Is It Possible To Clean Your House Without Hurting The Planet?

Food stains on the counter, a spilled drink on the floor and months of grease and wear on the bathroom with be very hard to clean up. However, there are a lot of things to clean up the areas with, and still be able to do it well without putting the environment at any risk. There were four choices for the cleaning test, which was food stains on a counter that looks like a food fight gone awry. The first product tried was from the company Simple Green Naturals. The company has been around for over thirty years and they mean business when they say they want to make everything eco-friendly, even down to the packaging. The next contestant is an all-purpose cleaner from the company Clorox. While this products is a lot less expensive than Simple Green, but there was a lot of artificial things added to the product by Clorox. Both Simple Green and the product by Clorox do have a nice scent; Simple Green uses a lemon based scent and Clorox added some oils to make it smell like a floral arrangement. If you really want to be super cheap, you could also make your own cleaner. However, there will be some chemicals you will have to use that might not make it the best for the environment. Out of the testing done, Simple Green managed to clean the best, though it is the priciest out of the bunch.

Go Green & Steer Clear Of Harsh Cleaning Products

You have a kitchen, a bathroom and other surfaces that need to be cleaned. In thinking on what to use on them, you tend to hark back to the substances that your mother or grandmother might have used to clean the house. However, being who you are and being a green mom, you realize that a lot of the cleaning agents will have a lot of chemicals that are harsh towards the environment. Despite this, there will be a lot of choices you have, and a few key things that you need to look out for. First, stay away from anything that has phosphates and bleach. Bleach is an irritant that will cause problems for your eyes and lungs. Staying away from anything that is petroleum based will also be good, since it will reduce the amount of oil being pumped on a daily basis. There are about eight products that were tested to see what can clean the best, using the most eco-friendly ingredients and (due to this economy we have) providing the best bang for your buck. The products ranged from powders to sprays to foams and other scrubs. Some will make your place smell like a pine forest, others will make it smell like a factory. However, out of the eight products, borax was the best. Despite being a messy powder in a bag, it was one of the cheapest things you can buy. It has no smell and can even be used for the septic tank. Not to mention, it cleans in about half of the time.

Want To Go Green? It's Easier Than You Think

A lot of people are interested in going green, but they think that they can’t do it because it’s too difficult for them. Actually, there are many small steps that you can make, and they’ll help you move toward going green. You don’t have to do it all at once, so there’s no need to get overwhelmed and feel as though you’ll never accomplish anything. Just work with one thing at a time.

You can start by unplugging appliances that you rarely use and turning off the ones that you use often when they’re not actively being used. Do you really need that TV on all night for background? Probably not, and it wouldn’t take you long to get used to the quiet. You can also turn off the lights in rooms you’re not in and run your ceiling fan so that you can raise the thermostat temperature in your house in the summer by a couple of degrees.

A small change in how hard the air conditioner has to work makes a big difference. Ditto the heater in the wintertime. Fill up your washer and your dishwasher before you run them, and use water-saving and electricity-saving settings. You won’t save the planet that way, but it’s a start. These are all small changes that you can easily make, and the next time you’re at the store, pick up some energy-efficient, fluorescent light bulbs, too.

Mother Earth will thank you. 

Saving Energy Means Saving Money

If you’re interested in saving energy, you should also know that you’ll be doing yourself another favor – you’ll be saving money. Anytime that you can save on your energy bills that’s money in your pocket that can be used for something else, and it’s not really that difficult to save quite a bit of energy around the house. Too many people leave their lights on, use inefficient bulbs, run the clothes washer and/or dishwasher when it’s only 1/2 full, and other things. They waste a lot of energy that way, and they don’t think about it. If they saw how much money they were actually wasting, though, they might feel differently about saving more energy around their house.

You can help yourself save energy and money, and you don’t have to completely change the way you live, either. You don’t need to go off grid, put up wind turbines, and cover your roof with solar panels. You can certainly do that if you want to, but the planet will thank you even for making small changes. Those can include buying energy efficient light bulbs, waiting until you have a full load to run the dishwasher or the clothes washer, turning off lights and appliances that you aren’t using, and taking short showers instead of baths. You’ll be putting money back into your pocket, and you won’t have to lose out on the things that matter to you in order to protect the planet and your wallet.