Greeneroo

City of Palo Alto Utilites puts together a great resource guide, Earth Matters, it is informative and will help you get started on a green cleaning path. The guide has more information on amonia, carpet cleaners, glass cleaners, bleach, oven cleaners and drain cleaners.  Most people don’t consider the full ramification of using these products (do you always wear gloves?), storing these products (they will fall during an earthquake and mix in your garage!) or disposing of these products (not down the drain, take them to Toxic Waste Disposal sites in your community):

• The summary includes common cleaners and their harmful components
• VOCs in cleaners
• Green alternatives

It is easy to make a switch, my favorite easy green product is BAKING SODA, it gets dark stains off quickly, even tea stains on cups. Choosing wisely helps your environment, the air quality in your home, avoiding toxic mixtures of products/chemical spills and saves you money.

I get postings from Yahoo Green on Facebook and really enjoy them. You can “friend” them and get the same. Here is an example about personal care products: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/care2/22/easy-recipes-for-making-your-own-personal-care-products.html  I like this article because it is succint and has multiple options so I’ll share it with you.

They have combined several recipes and suggestions for

• Toothpaste
• Perfume
• Deodorant
• Facial Scrub
• Shampoo and Conditioner

The Angry Chicken blog post on homemade deodorant still has me laughing. Amy has a great sense of humor and really watches out for her kids.

This stuff is so expensive at the “organic stores” and why not make it yourself, for less, and fresher?  

Skin Care Products – Simple Ingredients

One other hint: baking soda is the best cleanser… don’t buy the bleach based stuff, use baking soda for cleaning sinks, hot tub rings around the water line and much more.

At the Inspiration Lounge they know about many things, I love this blog post: 10 things You Should Never Buy Again but what really caught my fancy was that, at the end of the post, there is this

Green America offers up five more things to never buy again that include Rayon, Farmed Salmon, Cling Wrap, and high VOC paints. For the full list with alternatives,

Why do I love this…. because either you are paying attention or your aren’t. We need to do good things now, and 10 just isn’t enough. And even though it is a magical number that someone can read and relate to there are so many more than 10… so they snuck in 10 more. I bet if I look around this great site, I’ll find 300 more because they are INSPIRED. Keep blogging Misty, your blog …  My Inspiration Lounge http://www.myinspirationlounge.com/ is a great generator of good!

You may have already read my diatribes about PARABEN… if not I encourage you to take some TIME and think about what you are putting on your face. Really! Can you figure out what it is?
MY GOAL: to know what is going on my face. Sounds easy but its not. The first step is to use ingredients that are organic, another easy step is to use food-based ingredients. WHY? There are tougher standards in place (FDA, consumer groups, testing labs) if you are going to eat something. It is a small step more to think … I should be able to eat what I put on my face. (This now sounds silly, but think about it!)

Here is an example of someone searching down the same path – I love this blog – full of woman wisdom and easy ideas that people use. Check it out: egg yolk face masks. Honey is also a fantastic ingredient for our skin. Keep looking for more great ideas and when you find them, share them!