What are your favorite Method/Seventh Generation/not awful for you cleaners/house products and why? Also when/where do you find them cheap/on sale?

I had written about this once before, a while back, but have changed some of my products and feel like it’s worth an update.

First, my favorite greener/better for you cleaners. There are a few brands that come to mind, primarily Method, Seventh Generation, and Mrs. Myers Clean Day. I am the first to admit that smell is a huge motivator in my cleaning products purchases, and both Method and Mrs. Myers offer fantastic scents in their lineups. These brands have become more mainstream over the last 10 years and I find them regularly at Target, Kroger and many other local stores.

A short list of what I use:

Furniture: Method Wood for Good, exclusively. It smells like almond, which is my favorite scent, ergo I am terribly loyal.

Windows: Method Glass + Surface – a great glass cleaner that smells like mint.

Bathroom: Method Le Scrub for harder-to-clean areas like my shower, Seventh Generation Tub & Tile Cleaner for the tub, sink, and counters. Also, we have a problem with mildew growing around the hardware of our shower, so I do keep a bottle of a bathroom cleaner with bleach only for use on these areas.

Kitchen: Method All Purpose Cleaner for surfaces (in cucumber, a personal favorite), Mrs. Myers Clean Day Surface Wipes for quick cleanup, Mrs. Myers Clean Day All Purpose Cleaner for, well, anything. This is a great diluted cleaner and a great money-saver. Just buy a $2 spray bottle and use it all over the house. I use Mrs. Myers Clean Day dish soap, when I can find it. Mrs. Myers has a basil scented line, which wins me over. I also love J. R. Watkins All Purpose Natural Cleaner, but can’t find it around here, so I pick a bottle up when I’m out of town.

Floors: Mrs. Myers Clean Day All Purpose Cleaner is great if there’s a mess, but my workhorse is my Haan Steam Mop. LOVE it – it cleans so quickly, sanitizes, and uses no chemicals (with the exception of water, which IS a chemical, no? Isn’t everything, really? I digress).

Laundry: I’ve been pleased with Method’s laundry detergent’s cleaning power, BUT I’m attached to the scent Tide. So don’t follow my example here. I do like Method’s Dryer Cloths.

Reusable Cleaning Supplies: I keep a drawer full of microfiber cloths, and have a microfiber dusting wand (think swiffer, but reusable), many of which I found at the dollar store. The steam mop uses washable microfiber pads, and I use dishrags in place of paper towels. These changes made a huge difference in the amount of paper towels I go through. I probably used  one roll every couple weeks before, and now it’s one roll every 2-3 months. This alone has resulted in some major savings.

How I find these products on sale/discounted:

First let me state that I did not one day decide to throw out all my “bad” cleaning products and go purchase “good” replacements. I figured that the cleaning products were no better down the drain or in the landfill than they were to do their jobs here. So as I finished, say, a bottle of window cleaner, I just purchased a bottle of Method’s window cleaner to replace it. I went through some trial and error (learning I’m not a huge fan of Method’s dish soap or tub and tile cleaner), but I started replacing our products about five years ago, so I’ve had time to learn. By making the change gradually, it didn’t bust our budget, as most of the greener cleaners are less than a dollar more than their non-green counterparts.

With that said, there are a few things you can do to save money. First, sign up for Method’s People Against Dirty – it’s a great way to get coupons and product samples. Second, sign up for coupons from Target – they occasionally have discounts on some of these specific brands.

Finally, comparison shop. Once I found Method Hand Soap for $1.50 at Kroger on special – half off. Another time I found tons of Method and Seventh Generation cleaners at Toys R Us (of all places) on clearance because they seemed to be getting rid of all cleaning products not specifically related to babies. I cleared them out, and still have some products in my cabinet from that great find. Any time I find the items on a good sale, I purchase ahead and store the items.

I had flirted with good-for-you cleaners for several years, because I liked their philosophies, scents and design, but once I had little ones, that put me over the edge. I like knowing that if my toddler opens the cabinet and chugs a bottle of Method’s cucumber cleaner, they might get a belly ache but won’t die. And once you go green, it’s hard to go back!

