Clean as Clean Should Be: Yes, this is the household bottleIt is difficult to find an all-purpose cleaner these days that doesn’t fill your kitchen with the fresh scent of artificial toxins. Whether the cleaning agents are safe or not, oftentimes the most harmful chemicals in cleaning products are the fragrances.

Currently, there are no regulations on the fragrance industry resulting in a lot of unnecessary airborne pollution, or VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Chemicals such as toluene are abundant in the fragrance aisle; they’re also abundant in auto parts stores. Toluene has been proven to cause cancer and nervous system damage, and is designated as hazardous waste in large amounts. Now, that doesn’t sound very refreshing or romantic does it?

Oftentimes these harmful chemicals in our everyday environment, from cleaning products to air fresheners, contain hormone disruptors, which are toxins that fool our body by imitating our natural hormones. Hormone disruptors bind to the sites in our body where our natural hormones usually bind, and block those sites from our natural hormones. This often results in low sperm count, high breast cancer rates, prostate and testicular cancer, thyroid problems, and behavioral abnormalities in children.

Now I’m not saying that one cleaning product a day is going to steal your health away. But, exposure to many products through out the day containing toxic chemicals can lead to an unhealthy state. So, I am encouraging you and helping you to use cleaner, safer, homemade products that perform just the same!

Following is my All-Purpose Cleaner Contents 101 just for you!

• Rule of thumb # 1: if it burns your nostril, it shouldn’t be topical.
• Rule of thumb # 2: if you can’t pronounce it, denounce it!
• Rule of thumb # 3: If the scent is strong and synthetic, keep in mind that it is probably present to mask the scent of another equally harmful chemical in the product.

Below is a recipe for an All Purpose Cleaner, and although you certainly could clean your body with it I am recommending it for windows, countertops, mirrors, sinks, tubs, even use it as a weed killer, or in a bowl to remove unwanted odors from a room!

The active ingredients are:

Vinegar: originally a French word meaning “sour wine”. It is simply made from the fermentation of ethanol (the alcohol commonly found in alcoholic beverages) in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice…basically anything that has an alcohol content. The active ingredient is acetic acid, which is usually between 4-8% of the liquid volume. At a PH of about 2.4 the rather acidic liquid helps to kill bacteria, prevent bacteria from growing in the first place, and cuts through grease.

Visit these pages to find millions of opportunities to substitute vinegar in everyday cleaning and even weight loss.

The Vinegar Institute: Uses and Tips
Hints and Things: Vinegar

Borax: an umbrella word for a few closely related natural mineral compounds that differ in content and structure. Commercial borax is usually sodium borate decahydrate. It is very water-soluble and uses that property to convert water molecules into hydrogen peroxide, thereby becoming a great natural, yet mild, bleach and cleaning agent. At a PH of 9.5 the alkaline, the basic compound uses it’s salt, and/or oxygen content to disinfect and kill unwanted pests/organisms. Borax is used in many detergents, fungicides, preservatives, and disinfectants.

Now that you have the facts, here is how you make it!

Ingredient list:

• 4 T Vinegar
• 2 tsp. Borax
• 10-20 drops of the essential oil of your choice (optional)
• 32 oz hot water

Step 1: Find a spray bottle that will hold about 32 oz or more. If you want to use an old spray bottle, which is a great idea, first disinfect and clean it. How? Put in 4 T Vinegar, 2 tsp Borax, and fill it about 1/3 with boiling hot water (if your bottle is plastic, reduce the heat of the water a bit). Shake it real well, let it sit for a day or two and rinse it well.

There you have it!Step 2: Add the 4 T Vinegar right into the bottle

Step 3: Add the 2 tsp of Borax right into the bottle

Step 4: Add 32 oz of hot! Water

Step 5: Add 10-20 drops of your chosen essential oil if you please

Step 6: Put on the top/lid and shake it up.

Step 7: Clean away to your hearts fancy and be breath deep. It won’t hurt you!

Isn’t it refreshing to know that having a cleaner home requires less: less ingredients meaning less harmful disguises?

Source articles:

No Perfume Means Healthier Air
About.com: How Does Borax Clean?

turtle, NO!: Image courtesy of The AgeWhat would it take for you to revolt against every accepting a plastic bag from a store again? A sea animal choking on one? A landfill in 2500 filled with decomposed matter, and plastic? A a shortage of oil? Having to choose between the deodorant container or the bag to take it home in…? Well, two women in Colorado desire to make this choice obvious and easy for you.

Green Endeavors is a Boulder, Colorado-based non-profit run by two women, Doreen Molk and Carly Gralak, who hope to make an impact on environmental awareness. The co-founders are working free of commission to provide a reusable bag to as many shoppers as possible. Their goal is to remove the requirement of making the choice between paper or plastic. To them the third option, neither, needs to be an obvious and widespread option. Doreen explains, “Every time a shopper chooses paper or plastic they have to make the wrong choice, but are not even offered the right one. We just want so make sure that people know of the third option!"

If we all changed the habitual declaration of our paper or plastic preference to cloth or “I brought my own," we would collectively save 4 billion dollars and 14 million trees from the industry of shopping bag production. The cofounders of Green Endeavors are not out to make a profit from this practice; they simply want to give every household the opportunity to make responsible choices. The way their organization works at the present: send an email with your order for cloth bags to greenendeavors@gmail.com. Each bag costs a wee $2.50. (That is a pretty darn good deal compared to the $800 fashion shopping bag.) You can also check out their site for upcoming events where the two of them will personally (and happily) sell you a bag.

Scientists debate over how long a single plastic bag will take to decompose but let's just put it this way- if you swallowed a supermarket plastic bag at birth, it would still be the most solid material remaining in your coffin after your body breaks down. That doesn’t seem right…or fair. Polyethylene, the most common shopping bag material, is a man-made polymer that microorganisms simply don’t recognize as food; therefore, nothing wants to break it down, so it sits in our landfill (or body) indefinitely. Paper bags will break down, but they are still disposable. The responsible option is to opt for the cloth bag that can be used over and over and over and over…

So on this date of 7 ELEVEN, when you go into that convenience store, don’t let your soda get packaged in a small polyethylene bag that will outlive the complex composition known as your body. Stuff it in your purse, in your pocket, or your Green Endeavors shopping tote (and recycle the bottle, too!).

Green Endeavors
Slate: Will My Plastic Bag Still Be Here in 2057?
Kicking the Habit: Plastic Bags
Tip o' the Day: Paper or Plastic? Bring Your Own!