Green cleaning is all the rage these days and for good reason; it doesn’t endanger you or the environment. However it may seem daunting to make the switch when you already have a cabinet full of commercial cleaning products and you don’t want to spend the money for special pricey green cleaners. The good news is you don’t need to buy special green cleaners. You can get rid of the harsh chemicals and fumes and get started on green cleaning by making your own cleaning products. It’s easy! In fact, you probably already have most of the ingredients you will need to make your own natural cleaners.

Why clean naturally?
It’s safer and healthier for you, your children and your pets! No more worrying about opening windows to air out toxic fumes, locking your kids out of the bathroom while you scrub the tub, or freaking out if your toddler starts gnawing on the freshly cleaned coffee table or licking the sliding glass door. When you make your own cleaners, you also cut down on waste produced from commercial cleaning products/bottles and you will save yourself money.

Things you’ll need to get started:

• Empty spray bottle
• Bowls with lids
• Baking soda
• Distilled white vinegar
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Essential oils (for disinfecting and fragrance) - Lemon, clove, cinnamon, and lavender oils disinfect, clean and help eliminate odors. Tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic, germicide, antibacterial, and fungicide.
• Newspaper (crumpled), soft cloths, sponge
• A marker for labeling your cleaning products*

Simple cleaning product recipes

All-purpose cleaner for countertops and floors

• Add ¼ cup of vinegar and 5 drops each of lemon, clove, and cinnamon oils to a gallon of water. Add some baking soda if you have an area that needs scrubbing.

All-purpose scrub

• Mix together a cup of baking soda, a tablespoon of liquid soap, and a few drops of an essential oil like tea tree oil. Dab a wet sponge into the scrub. Add water to make into a paste if needed. Great for bathrooms.

Window and glass cleaner

• Mix equal parts water and vinegar in a spray bottle. Dry using newspaper (and then recycle it) or a soft cloth.

Wood furniture polish

• Mix two parts olive oil with one part lemon juice. Rub on furniture with an old cloth. Use a soft, dry cloth to buff it. Note: This polish should be made fresh each time you use it.

Toilet bowl cleaner

• Sprinkle baking soda into the bowl, then drizzle with vinegar and scour with a toilet brush. This combination both cleans and deodorizes.
• For toilet bowl rings, sprinkle baking soda around the rim and scrub with a toilet brush.

This is green cleaning you can feel good about. It’s effective, inexpensive and safe for your family and the environment.

*Be sure to label all of your cleaning products and keep them out of reach of children. While these cleaners are much safer than commercial chemical-laden cleaners, essential oils should not be ingested.Treat the oils like medicines that are poison in unknowing hands.

View all of Crunchy Domestic Goddess’ Green Tips.

Have any green tips you’ve recently learned? Please email them to me and I may include your tip with a link to your site or blog in a future post. :)

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When you ask your mom what she wants for Mother’s Day, is she the type that selflessly states, “Oh, nothing, dear. I already have everything I need.”? If so, good!

I know what you’re thinking. “If my mom won’t tell me what she wants, how can I possibly get something that will make her happy?” Oh, but you can and it’s easy peasy!

What if I said you could buy her a present that honors her for the wonderful mother that she is, as well as helps save the lives of other mothers? Oh, and it’s green and eco-friendly too. Too good to be true? Guess again. :)

Earlier this week, Denise wrote at BlogHer about giving the gift of Maternal Health for Mother’s Day. And I thought to myself - it’s perfect (oh, and also - I’m so blogging this)!

For those of you who haven’t yet heard, BlogHers Act has teamed up with Global Giving in an effort to save as many women’s lives as possible between now and Mother’s Day. There are several worthwhile causes to support:

* Mother and Child Clinic in Nepal: $10 - 2 days’ operating costs for the Clinic OR a year’s worth of care for 5 women and children

* Help Afghan Women Deliver Healthy Babies Safely: $25 - 20 women will have improved quality of life through reproductive healthcare and education

* Ensure Healthcare for 40,000+ Displaced Darfurians: $25 - Trains 2 Traditional Birthing Attendants (includes 3 training sessions and training materials)

* Empower Women to End HIV/AIDS Stigma, South Africa: $50 - 2 women living with HIV/AIDS can receive counseling

* Noon Meal Improves Girls’ Learning in Burkina Faso: $15 - Provides a noon meal for 50 students for one day.

