Tuesday's Green Tip and CONTEST!!

CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER! WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY AUGUST 12! THANK YOU!!!! 355 entries!! WOW!!


Happy Tuesday! Time for Tuesday's Green tip and a Green give away!

We have visited this room of the house before, the laundry room. When I first posted about this room I had just purchased Charlie's Soap and had only used a few times. Now that I have been using it for some time now I have grown to LOVE this product! This stuff takes out EVERYTHING! Seriously! From grease to grass stains to poop! Yes poop. This stuff would come in handy for those of you who cloth diaper!

I purchased the Liquid soap in a gallon and all you need is an ounce. That is a lot of loads of laundry! I purchased their pump that dispenses an ounce so no measuring! Our clothes look wonderful and THE BEST PART...it is natural. I also purchased their All purpose Cleaner and have grown to love it as well. It cuts grease like no other and took grass stains out of school uniform pants that had been sitting like that all summer! Nothing. else. worked.

Now for the contest.....some Charlie's Soap of your own! One lucky winner will receive 2 bags of Laundry Powder, 2 small bottles of Laundry Liquid and 2 sprayers of All Purpose Cleaner. That is a $75.00 value! That is 192 loads of laundry!! Winner will be picked by random at 11:00 PM CST on Monday August 11th and winner will be announced on Tuesday Green Tip blog on August 12th.

Here are the contest rules:

Leave me a comment for one entry. For an additional entry tell me your favorite green tip in a seperate comment. Contest open to all! If you do not have a blog send me an email!

Good luck and thank you Charlie's Soap!

Tuesday's Green Tip

Oh my gosh it is Tuesday!!! How did that happen? Time for my green tip.....this week we will visit the laundry room.

Your popular name brand detergents contain phosphates and optical brighteners and some of the powder forms actually contain fiberglass, yes fiberglass. If you are itching and using powder guess what is making you itch?

I have tried several different brands and I like them all Charlie's Soap, Seventh Generation (stay away from the eucalyptus lavender, I thought my youngest got into the Vick's Vapor Rub!) and Method . If I had to choose I would recommend the Seventh Generation Free and Clear liquid.

Popular Fabric Softeners contain all kinds of chemicals and are considered the most dangerous chemical in our homes here is the list...

Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
Limonene: Known carcinogen A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

And lets not forget animal tallow, aka animal fat.

Fear not there are alternatives. I use the Method Fabric Softer and find that it is not much more expensive the name brand ones, I buy it from Target. I have tried the Seventh Generation Fabric Softener but I can not find it locally.

Now for the bleach, I don't think I need to tell you how bad it is for us and the environment. I have been using Seventh Generation Free and Clear Chlorine Free bleach. This can be expensive but I have found that Target has their own brand and it is much cheaper.

Alot to take in I know but when I switched to natural laundry products I noticed that I was not itchy all the time and my children who have weird skin issues had not more weird skin issues!

Until next Tuesday..keep it Green

Tuesday's Green Tip

It is Tuesday and that means it is time my for Green Tip.

Today I am going to highlight the absolute coolest diaper bag I have EVER seen. What makes this so great AND green you ask? It is made out of 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles and is PVC free plus 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Healthy Child Healthy World. How cool is that? Very cool in my book!

The folks at Seventh Generation have just launched the Wee Generation eco-diaper bag . This bag is awesome.It is not your typical diaper bag. It is super hip and trendy coming in several patterns that even Dad would have not problem carrying it. There are removable inserts that include an insulated feeding tote, changing tote and changing pad PLUS tons of pockets to keep all of babies belongings organized.

Now here is the coolest part. I am having a contest, a giveaway, now how fun is that?

To celebrate the launch of this super cool diaper bag my new friend Meghan from the GCI group is donating a Seventh generation Natural Baby Starter Kit. This is everything new parents or parents to be will need to help create a natural healthy lifestyle for their beautiful little bundles of joy all tucked in a handy tote.

Here are the rules.

Of course you will need to comment but this is a green tip post so I want you to post a green tip.

The winner will be chosen by random, I think that would be the fairest way to handle my first contest/giveaway.

The winner will be announced on next Tuesday's Green Tip.

Until next Tuesday.....stay Green

UPDATE: The contest is for the SeventhGenerationNatural Baby Starter Kit NOT the diaper bag, sorry for any confusion

Tuesday's Green Tip

Tuesday again? Well time for the Tuesday Green tip from me.

Today's tip is in response to one of my earlier posts regarding the use of cloth bags. (I know! I promised I would not post about my bags again but...) The question Candid Carrie had was if you do not use plastic bags at the grocery store then what do you use to throw out the cat littler?

Well Carrie here is your answer. Bio Bags. They are the first dog and cat poop bags that are 100% biodegradable. I have not used the bags because I do not have a cat or a dog, just trying to help Carrie be a bit more green.

Until next Tuesday...stay Green

Tuesday's Green Tip

Well it's Tuesday, so it must be time for Tuesday's green tip.

Today it is toiletries; shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

I was a "I will only buy my shampoo from the salon kind of girl" until I decided to go green this year.

I did research on shampoos and body washes, what I found concerned me enough to switch to natural shampoo, conditioner and Body wash. SLS (Sodium lauryl sulfate) is a known carcinogen and is in almost all shampoos, soaps and other stuff that foams. It is what makes it foam. Read here to learn more about the dangers.

I have only tried one brand of shampoo and conditioner. I have thick wavy hair and I need thick conditioner. I research and researched and based on customer reviews I decided to try BWC (Beauty Without Cruelty) Moisture plus shampoo and conditioner. I love it! My hubby has some scalp issues and I convinced him to try the BWC and guess what? No more scalp issues at all!! This has been an issue for years and nothing really helped except this shampoo. Wonder if it was the SLS?

Tony uses the BWC but Seth prefers the Jason Kids only shampoo. He likes the way it smells and it has a monkey on the bottle which of course is the most important thing about it.

For body wash we use the Jason Satin Shower Body Wash Lavender scent. We have used Kiss my Face in the past but the Jason is less expensive and we all like it better.

I buy all of it online at vitacost.com. I place an order with them every other month for a bunch of stuff, their prices are AWESOME and shipping is cheap. I know it is not very green to order on line, it takes gas to deliver, but I place a LARGE order and it makes more sense to me. Plus I would have to drive all over to find the items and use how much gas?

Until next Tuesday, stay Green