The green household products we use in our home

Paper Towels

We try to use reusable cloths and napkins whenever possible, but some messes are just better when you can throw the cloth away. In those cases we use Seedling by Grove Jumbo Roll Tree-Free Paper Towels. Like their toilet paper, the 2-ply paper towels are made from 100% bamboo and their packaging is plastic free, fully recyclable and made from 100% recycled material. Each Seedling order helps fund tree planting through the Arbor Day Foundation.

Again, we have used the Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Paper Towels for years and recommend them as a product you can walk into a store and purchase.

Tissues

You may notice a trend here, we use a lot of the Grove products. The same holds true for facial tissues where we prefer the Seedling by Grove Tree-Free Facial Tissue which is a blend of bamboo and sugarcane. The tissues are soft and strong. We also have a big package of Puffs tissues that we pull out when we need the big boxes of tissues for a cold.

Toothbrushes

For years, we have been using Oral-B Electric Toothbrushes with replaceable heads. We current have two toothbrush handles (model Pro 1000) to support all five of us so that two people can brush their teeth at the same time and the last person doesn’t end up with a dead toothbrush.

As luck would have it, toothbrush head storage that came with ours only holds 4 heads and we need to store 5, so I designed custom toothbrush head and small cup holders with our kids’ names that I 3D printed. Now we don’t mistake whose cup is whose and we don’t have to remember to write our names on them.

Toothpaste

Alicia uses and recommends Tom’s of Maine. I use Colgate Total because my dentist recommended it to help with some enamel and gum issues. Sometimes you have to give a little on the green meter to make sure you maintain your overall health. I wish there was a natural toothpaste that strengthened tooth enamel and helped reverse early gum issues.

Laundry Detergent

I am very sensitive to dyes and perfumes, especially in our laundry detergent, so we always get the free and clear or unscented varieties. We have been very happy with the plant based Method Laundry Detergent Pump and Pump Refill Bags which is enough detergent to wash 85 loads of laundry. I have had no sensitivity problems with the unscented Method detergents and they are designed to work in high efficiency (he) washing machines.

We also add a half cup of baking soda to detergent when we put it in to act as a booster.

Fabric Softener

Because of my skin sensitivities, we have to be extra careful with our fabric softener as well. Thankfully, nine years ago, we found a very natural and affordable replacement for liquid or sheet variety fabric softeners: Distilled White Vinegar.

In addition to softening the clothes in the wash, it also provides an effective anti-static function as well, though I’m not sure exactly how. As a bonus costs way less than commercial fabric softeners and has no odor when the clothes come out of the wash. We buy it by the gallon at BJs and use it for a number of things around the house. We wrote about it 8 years ago in this post.

To use vinegar as your fabric softener, add it through your washing machine’s fabric softener place in similar quantities to traditional fabric softeners.

All Purpose Cleaner

Once again, Distilled White Vinegar is our go to as an all purpose cleaner. We use it to wipe down the counters, mop the floors, and deodorize the microwave and instant pot. You can dilute it with water or use it straight.

Dish Soap

For washing dishes by hand, we use and recommend method Dish Soap because it is hands friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable. My favorite scents are Pink Grapefruit and Clementine. Like their laundry detergent, we use the method Dish Pump Refills.

We don’t actually use the pump that came with our first order, I think it broke after getting knocked off the counter. Instead we use a nice glass liquid soap dispenser we received from Grove as part of a starter set gift with a recent order.

We recommend washing as much as you can in the dishwasher, because it is generally more efficient at its use of water and soap than hand washing, but some things like pots or nice knives deserve the hands on touch. In our dishwasher, we forgo the heated dry and use Cascade Complete with enzymatic cleaners.

Hand Soap – liquid & bar

For hand soap, we have both liquid and bars in both bathrooms because different people in the family prefer different things. For liquid soap we use and recommend the method Gel Hand Soap Refills (pink grapefruit) and we put it in whatever soap dispensers we have. The soap is naturally derived, NOT anti-bacterial, and contains vitamin E & aloe.

For bar soap we use whatever we buy locally next to the sinks. In the shower, we confess that we use Dove to help with dry skin.

Deodorant

I’ve written about deodorant before and 8 years later, I am still extremely happy with the Thai Crystal Deodorant Stone and recommend that you try it. I shower every day and put it on after my shower when my arm pits are clean.

The way it works is that the stone is actually a type of salt and you wet the stone and rub it in your arm pit. The salt that stays on the skin makes an inhospitable environment for the bacteria that cause odor to grow and produce odor. One stone will typically last a year or more if you don’t drop it, which means less plastic packaging. Another advantage of the crystal deodorant stones over traditional antiperspirants and deodorants is no more pit stains or hardened areas in my shirts in the arm pits.

Alicia tried the stone for a while but it did not work as well for her because she doesn’t shower everyday. She is now trying the spray on version. The verdict is still out on that, so we can’t recommend it yet.

Happy Greening!
Jon

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