Eco-Me Home: Homemade Cleaners Made Easy

Over the past couple of years I’ve eliminated about 95% of the toxic cleaning products from my house, and it’s totally changed my perspective on clean. Hardcore green-clean freaks will tell you, “Clean doesn’t smell like lilacs and mountain air. Clean smells like nothing.” But there must be a happy medium, something that makes your house say “I’m fresh as a daisy” without overpowering you with artificial fragrances and toxic ingredients. Eco-Me kits ($26-36) can get anyone started on cleaning greener.They use ingredients you already have at home like vinegar, baking soda and olive oil and they come with the coolest empty spray bottles we’ve ever seen. Seriously. The recipe is on the side of the bottle — no measuring cups required. Just fill up to the first line with vinegar, then to the second line with water, then add one unit of their included essential oil blend. The oils, a mix of tea tree, lavender, rosemary and lemongrass, help cut through dirt and disinfect. Plus, they smell really great.

The Home Kit ($26) makes an all-purpose cleaner, a furniture polish with olive oil and a scouring paste with baking soda. It comes in a natural-fiber bag with a microfiber cloth, two spray bottles, a jar and spatula for the paste, a vial of essential oils and a natural wood scrub brush. When the bottles are empty you just replenish them at the kitchen sink. This is great for the planet because you’re reusing the containers, Eco-Me is shipping lighter boxes and you’re not disposing of any toxic goo.

The Baby Kit ($36) makes room spray, diaper-pail deodorizer and even all-natural, flushable baby wipes. The essential oils for baby’s room are lavender, chamomile and Mandarin orange. They even have kits for dog and cat lovers that include recipes and cookie cutters for all-natural treats!

While the furniture polish, a mix of vinegar and olive oil, did make us think we were spraying salad dressing (minus the essential oils) on the kitchen table, it really worked. You just have to shake it up a lot.

And do read the directions when you mix the vinegar and baking soda for the scouring paste. Remember those volcanoes you made in sixth grade? Yeah. Add the ingredients slowly or you’ll teach the kids a chemistry lesson all over the kitchen counter.

This would be a great gift for anyone who is green-curious and would like to try to get the nasty stuff out from under the kitchen sink.

– Kristen