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Well I wanted to report on how my all natural cleaning went…it was awesome!  I was really skeptical since I have used heavy duty cleaners on my soap scummed shower doors and after getting high breathing in the fumes the soap scum was still there, but a few drops of essential oil, lemon juice, castille soap and water and the soap scum was gone, I didn’t even have to scrub the doors!  I used the same concoction on the rusty water  scum that was left over from the other day when the plumber emptied the old water heater into the bathtub and not outside, yeah don’t even get me started on that.  I was very worried that the water had stained the bathtub but it came off as easily as the soap scum.

The next thing I need to try my new cleaner out on is the mold on the walls.  You see our bathroom is about the size of my “desk” and since the bathroom is in the hallway the door stays closed all the time and in turn that makes the bathroom a breeding ground for mold.  There is a line on the wall that I have been able to reach to clean and above that line there is mold, so I am having to convince my taller husband to climb all over the shower and clean the higher parts.

I’m worried that any harsh cleaner that I might use will take the paint off the wall or stain it in some way or worse get into my husbands eyes as he reaches over his head to scrub.  My solution is to use straight lemon and baking soda.  Using the lemon as a sponge and the baking soda as the scrubber I hope to take the stuck on mold without taking off the paint.  Any of you have another natural way to get rid of mold?

This weekend in hour of Earth Day I am going to clean my house with only natural cleaners. I’m gonna break out the lemons, baking soda and vinegar and clean the house. A few weeks ago I talked about getting rid of my toxic cleaners and replacing them with non-toxic ones and that’s exactly what I did. The problem with buying cleaning items is that they come in plastic, so I did some research on natural cleaners and came up with several recipes that use lemon, baking soda and castille soap. I have seen castille soap at my granola store and I believe that I can get the bottles refiled.

I will report on my findings on Monday…and by the way I know I haven’t posted my plastic for the week there will be more on that tomorrow.

In what seems a very long time ago I discovered a detergent that contained absolutly no plastic, not even the little plastic scoop.  Well I had high hopes for the Classic Purex, but it’s just not pulling it’s weight.  Four children make for a lot of dirty clothes and the plastic free detergent option just wasn’t doing a good enough job of cleaning the clothes.  I tried adding baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to the wash but the clothes still came out dingy and the stains would still be there.  So I decided to see if there was another brand that I could try that was more of a “natural cleaner”. 

There are several biodegradable, more eco friendly, laundry detergents out there…the first one that comes to mind is Seventh Generation.  I use their dishwasher detergent and I really like it, so I tried it.  It didn’t do a bad job, it did a better job then the Purex, but I wasn’t impressed.  The second brand was Ecover it had the same result as the Seventh Generation…not bad but not fantastic. 

The Purex is only $3.99 for a box that will do about 40 loads and the Seventh Generation and Ecover were about twice that and did fewer loads, so with the extra added cost I expected a cleaning miracle. 

The next one I tried was Mrs. Meyers Clean Day it comes is several different scents and since I am a sucker for lavendar, I almost fell in love immediatly. It’s pricey but it is concentrated so it does as many load as my Purex does so I am getting more for my money versus Seventh Generation and Ecover.  And the best thing is that it works!  It gets the stains out of my napkins and leaves them smelling great.  The downside to this love affair is that the detergent is liquid so it only comes in plastic, it’s recycable but still plastic. 

I have contacted the company to see if there are refilling programs, but as far as I can tell only one of my local stores carries the Mrs Meyers and they don’t refill. 

So this is the best option that I have come up with, not the greatest option but the best I have found so far.  I will continue to look for other options…hopefully a detergent that is powder so it comes in a box and not in a plastic jug.

Now that we are 10 weeks into my experiment I thought that I would do a quick update on my progress.

Below is an excerpt from my very first post, read more here…

Most everyone is interested in reducing their carbon footprint and reducing their impact in the world, here are the 10 items that I would like to address in my home this year.

1. Recycling
2. Composting
3. Eliminate toxic cleaning products
4. Cut energy costs
5. Become plastic free or at least plastic less
6. Limit the use of my car
7. Buy Green Power
8. Buy more local products
9. Set up an urban garden
10. Stop eating out

So lets see where I am at…

#1. I recycle everything that I can, in fact most weeks the recycle bin is fuller then my trash can. 