Once you’ve selected the cause you’d like to contribute to, enter the amount you want to give, click on the “give now” button and you will have the option of checking a box that says “Make this donation in honor of someone or send as a gift?.” You can then select if you’d like to send an e-card (hint, hint - save the trees!) or a paper card. Fill out the rest of the information and you’re done. :)

No frenzied trips to the store, no scouring the Internet, no commercialism, no “stuff,” and no worries. Just a wonderful gift to honor your mom and a chance at life for mothers on the other side of the world. You can’t go wrong with that. :)

And if you haven’t yet entered, please don’t miss out on my Earth-Mother’s Day huge green giveaway. You can enter to win until Mother’s Day.

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This evening as Jody and Ava were out running an errand for me, I attempted to cook dinner while balancing a miserable Julian (due to his four canine teeth coming in at the same time) on my hip. After much fussing (on Julian’s part, not mine), I took a break from cooking, sat down on the couch, flipped on the TV and, hoping to make the poor boy feel a bit better, nursed him.

In skipping through the channels it became clear to me why I rarely watch TV (with the exception of The Office, LOST and occasionally Oprah). There was nothing on. I stopped on the local public access channel long enough to hear someone talking about global warming. My interest was piqued so I lingered.

It turns out it was a woman reading Michael Pollan’s recent New York Times article “Why Bother?” For those of you unfamiliar with Pollan, he is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food - neither of which I have read yet, but I’ve heard great things about both.

“Why Bother?” is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’m nowhere near the point of throwing in the towel with regard to the things I do to help the environment, but after reading an article like ‘Enjoy life while you can’ - Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam and watching a YouTube video (which has since been taken down) about Monsanto, you might start to get a little jaded and wonder if all of your efforts are in vain. At least that’s where I’ve been at.

Pollan’s article “Why Bother?” was exactly what I needed to hear (and then read in full on the web since I missed the first half of it on TV) to help lift me out of my funk and I highly recommend you read the whole thing. Here’s just a bit of it.

If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others — from other people, other corporations, even other countries.

Pollan goes on to suggest “find one thing to do in your life that doesn’t involve spending or voting, that may or may not virally rock the world but is real and particular (as well as symbolic) and that, come what may, will offer its own rewards. Maybe you decide to give up meat, an act that would reduce your carbon footprint by as much as a quarter. Or … for one day a week, abstain completely from economic activity: no shopping, no driving, no electronics.”

He also discusses how doing something as basic as planting a garden to grow even a little of your own food could make a big difference. This is another thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As the price of food goes higher and higher and we worry more and more about where our food comes from, organic vs. conventional (pesticide-laden), genetically-modified organisms, carbon emissions and climate change, it makes sense to me to try to grow some of our own food.

Pollan says, “It’s estimated that the way we feed ourselves (or rather, allow ourselves to be fed) accounts for about a fifth of the greenhouse gas for which each of us is responsible.” Yikes.

I don’t have a lot of experience in gardening, but I did help my mom in our family garden as a child and, three years ago, some friends and I had our own plot in a community garden. As I embark on growing my own garden for the first time this year, I’m thankful for my friends like Julie of Chez Artz and Green Artz, Melissa at Nature Deva, Heather at A Mama’s Blog, and Woman With A Hatchet, who all have more gardening experience than me (and will hopefully help me out if I need it - hint, hint). I’m planting a small garden not only for the food it will provide to me and my family and to reduce our carbon footprint, but for the experience it will provide us all. Someday in the hopefully not too distant future (like next few years) once we move into a different house with a larger (and sunnier) yard, I’d love to have a much bigger garden. I’d like to know that if push came to shove and we needed to grow some of our own food, that I could do it. I am concerned that that day might not be too far off and Pollan agrees. “If the experts are right, if both oil and time are running out, these (growing our own food) are skills and habits of mind we’re all very soon going to need.”

But Pollan doesn’t end his article on a downer. Rather he is hopeful and his message is uplifting.

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.

So, why bother? Because the future of humankind depends on it. Even if by some stroke of luck climate change doesn’t affect us during our lifetime (wishful thinking), I would hate to leave this huge burden and mess for our children to clean up. After all, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” - Native American Proverb

I think Pollan answers the question of “why bother?” best when he says,

Going personally green is a bet, nothing more or less, though it’s one we probably all should make, even if the odds of it paying off aren’t great. Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will.

Here, here. That is why I will keep on bothering. And I hope you will too.

