A Mean Green Clean
‘Inside every problem is an opportunity,’ mom used to say.
And of course she was right—even when it comes to making some environmentally-friendly choices around the house to reduce your family’s exposure to chemicals and just generally keep a watch out for Mother Earth. So here are a few opportunities we’ve recently capitalized on ourselves as we inch towards a darker shade of green for our homes:
Opportunity: Reduce exposure to potentially irritating laundry softening chemicals and save some money too.
Solution: Now that we’ve discovered that traditional laundry softeners work by leaving a thin layer of (flammable!) petro-chemical product on your clothes and linens, which reduces absorbency in things like towels and can off-gas things we can’t pronounce like toluene and trimethylbenzene, we’re a little obsessed with our Nellie’s™ Dryerballs. You just throw the two bumpy oval balls in the dryer with the wet laundry. As they tumble around, the balls lift and separate clothes to improve the air flow so things dry faster (Money Saver #1—up to 25% faster means less energy required) while the bumps relax the fibres of the fabrics, making them softer. Money Saver #2? A couple of boxes of your usual stuff costs more than the $25 or so a set of Dryerballs will set you back, and they last for years. Available at nelliesallnatural.com.
Opportunity: Reduce exposure to surface insecticides and pesticides on your fruits and veggies. (we’re thinking since they kill weeds, they just can’t be that good for us either.) Oh, and remove the dirt and bacteria too, a must-do even for organic produce.
Solution: Nature Clean’s Fruit & Veggie Wash is entirely made from food-grade, edible ingredients, and is odourless and tasteless. Available in a spray for individual pieces of fruit or vegetables or pour bottle for soaking (like for grapes and lettuce), it works by basically grabbing onto all the nasty stuff (and you’ll be convinced when you see what’s floating in the water after…). Available in stores.
Opportunity: Save the fish and your lungs without sacrificing your whitest whites. (OK, never mind that—we’re not Mrs. Cleaver after all—how about just finding a way to get the nasty chocolate milk stain out from your favourite white T.)
Solution: PC GREEN Active Oxygen Bleach is 100% chlorine free, using an oxygen-based compound to remove stains instead. (Chlorine is a highly toxic chemical and respiratory irritant and chloroform, one of its byproducts, is a known carcinogen. Just sayin’…)
Opportunity: Reduce landfill. Reduce chemical exposure. Keep using convenient all-purpose cleaning wipes.
Solution: Not mission impossible, after all. Grab some method wipes and you’re making the grade on all three fronts. They’re made from natural, biodegradable fibers, scented with essential oils and the cleaning component uses naturally derived surfactants that work by absorbing dirt rather than chemically degrading it, like many other products.
Clean AND Green. Now that’s something to feel savvy about.
