So, does anybody use green soap, or environmentally friendly soap, or whatever you want to call it?
I’ve been buying my laundry detergent and fabric softener at Whole Foods and getting bio-stuff, and it works fine. I kind of miss the smellier stuff you buy at the regular grocery store. You know, the stuff that’s loaded down with chemicals that smell like sweet stuff, instead of essential oils that are sweet but not strong.
But I’ve had more probs with finding green dishwashing soap. So far I haven’t found anything that works as well as this:
Plus it’s fun to just chunk little pods of soap into the dishwasher, and they’re pretty with powder on one side and liquid Dawn on the other.
But I’m determined to find something less poisonous to the environment so shall keep trying, or else not care if things are a little filmy…? Um, maybe not.
But the laundry thing. I saw Nellie’s Laundry Soda recommended somewhere and began googling to figure out what it was:
And it may be the same thing as Charlie’s Soap which a friend of mine used to use. I’m not sure.
And since I liked the packaging better and after all a friend of mine did used to use it, I decided to buy some Charlie’s. I used it tonight for the first time, and it’s weird because I really did only use one tablespoon of powder and it really doesn’t have any fragrance and my clothes really did come out of the dryer feeling VERY soft (my jeans are softer than with fabric softener) and smelling good. I can’t describe the way they smell. My mom said, “Fresh.” And I guess she’s right, because there’s no perfume or anything.
So I like Charlie’s. Even though it doesn’t smell perfumey like the grocery store stuff. (And didn’t I just say that’s what I miss? Okay, I am fickle, I guess.)
But I’m still looking for dishwasher magic that is green. Something that works as well as Charlie’s worked on my clothes, and is as easy on the enviroment.
Hmm, maybe I should just pour vinegar in the dishwasher and see what happens….
Do you have any green cleaning stuff you like? (And will I ever be willing to give up my Clorox Clean-Up? That’s got to be the most awful stuff in the world, but I love it and don’t want to give it up. Sigh.)
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Is Chlorox Clean Up really that bad? The chlorine binds with sodium in the environment and makes salt, right?
Did you ever try that Magic Eraser? I haven’t used any chemicals in the tub or sinks since buying it. Since toilets are made of porcelain and bacteria can’t grow on porcelain, you don’t need a disinfectant for the toilet.
I just bought some Magic Eraser yesterday — haven’t used it yet. I had no idea that you didn’t need disinfectant for the toilet. What do you clean yours with? I bought some strong orange stuff at Whole Foods that smells good, and that’s what I’ve been using.
I freaked Sam out the first time he saw me mop. I’d grown up watching my mother mop, and thought it was the way everybody mopped. In fact, I’ll save that for later…
And it turns out I over-reacted about the dishwashing stuff. This morning I went in with the Dawn pods and decided I was going to rewash the dishes I ran through the dishwasher last night, the ones that were washed with bio-eco-whatsit stuff. I was going to see if the Dawn pod got them shinier, cut the film on the glasses or whatever. Only, when I looked in the dishwasher, everything was sparkly and there was no reason to rewash at all, so I guess this stuff works better than I thought.
We use Simple Green to wash the boat, since it’s going directly into the Chesapeake Bay. We also use it to clean the deck behind our house.
I use the concentrated Method stuff, and I don’t know how green it actually is, but all I’ve tried has actually worked pretty well.
I can’t walk down the laundry soap aisle in the supermarket without holding my breath or I get sick. The smell wipes me right out.
It seems you have more green products available in the U.S. than we have in Canada. I’m jealous.
For the toilet I just use the toilet brush and water most of the time. Every once in a while though, I do use something like Comet because I can’t believe it that no germs will grow on porcelain.
Mz Harris — I have some of that green stuff. I forgot about it. Sam (my Sam) can’t stand the way it smells so I never use it. But I may start using it for stuff he doesn’t have to smell.
Sam (not my Sam) — you should seriously order some of that Charlie’s Soap (see above). I’m very impressed with it.
CG — I’d have to use some sort of soap, but it’s good to know it doesn’t really have to be comet or bleachy stuff. Sounds like any soap would do.
Can we talk about chocolate now?
Oh, I’m a cheap chocolate date. Keep your Godiva and bring me the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
I thought chocolate deserved its own thread. Oh well….
I’m an After Eight and Ferrero Rocher man myself. Ferrero Rocher is the offical chocolate of James Bond.
Okay, it’s the unofficial chocolate of James Bond.
Okay, I’m just making that up.
P.S. Reese’s is following the example of Mars Bar and making their product peanut free.
Howdy…
This not a commercial… I swear. People have actually used our powder in automatic dishwashers. 🙂 I don’t know what prompted them, but apparently, it works for them.
That’s very interesting — maybe I’ll give it a try! Thanks for stopping by!
Wow. “no disinfectant for toilets because they’re porcelain.” Use your brain. Bacteria doesn’t grow on stainless steel, glass, vinyl, or a whole bunch of other non-porous surfaces, IF THEY’RE CLEAN…. Any surface not spotless can harbor bacteria, even, oh my gosh, porcelain. Disinfectants are called for, unless you clean your bathroom top to bottom, daily. The more you clean, the less use you’ll have for a disinfectant.
on the charlies soap web site it says it can actually be used in a dishwasher also!