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Turn OFF your computer at night to save energy. This might seem like a no-brainer, but I admit that even I wasn’t doing this until just a few months ago. I figured once the computer went into sleep mode, it wasn’t using much energy. I was wrong.

By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a day, or $14 per year. This will prevent carbon dioxide emissions from heating up the atmosphere (AKA global warming).

Even better than that is to turn off the power strip when nothing is in use because even when off, many electronic devices still draw electricity.

So power down your work computer before you leave your job for the day, especially before the weekend, and your home computer before you go to bed at night.

Jody heard this tip along with some similar statistics on NPR the other day. We couldn’t find a direct quote, but we did find the information above on 50 Ways to Go Green, which is a pretty awesome list by the way.

Have any green tips you’ve recently learned? Please email them to me and I may include your tip with a link to your site or blog in a future post. :)

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 THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW ENTRIES.

In the spirit of celebrating the original mother, our Mother Earth, for Earth Day and all mothers for Mother’s Day, I decided to combine the two occasions into one big celebration with a huge earth-friendly mother-centric giveaway.

Just as the Earth is our Mother and we must take care of her, we must also take care of our mothers - all mothers. Since joining the “mommy club,” I’ve met some amazing mothers (both here on my blog and out in the “real world”); mothers who deserve to be honored for all that they do to take care of their children and their families. Moms so often make sacrifice after sacrifice to insure their family is provided for. And while the rewards of being a mom are priceless, it is sometimes nice for moms to get a little something extra, a little mommy schwag if you will. ;) That is why this giveaway is designed specifically with moms in mind, to give them some practical things, as well as some fun things, but most importantly to honor them with some green cheer.

Donations for this great green giveaway have come from the following awesome stores/blogs:

Mission Playground’s hip and unique designs promote environmental awareness on soft, organic cotton tees. Mission Playground’s approach is “to create awareness through our environmentally conscious and globally mindful designs.” Some of my favorite designs include: Life’s a Garden, Dig it., Nature’s Calling, and Keep In Touch. Mission Playground carries women’s, men’s and children’s sizes, and donated 1% of sales to non-profit environmental organizations through their S.E.E.D. program. MP has donated two women’s organic t-shirts to the giveaway.

Tees for Change simple designs on organic cotton or bamboo shirts inspire conscious living. The Tees for Change mission is “to inspire you to live life with passion, purpose and positivity. We believe that practicing mindfulness and loving kindness throughout daily life can enhance our whole being.” I personally love “Choose Happiness” and “Live Mindfully,” but Tees for Change has a wide selection of sayings with something that should appeal to everyone. Tees for Change has donated one woman’s organic cotton shirt.

Oceano Sea Glass naturally recycled gems jewelry is hand-crafted from glass that has been rubbed smooth by the ocean. Combing far-flung beaches and discovering the sparkle of “ocean gems,” Christine and her daughter Emily have been inspired by the beauty and significance of sea glass and turned their found treasures into jewelry. Oceano has donated two beautiful one of a kind sets of earrings (one green, one brown) to the giveaway.

Say goodbye to wasteful plastic bags with BYO Bags - reusable produce bags. They are made from nylon mesh, and are reusable, lightweight, breathable, washable and durable. What’s Cooking Weekly - an online menu service offering “healthy and seasonal recipes, grocery lists and tips on making cooking with your kids fun and simple” - has donated two sets of three BYO Bags.

Green cleaning has never been easier than with Lily’s Garden Herbals All Purpose Clean. Made from natural substances like vinegar and essential oils, Lily’s Garden Herbals get the job done without the worry over harmful chemicals. LGH has donated 2 - 32 oz. bottles of All Purpose Clean.

Plastic sandwich bags can be a thing of the past if you use reusable Wrap-n-Mats. The Wrap-n-Mats double as a sandwich wrapper and a place mat. Nature Moms blog has donated two Wrap-n-Mats.

Celebrate the Earth by planting a tree with a flowering catalpa Tree in a Box. Planting a tree doesn’t get much easier than this. The Tree in a Box comes with everything you need. La Mama Naturale blog has donated two Trees in a Box.

One lucky person will win:

• 1 Mission Playground woman’s organic t-shirt
• 1 pair of Oceano earrings
• 1 set of three BYO Bags
• 1 32 oz. bottle of Lily’s Garden Herbals all purpose clean
• 1 Wrap-n-Mat
• 1 Tree in a Box

And one even luckier person will win the grand prize which includes:

• All of the things mentioned above
• And 1 Tees for Change organic cotton t-shirt.

