I seem to be mildly obsessed with getting chemically things out of the house lately. I blame it on the baby - mommy nesting thing. I personally can't handle lots of fragrances - never have. And things like detergents, cleaners and fabric softeners irritate my skin to high heaven. So slowly but surely I've been ridding the house of yucky stuff and trying to replace it with more natural things. I find myself facing two major obsticles in my crusade though...cost and effectiveness.
I think I successfully switched to Aubrey shampoo and conditioner but having a very difficult time finding styling products that are natural but actually work. My curly hair requires product to keep it from looking scary and the Aubrey B-5 Gel certainly is not doing the trick so I'm still on that mission. Hand soaps and body wash were fairly easy -- Whole Foods and Trader Joes has a variety of stuff and the great thing I've discovered is that after switching hand soaps my hands don't dry out as badly. Yea! Which brings me to lotions...
Lotions can be tricky to find because you want to find something that's not only not bad for you but smells good, soaks in and isn't slimy or tacky. My fav is The Hawaiian Spa's Tuberose and Pikake lotions. I discovered them several years ago in Hawaii and have been faithfully ordering ever since. They smell like the real thing, aren't overpowering and not bad for you. For my growing baby belly I've been using a bottle of Sweet Almond Oil with 50 drops of mandarin oil in it--got that tip from this book I think. I love it but it just takes a while to soak in.
I don't use glass cleaners anymore because I found that a microfiber cloth works fantastically for windows, mirrors, stainless steel, countertops and faucets without any cleaners...just water! Love it. There are special ones for dusting furniture too. I'm a big fan of these cuz they allowed me to get rid of so many cleaning products and save $$.
But my current stumbling block is laundry. Seventh Generation is twice as much as All's free and clear 96 load container from Costco for $11. If odered from Amazon (the cheapest place I can find it) Sev Gen free and clear detergent is .244 cents a load, if I sign up for their "Suscribe and Save" program I can get that down to .207 cents a load with free shipping...but it's still twice as much as Costco's All .115 cents a load. Hmmm. The search continues.
The baby detergent is driving me crazy too. 96 load container of Dreft from Costco is $20...96 loads of Sev Gen Baby Detergent from Amazon (the least expensive place I can find it) is $32---if I sign up for their "Suscribe and Save" program I can bring it down to $27.19 and free shipping. So I guess that's pretty good provided I can store that many bottles and nothing leaks in shipment.
I switched to Seventh Generation fabric softener and even though I don't smell anything once the clothes are dried, my husband smells a funky scent...but every other natural fabric softener out there is heavily scented with lavender or something and my nose just can't handle it. So this last week I've been adding 1/3 cup baking soda in the rinse water (I have a small washer and dryer--for regular washer use 1/2 cup). So far it's doing a pretty good job. I guess I'll stick with that one for a while and see how it goes. Picked up a 12lb bag at Costco for $5.29...and I can use baking soda for so many other uses too---check out here and here for more ideas.
I'm not a big fan of using vinegar in laundry and cleaning just because I associate the smell with food and when I'm whipping up a salad dressing I don't want to be repulsed because it makes me think of cleaning floors and windows. But for some reason I don't have the same reaction to citrus scents...go figure.
I've been exploring The Green Guide the last few days and goodness knows I'm not "dark green" or even "green" for that matter but I believe in making small changes and when those are routine, I implement a few more. My hubby is largley concerned with the cost $$ of anything "green" so I try as best I can to be diligent and economical so it makes sense to both of us. Some easy things we already do are; washing clothes in cold water instead of hot, turning down the temp at night, using cloth napkins, recycling, running dishwasher only when full, metroing to work, cooking meals at home, shopping at farmer's markets when in season, using my own bags when grocery shopping... Some things I'm focusing more on currently are indoor air quality and getting rid of toxins. It's easy for a person to go crazy and start freaking out over everything toxic and I know it's going to be a process over time in this house. Everytime I'm able to switch to a better product or something less harmful for my family and environment and make my husband happy with price..it's a small victory. Like with the baking soda...it works on many things AND it's super cheap. Well...back to the Guide I was talking about...although I've only briefly looked through it, I did find DIY Diva blog on there and she's got some handy tips and recipes on DIY Household Cleaners worth checking out.
OK so I've talked long enough this morning. Yikes! I need to clean this place up...my friend is coming tonight to visit for a week and late last night water came rushing down from the condo above us between the walls and leaking all over our guest bathroom and closet. Needless to say I was up for a while pulling everything out so it can dry off and the maint guy came in at 11pm last night with a blower to dry it out. They think they may need to pull up the floor. What a mess.
we do Melaleuca products... have you heard of them?
Posted by: Katrina Marple | March 15, 2010 at 09:51 PM