You will really need to study the labels to ensure you purchase a green cleaning product that is up to your personal ‘green’ standards.  Maybe you want less toxic, more easily disposed of cleaners.  Or perhaps you want ‘all natural’ ingredients.  You may have keen interest in packaging; how easy it is to recycle, whether it is produced from post consumer recycled materials to begin with, or is it plastic free (a pretty tough one this).  For some the avoidance of petrochemicals is a must, or maybe you just want some super mild to protect your babies skin when you are dealing with the laundry.

The options are huge and to be honest no one range is likely to appeal to everyone.  We all have compromises to make between being less harmful to the environment, and our standards of cleanliness.  You must choose green cleaning products that are exactly right for you and your lifestyle.

An easy way to know exactly what ingredients are going into your green cleaning supplies is to use homemade remedies.  Now very few of us have time to create all our own cleaning materials.  But, switching one or two key items from pre-made formula to home-made Eco clean recipe can be done easily and with little trouble on your part.  If nothing else use baking soda to deodorize your garbage pail rather than usually extremely toxic deodorizer sprays.  Or ditch the windolene in favor of some vinegar and a microfiber cloth.  A few homemade recipes can really cut costs to your pocket and the planet and are a great way to supplement your other less than perfect green cleaning products.

Our desire to make cleaning Eco friendly and live more sustainable, less polluting lifestyles, is a noble one.  But we have to be realistic here and never forget that even one product changed is a help.  Choose or make one Green Cleaning Product today and who knows, next month you may choose another until by next year perhaps all your household chores are more environmentally friendly?.

Green Cleaning Products from Amazon

BabyKicks Baby Wipes 10-Pack

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Total Customer Reviews: (33)

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Twist Euro Cloth, 2.4-Ounce (Pack of 12)

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Total Customer Reviews: (0)

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Ecover Rinse Aid, 16-Ounce (Pack of 12)

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Total Customer Reviews: (1)

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Carlisle Suds-Pail Green 5QT 12 EA 1182609

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1. Eco Cleaning Gadgets
2. Eco Friendly Cleaning Products
3. Green Cleaning Basics

But, though we may sound ‘holier than thou’ at times, expressing a desire for everyone to think more about making their Cleaning Eco Friendly, we can assure you we are not.  Our home is an average one, where sometimes the thought of elbow grease is enough to put you off doing the chores entirely.

There are time savers and more importantly effort savers that can really help on the greener cleaning front though.  So, we shall interrupt our usual programing to bring you the best Eco Cleaning Gadget Reviews we can lay our pretty little hands on.

First up will be the Bissell 1400-7 Little Green Cleaning Machine. Yes, we know it uses electricity and it is made up of plastics and resins.  But, delve a little deeper and there is an awful lot to keep even the greenest greenie happy.  Post consumer recycled materials, biodegradable carpet cleaning solution, Styrofoam free recycled packaging.  And that is just the machine.  Add to that the fact it is also helping our carpets and upholstery remain in tip top, stain free condition for longer.  This means a clever green gadget could mean a longer time between new purchases which is of course one of the most environmentally friendly things you can do.

So, hand fire for the Eco Cleaning Gadgets Series…

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1. Green Cleaning Gadget Review – Bissell 1400-7 – Bissell Little Green Compact Cleaner
2. Green Cleaning Gadgets – Vapamore MR-100 Dry Steam Vapor Cleaner Review
3. Make Cleaning Eco Friendly – The Dark Green Approach
4. Green Cleaning Gadgets – Evriholder Slipper Genie Microfiber Cleaning Slippers
5. Green Cleaning Products

One thing I think is REALLY important is that we lose the preoccupation with having to use a specific cleaning product for every single different specific job. Part of the whole frugal living and environmentally aware lifestyle people are moving towards, should be the multi-use of whatever we do consume.  Why buy ten products when a larger quantity of one simple green cleaner will do?

Is the dirt really so different in the kitchen and bathroom?   I don’t think so! Of course I wouldn’t use the same cloth to clean the toilet seat as I would to clean the counter tops.   But the actual cleaning product?  I want both places to end up clean so why do I need two cleaners?

I find it convenient to have a bottle of my favourite Eco cleaning product in every room I clean often.  So the laundry room, kitchen and bathroom all have their own bottle of often-used cleaner.  But, they all contain the same thing, my favorite simple green cleaner.   An effective multi-purpose cleaner is what I need for 80% of my cleaning chores, so that’s what I use just about everywhere.

