The following article comes from the Sparta Expositor. They spell it out pretty simply:

The Problem

Many families today are looking for ways to minimize their exposure to harsh chemical fumes and residues. But as they look for new alternatives, they are not looking to compromise on the performance they have come to expect from all sorts of home products.

Understanding Label Language

There are a lot of product labels that use words like “eco-friendly,” “organic,” and “nontoxic.” Unlike the food world, when it comes to cleaning products, these terms are largely unregulated, so they can be misleading.

Read past the vague claims and take a closer look at the product’s label. Here’s what to look for:

Plant-Based Ingredients. Look for plant-based ingredients rather than petroleum-based ones. For example, citric acid, which is derived from citrus fruits like lemons and limes, acts as a soil remover in natural cleaners.

Know Your Buzzwords. Organic is well-defined for food, but less so for home care products. The USDA’s National Organic Program, which regulates the national organic standards, does not currently regulate home care products.

Credible Seals. Look for products that have one or more certifications or seals from credible sources such as Good Housekeeping, the Natural Products Association and the Environmental Protection Agency.

-Natural Products Association (NPA) Natural Home Care standard: The NPA has developed a natural standard for home care products. This means that the NPA has reviewed the product’s ingredients and manufacturing processes, and determined that it meets the organization’s rigorous guidelines. This easily identifiable seal will help consumers discern which products meet the organization’s standard of natural. www.npainfo.org.

-Green Good Housekeeping Seal: Introduced in 2009 by Good Housekeeping magazine and the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI), the seal helps consumers sift through the confusing clutter of “green” claims on hundreds of products on store shelves today. www.goodhousekeeping.com.

-Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment program: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the Design for the Environment (DfE) Program to evaluate products that are made with safer chemistry methods. This logo on a label means that the review team has screened the manufacturing process for the product for potential environmental effects. www.epa.gov.

I recently read this article and it made me near ill.

Environmental training programs show that household furniture are one of the main sources of toxic volatile organic compounds or VOCs. These compounds usually are used in furniture finishes, glues, and foams manufactured in large quantities. These types of compounds are emitted from the furniture for years. They were proven to be detrimental to human health and the ozone layer – the earth’s natural protection from the sun’s UV rays.

Although VOCs include both man-made and naturally occurring chemical compounds, it is the [man-made] VOCs that are regulated, especially for indoors where concentrations can be highest. VOCs are typically not acutely toxic but have chronic effects. Because the concentrations are usually low and the symptoms slow to develop, analysis of VOCs and their effects is a demanding area.”

I’d say one good rule when purchasing furniture is either build it yourself out of things you know the composition of, or buy from a trusted source.

Here’s a link from my home state’s paper. It raises a good point about a lot of cleaners on the shelves.

And in the cleaning aisle, judging from the number of logos with the word “green” in them, it’s pretty easy to buy products that not only leave your home clean and shiny but that also help Mother Nature.

Or is it?

Merely slapping an eye-catching green logo on a product does not ensure its environmental worthiness, experts say. That’s true in part because there are few labeling requirements for cleaning products.

And unlike organic food claims, which can be certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claims of environmental safety aren’t regulated yet, says Urvashi Rangan, director of technical policy for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports.

At this point in history you should be able to turn over the bottle and read the ingredients on the bottle. Any decent company gives their customers that knowledge.

The main ingredient should be water, followed by vinegar, lemon juice, oil extracts, baking soda, etc….

There are still dangers in our marketplace, until some organization finally decides to regulate our corporations.

So the other day on a cleaning in West Seattle my client inquired as to whether there was an eco friendly dry cleaner in the area. I honestly had no idea. I researched it and found out that there is in fact a growing trend in dry cleaners veering away from using chemicals for more natural solutions.

Here is an article from Oregon Live discussing the topic in depth:

In an effort to be, as Widmer says, “the cleanest dry cleaner in the area,” Eco Dry Cleaner is going a route some other Portland area dry cleaners have taken.

Instead of using perc, Eco — formerly Dry Cleaning Station — uses GreenEarth, a liquid silicone solution that has gained favor with dry cleaners here and throughout the country. Plaza Cleaners,with locations in Northwest Portland and the Pearl District, is the state’s longest running user of GreenEarth.

Growing the green cleaner is his No. 1 goal, and Widmer’s taken a different tack there as well, from building relationships to making dry cleaning as convenient as possible to keeping prices competitive.

In addition to two storefronts — one in Bethany; the other on Northeast Broadway — Eco has satellite locations in Seven Planet in Old Town and Lamb’s at Strohecker’s. New to the line up is a sleek, bamboo drop box inside Whole Foods in the Pearl. Just drop your laundry bag in the one-way slot and your dry-cleaned clothes are ready the next day — either at the store or delivered free to your home.

It’s cool they got to put their pickup locations in various locations. Neat all around.

I recently cleaned a rather lovely home in West Seattle. It was a pretty great experience and I was glad to take care of all the client’s concerns. There was a lot of pet hair as he had two shedding dogs.

It was a great home to clean, but hadn’t been touched in a while.

This was a photo from behind his fridge:

These were some the customers comments on the job:

“As the Dude would say;
$%&#*!- A!’

Awesome job!
The house looks great, smells great, and I am blown away at the job you did..

Thank you!!

It’s almost enough to bring a tear to my eye.