I hope this helps, John. Best of luck!

I’ll post items regularly through August. To claim, you must:

1. Be the first to comment on the post.

2. In the comment, tell me why you want the item.

3. If I see you on a regular basis, you can get the item from me. If not, I will happily mail it and you can pay actual shipping cost.

Who’s in?

I really can’t blame Evan. We had a large CRT TV housed in a large entertainment center Evan had built in college that he was unusually sentimentally attached to, and didn’t want to give it to just anyone. So when we got a flat-screen TV as a Christmas gift (thanks mom and Dave!) and his sister was able to take the entertainment center off our hands, project fireplace was a-go.

I am totally thrilled how this came together, although I had no doubts. Is there anything my husband can’t build? I’m starting to think not. It looks like it’s been there the whole time. I especially love the mahogany mantle he made with wood we picked up wholesale while on vacation. Thanks, dear husband.

What do you think? What projects are you tackling this spring?

One afternoon I came home, and he told me he’d decided to make a new coffee table as well, as he had a beam that was the right size, and just enough metal left over from my desk for the legs. So before I even knew he had started it, we had a new coffee table.

We’ve been married ten years in just a couple months, and my husband still amazes me with what he’s able to do. You know, like whipping up a coffee table from some scraps in a couple hours.

(Yes, I’ll post about my desk soon. Whenever I get it cleaned off and the cords organized.)

In the master bathroom, in the water closet (that’s the room where the toilet is, for those of you not married to an architect or otherwise familiar with architectural lingo). You can only even see it when the door is closed. When we first moved in, I bought four square frames for $1 each, I bought a piece of handmade paper from the craft store, and I went out and found four leaves I liked. Since then I’ve paired a bunch of dried hydrangeas my grandmother gave me in a sleek vase with some gravel from our driveway (yes, really) with a muted blenko vase and the jade plant that got kicked out of my office when the big one arrived.

What about you? Do you have a spot or a space or even a whole room that you feel is complete? Do you get the urge to redecorate every 3.5 months, or are you happy with how things are?

Before:

Obviously this shelf could have used some reorganizing on its own. Too many toys, too many books, and no sense of style. Poor bookshelf.

After:

Not too shabby, eh? For about $15 in materials, and about two hours of work, you can do it. Here’s how.

Measure your bookshelf to calculate the amount of fabric you’ll need. Mine required 2.5 yards, and that gave me a bit of scrap material to…well… I’ll tell you about that another time.

Empty your bookshelf and remove the shelves. You may want to lay it down in the floor to make it easier, but I did mine in place because it’s mounted to the wall. You know, so my little monkeys don’t accidentally pull it over on themselves.

With a can of medium-strength spray adhesive, your fabric, some fabric scissors and a ruler in hand, get to work.

Starting in a top corner, align the fabric (use the non-selvage edge) squarely. Spray the adhesive in the corner, and use the ruler to smooth it down. Next, spray the adhesive along the entire top edge of the bookcase, and align the fabric across. Work your way down, going back and forth from the left to right side. I cut the extra fabric off the edge as I went to cut down on the weight. Take your time, and use the ruler to smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles that come up. If it’s getting crooked, gently pull the fabric back and realign.

Here’s a close up of the fabric, and my favorite shelf. Love her etsy-find piggy bank.

The places on our property that get the best light also happen to have the worst soil, so we settled on a raised-bed garden rather than a row garden, which is by far the most common way of operating in our neighborhood.

And so we set out to work. I don’t know about you, but I still find it nothing short of a daggum miracle that you can plant a tiny seed in some dirt (not even great dirt, at that!) and out pops a plant that will produce the most delicious vegetables your mouth ever laid… eyes(?) on.

We’ve been weeding and watering when it doesn’t rain, and checking the vegetables regularly. I’ve had my eyes on a couple of banana peppers and today one looked big enough to pick. So I brought it up and sliced it up and the kids and I had a few bites of the first bounty of our garden. I am thrilled. I can’t wait to show you what we end up with out of our humble little raised beds. And I can’t wait to cook and freeze and can some of the stuff!