Green cleaning kits made easy

This week's eco-topic: Green clean

Some of you are already hard-core green cleaning mavens, concocting your own cleaning products from household goods like vinegar and baking soda. Well, I'm not there yet, because I'm moving from the easiest cleaning options -- like having someone else do it for you -- to the more hard-core in this weeklong series.

Now, we're getting to the more DIY methods. If you're ready to start making your own cleaning products but need a little guidance, eco-cleaning starter kits might serve as a good median step. A couple to consider:

Shaklee's Get Clean Special Edition Kit. Shaklee offers a big kit of green cleaning products that purportedly keeps 108 pounds of packaging waste out of landfills because they're sold in concentrated forms. However, I don't recommend ordering the whole kit. For one, it's rather pricy (it's currently "on sale" for $89.60), but more importantly, most of the items -- concentrated laundry detergent, for example -- are readily available in local stores.

Plus, some of these products -- like one-use wipes, or worse, antibacterial wipes -- aren't even items most greenies would use! Lastly, mail-ordering the kit will bring a whole mess of unfortunate plastic packaging into your living room.

The item I DO recommend is the Get Clean Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate. This simple 16-ounce bottle can be used to make a bunch of different products: all-purpose cleaner, window cleaner, floor cleaner and degreaser. Basically, you can turn this little bottle into 48 gallons of cleaning products! The bottle comes conveniently labeled with measurements to use for each product. Empty spray bottles for each type of cleaner come with the big kit, but I advise simply refilling empty containers from your previous cleaners. Cost: $10.15

Eco-Me Home Kit. Ready to start mixing household ingredients? This kit gives you the tools and directions for mixing up your own oil, vinegar, water and baking soda to create three cleaners: an all-purpose cleaner, a wood polish cleaner and a scrub cleanser.

The only raw ingredient for the cleaners in this kit is a bottle of essential oil; the rest of the kit consists of directions, bottles and jars, and cleansing cloths and brushes. If you don't need the extraneous stuff, you might consider just buying the essential oil. Cost: $26 for the kit, or $10 for the bottle of oil.
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You can find Eco-Me products at a number of L.A.-area stores; Shaklee Get Clean products, unfortunately, can be bought only online. Know of other eco-kits? Share in the comments.

Photos courtesy of Shaklee and Eco-Me

Comments

[Stephanie]

What about Dr. Bronner's? I actually just tried their liquid castile soap for the laundry and not bad.

I do have a question, however. For the Shaklee's, since you add water and it says it is biodegradable, could one pour their waste water after cleaning say on a potted plant? I tried looking on their website for this information, but was unable to find it. Considering we need to be water conscious, being able to dispose of the remaining water on a plant versus just putting it down the drain would be fantastic.

As for vinegar, it is the best. I use a half cup in my laundry as a fabric softener and my clothes are always very soft and, ahem, do not smell like vinegar. I also spray my shower and toliet down with a mixture of vinegar and water and it gets everything off. Soaking your showerhead in vinegar will also take the calcium deposits off.

[Siel]

I use Dr. Bronner's soap in the shower, but haven't tried their goods for house cleaning -- I will now though :)

The main issue to consider with the biodegradable cleaners is that usually, it does take a lil while for the stuff to biodegrade. Some products will say on the label "biodegrades in 30 days" or something similar. This makes me think that the stuff might not be the best thing to throw on live plants right after use. My reasoning: A buncha biodegradable forks might not be the best "soil" to plant things in, though AFTER those forks biodegrade, the resulting material might be fit for planting things....

That said, I water my plants with the water I used to rinse off my dishes (washed with biodegradable dishwashing liquid), and haven't had any probs. However, I haven't watered them with the dishwashing water itself (vs. the rinsing water), which would obviously have a higher concentration of the product. Some of my friends throw their dishwashing water onto their lawns and haven't had any probs-- I just don't know how well a sensitive, organic basil plant might handle a high dose of biodegradable detergent --

[Stephanie]

Thanks for answering Siel. I also have used Dr. Bronner's soap in the shower. I kind of like the idea that it has so many uses. Another nice thing is that Dr. Bronner's is from our state; Escondido I believe:) If you look on their website in the FAQs, I believe they have different ways of using their soaps.

I was thinking about using the wastewater from biodegradable products moreso on things like ornamental plants versus things that would be consumed. I might have to get a little tester plant to give it a whirl some time; that and possibly do some research on maybe making a filtration pot of sorts where I can pour my water and get it filtered clean for use later. Thanks again:)