As you walk down the aisle of the store looking for something that will safely and effectively clean your house, you will soon realize you have a lot of options. What’s green and what’s not?

If you want to be absolutely sure what’s in your cleaning products, you can always make your own (check out our guide).

But if you want to go the quick route and buy something, Re-Nest offers a guide to how you can make good decisions on green cleaning products. Here are some high points:

• If it says poison or danger, take the label at its word: it’s poisonous and/or dangerous.
• Look at the ingredients. Avoid those that contain “chlor” (chlorinated chemical), “ene” or “ol” (indicates the presence of petroleum or coal-tar based ingredients).
• If it will irritate skin, there are most likely caustic chemicals in the mix.
• “Readily biodegradable” is a good phrase–it indicates that the ingredients will break down faster than simply biodegradable.

We would also say to simply ask yourself–do you really understand what is in the cleaning solution? If not, maybe keep looking until you know exactly what you will be spraying on your countertops or squirting in your tub. Check out the rest of Re-Nest’s post here.

Image courtesy of itto.be on Flickr.

It’s that time of year: Spring has sprung. Flowers have bloomed. And everywhere you turn, someone’s telling you about getting started on spring cleaning or giving you tips on what to do for spring cleaning or how to do spring cleaning in an affordable or environmentally friendly way. Well, we’re adding to the pile today, but there’s good reason: Spring cleaning isn’t just good for your home — it’s also good for your mental well-being.

At Psychology Today:

Clutter is mentally exhausting.  In our less developed prehistory, we needed to continually survey our environment, to make sure that nothing that found us appetizing was approaching.  It’s easier to review a less cluttered environment, danger stands out more clearly.  …

Clutter is undesirable for another major reason.  We use the design of spaces we control and the objects we place in those spaces to communicate to ourselves and others who we feel we are — at least on our good days.  We are very good at reading our own environments and those of others — research has shown, for example, that we can pretty accurately assess a person through a quick review of places they control.  We can even estimate how well a space could communicate who we are — that’s why we can take a couple of steps into a perspective home and decide if it’s the space for us.

Now that you know a bit more about why it’s important, Home Renovation Guide has some good tips to share. Most notable: “Find something that motivates you to get started” and “Start out small.” Easier said than done, but check out the other tips to start wrapping your head around a game plan.

Those are strategic tips, helping you map out your approach. This article by Cecilia Williams offers some more specific tactical tips; it serves as a checklist to make sure you hit all of the household hot-spots that need some springtime cleaning attention.

And for fun, this piece offer some quick ideas for making your spring cleaning routine a bit more earth-friendly with the help of technology. You can shop smarter, use less energy and find ways to recycle items that are otherwise difficult to dispose of.

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Moths: the bane of our bedrooms, the scourge of our sweaters. What can be more annoying than taking a sweater out of a drawer to discover the tell-tale hole of the moth? If you have a cedar chest or cedar closet, your battle against moths has gained a formidable weapon. For those who aren’t blessed with a cedar closet and don’t want to invest in a cedar chest, there are some good options. Re-nest gives a run-down of moth prevention without resorting to toxic chemicals and foul-smelling mothballs.

The first thing you should do is wash your clothes thoroughly. Moths are attracted to the skin cells, oils, etc. that we leave behind. It’s best to wash clothes in hot water to kill moth eggs and larvae. Please remember that wool should be washed in cold water only to keep it from shrinking. The Laundress has a tutorial on how to properly hand-wash wool sweaters.

After your clothes are clean, prepare their resting place: vacuum and air out the closet and consider wiping out drawers. The best way to store clothing though, is in airtight containers. If you have the space, try freezing clothing!

Incorporate the old standby of cedar. You don’t need a whole closet; look for cedar balls or planks to keep the moths away.

As we head towards spring, hopefully these tips will help keep your seasonal clothing safely stored and moth-free!

Image courtesy of ehoyer on Flickr

Creative minds put to the use of good design can make a big difference in the world! Look at the simple act of washing clothes. Clean clothes can be important for health and dignity. But what do you do if you don’t have a washing machine (through choice or economic circumstance) and don’t want to flash back to pioneer days and wash your clothes with large metal tubs and washing boards?

Enter the Swirl — used for clothes-washing AND fun! Calfinder points out that this product probably has the best use in developing countries. Nonetheless, its principles could make it work anywhere.