It’s really amazing to me that this can happen in our day and age. South Shore kids have been relocated to a different school for the remainder of the year because the chemicals used to bond the carpet to the cement in their classrooms have been making them sick.

From the PI article:

“I made the decision to close South Shore because there are too many unanswered questions about the source of the odor in the building,” Goodloe-Johnson said in a news release. “This is a precautionary measure to continue to ensure the safety and welfare of all students and staff.”

The district is working on a plan to house students and staff in alternate temporary locations in Southeast Seattle and hopes to have kids back in class on April 26, district spokeswoman Patti Spencer said Friday evening. South Shore, in the Rainier Valley, runs from pre-K through seventh grade.

The district notified parents by phone, will provide an update by Monday evening, and will post information on its Web site and set up a special site for South Shore, Spencer said.

Since odors were first noticed in the school’s sixth-grade wing in late January, the school has run its ventilation system constantly to try to flush rooms with clean air and commissioned numerous air quality tests, which showed results within industry standards, according to the district.

Spencer said the district is testing carpet, adhesive and concrete samples from affected and other areas and expects results back late next week, at the soonest. It also is working with officials at the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health to come up with a family survey to determine if there are related health issues.

I’m curious as to how long ago the carpet in question was laid and by whom.

An article out of Indiana reports on the rise of Green Cleaning Products in the marketplace.

“More and more consumers, and housecleaners, are going towards green cleaning,” says Angie Hicks, consumer expert and namesake of the consumer website ‘Angie’s List.’ “And it doesn’t have to cost more. A lot of house cleaners on Angie’s list are incorporating green products at the request of customers.”

Audrey says going green is cheaper than you think.

“Making products yourself really cuts down on the costs because it’s basically just a few simple ingredients that are very cheap and you don’t have to continually buy new products for every different kind of cleaning that you are doing,” Audrey says. “Really I use just one or two simple solutions to clean almost everything in my house and we spend a lot less money on our cleaning products that way.”

And if you want someone else to do the work, but insist on a “green cleaning service”, ask a lot of questions.

“When you’re looking at someone who can provide “green” cleaning, don’t take it for face value,” advises Angie. “Actually do your research, talk to the company, ask about what products they are using, and ask what the products are made of. If you can’t pronounce the words they are probably not green products. So don’t skimp out on your research to make sure you do get what you are paying for.”

The initial cleaning visit for a “green cleaning service” will typically cost more because it will take the crew longer on the first visit to restore a level of cleanliness than it will to maintain that level with a regular cleaning schedule.

If you want to make your own cleaning products, it’s fairly simple in most cases. You basically want to avoid any petroleum-based products.

I personally recommend making your own house cleaning agents, as it reduces the unnecessary packaging from the equation along with the costs of shipping these products around the country.

This article comes to us from the Issaquah Press. It gives you a fairly good idea of ways to clean and deoderize your home this spring using Baking Soda.

Start in the kitchen

• Grab the baking soda and sprinkle some onto a clean, damp sponge or cloth to wipe down stainless steel surfaces, like the kitchen sink, without scratching. Rinse thoroughly.
• If you wrinkle your nose in disgust every time you open the door to your microwave, it’s definitely time to deodorize. Baking soda on a damp sponge not only helps clean dried-on food, but also keeps odors at bay. Leave a box of baking soda in the microwave when it’s not in use for continued freshness.

Head to the bathroom

• Your shower curtain looks like it has seen better days, but you can give it a much-needed refresh with a quick scrub using baking soda directly on a damp brush. Rinse clean and hang the curtain to dry.
• Bathroom floors don’t have to look dingy or splotchy. If you have tile or no-wax floors, mix one-half of a cup of baking soda in a bucket of warm water, mop and rinse clean. Baking soda on a sponge also helps to remove unsightly scuffmarks.

I’m currently experimenting with natural deoderizers and baking soda is great for removing the odor, not just masking it. That said, I’d also like to try my hand at aroma therapy to set moods throughout the home.

I saw this article on the web the other day about women scientists having to do more house work than their male counterparts. Here’s an exerpt:

Partnered women scientists at places like Stanford University do 54 percent of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in their households; partnered men scientists do just 28 percent. This translates to more than ten hours a week for women – in addition to the nearly sixty hours a week they are already working as scientists – and to just five hours for men.

The solution? Schiebinger proposes that employers provide benefits to support housework. Many universities already offer retirement, health-care, and child-care supplements; some even support housing and tuition benefits. She recommends that institutions provide a package of flexible benefits that employees can customize to support aspects of their private lives in ways that save time and enhance professional productivity. Institutions need to think of housework benefits as part of the structural cost of doing business. With lab costs running into the millions of dollars, supporting the human resource involved-scientists’ ability to be more productive-takes full advantage of investments in space and equipment.

Now I’m not a professional scientist. My chemistry training is limited to green cleaning agents and their practical application. But you sweet ladies shouldn’t be forced to clean your homes like it’s 1953. Take that discretionary income and hire a man to do it! A man like me.

Mr Green is pleased to offer his extensive cleaning services to the people of Bellevue, Washington throughout its many neighborhoods. I am currently seeking additional clients in Bellevue.

I specialize in weekly, bi-weekly, and one-time cleaning jobs for all size homes, apartments, and condominiums. I am also certified as a Green Cleaner through the Green Clean Institute.