Recipes for Homemade Household Cleaners

:: Here are the recipes I use for glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, floor cleaner, and wood furniture duster from Better Basics for the Home. And here's the recipe I use for Febreze.

:: Care2 provides a step-by-step guide to creating your own non-toxic cleaning kit, including a creamy soft scrubber, window cleaner, oven cleaner, all-purpose spray, furniture polish, vinegar deodorizer, and mold killers.

:: You can find recipes for laundry detergent at The Simple Dollar and Make it From Scratch and homemade HE laundry detergent at Condo Blues.

:: At the Green Phone Booth, Greeen Sheeep has a recipe for dishwasher detergent.

Need a Reason to Care?




Who else cares about household cleaners?

:: The Environmental Working Group is the go-to source for information about chemicals, toxicity, and health.

:: If you believe in ingredient disclosure and toxic chemical policy reform, check out the Million Baby Crawl and push for the passage of the Kid Safe Chemicals Act.

:: Healthy Child, Healthy World is a great resource for information about kids and chemicals, such as this article on the The Top Ten Products You Don't Need.

:: Jennifer Taggart is the Smart Mama who writes about keeping your homes safe from harmful chemicals.

:: Fake Plastic Fish wrote an in-depth post about the many uses of baking soda.

:: Wisebread lists 254 uses for vinegar...and counting.

:: Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living is the definitive resource for homemade non-toxic cleaning supplies, beauty supplies, and more.

Why do you care?

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You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays here.

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More on My Charlie's Soap Internal Debate

I received a response from Taylor Sutherland, president of Charlie's Soap, earlier this week (as I've said before, their terrific customer service is one of the reasons I've always liked this company). Here's what he had to say:

Howdy,

I've attached a note from Charlie that goes to the heart of why we're really hesitant to fully disclose all the workings of Charlie's Soap. Long story short, no one makes detergent this way. It was a breakthrough that has never occurred to the Big Boys so we just don't tell them. If they found out, we'd be out of business because they'd copy it and we wouldn't be able to compete. Butyl celosolve has been the subject of misinformation for years now. It rhymes with methyl and ethyl celosolve and those two are horrible to be around. The amount of Butyl that we use breaks down in the earth completely in a month (97.3% in 28 days) and is non-toxic based on a the recommendation by Duke University. The scale they use is that 50 parts per million in the air (a dense fog of pure Butyl celosolve) is the limit for being non-toxic. We use a tiny percentage in water. If you smell the product you're smelling a microscopic fraction of the 50 parts per million which is the non-toxic level.

On a personal note, we made Charlie's Soap to be safe not only on paper or for a government regulation, but because when it was created, we knew personally all the workers at the textile plant that were going to be using it. Being sued is bad enough, but being made a pariah because you made Mrs. Collins from down the street sick is MUCH worse. We made Charlie's Soap to such exacting standards of efficacy and safety for just that purpose. And 16 years (1976 to 1992) in industry work with no recordable safety incidents speaks volumes. These people were using it 25% strength all day long, hosing down machinery, scrubbing and rinsing. The were soaked head to toe all day long in Charlie's Soap. I personally was bathed in it as a young baby. My brother has MCS and actually makes the product getting raw ingredients all over himself and he's fine.

I hope this helps give you a better understanding just how safe Charlie's Soap is but also give you an idea of just how secretive we have to be, within the law, of course.

According to the document he had attached, here's what's in Charlie's Soap:

• The powdered laundry detergent (what I use) contains coconut oil based surfactants, sodium carbonate, sodium silicate, and soda ash.

• The liquid laundry detergent contains coconut oil based surfactants, sodium carbonate, soda ash, and water.

• The all-purpose cleaner contains coconut oil based surfactants, a natural solvent (this must be the butyl celosolve), sodium carbonate, soda ash, and water.

It also says that their products have been tested for toxicity by Duke University, for biodegradability by Japan Food Research Labs, and for effectiveness by SGS U.S. Testing Labs.

What I Think

I can totally see their point - as a small company, they're worried about losing market share to bigger companies if their formula is revealed. But from a consumer standpoint, how can I decide if a product is safe if I don't know what's in it? Because Duke University says it's safe? There are so many ingredients that companies claim are safe that independent researchers say are not. Think BPA. So how do I know who to trust?

The other problem is with the generic label "coconut based surfactants," which I see on all sorts of "all natural" products. I learned today from Jennifer the Smart Mama that sodium lauryl sulfate is a coconut based surfactant, and that's one of those ingredients that we're supposed to be avoiding. So it almost seems like companies are using the term "coconut based surfactant" to avoid admitting that they're using ingredients their customers might not be happy about.

What Now?

I'm always coming back to the same old questions about non-toxic cleaning products and beauty supplies. For now, there just don't seem to be products in those categories that meet all of my qualifications: non-toxic, affordable, and get the job done.

It's like with my whole shampoo dilemma: the non-toxic products that I tried left my hair a greasy mess, and I'm sorry but I'm no dirty hippy. But the Lush shampoo bar with sodium lauryl sulfate leaves my hair looking normal. And it's affordable and comes with zero packaging.