It’s simple and ingenious. According to its maker, designaffairs STUDIO, it works this way:

Swirl is a human focused design that simplifies washing in developing countries. The overall design resembles a ball containing a swirled sphere shaped basket and lid, connected to a steel tube handle. Washing is accomplished through the rotation of the “washing ball” – using long distance travelling to and from water supply to wash the clothes. The user can also wash by just rolling it back and forth in slow rotation cycles. At home, after the basket is filled with clothes, the lid should be screwed and the handle locked in. Transportation can easily be done by pulling or pushing the handle. At the water source, the basket should be filled with water and the product is ready to wash.

Simple, useful and fun! Swirl’s use of good, creative, flexible design does a world of good.

Photos courtesy of designaffairs STUDIO.

“Clean your room!” It’s a refrain that parents often throw at their children, but when you’re an adult, it can be tempting to concentrate on cleaning the more public areas of your home.

Unfortunately, keeping your bedroom fresh and clean is one of the most important household tasks you can do. Because a good portion of your time in there is spent unconscious, you want to make sure that dust and dirt don’t interrupt your slumber.

Apartment Therapy has listed some great ways to get and keep your bedroom clean and orderly. Here’s the plan:

• Take 10 minutes to clean. Pick up, dust and wipe and make sure everything is in its own place.
• Clean and organized the closet. Yes, you can shut the door, but don’t you want to be able to find all your clothes and shoes easily? An organized closet is a thing of beauty, but it might take a little time to get there. So carve out anywhere from an hour to an afternoon to really get organized. Don’t forget about all the great closet organizers available!
• Control dust! This is especially important for asthma or allergy sufferers. This may involve anything from removing carpet to washing sheets in hot water.
• Make homemade linen spray to keep your bedroom smelling great.

Visit Apartment Therapy for more tips on keeping your bedroom clean all year long!

Happy New Year! As you are attempting to carry out your New Year’s resolutions, don’t forget to make a few for your home. It deserves a little TLC and there’s never a better time to start than the new year! Shelterpop offers some great ideas. Here are a few of their hints:

• Green your house. Get an energy audit and adjust your thermostat. You’ll help the planet and save on energy costs. We have a few additional tips from home improvement expert Lou Manfredini on getting your home green.
• Clean it up! Clutter is annoying and unsightly. Getting your home truly cleared out will keep it company-ready.
• Go paperless. It will help make you green and clutter-free.
• Regularly bring in flowers to beautify your newly green, clean home.

Visit Shelterpop for more!

Cleaning: some of us like to do it more than others. It’s not just the time and labor spent that can make a person eager to put it off until tomorrow, but also the harsh chemicals and fumes used in most cleaning products.

There has been a recent interest in environmentally-friendly cleaning products, and the “green” section of the drugstore cleaning aisle continues to grow.  Brands such as Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and Seventh Generation have many loyal fans and many traditional cleaning product brands are dipping their toes into the world of green cleaning.

Along with the interest in finding cleaning products that are gentle on the earth, many consumers are now faced with tighter budgets.  So what’s the best way to combine effective cleaning, green dreams and newfound frugality? Make your own cleaning products, of course!

Mary Hunt, who has a well-known syndicated column called “Everyday Cheapskate” and a website called Debt-Proof Living, is a proponent of making your own cleaning products.  Not only will you save lots of money (her main concern), but you’ll also be helping the planet.  Most homemade cleaning solutions use products found around your house like: soap or detergent, baking soda, vinegar or lemon juice.

Here are some tips to make your own cleaning agents. For more tips, visit the Debt-Proof Living website and learn more about making your own cleaners.

To clean pretty much everything, combine ½ cup ammonia, ½ cup vinegar and ¼ cup baking soda in a gallon of warm water.  This would work especially well for cleaning countertops since the baking soda helps get rid of any food odors that might be lingering.

Need to remove some tough stains from glass? In a spray bottle, mix together ammonia and rubbing alcohol in equal parts.

Mary offers a couple recipes for bathroom cleaning. For bathtubs and shower tiles, mix together 1 2/3 cups baking soda, ½ cup liquid soap (no detergent!), ½ cup water and two tablespoons white vinegar.  For cleaning toilets, a green way is to brush baking soda and vinegar around the bowl.

It is worth pointing out that none of these recipes contain bleach. Remember that it can be deadly to mix bleach with ammonia, vinegar or another acid-producing substance.

Be safe, be green, be cheap and be clean!

Photo Courtesy of The Healthy Shoppers on Flickr

Let’s be honest – the best part of spring (or pretty much summer, at this point) cleaning is wiping away the dingy film of winter and unveiling the brisk feel of spring. Nothing is more emblematic of this transition than window washing. Before you break out the toxic window cleaner and squeegee, let’s talk over a few pointers for squeaky clean, non-streaky windows. Borrowing our tips from the pros, we sat down with Megan Anderson, who specializes in non-toxic household cleaning. For dingy windows, Anderson recommends a three-step approach that will polish them to perfection.

