Archive for the green banter Category
Posted by Candice on August 31, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Cleaning Up Myths About Green Cleaning
You may be considering whether or not to make the switch to green cleaning and find that there is a wealth of information available about how to go about making the switch. You may have heard that green cleaning is not as effective as traditional cleaning methods. This is the most common myth. Let’s did a little deeper into this common misconception:
- Myth: Green cleaning products don’t work as well as more-toxic cleaning products.
While there are many cleaning products making claims of being green there is also a great deal of green washing. There are also legitimately green products which do not deliver when it comes to cleaning power. When making your choice diligently check ingredients and then narrow down your choice based on reviews that rate the products’ effectiveness. Sometimes different products from different brands are required for particular tasks. It is not always possible to choose a favorite brand and then just stick with their range. For example, after trying many we found our favorite dishwasher tab based on performance was the Ecover Dish Tabs but when it comes to our general multi-purpose cleaner and scouring product we like Clearly Essential’s natural range.
- Myth: The stronger the smell, the cleaner the clean.
We have all become accustomed to the strong chemical odor of the major brand cleaning products and associate that strong lemon scent with clean but when it comes to green cleaning products we do not need to sacrifice a pleasant odor we just need to adjust our expectations to allow for the subtler scents like tea tree oil, lavender and cinnamon. Essential oils which are an important adjunct to most natural cleaning products do add a pleasant odor and in part, such as in the case of tea tree oil, increase the effectiveness of the cleaner.
- Myth: Modern products are more effective.
When it comes to cleaning the old tried and true methods used by generations of home makers are still valid and effective. Good old soap and hot water are still effective ways to clean and sanitize your hands, cutting boards, sinks, kitchen counters and stove tops. If a little more grease cutting action is required the essential oil of Eucalyptus does a great job and the pantry staple cornstarch absorbs grease very well. There are many traditional pantry items which can be put to work around the house as part of a cleaning caddy.
- Myth: Green Cleaning does not have sufficient germ fighting power.
It is important to remember that certain bacteria are very useful to use. There bacteria live on our hands, in our mouths and form part of our gut. The indiscriminate use of anti-bactrial products seems to have done more harm than good. Eliminating all bacteria should not be the goal of your cleaning regime but rather to limit or remove the ones which can cause illness. There are natural and biodegradable options such as tea tree oil which is a good broad spectrum germicide, fungicide, and bacteriacide. Other options include vinegar and borax.
Bidmycleaning.com providers who are able to or who exclusively use natural cleaning products can be selected using a special filter in our marketplace bid request or by using our special green cleaning calculator located in our Eco-Friendly section.
Posted by Candice on May 24, 2010 at 10:30 am
Green Cleaning For Your Kitchen
It is unlikely that anyone needs convincing anymore about how important it is to make the switch to green and natural cleaning. We’ve written in the past about
whether green cleaning can really beat the germs and have a whole series about how to stock your
green cleaning pantry.
Today we’ll share a few tips about how to attack some common household kitchen cleaning tasks using natural cleaning methods:
- To clean your microwave oven place 1/4 cup of baking soda mixed with one cup of water inside the oven and heat until steam fills the inside of your microwave. Then remove the dish and wipe down the oven.
- To clean your coffee machine just run a regular cycle using one cup of vinegar followed by two cycles of clean water to rinse the vinegar out.
- For a kettle a 1/4 cup of baking soda mixed with 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil and allow to sit overnight. Rinse well the next morning to remove any baking soda residue.
- To remove burnt residue from a pot or pan sprinkle a thick layer of baking soda over the burn area then add some water and place on the stove to hear. Let the baking soda sit overnight and then scrub to remove.
- To clean fresh produce use a sponge sprinkled with baking soda to wipe the fruit and/or vegetables before rinsing under running water. For produce that will not withstand wiping dip into a baking soda solution and then rinse well.
These are just some of the ways you can use baking soda and vinegar in your kitchen. They also have many useful applications in cleaning your bathroom and other parts of your home.
Visit Bidmycleaning.com’s Eco-Friendly Cleaning information page to learn more about green cleaning in your home or to find a maid service or house cleaning provider that can perform and eco-friendly cleaning service.
Posted by Candice on March 11, 2010 at 13:25 pm
Green Cleaning Biodegradability
With all the products entering the market with claims of being green, organic and eco-friendly, how does one determine whether one of these products really does fit the green cleaning bill?
One important concept is biodegradability. Merriam Webster defines biodegradability as “capable of being broken down especially into innocuous products by the action of living things”. However, even though a product may say it is biodegradable, it may not be environmentally friendly. If a product manufacturer claims their product is biodegradable you should still take the additional step of checking that the ingredients are all natural and that when it down break down that those end particles are environmentally safe.
When it comes to marketing claims made by green product manufacturers, while green and eco-friendly are the most common, biodegradable does get used quite a bit too. There is no watchdog body checking to see whether these product claims are really valid and unless all the ingredients listed are recognizable to the consumer it is not a simple matter to determine how biodegradable they really are.
The best way to know exactly how eco-friendly your green cleaning products are is to make them at home using ingredients you know and trust.
Posted by Candice on February 26, 2010 at 17:33 pm
Friday
“Earth911.com is your one-stop shop for all you need to know about reducing your impact, reusing what you’ve got and recycling your trash. Get involved in our world by checking in for daily news, reading weekly feature stories, surfing product channels and opting into our weekly emails.”
This website got it’s start as a hot line for recycling and has grown into a busy website with around 200,000 unique visitors in January according to compete.com. They do still have their hotline though so you can still call them on 1-800-CLEANUP if you prefer a live person to help you find a recycling location (their database has over 100,000 across the country) or specific information on where to recycle electronic goods or packing peanuts.