Or the makeup dilemma: the makeup brands that score really well on Skin Deep are way out of my price range. But I can find organic makeup in recycled paper packaging from my corner drugstore.

For now, does the answer have to be less toxic is good enough?

I'm interested to hear your opinions both on the Charlie's Soap issue and the wider non-toxic/less toxic dilemma!

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

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I'm Tired, and I Need to Vent

Sometimes the purpose of having a blog is to vent, and today I feel like I need to vent...

I've been using Charlie's Soap laundry detergent for four years - ever since we switched to cloth diapers. I've always loved it: It's made by a small company here in North Carolina, and when I've contacted them, I've gotten quick responses from the president of the company. I've been happy with how well it gets my clothes clean - with no added fragrance to cover up any lingering smells. It's a really affordable product - $.10 per load if you buy it in bulk (which is the same cost as making my own laundry detergent and cheaper than Tide, the last time I checked), and I know they're working on getting stores to provide their product in bulk bins. And I thought I knew what was in it...

Then a couple days ago I read a review of Charlie's Soap on Kitchen Stewardship, and Katie mentioned that the Charlie's Soap all-purpose cleaner contains an ingredient called butylcelosolv. This ingredient is not listed on the Charlie's Soap bottle as far as I know, but Katie emailed the company to find out what was in the product because she noticed that it stinks. They claim that butylcelosolv is a safe, non-toxic ingredient, but when I googled the term, I found some not-too-pleasant results, including this one from The Good Human.

I don't use their all-purpose cleaner because I make my own, but finding out that their "non-toxic and biodegradable" cleaner contains an ingredient that might not be wonderful made me wonder if there's anything in the laundry detergent that I should be worried about. The packaging of the laundry detergent says it contains washing soda, sodium silicate, and coconut-derived detergents and also says that the product is non-toxic and biodegradable. Because I like the company, I accepted that. But have I been a victim of green-washing?

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd stop using Charlie's Soap either way. Even with the butylcelosolv in the all-purpose cleaner - the jury seems to be out on how bad of a chemical that is. I've always been happy with Charlie's Soap, I think they're a great company, and I'm not super strict about possibly toxic chemicals in my life at this point. There's still sodium lauryl sulfate in my Lush shampoo. My make-up is a mess. I color my hair. Let's face it - in this category, I'm falling really short right now (though I'm making progress at doing better).

What's bothering me is that I'm really really really tired of having to try so hard. Why do I have to read the label on every single product I buy? Even for the companies I thought I trusted? And besides that, I'm not a chemist. I don't know very much about chemicals or how they react with each other or what by-products are produced when they're made. And for goodness sake, I shouldn't have to!

I am so tired of not being able to trust any companies and feeling like the only answer is to do it myself. I don't want to have to make my own laundry detergent. I don't want to have to grow all my own food or make all my own clothes. And I don't want to have to be a chemist and a botanist and a farmer and a seamstress and a gourmet chef on top of all my other roles in life.

I just want to be able to go to the store and believe that when a product says non-toxic or recyclable or organic or fair trade, it really is.

I'm reminding myself that my word of the year is PATIENCE, but sometimes patience can make a person really really tired.

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Double Documentary Weekend, Part 1: The Disappearing Male

For some reason, I was in a documentary watching mood this weekend. Maybe it's because No Impact Man and The Age of Stupid both came out but aren't playing anywhere near me, so I felt like I needed some sort of green documentary fix anyway I could get it. Or maybe it's just that I was feeling really lazy this weekend but couldn't watch TV because hubby had dibs (football). Either way, I watched two very interesting documentaries this weekend, and I wanted to share.

Documentary #1: The Disappearing Male

EcoYogini wrote about this CBC documentary last week, and her description had me intrigued.

The Disappearing Male examines the effect of our widespread chemical use on boys - particularly hormone-mimicking and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. According to the video, boys today are more likely to have low sperm count, genital deformities, and testicular cancer than previous generations of males. Plus, the number of male births worldwide has decreased over the past few decades by millions, and the World Health Organization has drastically lowered the level at which a male is deemed infertile due to low sperm count (because they couldn't go around declaring that half the male population is infertile).

My husband joined me for the last ten or fifteen minutes of this documentary, and when it finished, I turned to him and said, "Watching this kind of thing makes me feel completely hopeless."

I absolutely believe we are manufacturing and using chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. But they are everywhere - not just in the products we make, but in the air we breath and the water we drink. Avoiding them is impossible, so it feels almost like a pointless battle. Like when people switch to a stainless steel water bottle to avoid the BPA in plastic water bottles. Probably a good choice.

But did you know that due to all of the birth control pills we're popping these days, you're probably drinking estrogen in your tap water? Did you know that your wall-to-wall carpet is glued down with toxic glue, your mattress might be coated with a toxic flame retardant, that new car smell is actually the scent of toxicity from your vinyl seats, and your nonstick pans are adding a toxic seasoning to your foods? Did you know that due to the offgassing of all the stuff we fill our homes with, there's likely more air pollution inside your home than outside?

