Going Green

Going green is something that I have been wanting to work towards for a couple of years now. I decided that I would start by recycling more at home and remembering to use my cloth bags at the Commissary. So far - so good. I have been amazed at how much the amount of trash we put out in a week has decreased.

The next step in my plan was to try and use more earth friendly products. I read the book Green This! Volume 1: Greening Your Cleaning byDeirdre Imus. Some of the suggestions are a bit too extreme for me at the moment, but the cleaning suggestions are great. I basically use four items to clean my entire house. I use baking soda, distilled white vinegar, lemon juice, and a 100% natural multi-purpose cleaner (put out by Simple Green). Both baking soda and vinegar are very inexpensive, which also makes my cleaning bill cheaper. The multi-purpose cleaner can be used on almost any surface and also cleans glass.

Here is a link to a coupon for any cleaner by Seventh Generation.

I love how fresh and light my bathroom smells after cleaning it now. No more headaches from strong chemicals! I love that I can use the multi-purpose cleaner on my counters and not worry if food touches it. The great thing about vinegar is that it is a disinfectant.

Here is a link that gives some uses for baking soda and vinegar in your cleaning:

Cleaning With Baking Soda and Vinegar

And another one for all general cleaning: General CleaningI have also started buying all natural products to wash our dishes. Our store carries Seventh Generation line. I buy both the dish soap for washing dishes by hand and the dishwasher liquid for the machine.



They are a bit more expensive than the other brands, but I feel the price is worth it to have a safe product. I do believe that the price of these items will start to go down once more people make the switch. Seventh Generation also has toilet paper and paper towels (we purchase both - although we try not to use paper towels unless we really need to).