Refillable Soap

I'm not big into endorsing products or companies, but there's a new local store, Indigo, that's all about promoting "green solutions for a healthy home" (that's their tagline). I've only been there once, because I don't own a house and most of the stuff in the store is geared toward people who want to install bamboo floors or something.

But I subscribe to their e-newsletter, and was stoked yesterday to see the following in the newest: "What's big and blue and helps you re-use your old soap containers? The Soap Shack's bulk refill barrels, of course! ... Come by and fill 'er up -- bring whatever container you want; we just charge by the ounce. In stock now: Parsley Plus, Apricot Dishmate, and Ecos Free and Clear Laundry Soap."

I used to buy all my dish and hand soap bulk when I lived in L.A., but there hasn't been anywhere to do so in Gainesville until now. It's great -- I'll be able to use less plastic and buy eco-friendly soap all at once. I'm especially excited about the laundry detergent. The past few months I've been using white vinegar with a tablespoon or so of liquid detergent with each load at my friend Jenn's suggestion, but it'd be great to switch to nice eco-friendly soap.

Man Up (Summer Survival)

So I decided I'm going to try to get through this summer without turning on my A/C window unit. I lived without A/C of any kind for all three years of college (at UF), and I liked it. I've gotten soft in my old age and it's time to toughen up. (Plus I don't want to shell out the cash -- A/C is costly and right now my electricity bill is below $50 a month.)

Today I went to the store and bought two fans, which are going to save me.


One's for my bedroom, and one's for the living room/kitchen. I have ceiling fans in each room, but sometimes they're not enough. Lately I've been having trouble sleeping because of the heat. Enter fan. Added bonus: white noise covers sounds of neighbors partying late at night. It's a win-win. I love summer.

"Green" Clean

Lately I've been thinking a lot about getting rid of all the chemicals in my house. I have this book called The Natural Formula Book for Home and Yard (by Dan Wallace) and I've been looking through it to see if I can find something interesting to try, like homemade laundry detergent or whatever. But every homemade home cleaning solution in this book, it seems, includes bleach. So I figured, ok, I guess bleach is "healthier" than I thought. I guess I'll just buy bleach and make my own 409 with fewer chemicals.

So I got one of those little sprayer bottles at the drugstore for like sixty-nine cents, added about an inch of bleach, and filled the rest with water. I sprayed that in my shower and Reader, I have to tell you: it cleaned itself! I didn't even have to scrub the mildew. That's my kind of cleanin'! And someone told me something about bleach breaking down in water so it's pretty low-impact...I'll have to look that up.

So I had just figured all that out when I read an interesting article in the New York Times the other day. It's about how major chemical companies finally realized the market potential for "greener" products. A little late, people. Come on.

Update: Apparently chlorine bleach is the kind of bleach used for cleaning, and its components can create organochlorines, which are suspected carcinogens, et al. I really need to do more research into this. I did find this interesting article about this question, and on this page, the section called "The Chlorine Issue" offers a helpful synopsis.

I figure I'm pretty green, house-wise:
1) I mostly rely on Simple Green to clean and own no commercial cleaning products;
2) I use eco-friendly dish soap;
3) I am very conservative with water;
4) I hardly use any paper towels, and then I put them in my compost heap; and
5) I have the smallest trash can available (20 gallons) and most weeks I don't even fill it halfway.

I guess the only two things I'd really like to change are my laundry detergent (I haven't really figured out which is the most sustainable, so I'm just using the usual), and the fact that I don't know how to get rid of mildew without non-chlorine bleach. I guess I am doing ok.