ENTER TO WIN!
While I wish I could open this up to moms all over the world, I’m sorry, but I have to restrict it to US residents only. To enter the Earth-Mother’s Day Giveaway, you must complete the following three steps.

1. Leave a comment stating your favorite t-shirt design from Mission Playground or your favorite piece of jewelry from Oceano. Please make sure you include a valid email address so that I can contact you if you are a winner.
2. Link back to this giveaway on your blog or, if you don’t have a blog, email the link to this giveaway to three friends and cc me on it - amygeekgrl AT gmail DOT com.
3. Sign Mr. Linky below.

All three steps must be completed in order to have a valid entry. The deadline to enter is 10 a.m. Mountain Time Sunday, May 11. Two winners will be chosen using the Random Number Generator later that day (May 11) and announced on Monday, May 12. Good luck! :)

Here is the code for linking back to my giveaway button. (It wasn’t working properly earlier, but I believe it’s been fixed now. Email me if you still have problems. Thanks.):

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Earth Day is tomorrow, April 22. Founded in 1970, Earth Day is a time to promote environmental awareness around the world.

We’re getting a jump start on our Earth celebration today and heading over to Jody’s work (Google) for lunch; then they are busing employees and their families to some local ponds to plant cottonwood seedlings and listen to educational information about the ponds. I love the idea of getting the kids excited about and involved in celebrating Earth Day while they are still young.

What about you? What are your plans for celebrating Mother Earth? Why not get the whole family involved this year? Here are some ideas to get you started. Choose one or two for Earth Day, then select another couple more to work on in the coming year:

• Plan a meal made only of local foods or make a meat-free meal - Use this as an opportunity to talk with your kids about where your food comes from and/or why eating a meatless meal is better for the Earth
• Plant a tree, a bush, a garden or even some herbs or flowers in a pot
• Spend some time outside - on a hike, a walk, at the park - enjoying each other’s company, appreciating nature, and picking up any garbage you see
• Designate an “Earth Hour” every week where you turn off your lights in the evening for one hour to save electricity
• Encourage your kids to round up some of their toys or clothing they’ve outgrown and donate them to a local charity
• Visit a local charity or thrift store to see how items you no longer use can benefit others
• Visit a local recycling center to see where all of the bottles, cans, newspapers, etc. go
• Print out an Earth Day coloring/activities book for your children and work on it together
• Take a trip to the library and check out some books related to nature - endangered species, water, plants and flowers, etc. - or books specifically about Earth Day
• Talk with your kids about water consumption and how turning off the water while brushing teeth helps conserve it. Encourage all family members to take shorter showers or consider filling up baths with a little less water.
• Change your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs to conserve energy and encourage the kids to turn off lights/TV when they aren’t in use

This is the only Earth we’ve got, let’s give her a li’l love. For more information about Earth Day, visit Earth Day 2008.

Be sure to check back here tomorrow on Earth Day for my big Earth-Mother’s Day giveaway!

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At the beginning of the month I wrote about joining the Buy Nothing challenge sponsored by Crunchy Chicken for the month of April. The rules are simple, buy only necessities to live - basically food and gas - for the month.

It really hasn’t been all that hard for me to keep from spending, since I don’t buy much outside of food as it is. There are a few things I’ve been wanting to buy, like new sun hats for the kids and a jacket for Ava, but I’m holding off for now though I may look at the consignment shops, since buying used items if you really need them is allowed.

The part I’ve found particularly challenging is staying away from takeout food, which we generally have once or twice a week. While Crunchy Chicken says going out to eat is OK, depending on where you go, etc., takeout food, because of the amount of waste produced, is off limits. It’s been a challenge for me to cook dinner every night (and I can often be found complaining about it on Twitter), but with the exception of one meal out at the start of the challenge and one trip to Taco Bell (I know, I know and I confessed it) last week, I’m proud of myself at how well I’ve done.

Not only is this challenge keeping us from producing unnecessary waste, it’s saving us money, which I’m really appreciating.

