Trick-or-Treating Green

October 6, 2008 by momgreen · Leave a Comment 

Halloween is approaching. Go green for halloween this year. Here are some ideas:

  • Hand out organic candy or healthy snacks like trail mix.
  • Trick-or-Treat for your local food bank: Accompany your kids (in costume, of course!) and ask your neighbors to donate a canned or non-perishable food item for the bank. Try organizing a community-wide effort by asking everyone in your neighborhood to do the same, and compete to see who can bring in the most food donations.
  • Host a costume exchange party. Get together with your friends pre-halloween and exchange kids’ costumes rather than purchasing new ones.
  • Make costumes and decorations from used or recycled materials and save them for next year.
  • Participate in reverse trick-or-treating. Hand fair trade chocolate back to your neighbors along with a card explaining the social and environmental issues in the cocoa industry, including abusive child labor. More information is available at www.reversetrickortreating.org.

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Greening the Cleaning

September 26, 2008 by momgreen · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been trying out some of the new products from Clorox® Green Works™ and I’ve been really happy with them. The products don’t have the strong odors of other cleaning products. After using them for a few weeks and running out of the all-purpose cleaner I had been using on the floors, I used an old bottle of “normal” solvent-based cleaner and actually had to open a window because of the fumes. I guess once you get used to the chemicals, you don’t notice how stong they really are.

The Green Works™ All Purpose Cleaner does a great job on every type of flooring I’ve tried it on. I especially like using it on the bamboo floors. I’ve had a really hard time cleaning the bamboo without leaving streaks or residue, and this product is excellent in that department. I used a mop and added some of the concentrate to a bucket of warm water. Th cleaner did foam up on the floors and I thought for sure it would look terrible, but once it dried, the floors were perfectly streak-free and didn’t have any sign of cloudy residue on them. They look great.

I’m also a big fan of Method products. In addition to being non-toxic and naturally derived, the company doesn’t test on animals and offers “clean” cleaning solutions, soaps, bath, body and baby products. I love the cucumber dish soap and sweet water hand wash.

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