GREEN CLEAN = SAFE CLEAN

What is the meaning of clean? The ammonia smell that lingers after you've cleaned using a toxic cleaner? That is really chemicals lingering behind in your home that you are inhaling.....not my definition of clean. But there is nothing to fear! There are options out there for cleaning that are safe and effective!

The first thing I will address is all of these companies that for years have been producing toxic cleaning products are now providing us with "green" and "eco-friendly" products. They think they are doing us a favor by saturating the market and making it readily available......the only problem is that "green" and eco-friendly" or even "Earth Smart!" mean nothing! The reason for this is that many companies out there are claiming to be green without any support to their claims and still contain toxic chemicals. Some of the "all natural" ingredients/chemicals are naturally occuring such as formaldehyde. Formaldehyde has been known to be toxic.

General All-Purpose cleaners contain an array of chemicals that can be harmful on their own, forget about the toxic fumes they produced when combined with other chemicals! The basic ones like chlorine bleach and ammonia produce fumes that can be dangerous for people with respitory and heart problems. PLEASE NEVER EVER CONSIDER COMBINING these two as they become MORE TOXIC!

Many cleaners contain petroleum based surfactants (can mimic the hormone estrogen) or other chemicals that can easily be absorbed through the skin and damage nerves. Do these ingredients sound like "clean" to you now?

Here's an important thing to remember and I hope many people start to understand....CLEAN HAS NO SMELL! All those "clean" scents you smell are really synthetic frangrances meaning, you guessed it, more chemicals that linger around for us to inhale.

If you are truely trying to be green, you should also be looking to lower you carbon footprint through buying and using less plastic. True green cleaners will come in a superconcentrated form meaning you end up spending less money and putting less plastic into our landfills.

A simple rule to keep in mind when shopping is the less packaging, the better. When I have a choice, I buy the largest size available. Less packaging is more green.

As I write this, I think back to the days when I would lock myself in my bathroom to clean because I did not want my children exposed to the nasty fumes released by the bathroom cleaner I used at the time. My youngest was diagnosed with asthma and I did not need a trip to the emergency room or a rushed nebulizer treatment. But locking myself in would only cause more harm to me as there was no fresh air circulating nor did I realize that the fumes linger and my children would be exposed to them, even if at a lower levels. Since switching to green cleaners, I have not had to lock myself in the bathroom and can even clean with my children in the same room. I have even begun to let them help me when they want to and they are only 3 and 4 years old! I don't have to worry about any toxins they maybe being exposed to!

I personally use the line of cleaners Shaklee has to offer for my family. I have had the same bottle of BASIC H2 concentrate for over a year now and I might be half way done with it. This has significantly saved me lots of money and trips to the supermarket just for cleaning products. This solution in different concentrations makes my all purpose cleaner, windows/mirrors cleaner, and my degreaser. I also keep reusing the same plastic bottles, significantly reducing both my carbon footprint and my contribution to our local landfill.

Just imagine this for one second, 5,824 spraybottles piled up in your backyard. Now transfer them over to your local landfill. This is not what I want to leave behind for my children! And I know you are asking yourself why the number 5,824? Because that is the number of bottles of window cleaner you get from ONE bottle of the BASIC H2 concentrate!

I have done some thorough research to make sure that all of the company's claims hold up to what they promise and that they are all natural. There are other options out there, and I would gladly discuss the best options for each individual, personally. Feel free to contact me through email at betterlivingenterprises@gmail.com

There is so much more that could be said about the cleaners that are commonly used around the house, and I have not even begun to touch on laundry, hand soaps, drain cleaners, dishwashing detergents, etc. It may all sound scary, but there is still hope. Clean Green...