Nothing But Soap

Still buying cleaners from the store, with dubious ingredients, from companies that have been purchased by larger corporations that make other bad products? Still believe the corporate line that you need a million different bottles of cleaners for each room of the house? I have an alternative. I have many, actually, but this is the one I will talk about today!

I "met" Amber Perks as we meet so many people these days - on Facebook. Amber-Nothing-But-Soap, she goes by. (http://www.facebook.com/nothingbutsoap?ref=ts) What's the deal on this? I'd always meant to check out her products, but one day she said she'd love to send samples to anyone who wanted to review her products. I hit her up for that immediately! I actually do like to talkabout good stuff, every once in awhile. That stuff exists. May not seem like it from my usual talk...

But here it is. Amber sent some laundry detergent and Lemon Cleaning Scrub. Now of course I am an avowed Soap Nuts aficionado, but I will try other things so that I can let other people know about them! My husband kept beating me to the laundry (oh darn), and he is all about soap nuts and would not stray, but I can say that when I finally got to use the Grapefruit Laundry Soap that Amber sent, it was quite nice. She lists all ingredients right there on her site and on the label. And just the tiniest hint of essential oils. Or even unscented if you prefer. She makes a variety of scents for whatever you may like. I highly recommend trying them for yourself.

But the Lemon Scrub!!! I am HOOKED!!! Again, she lists the natural ingredients right there for you: Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Borate, Lemon Juice (!!), Vinegar, and Lemon Essential Oils. Um... that's awesome! If I ever made my own, that's what I would use! But I don't have to because Amber does! And look at the packaging! That's not a plastic bottle. She sent a little sample bag, and we need to use so little that I still have plenty left. It goes a long way. And before you look at her price and think that it sound like a lot, stop to think about the number of different cleaners you have for the kitchen and the bathroom. You can use this one product in the kitchen sinks, your cutting boards, the bathtub, bathroom sink, toilet... I shudder to think of the gawd-awful chemicals we flush when we clean toilets. Did I mention that you don't have to hold your breath while using this scrub, and run out of the room to breathe again? Really, if you have to do that, there is something seriously wrong. My white enamel kitchen sink has really never looked better. I noticed the shiny difference immediately. The husband had beaten me to that too (OK, he gets to work from home, I don't, he SHOULD be doing that LOL), and one look in the sink had me saying, is this from the lemon scrub?? Yup.

Amber has made the perfect blends. If you are like me and just don't get around to *making* your own, let Amber do it. She makes them all herself... from her home to yours. You can support small business AND have a really clean home without harsh chemicals, or you can keep on buying Mrs. Meyer's that isn't even Mrs. Meyer's anymore. I know what I plan to do.

Here's your link: http://www.scrubnaturally.com/ Go for it.

SO Last Century

Per Swiffer, broom and dustpan are SO last century. Yes, that is an ad I caught for them one day on TV. Broom and dustpan. Old technology. We've progressed beyond such old-fashioned things. Brooms. Mops. Snort. We can't possibly expect to get our hands near water or have to bend over or work in any way, shape, or form. Swiffer and its ilk are easy. Convenient. And the chemicals in the cleaner do the tough stuff for you.

You know what else is so last century?? Lower rates of obesity. Lower occurrence of childhood cancer. Less plastic in the ocean. Less trash in the landfills.

But by all means, let us choose the method of cleaning that keeps us lazy and fat, and puts chemicals in the environment, and plastic into the oceans. Get those newfangled wet-jet disposable things for every aspect of your cleaning regimen, and gleefully throw away cleaning pads that last for one small room before you need to get a new cleaning-product-soaked plastic-backed thing for the next room. Never mind that steam cleans great, no chemicals needed. Don't give it a second thought that sometimes a good "old-fashioned" hands-and-knees cleaning is just what was needed. Pay no attention to the fact that these things really do not clean all that well, and you find you get crap building up in corners that you have to hit on hands and knees anyway, and that your pets and children get that chemical assault right in their faces all day long after you "cleaned".

