Green Living Update
July 29, 2008Yeah. So my goals for green living have become a little harder to achieve than I had hoped, particularly the organic foods one. I did really well for awhile and then the increase in food costs at the store started impacting my budget. I have been trying to go to the farmers market one of the days it is open during the week for our fresh vegetables/fruit. But buying in the store has become challenging for me. Maybe it would help if I could shop at a store like Whole Foods where the WHOLE store is focused on natural or organic goods instead of trying to pick from the choices at meijer, where it can be much easier to buy the non-organic/natural versions (and cheaper!). Our local natural food stores are very very small and very very expensive, which my budget can’t afford, especially with the price of gas, saving for an adoption, a growing child (I swear she is barely going to make it through the summer in her 4T clothes! I am NOT ready to shop in the girls section- I still want to shop in the toddler section).
I have managed to switch all my household cleaners to green/natural products- with the exception of laundry detergent. I just bought Cheer Free & Gentle again because I have not had any luck in getting Widget’s stains out of her clothes with the natural laundry detergents I have tried. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. I have tried adding baking soda or washing soda to the load, pretreating, etc. I mostly wash on cold, occasionally warm with cold rinse, never hot.
And I am working on weeding Widget’s toys- most of the plastic ones went to the basement when we moved and since she hasn’t asked for them in 3 months, I think I’m safe to dispose of them. I am starting a list of the kinds of toys I want her to have from companies that are much more environmentally sensitive but I have to be much more selective since they are more expensive. I am also developing a list of what I would like for nextbaby and I have to do some serious work on the baby stuff I do have. I would also like to get organic cotton bedding and a new mattress for the crib. Ours was inherited from my older sister in the first place, so it is 10 years old anyway. I sometimes feel a bit guilty because I do plan to take most of my non-desired stuff to the consignment store or goodwill and I think about exposing some other child to the possible chemicals but I don’t want it to just go to the dump.
Another thing I am starting to get more into, although I need to retrain myself as much as I need to make the change for Widget is the Waldorf philosophy for early childhood education. Much more free-play oriented, less tv, less computer- Me? with less computer time? less tv as a way to entertain my “must be entertained at all times, doesn’t like to play by herself 3 year old”? 
My mother really got into this when my younger siblings were kids, partially because her sisters had access to a Waldorf school over by Ann Arbor. I remember reading some of the stuff then and thinking I wish I could go to school there. This is harder to do in our area than in others as there absolutely NO resources around here for it. In fact, our rather decently sized library carries 5 books about Waldorf education, so you have to get everything through inter-library loan and there are NO natural children’s product stores around here- one of the reasons we want to open a store. There are two stores in Grand Rapids but one is quite small and doesn’t have a lot of product; the other is pretty good but is all toys and a few books without other goods like baby items/cloth diapers/etc.
It does sound contradictory to read that paragraph and think about the fact that I do want a Wii….
So my green living is kind of stagnant at the moment but I still keep thinking about it.
I can’t find a laundry detergent that works that is ‘natural’ either. I use tide. I should use something free and clear but I LOVE the smell of tide on my clothes, and the kids I do use cheer free and clear. I use that for diapers too.
Hi!
I use the Whole Foods Brand or the Trader Joes brand. I add borax to the wash and use vinegar as a softener. For really bad stains, fill up the washer and let it sit overnight before letting it finish the wash. The borax really whitens the laundry. Oxygen bleach is also an eco choice!
Baking soda is particularly good at eliminating body odor too, but choose between Borax and it. don’t mix the two. Blood stains can be eliminated with hydrogen peroxide.
I do cheat wand use the shout advanced as needed for really set in stains. The overnight soak really works! Good luck!
Sounds like you’re doing a pretty good job with green living to me:)
I love the name of your blog (my first visit). I can relate to what you said about getting rid of stuff because of the chemicals and feeling guilty about giving it to another child. I do throw away the yucky skin stuff, but at least with washable items like hand-me down clothes the chemicals you’re passing on are lessened. Oh and I will check into the Waldorf method. Until the next time…
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day (laundry soap) works really well. (Do you have a top loading washer?) I have only used white vinegar to rinse for years. Since I got my front loader, I use a tablespoon of BioKleen concentrated (super deluxe or something like that) laundry powder and also put about a half a cup of vinegar in the the wash water as well.
I use Gonzo stain remover. I used to be able to buy it at Restoration Hardware but they don’t carry it anymore. Now I just goggle it and buy it online. I would much rather purchase it locally, but nobody carries it. It’s pretty good stuff and is environmently friendly.
For greasy stains, I just put dishwashing soap on it. I use Planet brand.
I do use bleach occasionally. Sometimes you just have to kill the germs. Sorry. You know me though – I am pretty ecofriendly!
I have NEVER found a dishwasher detergent that is ecofriendly that works well or doesn’t put etching on my glasswar, so if you hear about anything let me know!
Hope this helps. – Aunt J.
haha – glassware! A.J.