3.15.2010

Pancake Sunday and Green Cleaning

First, I've been trying to get in touch with Xcountry2.  If anyone else has contact info, please let her know that I need to hear from her or have to redraw a new winner!

This weekend we had my cousin's wedding (awful awful weather) but I made pancakes on Saturday for Sunday's lunch - I made the banana-apple ones with blueberries this time. Yum!!

Anyone else do pancake Sunday?

GREEN CLEANING!

Once I started thinking about the contact Nick and I were having with chemicals in cleaning supplies, I decided to start using chemical free things. I am usually down on the floor cleaning the wood floor with Lysol, and guess who crawls everywhere including the floor?? When I started to think about it, it was scary actually! When I went to the grocery store, I wasn't too impressed with the selection there, especially for All Purpose Cleaners. I picked up Seventh Generation Tub & Tile Cleaner :

I think it cost around $3.99 at the grocery store which wasn't too bad. I liked the smell of cypress and fir, and thought that it did a pretty good job.  I wasn't as impressed with the ingredients as BabyGanics (below) but it is non-toxic and biodegradable.

Ingredients: Aqua (water), polyglucose, coceth-4 and deceth-5 (plant-derived cleaning agents), lactic acid (soap scum and lime scale remover), sodium hydroxide (pH adjuster), peg-15 cocomonium chloride (plant-containing cleaning agent)*, essential oils and botanical extracts** (citrus aurantifolia (lime), abies balsamea (balsam fir), calilistris columellaris (cypress)).



I swapped out the Lysol for Babyganics all purpose cleaner.

Now - this stuff is not cheap, but I think in the end, it is worth it. I used it on the floor, countertops, and some of the bathroom. My only question is the disinfectant aspect. Is it disinfecting like Lysol does? It smells nicely of lavender. I was using Fantastik for a while and my hands would get all dry and smell like it after I used it - now I feel like this stuff is all natural so if I am going to be holding Nick's hand, picking him up - he isn't getting chemicals on him.

Ingredients (Fragrance Free):  Plant Based Cleaning Agents (Coconut, Palm Kernel, Corn and Sugar based surfactants), Soy Ester (Soy based), Filtered Water, Water Conditioning Agent,  Preservative (less than 0.05%)


Next for the bathrooms, I ordered Baby Ganics Tub and Tile Cleaner. 
I used this all around the bathroom and on the floor. It worked well and I felt much better using this than bleach. I don't know that it cleaned as deeply, but it was still clean.  It had a similar smell (a good one) and similar ingredients.

Ingredients - (Fragrance Free): Plant Based Cleaning Agents (Coconut, Palm Kernel and Corn based surfactants), Organic Acid, Naturally Derived Thickener, Filtered Water.

I purchased both of the above products at Diapers.com for $5.99 each. Yes! It is expensive!  In the end, I think it is worth it.


Before purchasing these items, I mixed vinegar and baking soda with water and put it in a spray bottle.  I used this on the countertops and floor. It left a residue, so I really wanted something that was tried and true. I was happy with these products and will continue to use them. I just saw that Baby Ganics also have floor cleaner so I want to try that next.

What do you use? What other green changes have you made in your home?

14 comments:

  1. They look good and truly organic. May well give them a bash myself.

    Kaz

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  2. I have XC2's email address! If you'd like to email me (runninglaur at gmail) I can email it to you (so it's not all over the internet).

    Love that you've switched to green cleaners. We use vinegar and baking soda for as much as we can, and they work pretty well.

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  3. Good for you with the green cleaning products... I've seen them in stores and considered making the switch before. I also try to stick with water & vinegar whenever possible.

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  4. I do a lot of vinegar and water. When the floor needs a little extra cleaning I will add a little ammonia to the vinegar. I do not notice that I need anything else really. Good for you on getting green cleaning products :-)

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  5. I buy green cleaners too. Target has a great selection. And it's either lysol or clorox who makes the 'anywhere' cleaner? It's basically just diluted bleach...

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  6. I won?! Ahhh, I WON!!! YAY!!!

    Sorry for being MIA. I'll shoot you an e-mail. :o)

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  7. I just do vinegar and water as an all-purpose cleaner. Works great and is cheap as can be.

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  8. I love your new wallpaper! My mom uses vinegar and water to clean windows and surfaces...she loves it. The only problem is that is stinks. My sister and I don't really use these non-toxic cleaners...but I really think we need to start getting into them. Years of breathing in toxic chemicals cannot be good for you...especially when you have little ones running around!

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  9. I use BabyGanics all purpose cleaner for some surfaces and really like it I use the Ecover brand lime scale remover for the bathroom tub but also find baking soda with vinegar, water, and a scrub sponge work well for scale. I'm sure the BabyGanics stuff works well too and I think it has less ingredients. I currently use a Method brand floor cleaner but am looking for other options. I also use green laundry detergents as much as possible. I have to for using cloth diapers and like it for all my laundry now!

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  10. We do vinegar and water for the floors and I use some of the Target "Method" stuff for more of a multi-purpose or all purpose cleaning. I worry about some of the green products on granite since its such a particular substance ... and all my kitchen and bathroom counters are granite. So I stick to granite cleaners with them ;)

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  11. Hey! Pancake Sunday, how fun! Pancakes are my fast go to supper when things get hectic. Just toss some fruit on the side and so good!

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  12. My grandma uses vinegar but i hate the smell so i cant use it. I've also tried some green products that are pretty cool

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  13. I don't really use liquid cleaning products anymore... I have resorted to using Norwex products - better for our health and environment. If you want more info, let me know!

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  14. xcountry just posted recently so maybe you can leave a comment for her if you haven't heard from her yet??

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