Mom Goes Green

Who doesn’t love a fabulous recipe?!?! This one isn’t even in jeopardy of getting rudely rejected by your family, because it’s not meant to please an appetite… it’s all about chemical-free cleaning.

I’ve shared recipes for a multi-purpose cleaner and a furniture polish so, now… how about when you need a little extra scrubbing action?  Would you be surprised to learn that the main ingredient is amazing baking soda?  Of course you aren’t… so let’s just get to the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups baking soda
• ½ cup liquid castile soap
• 5-10 drops essential oil
• ¼ cup water

Just like with the other cleaners, the essential oil is… well… ESSENTIAL! My recommendations are always lemongrass or tea tree oil. Lemongrass is a natural anti-bacterial (yes, natural… not harsh like commercial anti-bacterials) and the tea tree oil has properties that are both anti-viral and anti-fungal.

DIRECTIONS? Well, those are easy.  Just mix them all together and use it anywhere you’d use a soft scrub cleaner.  Leftovers can be stored in a glass jar you’ve salvaged.  (I’ve also heard that you can add a few tablespoons of vegetable glycerin to act as a preservative.)

As always, you have a new recipe to try for chemical-free cleaning but… you know what that means… yep, it’s time to clean! (BLEH!)

I recently join the White Cloud Roll-volution!  I found the best 100% recycled-content toilet paper on earth (White Cloud’s GreenEarth brand, of course!), but my husband STILL wasn’t replacing the roll… yes, you understand that feeling when you unexpectedly find only two squares remaining!

I said he needed a lot of practice and now, our friends at White Cloud are giving us the upper hand without the added expense.  In honor of Earth Day, they’ve added 50% more to the GreenEarth packages (that’s THREE extra rolls!).  I think I’ve tried every recycled brand and honestly, the others don’t compare in quality.  Fortunately GreenEarth is surprisingly soft, so you don’t “feel” like you’re using recycled content toilet paper! Afterall, we don’t want a family revolution when it’s not up to par!

And, by the way, their FREE offer is extended to their paper towels too (you get an extra roll!)… that’s especially helpful for those of us dealing with family members that like to grab TWO when only ONE would do! (Yea, I live with them also!)  Now, you can get an extra roll while you work on adjusting their over-usage habit! They ARE super-absorbent, so that will help in your “retraining” quest too.

With the way we all seem to use (and abuse) our stock of toilet paper and paper towels, I have to continue to give the GreenEarth brand a big green “thumbs up”.  I love knowing that I’m not needlessly sacrificing trees… PLUS they’ve taken amazing strides in reducing their energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, and they recycle big time!  (See why I love GreenEarth?!)

White Cloud GreenEarth is still available exclusively at Walmart, so go and get yourself some… and some extra too… for FREE!

Thanks, White Cloud GreenEarth!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

(While I’m on the subject of making sure you have the “greenest bathroom on the block”)…

A number of months ago I talked about my participation in a blind test of recycled-content toilet paper.  White Cloud’s GreenEarth was the hands down winner AND it was even given my husband’s blessing… quite a relief after so, so many rejected brands.  (Phew!)

While I’ve now been able to count on GreenEarth to serve as our brand of choice, there’s also a bit of irony happening.  The very same husband that was so hard to please (as the self-dubbed “King of the Throne”!) seems to be having troubles actually replacing said recycled-content roll! Yea, you know what I mean… you live with one of them, don’t you?

So, I found our accepted brand of choices, but it’s not a big help when the roll is empty and never “present when needed”.  Yes, my friends, I live with a “square saver” (the one who leaves only two squares dangling on the roll!) … well, I’m joining the Roll-volution!

Our friends at White Cloud know our frustrations so, for a limited time, they have added 50% more to the package (six rolls instead of four)… and even the GreenEarth packages will be in stores soon!  No price increases, just extra free recycled-content toilet paper to help my husband (and yours!) get some practice to actually replace our dang roll!  Plus it’s now thicker and that’s a permanent upgrade!

White Cloud GreenEarth is still available exclusively at Walmart, but you can already take advantage of the coupon below for great savings now and then soon you’ll get some extra TP for free! (I’m going to stock-up big time… my husband needs a lot of practice!)

If you want to join the Roll-volution and share who you’re living (and dealing) with, White Cloud is giving away a $25 gift card every day.  Is your significant other a “square saver” too?  Maybe even a “topper”, a “ripper” or a “refuser”?

Spread the word and head there now to blow off some steam (and possibly earn a gift card to buy plenty of “practice materials!”).

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Everyone knows the standard list of ways to go green in the bathroom (and I’m not talking about all of those green beers you’re planning to drink next week for St. Patrick’s Day!).  I’m talking about turning off the water while you brush your teeth, low-flow shower heads, water efficient toilets, chemical-free cleaners, short showers and low-volume baths… okay, you’ve heard them all, but what about those little things you overlook?

