May 02, 2017

Eco-friendly cleaning? How to do it without the “greenwashing”

May 02, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

This is the second post in a 3-part series on green cleaning

A quick survey of store shelves these days will tell you that there are more options for purchasing “green” cleaning products than ever before. In North America, Europe, and Australia, the options for buying eco-friendly products reflect regional and class disparities: the coastal areas of the US tend to reflect current trends in eco-conscious lifestyles with greater ubiquity than the southeastern belt and Midwestern heartland, while generally, wealthier neighborhood stores offer more options for “eco-conscious” shopping than stores in poorer neighborhoods. With few exceptions, the cheaper the product, the more likely it is that the company that manufactured it will have engaged in “greenwashing.”

April 16, 2017

Natural Bathroom Cleaning Tips→

April 16, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

guest post from Erica Garlands, with slideshow by Modern Bathroom

(this is the first post in a 3-part series on Green Cleaning)

Did you know that there are 150 chemicals found in the home that are connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and physiological disorders? And most of these chemicals are found in bathroom-cleaning products! Bathrooms are high traffic rooms, and obviously need to be kept clean due to the high level of germs that can collect in bathrooms. There are many cleaning options available to us, many containing harmful products, but there are ways to effectively clean by only using natural ingredients. Some of these natural ingredients include grapefruit, lemons, salt, and baking soda.

May 26, 2016

My favorite DIY green cleaners: safe, effective, and easy to make at home

May 26, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

Most household cleaning agents contain harmful chemicals that can cause a range of health problems. One set of ingredients in these cleaners is especially problematic, because they are known to cause cancer in humans and animals: formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers. Sometimes formaldehyde is not actually used as an ingredient in cleaning solutions, but is present as a by-product. For this reason, it does not appear in the list of ingredients; instead, you’ll know that a product contains formaldehyde if you see the names DMDM hydantoin, or 1,4 dioxane listed among a product’s ingredients. It may also be present if other chemical ingredients like formalin, formalith, methanol, methyl aldehyde, methylene glycol, methylene oxide, paraform, or BFV appear in the ingredient list.

On the other hand, you can always make your own green cleaning products.

By making your own household cleaners, you can not only have more control over the ingredients that go into them, thereby reducing your exposure to hazardous chemicals, you can also save money in the process (especially by buying them in bulk).

Here are a few of my favorite DIY green household cleaners.