clean and green

I'm probably the last person on earth to do this but I decided to go green with my cleaning products. Okay, I'm probably not the last person or S.C. Johnson and P&G would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars off sales of cleaning supplies every year. (Really, who DOESN'T want the Scrubbing Bubbles to do all the work for you?)

By green, I mean I went back to basics and cheap: baking soda, vinegar and water. The inspiration came from reading Jillian Michael's book "Master Your Metabolism" that explains how chemicals used for cleaning affect our endocrine system and in the end, are making us fat. Not that I consider myself fat anymore (I finally did the follow-up measurements at the gym last week, and I'm at last back in the NORMAL range for BMI and body fat!). But I don't want the chemicals in my life to bring that fat back. If you're interested in this subject, I highly suggest the book. If you can get past some of the extremism (she pretty much calls for you to empty out your pantry and start over) the underlying information and tips are great!

It's baby steps... and the first one was scrubbing and cleaning. I used vinegar water on the kitchen and bathroom surfaces and floors; baking soda on the toilets, sinks and showers; water and a cotton rag for dusting. It took a little extra elbow grease (I guess I probably burned a few extra calories doing it this way too!) and I wasn't able to get all the streaks off the mirrors (but I couldn't even do that with Windex), BUT my house is on its way to becoming clean and green. Next step, replacing my soaps (dish soap, dishwasher soap, laundry soap, etc) with the green alternatives. But I think I'll wait for my current supply of stuff to run out first.