• Before you begin, a few things to consider:
  • Time window washing to cloudy days – bright sunlight causes the windows to dry too quickly, which may cause the dreaded streaks
  • Wash each window individually – streaks increase as you try to tackle more than one surface.
• Gather your supplies:
  • Two spray bottles (Anderson cautions against using buckets to mix or apply these solutions: “Buckets are horrible; you’re spreading your mess with each dip in a bucket. We never ever use them for any aspect of our cleaning.”)
  • Organic dish detergent
  • Water
  • Vinegar (organic if you prefer)
  • Flour sack cloths (Anderson estimates that she has used the same cloths for hundreds of cleaning hours and never has had to replace them. She purchased hers online for about 30 cents apiece.)
• Prepare your solutions. Combine 32 ounces of water with four to five drops of organic dish detergent in a spray bottle. Also, prepare a mixture of three parts vinegar to one part water for the second spray bottle.
• Mist the window with this dish detergent mixture. This mixture breaks down the grease that has accumulated on the windows – very helpful for kitchen windows.
• Immediately follow this by spraying the vinegar mixture on the window. Vinegar is a solvent and it will break down the soap from the first step so you’re not leaving a soap residue. However, on its own, it won’t break down the grease.
• Buff the window dry using a flour sack cloth.
• Follow the same process for the outdoor side of ground-level windows.

Anderson won’t clean the exterior of windows that are 8 feet or higher. She recommends hiring professional window washers for anything above the ground floor. Recognizing this homeowner dilemma – hire professionals, which may cost $500 to $600 a pop, or climb the outdoors ladder themselves – we at Marvin Windows and Doors developed the Ultimate Casement window, which knocks out the need for external window washing. The window features hardware that allows the window’s exterior to be rotated inward, letting you wash the outside of the window from inside the house.

Today’s link-love round-up covers refurbishing furniture, tips for cleaning, and what matters for home appraisers. Let’s get to it!

How To: Repurpose Old Sweaters into Chair Covers
Re-Nest
Have some old sweaters you don’t wear anymore? Have some dining room chairs that could use a recovering? Perfect! Check out this post from Re-Nest and see how those old sweaters can give your chairs. A unique bit of style, and what a conversation piece, huh?

66 All-Natural Cleaning Solutions
Real Simple
The title pretty much sums it up. A huge list of all-natural cleaning agents to help you tackle loads of household chores with common household items like lemons, toothpaste and salt.

Yes, He Does Windows
New York Times
What’s a great way to clean windows that both works and doesn’t smell terrible? This test-and-report piece from the Times offers some guidance. Most surprising is the reporter’s preferred wiping material: newspaper.

What Matters for Home Appraisals
One Project Closer
Ethan at One Project Closer writes: “So I asked the appraiser what upgrades matter most. Here are the aspects of a home that have the greatest impact (at least for our area): kitchen, master bathroom, finished basement, bathroom in basement, new windows, new roof.” Click over for more insights into what makes home appraisers tick, which can be useful for anyone who’s buying or selling a home.

Photo courtesy of cbertel on Flickr

In a recent post, we talked about some alternative floor coverings, but traditional carpeting isn’t a bad thing — as long as you’re not contributing to the heap of your local landfill by replacing it too often.

Carpeting is much more than a floor covering: It offers homeowners a beautiful package of noise reduction, warm insulation, slip safety and glare reduction. Given carpeting’s importance in today’s home, it makes sense to put a little more thought into the purchasing and maintenance of carpet.

After all, carefully choosing and taking care of your carpet can help keep it from prematurely joining the approximately 5 billion pounds of used carpeting that are disposed of in landfills each year. That’s billion with a “B,” a statistic courtesy of the Green Seal Choose Green Report.

Here are some things to consider:

• The quality of the carpeting often depends on the density of the fibers. This includes the gauge (the stitches per inch across the carpet), yarn thickness and pile height.
• Daily vacuuming can remove more than 80 percent of the dry residue that exists in your carpet.
• When you spill liquid on a carpet, clean it up as soon as possible to prevent fungal growth.
• Carpets with strong backings — or carpet tiles — are the easiest to repair. Using these carpet products can help reduce the need to replace damaged carpet.
• Higher-quality carpeting tends to release fewer volatile organic compounds in to the atmosphere.

Photo courtesy of Nolasknab on Flickr