Don't worry about that. Convenience is key. You go ahead and be easy like Sunday Morning.

I like my steam clean and I don't mind the hands and knees method (works a LOT better) and I don't mind getting my hands wet or dirty. Heck, I use cleaning as core exercises. Ever throw your core into vacuuming? It's amazing. Beats paying for a gym membership any day. We used to be thinner when housework was not so easy and convenient.

Coincidence?

How Many Are in YOUR Home?

"The safest cleaning products are cheap, widely available and have been around for centuries: baking soda, water, and vinegar along with some elbow grease. The EWG says these ingredients can be used to clean everything from countertops to hardwood floors to ovens."

Funny, I have said this over and over and over and over. And again. And yet, most people I know will STILL have one or more of the products on this list in their home, check it out:

http://shine.yahoo.com/green/worst-household-cleaners-health-152200302.html

Remember this guy??

How many of those can you dig out RIGHT NOW from your cupboards? In your bathroom, your kitchen?

Do you have to run out of the room after using your cleaners, so you can breath? Do you have to wear rubber gloves? Do you have to wear clothes you aren't afraid to ruin? does this NOT seem like a problem to you?

I was scrubbing my Pyrex dish and thinking about commercials where women hold up stuff that has "baked-on stuck-on" messes. I was thinking, really, nothing actually STICKS to glass. It comes off. Sure, it might take a little muscle. So.... so what? Are we too frail to use elbow grease anymore? Was that for our grandmothers who didn't have the luxuries we have now?

All those commercials... those companies do not CARE if your nails look good because you don't have to scrub a pan. They don't CARE if their product, used too much or improperly, is actually bad for the environment. They don't CARE if it's bad for our health. They put the warnings on it they need to, then happily take your money for their shareholders. If you think for one second that they want YOUR quality of life to improve, you are sadly disillusioned. I don't know quite where you got that idea. Get rid of it. And if you think everything should magically float off your pots/pans/bathtub and you shouldn't have to work on it at all, get rid of that, too. Life takes a little work. It should. We shouldn't be replacing a little bit of actual work with toxic cleaners, just because we can't be bothered to do the right thing. Don't have time? Tough. Our planet doesn't have time. Our kids don't have time. WE are killing time for them with what we have done and what we have become.

You ask, "What do you mean, what have we become?"

Lazy.

Let's rewind and go back to the better way. Simple, frugal, hard-working. Just because we get a little dirt under our fingernails doesn't mean life is hard. It means we appreciate Life and will do what we can to preserve it.

And let's stop thinking that "clean" means we have to run outta the room so we can breathe again. I mean, really.

Screw the Planet, Save Ourselves

There is an article that has been making its rounds of Facebook pages, as many do. This one has me a little torn. You may have seen it; it's in greenbiz.com. The gist of it is... well, here's a paragraph:

 Suzanne Shelton, president and CEO of Shelton Group, also responded to the NYT piece as well as a more recent article by GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower, who declared green marketing dead. While Shelton acknowledged that marketing products with an "it'll save the planet" message is dead, she added: "Very few Americans have ever bought stuff because they want to save the planet. As I've hammered home in this blog countless times, people buy green products for a host of other reasons -- to feel more comfortable, to gain peace of mind, to limit the chemicals their families are exposed to ..."

My first reaction to what many were saying, "Wow, good article," was to get a little pissed. (Naturally. I mean, it's me, remember?) I got in a little bit of a snit that people are so damn selfish and don't care to ever think about the effect on the planet. But, so what? Doesn't the end justify the means? Who cares about their reasoning so long as they buy the good stuff? Right? Even my tag line is, "Saving the Species, Not the Planet". So... why so snitty?

Image from article. Heels? Really?

Good question. I may or may not have figured this one out. We'll see. Together. I think I just feel like it should all be one in the same, you know? Why do we have to make a distinction? How about, "I buy this because I care about my kids. But I also care about other people's kids. I care about the health of my home, and my home IS the planet." Is it just THIS tiny little thing that is bugging me? What IS it that makes me give a crap about why people do what they do? They're still buying the good stuff. Take what ya get, shut up, and get on with it.

