"Get rid of all the cleaners in your house that are not 'green.' Make sure to check your laundry detergent, bathroom, and kitchen cleaners."
Laundry:
Charlie's Soap. EWG gets a B grade of "low concern" -- C12-Pareth-2 may have some aquatic toxicity. We have been using this for years in a laundry to landscape system. Out of caution for the aquifer, when it is empty, I will replace it with Molly's Suds which has an A grade.
Booted:
Shout Triple acting Spray - F grade. Most of the pretreating was kid clothes. Despite the internet claiming this was the greatest of all time, the stains usually didn't budge. Plus this kid outgrows clothes so fast extending their life is silly. I've settled on buying her darker colored clothes (preowned when possible) where the stains won't show as quickly and lowering our expectations for spotless 6 year olds.
Downy booster beads/scented dryer sheets - F/C grades. Tried this out of an attempt to "defunk" towels and armpits of well-loved shirts. Also on the very rare occasions when I borrowed/gifted a clothing item to a friend and wanted them to know it was clean. The towels seemed to defunk on their own when moved expediently from washer to dryer/clothes line the next go around. The shirts I found I could pretreat with a thick paste of baking soda, hanging in the sun for extra UV boost and the smell dissipated. I read that synthetic fabrics, particularly those made with oil-based ingredients like petrochemicals are more likely to pick up BO and hang onto it, so I'm scrutinizing the labels of new acquisitions for more wool/cotton/natural fibers. As to gifted laundry-- My close friends have quizzed me on my laundry to landscape greywater system and would probably be more surprised to be receiving something heavily perfumed. I remind myself less close friends may also be more bothered by the fragrance I used to signal it is clean, and some are so meticulous they will rewash the item anyway just in case.
Biz Stain fighter- D grade. Never opened, probably purchased because redditors said it was goat or a great deal in the dollar store.
Bathroom:
Citric Acid- A grade. Swapping away from Bleach to this as a toilet bowl cleaner.
Clorox Bleach- D grade. I have 3 gallons of this. In emergency preparedness trainings, having bleach features prominently as part of sanitation concern. But thanks to Nancy Birtwhistle's book, I discovered citric acid is a more effective hard-water limescale remover for routine toilet bowl cleaning.
Drano / Liquid Plumr - F tier. This is another "emergencies only" item we haven't used in years. I worry that if I let it go, I would jinx us into an emergency that warranted it. So maybe it is more of an ugly talisman than a household cleaner?
Booted:
Odoban Neutral pH floor cleaner- D grade. I got this in hopes of making our wet room shower floor feel clean. I couldn't tell the difference and suspect the real way to solve this problem is to replace the slate tiles which are peeling up in large flakes on our feet with a material which doesn't break down with daily use.
Kitchen:
Dr Bronner's - A tier. We use as in-sink dish soap and refill our bathroom hand soap dispensers with it.
Vinegar - A tier.
Baking Soda - A tier.
Seventh Generation dish detergent - A. I even got it as a loose powder so we can titrate the amount based on how messy the load is.
Bar Keeper's friend - F tier. Surprising! It seems oxalic acid is the problem here, possibly more problematic in cleaning situations where it could get ingested. This was a life-changer for keeping a copper sink shiny, but I am inspired to experiment more with a baking soda and an acid rinse and not restock this 'Friend" with quite the same alacrity.
Lysol spray - B. The interesting thing with this was that when I went to do a weekly spray of my stinky shoes and a spritz to germ reset my high-touch cell phone, the air quality detector in the room spiked to alerting level on VOCs. So while EWG is not super concerned with this product, I'm on the hunt for better shoe deodorizing and germy high touch surface solutions.
Dawn powerwash - C. The irony is this is as-yet unopened, its shrink wrap covered in dust. I have it on hand because people on the internet swear by it, every once in a while you'll come across a cleaning recipe/craft (bubbles) that calls for Dawn, and if MIL is house-sitting, it seems like she prefers an official sink dish soap rather than Bronners and I don't want her to go out and buy an extra one.
Booted:
Method wood cleaner - D. This was another internet "best products" buy. I find I can never clean thoroughly enough to reach for it. If the cabinet faces are messy, I'll just wipe them down with a damp rag.
[extra credit!] Cosmetics/Toiletries:
Booted:
its a 10 leave-in product- it's a 6! This was to do battle on my daughter's super fine hair that is intractably tangled, but I didn't realize how high its score was vs. the fresh monster (2) formulation we were using before and still have a partial bottle of.
Veet- concern level 5. Swapping this with experimenting with a Braun
Pantene Repair conditioner - concern level 4. I have a brand I prefer that isn't ewg rated, but doesn't look alarming in ID, has one less "icky" ingredient (sodium lauryl sulfate) and has some good recycling/no animal testing policies.
Sol de Janeiro- concern level 3. I wanted to love this stuff as it is marketed as a reusable deodorant container. But the smell is so strong and there are no unscented versions to refill it with. I guess I'm sticking with Mitchum - concern level 3, mostly because of its aluminum base. I've tried non-aluminums
Vaseline lip therapy- concern level 2. But I got this as a stocking stuffer > 2 years ago and have several chapped lip treatments that are also concern level 2 that are newer and preferable.
So what I learned from this was that while I generally reach for pretty green options, I am still a sucker for reddit threads about "greatest cleaning products." Many of these I will not even get around to taking out of the packaging.
"Write a mission statement for your house pledging to only use green cleaners in the future..."
I vow to research how green a new cleaning product is before purchasing it. For products I currently use that are OK, but not perfect, I will regularly check for better options before restocking them.
"Keep a thrifty, nifty, green journal of recycle and green living ideas, recipes, plans and projects and share it with someone who wants to change their habits or share it with your Farmgirl chapter."
Check out my Green Genius Pinterest board capturing eco-friendly tips as I put them to use.
"Make a gift basket of green products for a friend or to give away as a housewarming gift."
What could this look like? It should definitely include a big jug of vinegar, baking soda, and Bronner's soap... to be continued!
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