It feels like people have latched onto this small handful of chemicals - BPA, pthalates, parabens, etc. - when weeding out those few chemicals is going to make so little difference. We need an entire system overhaul!

Anyway, small rant aside...even though this documentary made me feel hopeless, it was an intriguing look at this subject. If you haven't heard much about the harmful effects of these chemicals on boys, if you've heard a little but weren't convinced, or especially if you have sons, you'll want to set aside 45 minutes and take a look.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the other documentary: God Grew Tired of Us.


Related Posts:

• Speaking of Not Disclosing Ingredients...
• Plastics Primer, Part 1: The Problems with Plastic
• Plastics Primer, Part 2: Solutions (Sort of...)
  

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Make Your Own: Homemade Febreze

I have a five-year-old bottle of Febreze that's starting to get on the low side. Obviously judging by how long I've had it, I don't use Febreze often. But let's face it. There are just some times when you need a quick and easy way to cover up a smell. (Like when your potty training child has an accident and you have guests coming over any minute. I know I'm not the only one who's been there...)

I decided to try making my own Febreze mainly because the ingredients list on the back of the bottle is awfully cryptic: water, alcohol, odor eliminator derived from corn, fragrance. "Odor eliminator derived from corn?" What does that mean? And what kind of fragrance? Natural? Synthetic? I have this thing about only using products when I can identify the ingredients.

I tried googling for homemade deodorizers, but most of the recipes I found involved fabric softener, which I haven't bought since back when I was battling Second Son's eczema (and we haven't missed it). I think you can probably find some eco-friendly fabric softeners, so if you're interested in that recipe, here's a link.

I think a greener solution would be this recipe from my favorite resource, Better Basics for the Home:

8 drops lavendar oil
4 drops each bergamot and clove oil
2 drops oil of peppermint
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup distilled water

Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well. Spritz into the air four or five times in areas you feel need freshening, being careful to avoid your eyes when spraying.

Other Resources

:: Best Green Home Tips uses the same recipe but with alternate essential oil combinations.

:: Darla Shine's Happy Housewives Club has a recipe with the simple combination of lemon juice, baking soda, and water.

:: About My Planet provides a number of suggestions for naturally eliminating odors, including making your own potpourri.


Photo by KitAy

This post was included in the Make It From Scratch Carnival on August 25 at It's Frugal Being Green.

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Speaking of Not Disclosing Ingredients...

I mentioned in my last post that one of the reasons I make my own cleaners is that it bothers me that commercial cleaners don't disclose their ingredients. Let me explain more about why I think that's important.

I'm assuming that none of you are purposely ingesting your household cleaners, but they still get into our bodies in other ways: inhaling them, touching them, drinking them in our water. It's even worse with our hair and body products (which also don't disclose ingredients). We purposely rub shampoo into our scalps, lotion onto our skin, deodorant onto our underarms, etc. And most people never give a second thought to what they're putting on their bodies.

I tend to be pretty cynical when it comes to harmful chemicals. Let's face it. Everything is harmful. Everything causes cancer. There's not really much you can do about it in our modern society. You're going to be poisoned in some way.

What bothers me, though, is that the companies making these products have no accountability for the things they're making. They have no need to feel accountable because the government has basically given them a free pass on this.

Our government has a sort of "innocent until proven guilty" attitude when it comes to chemicals. In 1976, they created the Toxic Substances Control Act, which requires a company to submit a new chemical notification to the EPA before putting the chemical into a commercial product. The EPA then reviews the notification, but little (if any) testing is done to determine if the chemical is safe, and the company does not have to prove the chemical is safe before getting approval. Then the company is allowed to use the chemical in commercial products until it is proven dangerous. So first the EPA has to suspect the chemical is dangerous, and then it has to prove its suspicions are true before the chemical will be taken off the market. Also, the 62,000 chemicals that were already in use before the act was passed were automatically assumed to be safe, without any additional testing.

I'm sure I'm oversimplifying things here. I don't work for the EPA and definitely don't have firsthand experience in this area. Most of my knowledge about this subject comes from the Enironmental Working Group, which is certainly a biased organization. Maybe I'm falling prey to conspiracy theories. So let me get back to my first point about disclosing ingredients.

If a chemical is even suspected to be dangerous, we as the consumers have a right to know if it's in our shampoo or our soap or our toilet cleaner so we can make our own educated decisions about the products we use. Maybe we'll choose not to believe the hype about parabens or sodium laureth sulfate, but we have the right to make that choice for ourselves.

I'm a big believer in voting with your dollar, and that's why I think it's important to support companies that list their ingredients on their packaging. The really cool thing about doing that is that after awhile you start to get familiar with the ingredients and what they do, and then you can make choices about the type of shampoo you use based on what ingredients will work best on your hair, for example.

If you're looking for a more organized way to voice your complaints with the current system, the aforementioned Environmental Working Group has teamed up with Seventh Generation to campaign for chemical policy reform through the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. You can sign the declaration here.

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