There’s still time to join in for the last two weeks of the month. Head on over to Crunchy Chicken and sign up. Or if you are feeling really adventurous, check out her Extreme Eco Throwdown challenge for the month of May. You might notice even I haven’t signed up yet. I’m still procrastinating trying to figure out what I want to commit to. ;)

Edited to add: I just remembered that I am going to spend some money this weekend. My friends and I are having a moms’ night out tomorrow (woot!) and Sunday is my anniversary (7 years), so Jody and I will probably take the kids out to eat to celebrate that day. So I’m not perfect, but I’m trying. ;)

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This week’s green tip is to take 20 minutes and watch The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. With Earth Day just around the corner, I think it’s important to take a look at all the stuff we have in our lives and the stuff we might want to buy in the future and become aware of exactly where it comes from, what’s in it and who/what is affected by it’s production. Warning: This video will make you think.

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

After hearing about it for ages, I finally took the opportunity to watch it a couple days ago and I’m really glad I did. It’s a video I think EVERYONE should watch (yes, that means you and you too!) and reflect on the next time we go to make a purchase.

What are you waiting for? Go watch it. :) Then come back here and tell me what you think about it.

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I’ve gotten a bit lax in my green tips the past few weeks, but I’m armed with tips galore and will be bringing them to you weekly once again.

These days we can look up just about anything and everything online. Does anyone even use their phone books anymore for anything other than a child booster seat? ;)

Did you know you can opt out by removing your name from thee pesky phone book delivery lists? It’s quick and easy and saves a tree!

Click the button below to sign the Yellow Pages Paperless Petition and Official Opt-Out Registry (includes Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States):

Locally here in CO, I’ve heard you can also call these numbers to get your name off the list. Not sure if this applies elsewhere in the US:
DEX: 877.2 GET DEX
Yellow Book: 800.929.3556

What do you do with all of the phone books you’ve collected over the years? Recycle them, of course! Check with Earth911 to find the phone book recycling center nearest you.

Just a reminder, Earth Day is April 22 this year. I will be doing a special Earth Day post/giveaway prior to the big day, so keep an eye out for it. :)

Have any green tips you’ve recently learned? Please email them to me and I may include your tip with a link to your site or blog in a future post. :)

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When I saw Crunchy Chicken’s latest challenge - Buy Nothing (with the exception of food, medications or other essentials) for the month of April - I said heck yeah, I am down with that! I’d actually been considering joining Mamas on The Compact for a two-month stint, but figured this would be a little bit easier and a good trial run for me since it’s just for a month. (And I’m a little chicken nervous about committing to longer than that, especially since summer is coming up and we might be planning a couple trips.)

Of course, wouldn’t you know it, the very first day (April 1st) I ran into a dilemma with the challenge. The kids and I went to pick up Jody from work and decided to go out to eat before heading home. But hmmm, is going out to eat allowed I wondered? It’s food, which is allowed, but the act of going out to eat does seem sort of extravagant. Too bad I didn’t have Crunchy Chicken on my speed dial. Decisions, decisions.

As luck would have it, the first two places we tried to go were closed anyway. The first was Alexander’s, my favorite healthy Mexican food place in Boulder, which has apparently gone out of business. :( What’s up with that?

Next we tried Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli because we had a coupon. We parked two blocks away, fed the meter, then walked over only to find a note on the door - “Closed at 3 p.m. today for company meeting.” On April Fool’s Day of all days. I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t.

I decided the fates were conspiring against us and a dinner out was not in the card and was ready to just give up and head home when we passed a health-conscious restaurant called Turley’s that includes some local food and organics on their menu. I commanded Jody, “Just go to Turley’s,” and he did. :)

After all of that, I’d like to say that we had a nice, relaxing dinner, but in reality the kids were tired, Julian was not content to sit in a high chair, and the whole meal was very rushed (but tasty).

Feeling a bit guilty about my possible failure on the very first day, I sent Crunchy Chicken an email asking for clarification if going out to dinner counted as food or not. She said she was a little unsure about that herself, but basically concluded that it can be allowed but it depends on where you go, what you are eating and that no disposable packaging is involved. So, McDonald’s (eww anyway) - definitely a no. A restaurant with healthy food and no disposable takeout containers - OK. I can deal with that. I will confess that we brought home a small cardboard container on Tuesday, but I recycled it.

If you feel you are up to the challenge, you can still join. Head on over and sign up to Buy Nothing. If you absolutely need something non-edible or not essential to growing your own food or for your survival, you must acquire it by borrowing, bartering or buying it used. If you buy something new that is non-essential, Crunchy Chicken will have a Sunday Confessional post for everyone to spill the beans.

Good night and good luck. :)

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