If the idea of using chemicals to clean your new home doesn't sit well with you, lifestyle expert Sarah Snow has a few eco-friendly tips.
Sarah Snow, most recently with the Discovery Home Channel’s “Get Fresh With Sarah Snow,” will be the lifestyle expert for Discovery’s Planet Green network, launching this June. Here, Sarah’s favorite healthy cleaning tips.
- Cut back on single-use products and opt for some that are multi-purpose, like one cleaner for countertops and windows instead of two; you’ll save money as well as natural resources. Plus, fewer bottles means regaining precious storage real estate in your home.
- Look for recycled toilet paper, tissues, napkins and paper towels. Better yet, choose reusable shammies instead of paper towels.
- Synthetic fragrances may contain as many as 200 chemical ingredients, some of which can be hazardous to your health. Products scented with essential oils like citrus and eucalyptus are a good alternative.
- Chlorine bleach can irritate skin, eyes and nasal passages. When mixed with cleaners that contain ammonia or acids, a lung-damaging gas results. Choose products with non-chlorine bleach.
- Use castile or other plant-based liquid soaps, like Dr. Bronner’s, as a body wash. Add a little warm water and use the soap to clean countertops and wood floors.
Less Plastic: Fantastic
Economical formulas and nature-sparing packaging make all these cleaners good choices.
COMPACTOR How to get 48 gallons of cleaner into a 10-ounce bottle? Add 1/2 teaspoon of Shaklee’s Get Clean Basic H2 Concentrate to one gallon of water, and clean everything from your cookware to car.
NOT YOUR MOM’S DETERGENT Tide’s concentrated 50-ounce formula contains as much detergent as its old 100-ounce containers. Saving on plastic packaging, 2x Ultra Tide proves that good things do come in small packages.
WEE SQUIRT Empty a 1-ounce Glass Plus Dissolvable Refill into a clean, old spray bottle, mix with water and presto!—32 ounces of spritzable glass cleaner.
SUPER SUDS With Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Nuggets, you’ll never again overuse detergent. Each dissolvable 1/2-ounce pellet is the right amount of condensed additive-free detergent that you’ll need.
PLOP FIZZ Festival’s Drop and Clean premeasured packages contain an all-purpose cleaner that works double duty in your bathroom and kitchen. One packet mixed with water makes up to two gallons of bleach-free cleaner. —Kristen M. Intindola
Photography: (top) Drew Endicot; (bottom) Alexanddra Grablewski.
