Chemical cleaners

I emailed OXO because that is who made my travel coffee mug. I wanted to know what kind of plastic it was, and they emailed me back and said this:

Laura,

There is no PVC in any of our food prep products. The interior of the
mug is made from Polypropylene.


Thank you,

OXO Consumer Care Center

So that would be #5. I'm glad to know it. I think its important that we let companies know that we are concerned about the way products are made.

I've been having a little slippage on the packaging front. I have found myself buying things that come in less-than-optimal packaging, such as those that cannot be reused or recycled. Our garbage amount hasn't increased a lot, but I still need to remind myself constantly about what I do and don't need to buy, and what alternatives there are. In the store yesterday, I almost bought two boxes of cereal because they were on sale, but then I changed my mind and bought the big bag of cereal that doesn't have a box instead. The bag still can't be recycled, but its better than twice the packaging.

So I have rid our house at this point of all "harsh", unnatural cleaning products. I really believe that anything can be cleaned with dilute vinegar. Anything that can't be cleaned with vinegar can be cleaned with baking soda. If that doesn't do it, vinegar AND baking soda will, or try using some Doctor Bronners soaps. They are REAL soap, not petroleum by-products. All the ingredients are now organic and fair trade. They have 18 or more uses when diluted including hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, shampoo, carpet cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, etc. Its like the only cleaner you need. I personally wouldn't use it for toothpaste, though. It tastes gross. Baking soda works great for that. Here is a website with a list of recipes for safe, environmentally friendly cleaners for every use. Try the recipes out! Its cheaper than buying commercially-made products, too.

I got really freaked out by something I read about carpet cleaner. The last chemical cleaner I had was soap for our carpet shampooer (god, i wish our landlord would rip out that nasty carpet and put in some kind of hard flooring!!!!!!) and i cleaned our carpet with it, then read this thing about how carpet shampoo is horribly toxic to young children. Better for Emmett to eat dirt and dog hair off our carpet than eat that shampoo! Its horrible to think about. So i will now just put Dr Bronners in our carpet shampooer when we steam the carpet.

This website is really awesome--its where I found out about that carpet shampoo thing. Its called Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC)
They talk about mitigating environmental risks for children in your house and outside of it. I could spend a long time looking at that website, as well as their parent website http://healthychild.org/ Even if you don't have kids, it has a lot of information about how to green up your house and lifestyle so you don't give yourself cancer when you are cleaning or eating.