Green Cleaning

Lately I've been enamored by all products green. Dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, even clothing. There are a ton of cleaners out there marketed to us greenies. The bottle are beautifully shaped, sexy even, and they smell like rosemary and lemon, or lavendar and clary sage. When I purchase them, I feel like a wise medicine woman, tapping in to the secrets of botany and herbology.. I fee like a dread-locked hippie in an ankle skirt, ready to run through a meadow of daisies. I feel like I get bonus good citizen points in the great record book of the socially conscious.

The one problem I have with green products is their cost. They are more expensive than their toxic counterparts. It's much cheaper to just go ahead and die of cancer. With gas and food prices up, we're looking to shave cost on just about everything we normally do. My new solution to this dilemma lies in a $3.00 giant vat of white distilled vinegar. I mix 2 parts vinegar and 1 part water into my spray bottle. And, walla! environmentally safe, health conscious, CHEAP cleaning product, at your fingertips. Plus, you can just keep re-using the same plastic bottle. Extra green points.

I've been using it to clean everything in the house. Shower, microwave, sink, toilets. Vinegar kills almost as much bacteria as bleach and it's good for the environment and doesn't give you diseases when you breathe it in. Plus, it's not streaky. Plus, your kids can spray it and learn to clean with you. The only down side is that it's kind of stinky. The funky smell only lasts for about an hour.

More tips on cleaning with vinegar here...

So, make some cleaner, hand it to your husband and kids, and go buy some shoes.