I would hardly call myself green. OR a good house cleaner. Generally I think I’m a pretty normal mom: doing the best I can without breaking the bank or my sanity. Sound familiar? What really got me into green cleaning products was the reality of how dangerous some of the common household cleaners are. I don’t want to get all scare-tactic-y, but the reality is that some of our normal household items can be deadly to our kids, or at the least very dangerous. Like those laundry pods that have been sending 1 kid a day to the hospital at one point. Yikes! Studies show just how great this danger from household cleaners is. Everyone cares very much about their children’s safety, but we often don’t prioritize the safety of our household cleaners for our kids or ourselves.
So for me, I think it’s a great thing that many of the green cleaning products are safer for the greater environment while ALSO being safer for my home environment. It can seem like a big change to get rid of the normal cleaning staples, so I’m sharing with you my dream team of the BEST green cleaning products for your household and how to use them. I have used all of these and do use them all, fairly interchangeably.
Thank you, SKOY Cloth, for sponsoring this post, 5 Ways to Clean Green. I was selected for this opportunity by SKOY Cloth; the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. Many of these links are affiliate, which means that if you buy a product after clicking through from here, I get a small referral commission.
Here are some tips and tricks for kid-friendly, green house cleaning!
Baking Soda
This is my go-to with it comes to scrubbing. A little elbow grease (aka Baking Soda), some water, and pressure, and I am a cleaning fool. It’s natural, adds a little bit of extra to any cleaning, and is neutralizing for odors. If you don’t clean with this now, you should because this household staple can help remove tough stains, eliminate foul odors and help clean difficult areas like the oven, microwave and even tile grout. In addition, baking soda has a variety of health benefits.
Thieves Dish Soap
Yup, it’s dish soap, but it is so much more. I am a very quiet seller of Young Living Essential Oils. Quiet as in: Did you KNOW that I sell them? Probably not. But I do LOVE them and Thieves is the #1 reason. It starts as a shallow reason: Thieves smells amazing. Spicy and Christmas-y and wonderful. It also contains a blend of therapeutic-grade, purifying essential oils that fight off microorganisms (even bacteria & mold!) without exposing you or your household to harsh synthetic chemicals. All the while smelling of Christmas! This dish soap container makes 6 8 oz. dish soaps alone with dilution; however, we love love love to use this as a green stain stick!
Dr. Bronner’s Soap
I love Dr. Bronner’s Soap! It is derived from plant products rather than synthetic chemicals, so it’s safe and less harsh on the environment. Like Thieves Dish Doap, it is a concentrate, so a little goes a long way and it lasts a long time. I will say after using it that if you use it as dishwashing soap or hand soap, it has a different consistency, which can be odd. It’s a lot thinner, so might work better as a hand soap in one of those foaming soap containers. You can find it in many stores now or on Amazon for a great price, especially considering how long it lasts. (A bottle lasts me almost a year.) We use it to make hand soap, shampoos, face soap, and so much more.
Thieves Household Cleaner
Oh how I love Thieves Household Cleaner. It was gateway green cleaning supply and I have never looked back. A bottle of Thieves cleaner is also concentrated, so it can last a long time. Because Thieves has so many great properties, I feel like I’m not just NOT harming the environment, I’m doing GOOD in my home. (Plus, did I MENTION it smells like Christmas?) Thieves Essential Oil is also fabulous for other cleaners, and there are tons of uses for essential oils around the home. It’s the only bottle of cleaner that I have ever owned that will do my windows to my floors to my toilets and doesn’t say straight on the bottle to call the toxic control folks immediately in ingested. I honestly clean more now than I did before because my throat doesn’t burn afterwards and, well, my house smells like Christmas.
If you want to know more about essential oils and Thieves in particular, shoot me an email or subscribe to my blog over on the side of this page! I’d love to tell you how you can get set up with a fabulous set of oils (or the Thieves line) and get wholesale discounts without feeling all sales-y…unless you want to be sales-y.
SKOY Cloths
I also felt a bit bad; I was green cleaning, but I still had a love for my paper towels. I have been known to peer pressure my friends into buying paper towels for when I come over and it has been my last bad habit to break. Until I met SKOY. SKOY is about making everyday cleaning simple… which is definitely something I need… without hurting the environment in the process. In our house, we have been using the entire SKOY line and I am in love.
Their SKOY Cloth is a chlorine-free, unbleached, and non-GMO product using water-based colors and inks and 100% biodegradable. It is durable due to the reusability factor and can last months, and is essentially equivalent to using 15 rolls of paper towels in an average home. The SKOY Scrub is a reusable scrub made from cotton and a food grade non-toxic hardener outlasts traditional scrubbers and in turn saves money and controls waste. This scrub has replaced the old green scouring pads or scrub sponges, and is easily cleaned on the top rack of the dishwasher. It also is safe on most surfaces including non-stick pans, ceramic stovetops and glass.
My favorite, the SKOY Kitchen Towel, is a large drying towel perfect for dishes, glassware, cookware and hands! It has a two-sided print and is made of 100% recycled polyester. It is highly absorbent, feels extremely soft to the touch, and can be easily cleaned in the washer and dryer. We also have been using the SKOY Sink Holder, which is a stylish stainless steel holder for all of our SKOY cleaning product. Unlike most sink holders that use suction cups (that harbor bacteria and turn black), the SKOY Sink Holder is magnetic and allows for easy cleaning.
With ALL of these cleaners and accessories, you still want to be cautious and smart. Your kids shouldn’t be eating these things; however, if they do, you are much better off than if your child gets even something like dishwasher detergent. Most have a keep-out-of-eyes warning, so be practical. I hope all of these will help you feel better about the environment large AND small.
What are YOUR favorite cleaners and cleaning tips? Are you passionate about using green cleaning products?