So we’re closing our eyes and handing over our green report card. Spoiler alert…it hasn’t been all A+ grades for us on this.

First up, we swapped out all of our hand soap from the $7 economy size Softsoap to the $11 Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap.

Honestly, this was the hardest purchase to pull the trigger on. We have 3 hand soap dispensers in our tiny little place and we go through a lot of soap (what can I say, we’re hand washers!). Surprisingly, this soap lasts a LONG time. We haven’t even used half of the bottle since we’ve had to water down the soap. Our fancy Target soap pumps were getting clogged up after a day or so when we put Dr. Bronner’s in the bottle. We checked the label of the soap and it says “may clog soap dispensers”. Boo! Definitely annoying but we didn’t want to give up on our $11 soap so we decided to water it down. It took us a few tries to get the water/soap solution right. Happily, we haven’t had anymore clogging issues and we both agree it is still lathering right up.

Grade: A for us…adapt and overcome! We give Dr. Bronner’s a B. We love the smell of the soap and it’s eco-friendly recipe but are still annoyed about the clogging issues.

Next we decided to upgrade our 99 cent Dawn dish soap for Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day in Lemon Verbena. It’s obviously more expensive (about $4) but it is SO worth it. We both loved the smell so much we grabbed the Countertop Spray and the All Purpose Cleaner. The Countertop Spray replaced our Clorox Cleanup and the All purpose Cleaner replaced our floor cleaner and acts as a refill for the Countertop Spray.

Grade: A+ all around. Extra credit: We whipped up our own floor cleaner-vinegar, hot water and a little All Purpose Cleaner.

Our laundry routine got an overhaul too. We switched our Tide for Charlie’s Soap Powder. We also cut out the fabric softener sheets and stopped bleaching our whites (vinegar keeps them looking bright!). We still keep the bleach around for our white slipcovers though.

Grade: B- for us (for the bleach use) and an A for Charlie’s Soap. We love this stuff. It makes our clothes super soft but doesn’t leave behind any fragrance.

We were off to a good start with the shower switcheroo. I traded Matt’s generic shampoo out for Alba and we both were using Jason’s Body Wash. Matt jumped ship after we ran out of both. He likes his Old Spice soap and wasn’t really enjoying the Alba shampoo smell (too girly). I also traded the Alba for Avalon Organics and Burt’s Bee Body Wash.

Grade: B-, I’ve stuck with the organic stuff but It think Matt might be cancelling me out using the generics. Let this be a call to the organic soap people-make more manly smelling stuff.

Our last change we wanted to implement was the dishwasher and all of it’s necessary soaps. We haven’t ordered the Shaklee’s detergent yet and we’re still using the Lemishine. Our detergent is Palmolive Eco Plus, phosphate free. It’s definitely a step in the right direction but it still contains Chlorine Bleach which we want to move away from. Once we run out of our current soaps we will be switching over to more eco-friendly versions.

Grade: D, at least we made an attempt with the Eco Plus detergent.

So there you have it. I think we’re doing pretty well incorporating eco-friendly products into our usual routines. Of course, there is always room for improvement. So tell us, how have you greened your routine?

Although I love my Clorox cleanup, I decided to give going green another shot. It didn’t workout with the dishsoap but I had heard rave reviews about Mrs. Meyers All Purpose Spray. Eek, at $4.99 for 16 ounces it was pretty steep (the Lemon Verbena smelled great though!). I opted for Method’s Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Spray. It smells delicious and was only $2.99 for 28 ounces-we picked it up at Target.

I’m happy to say that this even shines up our black cooktop which the Clorox left with streaks. We loved it so much we picked up the stainless steel spray cleaner.

So what’s your go to cleaning product?

Matt puts away dishes and takes out the trash. I do the dishes and the laundry. He does all of the outside upkeep and I do all of the inside. We’re all about equal cleaning opportunities but I hate taking out the trash and Matt hates laundry so this just works for us.

Our evening and morning routines also keep our house from becoming an overwhelming pit. Just by picking up at night and wiping down the bathrooms in the mornings keeps our “deep cleaning” to a minimum.

On Saturday mornings we have a “Saturday Morning Cleaning Party.” Turn on the music, whistle while you work and scrub the house down. Fun times.

One of our friends keeps her cleaning schedule on the fridge, so we thought you might want to see ours.

 Ahrens Cleaning Schedule

So tell us, do you whistle while you work? Love to clean? Hate it?

Some of my favorite cleaning resources.

The Fly Lady

Martha Stewart Homekeeping

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