But now comes my AHA moment. I think. Yes, yes, this could be it. Making this shade of a distinction speaks of the bigger problem to me. That problem is that we do not have a "global concern." We still don't care about what our neighbor is doing, so long as in OUR little household, WE'RE buying cleaners etc. that are healthy for OUR kids. I must really, really be reading WAY too much into this. Something. This shouldn't bug me this much. But, OK, heck yah I'm going to read into it.  See, it's a dangerous attitude. No, not mine. The attitude of which I speak is this pervasive subversive idea that all I care about is me and mine. I just see it too much everywhere about so many things. "I got my healthcare, screw everyone else." "My kid goes to a good school, screw anyone else's kids." "I got mine, that's their problem." This... circling of wagons into tiny little groups alarms me to no end. And this seems like more of it. It makes me think things don't end well for anyone.

At this point, I fail to know if I am making any sense. I like to think I am. Something just troubles me about the way this is stated, that's all. Yay for people buying green products for whatever reason. Boo me for thinking anything untoward about the whole thing. It's all good, we're fine, everyone's fine, nothing to see here, no worries.

And yet....

Come on.

Nature's Source. That's a new offering by our family company, S.C. Johnson. Yes, they are at it again. Oh, no, not being green, GETTING the green... from you. Now, I know, I know, they really are a conscientious company. They do a lot of good. They really do. I don't mean to bag on them as much as I do... oh, snort, of course I do.

It's really not so much the product line this time, as the idea of this product line. Here we have wonderful natural earth-friendly cleaners for everything in SC Johnson's line. Shout for laundry stains, Windex for glass, Scrubbing Bubbles for the bathroom and toilet bowl and all-purpose (you know, because you NEED 3 different cleaners for all those areas. Ka-CHING!). All re-formulated and re-packaged as Nature's Source. So, you have your familiar names, but now you can feel good about them! They're all good now!

Well, as usual, I have a few concerns. One: are they still making all the old formulas? You know, those ones with all the non-natural stuff and toxins? And if so, how can the company be true to the "green" commitment? Sure, THESE products may be fine, but are you going to stop polluting the planet with the old stuff? No? I didn't think so. Anti-green point #1.

Two: this is where the "come on" comes in... It isn't easy to research the "real" price this line from here on my couch, because stores cannot sell it online because they can't ship it to you. Because it's still considered some un-shippable hazardous product. (Anti-green point #2?) The prices I did manage to find were all right around $5 per bottle. FIVE BUCKS?? For window cleaner? What does it do, bring its own maid??? OK, seriously, the reason I mock is because for under a dollar, we can purchase a bottle of white vinegar and add a little bit to it to plain old water and use that as perfectly wonderful and effective glass cleaner. That one bottle will last a while. You can even buy it in a glass bottle and reuse the spray bottle you already have.Now THAT'S green. Some people kvetch about the smell of the vinegar and that's why they won't use it. I guess these are the same people that love the smell of bleach and use disposable diapers on their babies. Look: the smell of the vinegar dissipates in moments. I should know; I use apple cider vinegar as a rinse for my hair. Amazingly enough, I do NOT smell like a salad all day. I'm not here for those people; they'll never ever listen to me. All we can hope to do is eventually out-number them, or shame them into submission. :)

All that's happening here is that a company is jumping on the green bandwagon and greenwashing their way to profit. Sure, they might even be great products. But with other companies out there who are green all the way through, like Method and Better Life (http://www.cleanhappens.com/), or the stuff we already have around the house (white vinegar, lemons, Borax, baking soda), we do not need to fork out $5 and more for their super-special crap which really isn't that super-special. Just expensive. Don't fall for it. The planet ain't gettin' better with these products, but S.C. Johnson A Family Company IS gettin' richer.