Think there aren’t any?  Well, think again… here are some things you may have missed:

• Soap – choose bar soaps over liquid shower gels and avoid excess plastic packaging. Although many of the bottles are recyclable, the caps often aren’t.

• Cosmetic foundations & eyeliners – choose foundation sold in glass bottles or jars over those in plastic tubes and containers so they can be recycled. Choose wooden pencil eyeliners over plastic tubes too.

• Shampoos – (if you must use a conditioner) choose a 2-in-1 product where the shampoo and conditioner are combined.  You will use one less container but also shorten your shower by skipping an extra step.

• Razors – choose a refillable razor versus disposables.  Plastic razors simply become needless trash.

• Toilet paper – choose recycled content toilet paper… a simple choice.

• Q-tips – choose those with a paper spindle instead of plastic… plain and simple also.

• Antibacterials soaps – skip them… they do more harm than good.  (Read more here.)

• Towels – choose bamboo options.  They’re soft, snuggly and (most important) sustainable!  Organic cotton towels are another great choice.

• Greywater – Add a bucket in the shower with you and capture it!  Showers actually account for over a quarter of a home’s typical water usage, and there are plenty of uses for this greywater.

• Shower curtins – avoid the additional plastic liner.  Instead choose a curtain that is waterproofed on the inside without the plastic.

Now, what you consume on St. Patrick’s Day is all your own business, but with these tips you can “go green” in the bathroom the more natural way!

I parted ways with bleach long ago. Even the smell makes me uncomfortable. In fact, chlorine bleach is a caustic chemical and a registered pesticide.  Hydrogen peroxide is formed and dissipated naturally in the environment when it simply breaks down into oxygen and water (… you see where I’m going with this, don’tcha???).

Hydrogen peroxide can act as a substitute for bleach in virtually every way.  Where you used bleach, use peroxide instead… and even far beyond.

It should always be diluted down to a 3% solution but (fortunately!) this is how it is commonly sold in your local drugstore or market, so you don’t need to worry about mixing your own concoction!

Some of the best uses for hydrogen peroxide?… just take a look:

• Disinfectant – for cleaning toilet bowls, floors, showers, tubs, tile… your bathroom is its disinfecting playground!

• Dishwasher – add a few drops to your dishwasher detergent for extra sterilization

• Food cleaner & natural preservative – add a few teaspoons to a large bowl of cold water. Wash and rinse your vegetables and fruits thoroughly to clean them and prolong their freshness

• Laundry – simply use in place of the bleach or use as a stain remover (but be sure to blot & rinse immediately to avoid any potential discoloration)

• Oral hygiene – use it to clean your toothbrush, or a teeth whitener (when combined with baking soda, in small quantities, to make a paste!)

• Sanitizer – put in a sprayer bottle to sterilize and disinfect counter tops, cutting boards, stove tops, sinks, the refrigerator and even coffee pots, blenders and food processors

• Toy cleaner – combine one part peroxide to ten parts water and soak water-tolerable toys, then thoroughly rinse and dry. (This is especially helpful after a bout of illness in the house!)

• Window cleaner – add a half cup to four cups of water and create a streak-free window cleaner

The toy cleaner appeals to me, especially.  I recall when our daughter was in daycare (for a brief, fleeting moment, until I decided being a stay-at-home mommy “was for me”…) and I was horrified that they cleaned the toys with bleach!  AUGH! My baby was probably putting those toys in her mouth the very next day!

Say good-bye bleach, hello peroxide. Nothing lost, but “a whole lot of peace-of-mind” gained!

Sound crazy? It sure does, but did you know that one in five toilets actually has an extremely wasteful leak?  And these leaks can waste anywhere from 30 to (yes!) 500 GALLONS of water per day!

You may presume that you would hear the water or see the leak, but this isn’t the case.  It often goes undetected. It can also increase during nighttime hours when less water is being used and the pressure increases.  So while you sleep, your water bill could be drastically rising and you could be wasting crucially important water.

There is a very simple way to know for sure:

• Just put a few drops of food coloring in the tank.  Wait about 15 to 20 minutes and if color shows up in the bowl, you have a leak, my friend.

I recommend doing this for all toilets in your home as late in the evening as possible.  The problem is often a poorly fitting flapper valve and the solution is simple… just replace it!

I’m still combating my suddenly excessive water bills that started a year ago, but we’ve checked for toilet leaks and they’re not the problem… (back to the battle with the water department!).

While the task doesn’t sound very glamorous, it’s certainly worth testing just to be sure!  That “one in five” may be in your very own home!

It’s a Holiday Party and you’re invited! And it’s the best kind of party too… a Twitter party(!), where you can “come as you are” and don’t have to worry about laughing at the boss’s reeeally bad jokes or your uncle telling you the same story you’ve heard year after year (after year!).

Instead, it’s the White Cloud Holiday Twitter Party… the discussion will be great and the gifts will be just right!  We’ll chat about all the ways to unroll your imagination this holiday and every 10 minutes a $50 gift card will be given away to a random participant.  (See… I told you it wouldn’t be the same old holiday party!)