Earth911.com has definitely enjoyed more than five minutes of fame having been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America as well as online in the The New York Times. You can also find their content syndicated on sites ranging from National Geographic to the Huffington Post.
If you were to encapsulate their mission, the folks at Earth911 are all about the 3 R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle! They want to show you how to make your trash another man’s treasure or how to direct your trash to the best place for it to be recycled or reused. They want to provide the guidance that will help you to clean up your home, your community and your world by being environmentally responsible.
This is a site the Bidmycleaning team loves! Hop on over to visit Earth911.com today!
Posted by Candice on February 9, 2010 at 16:31 pm
Clearly Essential Natural House Cleaning
We’ve written many posts on this blog about how important it is to make the switch to using natural cleaning products in your home. We even have our Green Cleaning Pantry series to help you make your own cleaning products at home. However, if you’re like me, finding the time to do all that home brewing can be challenging.
We were happy to meet Lisa Thomas on twitter and to hear about how in a search for cleaning products that would be safe enough to use around her toddler, she created an all natural window cleaner that amazed her mother, husband and even Lisa herself at how well it worked. This evolved to the Clearly Essential Multi-Purpose Cleaner that Lisa found to be effective on spilled red wine and pic pen scribbles on the sofa.
Lisa’s range of natural house cleaning products has expanded to include Clearly Essential Multi-Purpose Cleaner, Toilet Solution, Extra-Strength Kitchen & Bath Cleaner, Lemon Scrub, and most recently Cinnamon Scrub. The line is based on Lisa’s secret blend of essential oils and basic natural cleaning ingredients.
From the Clearly Essential website; “Our concept is simple. When you develop a cleaning product made with ingredients so natural, so safe, and so effective… a product you could wash your face and hands with, yet clean your house or car with, you make it available to everyone. We all want what’s healthiest for our families. And you’re probably here wondering what we’re all about because you also want what’s best for the planet… its waterways, oceans, forests, fields, and all of Earth’s amazing creatures. We do, too.”
Lisa was kind enough to send us some samples of her product lin. Our favorite is the lemon scrub which smells just like lemonade. All the products are effective cleaners and Lisa has a great idea to cut down on plastic bottles. Once you purchase your first spray bottle, you can then buy small glass refills which you mix with water to fill up the original spray bottle. It’s really great when a green company goes the extra step to making sure their packaging and shipping is eco-friendly too. The eco-friendly packaging was a little messy but Lisa says they are still working on finding the perfect solution.
Visit their website to buy some cleaning products or just Google them to find one of their online retailers.
Posted by Candice on November 18, 2009 at 14:53 pm
Going Green: Cut The Junk
The mail we send and receive is probably one of the main areas where we can make a big difference when it comes to doing our part towards going green. Unlike with plastics where it can be difficult to know which ones are OK to recycle, paper is paper and it can all go into the recycle bin.
Now the US Postal Service is making it even easier to recycle unwanted mail. Their new “Read, Respond, Recycle” program will provide postal customers with a convenient, environmentally responsible alternative to bringing home or discarding their mail. The Post Service recycles more than 1 million tons of paper, plastic and other materials.
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Posted by Candice on September 21, 2009 at 23:01 pm
Truth in Labeling - House Cleaning
Consumer demand for safe and eco-friendly personal care and home care products continues to climb. People rightly believe that they have aright to know exactly what is in the products they have in their kitchen or bathroom cabinets but this is certainly not the case. Most cleaning products do not include a complete list of ingredients as there are no government requirements for these products as there are for food products. Currently, the government only requires that ingredients which pose an immediate danger be indicated on a product label.
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Posted by Candice on September 16, 2009 at 10:30 am
CleanWell for a Safe Clean
So in keeping with yesterday’s post about using
Essential Oils for house cleaning – today we want to talk about another great application of essential oils. The safety of our families is one of the main reasons for focusing on how to be more green in our homes and when it comes to the safety of our children it can be daunting trying to find products that fit the bill.
With the looming threat of H1N1 flu and the constant PSAs about clean hands being our best defense, it is tempting to resort to Purell or some such product when there is no soap and water available for hand washing. Alcohol and Triclosan are two of the undesirables in these products. Triclosan in particular, breaks down into toxic chemicals including chloroform. There is a better choice – CleanWell All Natural Hand Sanitizer and Hand Soap. Can something all natural and 100% biodegradable really kill 99.99% of germs including MRSA, staph, E. coli, and Salmonella!
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Posted by Candice on July 22, 2009 at 23:10 pm
Green Cleaning with Baking Soda
Despite it’s name, baking soda is not just for baking or cooking. Also known as bicarbonate of soda, it completely natural and is a useful addition to your line-up of green cleaning products because it is non-toxic and safe for children and animals (although it is best not to consume it in large quantities) and it is very inexpensive. Of course it wouldn’t matter if it was cheap if it was not effective at cleaning.
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Posted by Candice on July 16, 2009 at 15:12 pm
Green Cleaning with Tea Tree Oil
Let me start by saying that if you’re a cat lover you should skip this post since tea tree oil is toxic to cats. Some people can also be sensitive to it and it is important to keep it away from kids since it should never be swallowed – but it is a worthwhile addition to your green cleaning pantry if you can use it.
Tea tree oil is a colorless or pale yellow oil from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia (Australian Tea Tree). It is is a broad spectrum germicide, fungicide, and bacteriacide and It’s natural solvent properties make it an wonderful biodegradable cleaning product and deodorizer.
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