 |
| This kid lives his life at floor level. That means the floors should be clean, right? |
As a New Year's resolution I've decided I have to take the next step in crunchy-motherhood and eliminate chemical/non-green cleaning products from my house. This decision is two-fold -- 1) My sneaky little crawling baby can open cabinets. He also chooses to learn more about things by putting them in his mouth 2) It's good to eliminate as many toxins in your life as you can. Duh. Even someone as low as me on the granola scale knows that.
This decision was not made lightly. I grew up with the old school homemaking philosophy that bleach and disinfectant were the only way to keep your house clean and your family healthy. Killing all viruses and germs that could get my baby does sound appealing since flu season is upon us. Plus, my mom used eco-unfriendly cleaning problems and I turned out OK. (The previous sentence is a joke -- the phrase "my mom did it and I'm OK" is the bane of my parenting existence.) However, after reading this post http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/12/06/my-babies-were-healthy-without-lysol/ I've been thinking limiting kiddo's exposure to chemicals might not be a bad idea.
My biggest problem with switching cleaning products is that "green" means expensive. Spending money on fancy natural or organic brands goes against every penny-pinching, discount-loving bone in my body. Those kinds of products easily cost 25% more than their chemical-laden counterpart and they rarely go on sale. As to not go into some sort of anti-frugal state of shock I've gotten my hands on a few good green coupons. The products are still expensive, but at least I feel like I'm getting a bit of a deal.
Of course, there is always the super-thrifty, super-hippie cleaning route of DIY cleaning supplies.Soap buds, vinegar and baking soda can do just about anything. But I am not a DIY kind of girl. I do well if I DO the laundry, if I have to make my own laundry soap nothing will ever get done. Promise. I know that about myself. But, if you're into that kind of thing (and I'm reallllly not) Real Simple has a great article on natural cleaning http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/all-natural-cleaning-solutions-00000000011547/index.html.
I'm probably just going to take the lazy(ish) route of purchasing the store bought green products. If you're a lazy(ish), crunchy(ish), practical(ish) mama like me, check out this fantastic list of safer/BPA-free cleaning products and kids gear from Safe Mam http://safemama.com/cheatsheets/
