totaled $12.40 and will last for months.
Parents have become so complacent about using paper towels and disinfectant -- they never notice that a hand-knit dishrag and soap actually works better. A quarter cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle takes out all the scratchiness of line-dried towels and doesn't smell. My friend sent a link to a recipe for homemade laundry detergent, which costs about $2 per batch, or less than 6 cents a load. It works great. And when you have kids, you have a lot of laundry.
Worries that greening my house meant it wouldn't be as clean were unfounded. In the end, I think it might be cleaner, although I haven't yet tackled huge jobs like shampooing the carpet or cleaning the oven, so I welcome thoughts on that.
Now, on to spring cleaning. A mom's life is so glamorous.
Ask Umbra on paperback writers
Not much convenience in “convenience foods”
Grist’s guide to green iPhone apps
Comments
View as Flat
mtsnature Posted 9:53 am
26 Apr 2007
Nice
My fam is doing the same thing ... good luck !!!
Permalink
Sam Wells Posted 10:21 am
26 Apr 2007
Baby and Hand Wipes
Good ideas and nearly all those baby wipes and hand wipes are NOT bio-degragable to be careful, not only because they aren't good for the environment but because they CAN clog you house's plumbing. Jeez, now they even have furniture wipes, wipes of all kinds. The soldiers over in Iraq love those body wipes because they feel good. But they won't decompose in many, many years. These kinds of non-degradable wipes ought to be against the law. /sammie
Onward through the fog
Permalink
SnoDragon Posted 10:37 am
26 Apr 2007
Amen to that!
All that anti-bacterial stuff freaks me out. Save it for the hospitals, folks. Ordinary soap cleans just as well for every-day life.
As a college student with no time to spare but a penchant for clean, I prize convenience, so sometimes Method's biodegradable products are what I choose, but I'm also poor. For a whole day of cleaning, nothing beats mixing up your own cleansers. It's cheap, too.
Vinegar can make colors bleed, though, so be careful about it in the wash.
I'm off to check out that cool laundry degergent link!
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 8:52 pm
26 Apr 2007
"They're on to you"
Husbands can sometimes be kind of cute, and sort of on-your-side-ish, but sometimes too they can be real nags.
Obviously, girls, you need always to keep on the table the suggestion that you soon may take on a lover, or have already; and the information is beyond what he can research: the most poignant dartlet.
In our house, we use Swiffers fairly regulary (my husband being allergic to just about the entire Kingdom Flora), but only for very specialized dusting projects, just a couple of pieces of decorated furniture, actually, never on floors.
On Parents: Right, wrap them up in big bundles, and throw them out to sea. (Oh, sure, with their favorite music playing: Molly Picon, Barbra Streisand, Renee Fleming, whoever.) Just make sure you have the inheritance agreements clear.
Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!
Permalink
Dawn Pillsbury Posted 2:24 am
27 Apr 2007
Cleaning green
Borax is potent stuff, particularly useful if you have a problem with black mold (and if you don't think you have a problem with black mold, but have inexplicable and long-term cold-like symptoms, check behind large furniture and around windows). I don't like to use borax much because it must be similarly hard on the biota in our local sewage treatment plant, but it is useful against feral fungi.
One warning: none of the green toilet bowl cleaners work. That's one of our few chemical indulgances these days.
Also, vinegar doesn't work as well on glass as we'd like.
We've given up on Simple Green after learning about the tenacity of its surfactants (from the helpful lady at the Sonoma County EcoDesk). We clean the kitchen surfaces with Begley's Best, which is working very well for us. Worth its price, even.
The Seventh Gen dishwashing powder is the best of many we've tried. And Eco laundry soap for our front-loading washer.
For most dirt, I prefer the universal solvent and rags.
Permalink
Christine Gardner Posted 4:08 am
27 Apr 2007
What I've learned
My friend who e-mailed the link about the laundry soap sent along this helpful bit this morning:
"Vinegar works great in the oven too. All you do is put about an inch of vinegar in a tin or other metal baking dish and put it in the oven overnight. It loosens up any spills and stuck on stuff and you can then use the vinegar in water to wipe out the oven. A trick my grandma taught me."
Oh white vinegar, is there anything you can't do?
Although I too noticed a lot of streaking on windows and mirrors, last night I tried my grandma's old trick of using newspaper for the final wipe down. Worked great!
Oh grandmas, was there anything you didn't know?
