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?