 #2. I have started a composting bin.  However I have been waiting to buy worms, I was worried that they would die in the cold.  Next week I will send off for the worms and then get the worm bin moving.  I do have to say that the compost bin that I have in my laundry room has been doing a good job all by itself.  I have been using it since the begining of the year and I have yet to need to empty it.

#3. Elimiating toxic cleaning products…I have been working on this slowly.  As you know I have been using a Cleaning Service to do my major house work, this month I didn’t use them but I think from now on I will use them once a month, so if I am not doing much cleaning I am not using up the chemicals that I have on hand.  I might go ahead and Freecycle the toxic products and keep the safe ones, that way I can have a clean start.  The only problem that I have been having with this item is that all cleaning products come in plastic.  I have used baking soda and vinegar, but they just don’t get rid of most of the stains or soapy residue in the bath tub.  I do try to buy only recycable bottles of cleaner or ones that can be refilled, that is better then some of the #5 bottles that are under my sink.

#4.  I have cut my energy costs by almost $50 a month, just by changing 10 habits.  That was easier then going plastic free.

#5.  I have dramatically changed my plastic habits.  I can even go to the store and not buy any plastic packaging.  The best part is besides the milk issue, we haven’t had any issues with missing out on some of the plastic wrapped foods. 

#6.  Limiting the use of my car has been a tough one.  In fact we will be talking about this topic next month.  I rode several times in February but my knee hurt so bad after those few times I am almost afraid to get back on my bike.  I am on some good drugs now and the swelling has finally gone down, so I will start working back up to the full 6 miles next week.

#7. Now that I have reduced my energy costs, I can start buying green power.  Here you have to buy power by the kilowatt hour and you can’t easily change it month to month, so this will be another topic for discussion next month.

#8.  As far as buying local products, I haven’t been able to do that at all.  For some reason the Farmers Market is only open in the Spring and Summer, so once that opens I will be able to buy all my fresh produce from local vendors and maybe I will get lucky and other products will be offered there too.

#9.  I have talked with my landlord and putting a garden in the backyard is off, but maybe I will be able to grow some veggies in some pots on the back patio.

#10.  Stop eating out…HAH!  This item seems to be impossible.  It’s not that we have overscheduled lives, but somedays we just don’t have the time to cook dinner.  Since both of us work it is very difficult on days that we have activities to find the 30 minutes that it takes me to cook a well balanced meal.  I know that 30 minutes isn’t very much time, but somedays it seems like an eternity.

Well that’s were things stand so far, somethings are getting easier while others are not.  We still have a lot to talk about, so stay tuned…

For those of you that have the room, Amazon is giving 20% off all Seventh Generation products.  I don’t have the room to buy in bulk so I can’t use the offer, but good luck to those of you that can.

Well good riddens I say to paper products.  Now the only non-recycled paper product in our house is the toilet paper.  We have completely run out of paper towels and paper napkins, so now it is time for the resuable kind. 

It was tough to find cotton napkins that were not 2 or more dollars a piece, but after much searching I found them on a website of a closing catering business and I bought the rest of them!  With a family of 6 I needed several dozen napkins to make it through the week.  Since they are white all I have to do is throw them in the normal whites load and wash away.  Think of how many trees I will be saving!

As for the resuable paper towels, go out and buy some flour sack towels.  The are cheap and relatively indistructable.  They are also very gentile so you can use them without worrying about scratching. 

Another easy and simple idea to help change the planet!

Most everyone is interested in reducing their carbon footprint and reducing their impact in the world, here are the 10 items that I would like to address in my home this year.

1. Recycling
2. Composting
3. Eliminate toxic cleaning products
4. Cut energy costs
5. Become plastic free or at least plastic less
6. Limit the use of my car
7. Buy Green Power
8. Buy more local products
9. Set up an urban garden
10. Stop eating out

Now I have high expectations but I don’t think I can do all of these all at once. So I will ease myself into this by trying to accomplish at least one item per month. Remember I have a husband and 4 kids to convince, and I am sure that a coupe would ensue if I took things to quickly. So my first goal will be to learn more about the recycling in my community and surrounding communities and how I can use them more wisely.