Going Granola
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Green Living
Since moving to our new place I’ve been becoming more and more eco-conscious. I know. Could we get any more cliché? Moving to California and becoming hippies. We’ve come a long way! Remember?
I’m not sure if it’s all of the posted signs I’m constantly seeing about our run-off water going straight to ocean or maybe it’s watching the cleanup of the Gulf Shore spill that has me thinking green and how we’re really impacting our environment.
I know I’m totally late to the green thing but I’m totally ready to go all in (and it hasn’t been that hard!). We’ve been recyclers and reusable shopping bag people for awhile so we were ready to make some switcheroos on some of the products we are using daily. Here’s what we’ve switched out so far:
Dish Soap:
Before- 14 oz Dawn Dish Soap $1.99
After- 16 oz Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap $3.99
Hand Soap:
We already replaced disposable pumps with refillable glass pumps.
Before- Softsoap antibacterial soap, 32 oz refill $6.49
After- Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap, 32 oz $11 (on sale a Target!)
Dishwashing Detergent:
Before- Lemishine $7.49 & Cascade powder $4.99
After- We’re using Borax $2.99 instead of Lemishine and Shaklee’s detergent $11.20 (this is still en route to us!)
As we finish our less eco-friendly products under our sink we’ll start replacing them with a greener and healthier alternative. Here are a few that we’ll be replacing soon.
Laundry Detergent
All Purpose Spray- Right now we use Method (which is green) but I’d like to try Shaklee’s concentrate $12.15. This bottle can be used to whip up 48 gallons of cleaner so it’s much more cost effective.
Body Wash- We’d like to try Dr. Bronner’s.
Matt’s shampoo and conditioner- I’ve long been a fan of Aveda but Matt’s always used generics off the shelf. We’ll either be buying larger bottles of my shampoo or maybe trying Alba shampoo.
So long story short, we’re excited to switch out some of our everyday product to more eco-friendly ones. As you can tell, they do cost a bit more (Matt about died with the hand soap cost) but you usually need less product so hopefully it all evens out. Even with the higher cost it’s worth it to us to put healthy stuff on our bodies and into the environment.
Since I’m new to the Green Game do you have any tips for me? I’ve read a few homemade cleanser recipes, do you have any you swear by?
Resources we’ve used to find new eco friendly products and ideas:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I LOVE Dr. Bronner’s Soap. Specifically the Lavender and I use it all the time. Also, I swear by making my own kitchen/bathroom cleaner with vinegar/ammonia/water. To me it has no smell but you can add drops of essential oils to it for fragrance. You can google homemade cleaning supplies. It has removed stains, grime and spills that other commercial cleaners couldn’t. I’m definitely a convert to it.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I’m in the same boat – we’re green in our home, food, etc but I have yet to switch over to all-green cleaning products. Thanks for the line up! I’m going to try these. Happy to hear you can get a few of them at Target!
August 23rd, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Great post Brittney! I’m big on green cleaning too. I never thought to buy Borax – I think I’ll pick some up!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! You mentioned that you liked the little heart print in my craft room – I actually made it – it was super easy! Here’s the link in case you want to make one yourself:
http://33shadesofgreen.blogspot.com/2010/02/hearts-aflutter.html
I’m so glad you stopped by because I’m really enjoying reading through your posts!
Alissa