My multi-purpose Eco cleaning product is a mixture of either a mild detergent (such as hand dish washing detergent) or liquid soap (Castille soap) and water.   Soap is an excellent degreaser and all round safe household cleaner.  That is all I need for most of my cleaning.  I find it baffling that so many people have the best all round multi-purpose cleaner at the side of the sink, but they fail to use it to its full potential.

If you try cleaning throughout your home with a hand dish washing detergent you will see what I mean.  If you think about it, its safe to use on your crockery, mild on your hands and it works really well or we wouldn’t all buy it in such vast quantities.

Of all the detergents in our homes the hand dishwashing one is likely to be the mildest. But, it is still a detergent, not soap.  So, though it is a safe cleaning product and as guilt free as most Eco cleaning products for the bathroom, it is not an all natural cleaning product.   Hand dishwashing detergents are generally very mild and pretty harmless to the environment. They have to be mild solutions as our hands come into such prolonged contact with them.  I always opt for a mild dishwashing detergent.  Many are fully biodegradable, but obviously check the small print if you are looking for an Eco-cleaning product, which will not harm the planet.

For me, the main negative with using a hand dish washing detergent compared to a Natural Vegetable Oil Liquid Soap, is simply that they are nearly always petrol-derived detergents.  The petroleum industry is one I try to avoid supporting where practical so it would be ‘nicer’ to use a coconut oil based product, rather than a petrol based one.

But, I am a (car driving) realist!  Ordinary petrol derived hand dish washing detergents are amongst the safest conventional cleaning products in the average home. If you are thinking of switching one product to an Eco cleaning product, make it something else!  Switch one of the more dangerous, more polluting cleaning products first if you want to actually have an impact and really make your cleaning Eco friendly.   I am afraid I feel many of us simply switch the dish washing liquid to a green cleaner, because it’s the one everyone sees on our kitchen counter!  But what about all the other, truly scary stuff hidden away?

In an ideal world I would ask you to responsibly dispose of all your chemical cleaners and replace them all with Eco cleaners.  But in my more practical approach I ask you to stop buying any more chemical cleaners.   As you come to a new cleaning job see if one of the other greener cleaners in your store will tackle the job for you.

First up would be the hand dish-washing detergent. You can use that one to replace floor cleaners, multi-surface cleaners, window cleaner, stain remover, laundry hand-washing liquid.  Generally, if it needs cleaning the chances are you could use ordinary (or green) hand dish-washing detergent to do the job.  It is probably the single most environmentally friendly cleaning product you already own, so use it!

The great thing (and perhaps its downfall) is you only need a tiny amount of dish-washing liquid detergent to carry out all those other jobs.  If you use too much, sure you will get lots of lovely, sudsy bubbles but you will then have to spend lots more time rinsing.   So only use a drop!

Hand Dish-washing Detergent – A Simple Green Cleaner

• Green Spot Remover – simply squirt a drop on stained laundry, rub in and wash as normal.
• Green Laundry Hand-washing Detergent – a few drops are all you need in a sink full of warm water to wash all those delicates.
• Green Window Cleaner – a quick squirt in a bucket of water, sponge on and wash as normal.
• Green Multipurpose Surface Cleaner – Fill an old spray bottle with water and add a few drops of hand dish washing detergent. Then spray the cleaner wherever you like and wipe clean. I keep this under the kitchen sink and in the bathroom closet for most cleaning chores.
• Green Floor Cleaner – a quick squirt in a bucket of water, mop and rinse as normal.

Ordinary conventional dish washing detergent is the toughest safe multipurpose cleaner.   But, environmentally friendly hand dish washing detergent and simple liquid soap will all achieve great results as all round cleaners in the home.   That, saves you lots of pennies than simply swapping each standard cleaner for a more expensive, specific task Eco Cleaning Product.

Less packaging, few concoctions made (natural or otherwise), less transport, more room at home.  Safe detergent is definitely the future of green cleaning in my home.  Using fewer products and relying on one simple green cleaner will really help make your cleaning Eco friendly.

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2. The Ultimate Simple Green Cleaner
3. Eco Friendly Cleaning Products
4. About Eco Green Cleaning Products
5. Eco Cleaning Products – Microfiber Cloths