Permalink
SMLowry Posted 6:57 am
27 Apr 2007
More
I love Biokleen laundry detergent. It's super concentrated so you only need like a quarter cup or less for a full load (I have a front load machine). It has no scent and no chemicals. Also a Maine company (in Skowhegan, I think) called O'Natural makes a wonderful all-purpose cleaner with lavender, tea tree, and eucalyptus essential oils and some vinegar, too, although you can't smell it (the vinegar). It smells great and works on practically everything. And I think it's cheaper to buy by the gallon than to make your own because of the expense of essential oils (haven't done the math exactly, but I think that would prove to be the case).
Permalink
wisemorgan Posted 4:08 pm
28 Apr 2007
Sensitive skin?
I've been considering switching products and using vinegar, baking soda etc. not just for the cost and the green factor but because of asthma and an increasing sensitivity to chemicals. I was wondering if anyone knew how the various detergent options worked for people with super sensitive skin?
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln
Permalink
JMG Posted 5:43 pm
28 Apr 2007
Toilet bowl cleaners
I've not had your experience ... I'm the head of the head cleaning dept. 'round these parts, and (lazy guy that I am) I find that white vinegar works great if you know how to be lazy enough:
Pour a big slug into the bowl after you finish using the facilities for the night. Let sit overnight. Use the brush on the inside of the bowl first thing in the morning and then flush after you've added your own uric acid chaser. If you've got something that survives that, you need a new toilet and can use that as your cue to go buy one of the superduper two-flush level models.
"An optimist is someone who thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist is someone who is afraid that the optimist is right."
Permalink
Roz Cummins Posted 1:02 pm
29 Apr 2007
Using less of each cleaning product...
I buy natural products and also use baking soda for several tasks, but the best tip I have is to use as little as possible of each product and then work your way up to see exactly how much is really needed. You'd be surprised how little is necessary to accomplish most cleaning tasks.
Permalink
MCSer98 Posted 3:57 am
30 Apr 2007
Carpet shampooing
I have my own shampooer. I use AFM carpet shampoo or mix baking soda and vinegar in the tank, then fill it with hot water. Either does a great job. AFM carpet shampoo is very concentrated. A cap full in a tank is all you need. I purchased a quart 5 years ago. It is almost gone now. Of course I alternate with the baking soda and vineger, depending on what I use that day. If my dog has an accident I use the baking soda and vinegar. It removes the smell. You can do a search on AFM products to find where to purchase. These products are chemical free, developed for use for the chemically intolerent.
I mix baking soda and vinegar, making a paste, to clean my oven. I spread the paste on the oven, heat it to 200 degrees, let it cool, then wipe clean. It does take some effort to get all the baking soda out.
MCSer98
Permalink
ckim Posted 4:41 am
30 Apr 2007
so fresh and so clean
I just moved out of a house and decided to pay for a cleaner to come and do a move-out cleaning. After lugging heavy boxes, I just couldn't bring myself to pick up the scrubbing brush.
I hired the Dynamic Workers Cleaning Co-op (based in Los Angeles), that specializes in green cleaning. I have asthma and I'm really sensitive to most cleaning products.
It was amazing to see this one tiny lady make my house pretty darn clean with just a big bottle of vinegar and a big package of baking soda. All of the other supplies I had provided (just in case) like scrubbing bubbles and 409 spray were cast aside. She even removed stains and marks that I have been trying to get rid of forever!
I am pretty impressed! In the past, I'd used baking soda and vinegar for scrubbing sinks and tubs. Now I realize you can basically clean anything in your house this way.
A note of caution about cleaning your oven with baking powder:
When the man from the gas company came out to turn on the gas at the house I'm moving in to--he told me to be careful using anything powdery when cleaning the stove. It can clog the little holes where the gas connects to the pilot light and also in the burner. He had to service my stove because many of the holes (which are tiny) were clogged with powder.
Permalink
meander Posted 4:26 pm
30 Jun 2007
Cost calculations
The post states that "My friend sent a link to a recipe for homemade laundry detergent, which costs about $2 per batch, or less than 6 cents a load."
I have been using that homemade laundry detergent for a few months with great success. I calculate a cost per batch of $2.33, for a cost per load of between 10 and 20 cents (depending on how many scoops you use). But there was an initial investment of about $12 because I couldn't find buy Borax or laundry soap by the cup (they come in 3 pound boxes).
--- meander, a.k.a., Mental Masala at Ethicurean
Permalink