The party takes place TODAY, Tuesday, December 14, from 7:00-8:00 pm central standard time (please note your time zone: 5pm pacific, 6pm mountain, 7pm central, 8pm eastern).

Just follow the host @WhiteCloudMom and use hashtag #WhiteCloudMom to participate.  You can also use this Twitter Search to follow the conversation or simply go to this Tweet Grid and enter your username (my favorite way to participate) and you won’t miss a thing, including your chance to win!  The only thing YOU need to bring is your imagination…

So put on your fanciest outfit (or your most snuggly jammies!) and join the party!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

I sure hope you entered the White Cloud GreenEarth “Imagination Unrolled” contest, because today a few families have a lot of extra cash in their pocket!  I would love to know if one of the winners is a Mom Goes Green reader (and I won’t even ask for a commission or “finders fee”, I promise!).

You might recall that the contest encouraged you and/or your children to let your creativity flow and put together a craft project using toilet paper and paper towel tubes, the packaging and/or the product!  The grand prize winner received $1000(!) and two runners-up received $500 each!  The winners are shown here and I hope one of them is yours!

Even if you didn’t enter you can still visit MyWhiteCloud.com and get ideas for making some fantastic crafts that would make the perfect holiday gift for someone special.  It’s amazing what you can do with some tubes and an active imagination!

It’s also an appropriate time to add that the average household output of trash actually increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s (yikes!) so you should be sure to visit your local Walmart and pick up some White Cloud GreenEarth toilet paper (bath tissue!).  Remember that White Cloud GreenEarth is always made from 100% post consumer fibers so hopefully, while you keep your holiday trash volume at a minimum, GreenEarth can help offset some of the other waste that happens this time of year!

I’ve included a coupon so you can keep a little extra cash in your pocket too… we could all use a little savings right now, couldn’t we?

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Yesterday, I posted the Mom Goes Green family opinion for our “Rate the Rolls” Challenge.  We tried two brands of 100% recycled content toilet paper (bath tissue!).  One was White Cloud’s GreenEarth, the other was the leading competitor, but we didn’t know which one was which. Today we got the results…

So, did we pick GreenEarth? Drumroll, pleeeeze… we did! They’ve won us over… and, ironically the other brand was Seventh Generation and that is the brand that my husband nixed when I tried to make the first switcheroo!  Fortunately I have his blessing to begin buying GreenEarth (woohoo!) and buying recycled is really important to me.  In fact, if every U.S. household replaced just one 500-sheet roll of regular TP with one recycled roll, it would save nearly 423,900 trees annually. Now, that’s a big deal!

I also now know that while both brands are 100% recycled, White Cloud GreenEarth is always made from 100% post consumer fibers, while Seventh Generation only promises 80% post consumer.  Another big bonus in my book!

I hope you’ll take the challenge too and just give it a try.  For now, GreenEarth is available exclusively at Walmart, and you can save some “green” by downloading the coupon below!

If you give it a try, let me know what YOU think.  Now click, print, buy and… well, you can handle the rest of it!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Loyal readers know all about my on-going search for the “right” brand of recycled content toilet paper.  I’ve tried to make several changes from our regular “cushy” brand but my husband immediately called a foul every time and insisted I stop messing with the “business”!

So, when White Cloud offered to let me take their “Rate the Rolls” Challenge, I jumped at the chance.  They sent two rolls of toilet paper (okay, bath tissue, if you prefer!) simply marked “A” and “B”.  Both are made from 100% recycled fiber and, obviously, one is White Cloud’s “GreenEarth” brand and the other is the leading competitor, but I have NO idea which one is which.

Without any other information, here is what the Mom Goes Green family concluded:

• Roll “B” simply looked more “user-friendly”, if you will.  It appeared fluffier and even whiter.
• There didn’t seem to be a dramatic difference in thickness, although I will admit that there may have been a psychological advantage to the quilted appearance of Roll “B”… Roll “A” looked a bit flat and less inviting.
• As far as softness, they were fairly close, but we all agreed that Roll “B” had an ever-slight advantage… even when you crinkled it in your hand, the “crinkle-sound-factor” was a bit less for Roll “B”.
• Without getting too graphic(!) they felt fairly similar when… umm, “used”.  I’ll just leave it at that.  Stalemate.

All things considered, what did the MGG family choose?  Drumroll, please!…  Roll “B”!  While there weren’t extreme advantages, Roll “B” just seemed a bit closer to what we’re all used to (and my husband even agreed he would give a thumbs-up to Roll “B”!)  Knowing that they’re both 100% recycled content, we’d choose Roll “B”, every time.  And let’s face it, there is a psychology to everything we choose… while our own families might not care so much what our toilet paper (bath tissue!) looks like, we never want guests in our home to feel like we stole our TP from a public restroom or put out the cheap stuff!

Did we pick White Cloud’s GreenEarth? I have no idea.  They haven’t told me yet!  Stay tuned to find out… you’ll know when we do!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)